I have a 2008 Buick Lucerne CXL SE with the optional "Ride and Handling" package....UGH! Who in their infinent wisdom decided to offer a hard/firm riding suspension on a Buick Lucerne?? GM has a whole division to cover that it'* called GMC..

So the story goes that I bought this clean Carfax one owner car in otherwise excellent condition at $2400 below dealer retail.. Now I plan and have the parts to swap out the "Drive and Handling Package", or heavy duty suspension in favor of the "Soft Ride" suspension or FE1. I have 2 all in one spring/strut assembly for an FE1 suspension as well as rear coil springs and KYB SR series air shocks for the rear. Plus I will do a 4 wheel alignment to boot.

Now, what sort of problems will I encounter in doing this???

Do I need to change the role bars as well or can I get by with them left alone?

shouldn't have an issue with the swap at all. You don't have to do the sway bars as they do nothing for handling the bumps just corners.

The only problem I can see by doing this is that when you have to do an evasive maneuver or you want to get free spirited on a curvy road that because you have changed your springs the car will not corner or handle as well as it did with the factory springs in it.

Thanks for the reply.. A lot of uneducated people assume that you will upset the Auto Universe and upset the Buick Gods to boot.. They think that the car was specially bracketed and balanced for the installation of the F41 suspension and will not accept another.. What will happen to thees people,* minds when they find out just how multi-purpose the undercarriage really is. Or worse when they find out that the frame platform is used by other car brands.

ya not at all with what you're doing. When I had my Bonneville I upgraded the entire suspension to the FE5 which is the stiffest you can get for it. loved the handling and the bumps weren't really an issue cause that car seemed to always float on a cloud.

The Impala I have now is going through suspension changes to be stiffer and tighter just like I did with the Bonnie cause I'm just a nut job when it comes to curvy roads at high speed LOL

i think they are trying to make buick the new pontiac. i think they should have kept pontiac and rolled buick into cadillac. and make a model of caddy that rides like a old buick still. trying to make the buicks into pontiacs completely misses the boat on both efforts. i was a pontiac buyer because i dont like the style of the buick and they really havent changed that. buick buyers want the soft ride and they dont have that any more.

How bout I install Monroe struts on the front end with FE1 soft ride springs and Monroe direct replacement air shocks and FE1 soft ride springs in the rear.. How comfy would that make it??? How do you think it would ride???

FE1 is what I have on my Imp with now upgraded sways they ride fairly smooth and it'* a good ride provided the road isn't horribly bad don't feel the road nearly as much as I would like to (this coming from a very spirited driver)

I agree with you there! If I had a choice of driving my mother-in-law'* 2011 CTS or a late 90'* Lesabre across the country I would surly take the Buick.

i think it would have been easier to buy a older buick lesabre or park ave to begin with. i just found my father inlaw a 60k mile 2000 lesabre custom for under 2grand after the things i had to fix. older folks ted to drive less and take better care of their cars