Curbside Classics: 1964 Buick Riviera

Paul Niedermeyer
by Paul Niedermeyer

GM gave us some genuine peak experiences before its long fall. Their post-war summit was the mid sixties. Its stock hit $358 (adjusted) in 1965, and profits crested in 1966 at $15 billion (adjusted). What about the best year for its cars? That would have to be 1963, with the trio of Corvette Sting Ray, Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick Riviera. And which one gets the nod as number one? I can’t decide. But this Riviera happened to be sitting along the road on the way home from the lumber yard, so the decision was made for me.

I can accept the fickle finger of fate making the call, but I do have some mixed feelings about this particular example that beckoned me. I envisioned an original specimen in white, with tan interior. I’m not sure what name to give this re-paint, and I’ve never seen wheel covers like these which remind me of Messala’s spoke-eating chariot hubs in Ben-Hur.

But despite, or maybe because of, the removal of some of the Riviera’s chrome accents and door handles, the dramatic sweep and purity of its lines are still very much intact. Well, except for the gaps from those ill-fitting doors. But it can still work some of that old Bill Mitchell magic on me, and transport me right back to 1963 and the Buick dealer’s showroom in Iowa City.

As a ten-year old GM acolyte, I would sit in devotion for hours in the Riviera, that sacred chapel of St. Mark of Excellence. And it was the only car worthy of equal time in the back pew. In my hands I held the heavy-stock Buick hymnal, memorizing the sacred texts: “standard engine: Wildcat 465 (named for its torque output; it took me a while to figure that out), 340 horsepower, four-barrel carburetor. Optional: Super Wildcat, 360 horsepower, dual four-barrel carburetors…”

I would have lit votive candles for Bill Mitchell on that dramatic sweep of chrome instrument altar if I thought the salesmen

wouldn’t throw me out. In retrospect, I’m surprised they didn’t anyway. Salesmen were more patient with potential future customers then. And when I eventually got restless in the showroom, I’d walk back into the service area, roam around under the cars on the lifts, and hang out with the mechanics. A summer day in the pre-litigation and pre-videogame era well spent.

As a kid, I intuitively knew the Riviera was special. But I didn’t fully appreciate the impact it had on the enthusiast/sporty buyers, until I came across a 1964 Car and Driver with an in-depth “Research Report” (5,000 mile extended test). The Riviera is compared favorably with the road-worthy classic Bentley Continental, despite the Buick being less than half the price.

The Buick engineers didn’t just slap that gorgeous body on a shortened Electra frame; a fair amount of effort went into chassis tuning and refinement. And C/D spends pages in highly analytical language and charts comparing roll angles, spring rates, camber, weight distribution, etc. with the Jaguar Mark X, the Corvette, and the Volvo P-1800(!), and their effect on the Riviera’s handling. Buff mags have changed as much over the decades as the cars.

The distillation of several arcane pages is this: the Riviera isn’t a true sports car, but can hustle, even through curves, as long as the road is smooth: “We sometimes amused ourselves catching TR-4s and big Healeys on fast bends…the absolute worst was experienced when negotiating a winding road with a succession of dips and rises at a fast clip, when the car moved forward in a series of enormous lurches”. That kind of sums up American cars back then, even the best of them.

The steering was a bit compromised too: “the muscular effort required to turn the car is very low…[but] the amount of twirling that has to be done with the wheel feels excessive”. That’s why the necker’s knob was invented. But that could be dangerous, because “If you try to throw the Riviera into a sudden turn, you may find yourself halfway into it, with a sudden, if momentary, loss of power assist, and lacking the strength to turn the wheel enough to get through in clean style”. The Riviera’s buckets and vast console weren’t exactly conducive to necking on the go anyway.

In my childhood memory, the Riviera was just a rocket, and a damn elegant one. It’s encapsulated in this crystal clear image of a Riviera on the go: we were on the mountainous western part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1964, jammed into our hot, black Fairlane. A white Riviera flashed by us at what seemed twice our speed (piloted by Jack Baruth’s grandpa?). I watched in awe and envy, as those distinctive rectangular red taillights faded, then disappeared into the tunnel ahead.

Thanks for the memories, Riviera; I’m glad I was there, and that my brain cells felt it worth keeping them so fresh and clear all these years. Somehow, I suspect it’s not likely our kids will be writing their childhood memories of Buicks forty years from now.

More Curbside Classics Here

Paul Niedermeyer
Paul Niedermeyer

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  • Happy-cynic Happy-cynic on Jun 06, 2009

    I really enjoy the curbside classic series, keep em coming! I have found memories as kid drooling over these cars. My tastes where more modest. I really liked the early/mid sixties Impalas (favorite uncle had one) As I recall a friend of my mine, dad had a Olds 88 or 98 convert. It had the needle that buzzed at your set speed. It was white with red leather. And speak of interiors, what happened to the color choices? all we have to pick is tan,black,grey. Might be worth an article As far as demise of GM: look to the era, when the whiskey & scotch drinkers whom preferred blonds where replaced by the wine and cheese MBA yuppies, down hill from there on.

  • Nick Nick on Jun 16, 2009

    Funny, I think the first car that really fascinated me. I can't even be sure how old I was...probably less than 10. About 20 minutes up the road there was a tiny town called Palermo(now consumed by subdivisions). In front of one of the very few homes someone had parked a silver one of these. It looked okay, but something must have gone wrong mechanically as it never budged. I remember harassing my dad that he should ask about that car and if they wanted to sell it. A few years later, I moved out west for 4 years. When I returned, it was a rusted heap, up to it's axles in mud. Had I known, I would have at least tried to salvage the 401 nailhead. As it was, it disappeared, no doubt to the junkyard. Bastards.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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