That Vibrating ‘Wub Wub Wub’ That Comes From Cracking One Car Window? It’s Not Just You! by Jonathon Bach.

The vibration actually has a name. It is the Helmholtz resonance, or “wind throb,” and it has long plagued an auto industry that has generally made cars better with each passing year. It is as likely to assail a pricey sports car as it is a compact sedan.

The most common instance of wind throb is when a back seat driver rolls down a window when the front ones aren’t cracked. The usual advice: Open a front window. There are other scenarios, too.

There is no other fix, and modern cars get it more often:

Wind throb happens more often now because vehicles are designed to have fewer gaps between parts to eliminate any chance of their cars being labeled rattletraps. … The throb is caused by wind passing over flat openings, like a window, in a way that matches the “resonance frequency” of most car cabins. …

A spokesman for General Motors Co., owner of Buick, said wind throb is an “industry-wide challenge.” He said the company advises consumers to “open either a front window or the sunroof, if equipped.”