Junkyard Find: 1985 Buick Riviera
In 1979, the Riviera moved onto the front-wheel-drive Toronado/Eldorado platform, continuing the tradition of rococo Riviera personal luxury coupes that started back in 1963. This version of the Riviera was built through the 1985 model year, so we’re looking at the very last year of the V8 Riviera in this weathered Denver car.
While the Evil Empire was being vanquished by a combination of crashing oil prices, idiotic decisions made by cheap thugs and vodka-soaked gerontocrats, and rebellion on its fringes, the abolition of the 85 mph speedometer requirement ranked as one of the Reagan Administration’s major accomplishments in the fight for freedom. General Motors, however, had stockpiled millions of these speedometers and had to use them up in cars like this before they went back to the 120 mph speedos preferred by the Founding Fathers.
The Buick Division got a lot more futuristic later in the decade, with octogenarian-confusing touchscreen displays and such, but we see some foreshadowing of this stuff with the microwave-oven-control-style Electronic Touch Climate Control HVAC unit in this car.
The landau roof and opera lights on this car have suffered much from decades in the harsh Colorado sun.
Under the hood, the 150-horsepower Oldsmobile 307-cubic-inch V8. This engine went into cars made by every GM division at the time.
This chintzy interior light features plastic “chrome” and fake woodgrain and seems more appropriate on a low-end camping trailer than a $16,710 luxury coupe (at a time when a new BMW 3-Series coupe could be had for $16,430).
Still, these cars were pretty comfortable when they were new.
[Images: © 2016 Murilee Martin/The Truth About Cars]
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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That steering wheel... good gawd.
The 1987 model looked far more modern. These things are so dated they look like they are from a different planet.