Rare Rides: The 1980 Buick Electra, Luxury on Park Avenue

Corey Lewis
by Corey Lewis

As we’ve arrived at another edition of Thanksgiving in this, the Most Awesome Current Year, let’s celebrate with a very American Rare Ride. Today’s big boat was the pinnacle of the Buick brand in 1980. Full of acres of ruched velour and wood-look trim, the Park Avenue took Electra to new heights before the fancy name ever became an independent model.

Come along and enjoy American Luxury, even if it’s not an Oldsmobile.

Buick’s Electra nameplate debuted for 1959, a year of change at Buick: The brand renamed all its models that year. At the time, Buick offered only three cars, all full-size. The Special became the LeSabre, the Century morphed into Invicta, the Super of ’58 vanished, and the range-topping Roadmaster was split, into the slightly lesser Electra, and the pinnacle Electra 225. The 225 moniker signified that version’s additional length over standard Electra, which in its first generation spanned over 225 inches.

For the next 30-plus years, Electra was Buick’s largest and most expensive sedan. Initially offered in two-and four-door guises, and pillared, hardtop, four- and six-window sedans, body styles were pared down over time like all large domestic offerings. The Electra’s Park Avenue trim appeared for 1975 as an option on the Limited. By that time the 225 was the base model, trumped by the Limited, which was supplemented by the luxury appearance package Park Avenue. The trim hierarchy continued onto the fifth generation Electra, which appeared as a downsized C-body for the 1977 model year (short 11 inches). Buick’s flagship was offered in coupe, sedan, and wagon variants; hardtops were gone for good.

A year after introduction, the Park Avenue name graduated from a mere appearance package on the Limited to a freestanding trim. For 1978 upgrades specific to Park Avenue were limited to the grille and tail lamps, but 1979 upgraded the trim further: A more vertical front end treatment appeared, as well as different tail lamps with an integrated Buick crest and additional trim. 1979’s over-the-top treatment was a big ask though, and for 1980 Park Avenue reverted mostly to the ’77 look, apart from a grille with vertical slats. Breaking from a tradition that dated to the model’s introduction in 1959, the 225 trim disappeared from Electra in 1980. Just as well, as the car was shortened a couple more inches that year, down to 220.9 from its original 222.1. More edits in ’80 saw the disappearance of the signature VentiPorts from the fender. A concession to Park Avenue’s upscale customers, faux VentiPorts appeared that year in the fender trim, as dents in the metal highlighted by black stickers.

Engine offerings varied by year, as emissions regulations quickly strangled out the big block. Offerings ranged from the smallest 4.1-liter Buick V6 through the Oldsmobile 403 (6.6L). Depending on trim, the transmission was either a three- or four-speed automatic.

1984 was the end of the rear-drive C-body Electra seen here, as in ’85 another serious downsizing at GM accompanied a swap to front-drive power trains. In 1991, Buick changed up its full-size lineup once more and offered two cars instead of one. The Electra which used the Park Avenue name as a trim replaced by the newly created Park Avenue. The front-drive C-body played second fiddle to the new flagship of the brand, the rear-drive B-body Roadmaster. You probably know the story after that point.

Today’s silver over luxurious burgundy Rare Ride was auctioned in 2018. Well equipped with air conditioning, 8 track player, and the 350 Buick V8, it sold for an unspecified sum. As a closing observation, I think the wrap-around tail lamp treatment and simple horizontal lines of the Electra make the Buick the best looking of any C-body of this era.

[Images: seller]

Corey Lewis
Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

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  • Roberto Esponja Roberto Esponja on Nov 30, 2020

    If I'm not mistaken, this was the last year they had those beautiful silver background gauges. The next year they were replaced with these horrible black background ones with industrial-type number fonts, something that would have been suitable for a cargo van but certainly not a Buick. And the sad part is they continued with them until the mid 1980's. Awful move.

    • Sgeffe Sgeffe on Dec 03, 2020

      Interesting. They kept the gauges like this in the Regal until 1983. 1984 was the year Buick went to the sweep speedo cluster seen in the GNs up through the end of the run in 1987.

  • SportyClassic SportyClassic on Jan 30, 2022

    Bought one in 88 off the daughter of an old man passed away for $1,750 Canadian had 60,000 miles and new tires new battery just got certified a pillar on the passenger side had a 1" rotted out section because of the moonroof drains...leaves clog it up. Door skins were roached rear quarters bottoms were done car ran like a dream road like a dream had every single option except leather which was great. Cruise tilt/ tele, power windows, seats, gas cap trunk w remote release, turn signal indicators on the hood, factory alarm cigarette lighters, 6 speaker AM/FM cassette, wire wheels dark blue exterior with a baby blue top only thing that didn't work was the opera lights as it was about 400 bucks for the module. Sold it in 90 for $2650.

  • 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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