Junkyard Find: 1992 Buick Regal Gran Sport

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

The 1970 Buick Gran Sport 455 was one of the most ridiculously overpowered, tire-frying machines of the Golden Age of Muscle Cars, and GM also slapped GS badging on some fairly muscular — or at least muscular-looking — Wildcats and Rivieras back then. Fast forward a decade or so, and you had W-body (think Lumina) third-gen Buick Regals with Gran Sport option packages.

Here’s one that I shot in Denver while scouting for the All You Can Carry For $59.99 Junkyard Sale last month.

170 Buick V-6 horses driving the front wheels.

The ’92 GS did come with a tachometer, though.

The interior is far superior that the one in the wretched Lumina.

Pretty much the same car as the Daytona 500 winner.

Back in 1988, Québécois octogenarians who wished to feel 50 again could pick up a third-gen Regal coupe. This car came with the 2.8-liter V-6. By the time our Junkyard Find was built, Regal buyers could have the mighty 3.8-liter V-6.

When this generation of Regal was released, Buick’s marketers went for a patriotic approach similar to Chevrolet’s “Heartbeat” ads of the same era, though with less- screamy guitars.

The great American love story belongs to Buick.








Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

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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  • Akear Akear on Sep 21, 2015

    Unlike today's GM mid-sized cars the GM-10 sedans actually sold in large numbers.

  • WildcatMatt WildcatMatt on Sep 24, 2015

    I know I'm in the minority, but I liked the '95-'96 iteration of this generation best. Buick rounded things a bit and ditched the three-tier radio so it was less weird. I got an off-lease '96 Regal Custom with the 3.1 and liked it enough that I swapped it for a '96 GS with the 3800. The bigger engine made a ton of difference. When I was looking, I had checked out a '95 coupe and the longer doors felt ridiculously heavy when trying to open and close them.

  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
  • EBFlex The best gift would have been a huge bonfire of all the fak mustangs in inventory and shutting down the factory that makes them.Heck, nobody would even have to risk life and limb starting the fire, just park em close together and wait for the super environmentally friendly EV fire to commence.
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