QOTD: The Best Body by Buick?

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

These pages have spilled more than a bit of digital ink on the Buick brand in the last couple of weeks. For today’s QOTD, we’re about to spill a little more.

Buick’s current roster holds a couple of good-looking arrows in its quiver, not the least of which is the Regal Tour X (which, it should be noted, is listed proudly as a WAGON on Buick’s own build-and-price site), particularly in the natty shade of Rioja Red Metallic. Here is your Monday question: which Buick vehicle of yore hit it completely out of the park in terms of styling?

I’ll open the bid with what is probably the world’s most unsurprising and least original response — the fabulous and absolutely jaw-dropping 1965 Buick Riviera. Styling penned by the Bill Mitchell design team evokes a coke-bottle shape and, with those covered headlamps hidden by clamshell doors, it totally looks like a charlatan who would flirt shamelessly with your wife at the company Christmas party. A 425-cube V8 seals the deal.

Let’s throw this conversation open to concept cars, too. Twenty years later, Buick popped out the futuristic Wildcat. Hardly the first Buick to bear that name, your author can remember eyeing photos of the ’85 show car in a book at his rural community’s library with élan usually reserved for the girly magazines Aubrey Anstey kept in the top rack of the town pharmacy’s magazine shelf.

And, to this day, I still desire a 1987 Buick GNX. Built at a time when, at GM, building anything that beat the Corvette was verboten, Lord Vader’s coupe was faster in the measured quarter-mile than the greatest supercar ever built, the Ferrari F40 (12.7 seconds vs 13.0 seconds respectively, if you’re wondering).

What’s your pick from the back issues of Buick’s catalog?

[Images: General Motors]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • JEFFSHADOW JEFFSHADOW on Mar 27, 2018

    I really do like the last Wildcat, the 1970. Otherwise my personal vote goes for my 1975 Riviera in Verde Mist (color code # 49) with the white vinyl top. It has the slanted console shifter, bucket seats and has the exterior bustle-back design five years before the Seville and thirty years before the BMW 7-series. Wonderful car I bought on eBay for $305 as a charity car from Cars For Causes in Santa Paula, California. As a member of the ROA (Riviera Owner's Association) I get to see hundreds of Rivieras every year!

  • WildcatMatt WildcatMatt on Apr 12, 2018

    Love the '71-'73 boattail Riv. My folks had a '72 when I was little and that's what I wanted for my first car. A '65 Wildcat was the closest we could get in the local paper in the fall of '91 and the rest is history as far as that goes and so I have a soft spot for these also -- I would love to track down a 4-dr hardtop version. I also like the '79-'85 Riviera and the 1949 Super with an honorable mention of the '95-'96 Regal.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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