Used Car of the Day: 1978 Buick Century Salon

by Tim Healey

Published: December 14th, 2023

used car of the day 1978 buick century salon

Contrary to what some of you snarky commenters believe, I do not prowl junkyards for UCOTD. That's Murilee's department. I don't even know, without Googling, where the nearest junkyard is. Instead I scour our forums. And today I found an interest 1978 Buick Century Salon that looks like it's been sitting in the boneyard. Except it runs.

Runs but needs work. The pics show it needs to be painted, and the seller recommends a tune up. The interior is apparently in good shape, save for the headliner, and the brakes need work.

The car has a 305 under the hood, automatic transmission, rear-wheel drive, and 72,000 miles and change on the clock.

It's quirky, it's cool, it needs work, and it's older than I am. Check out this West Virginia-based car here.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 59 comments

Riviera67 on Jan 07, 2024

"Salon" was a version of the Olds Cutlass, not a version of the Buick Century. The Century models were "Special" "Custom" and "Limited".

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Andarris on Mar 11, 2024

As a kid I thought they were interesting for their day - I came to North America in '79 and these slightly reminded me of late 70's Lancia Beta hatch and Tatra 613 (without the exaggerated low beltline) . Ultimately a too crude / boxy to age well. To present the car at it's best, the 2-tone scheme should have been inverted with the a black or midnight blue top third to visually slim & lower it a little .

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