Protecting Buicks from Your Sunscreen, Sweat & Other Fluids

To prevent the early wear and discoloration of your car's carpet, upholstery, trim and other materials, Buick conducts extensive durability tests, some of which take months to complete. While bug spray and sunscreen are essential for protecting human skin, they can damage materials in your car's interior, so Buick's scientists and engineers perform the following tests to ensure they're working with fabric, wood, metal and plastics that will stand up to all types of substances - including your sweat.

"Our group tests for durability and resistance to natural and artificial elements on materials you see and don't see inside your Buick. We test not only for sun exposure or humidity, but commonly spilled things like ketchup and mustard and even stronger substances like sweat, sunscreen and DEET, a chemical often found in bug repellent," said Doug Pickett, engineering group manager for the Materials Test and Engineering group.

When testing resistance to sunscreen and DEET, items like steering wheels and seat upholstery are thrown in an oven with these chemicals applied to them, and engineers then measure how well they hold up. Next, there's sweat. Although natural, it's another substance that can soften and damage vehicle parts that it comes in contact with often. In testing, synthetic perspiration is consistently applied to material samples over the course of a few hours; following this, the perspiration is allowed to dry and a scrape test is performed to see how the materials responded. Other experiments, like the natural light test, take a surprisingly long time to complete. In these assessments, vehicles are placed in specially designed glass boxes that are exposed to the Arizona sun for up to seven months.

Along with testing out how vehicle materials react to harsh fluids and other substances, Buick also screens for conditions that could cause cracking, tearing, fraying, corrosion, dents and scratches. And they do it all to ensure that you get the best product possible - whether you choose the new Enclave, Verano, Lacrosse, Encore or Regal!