(first posted 2/1/2018) Every once in a while, a custom license plate will grab my eye. I don’t remember seeing that many of them on the streets of the Rust Belt factory town where I grew up, so maybe their popularity has increased since the 1980s and ’90s. It’s also true that my life in Chicago, Illinois – the largest city in the Midwest and third-largest in the United States – has brought a host of things and experiences I just would never have had access to in Flint, Michigan. I’ve become somewhat accustomed to custom plates as they seem much more common in present day. Many featured words, phrases, acronyms and other combinations of alpha-numeric characters often appear as personal initials or to express sports fandom. And then there was this LeSabre.
Normally, I try to alter my photographs that accompany my pieces to obscure the license plate numbers, simply out of courtesy for the privacy of their owners or drivers. There’s no rule on CC, written or unwritten, that this must be done. However, being the somewhat risk-averse person I am, I sometimes project myself into a potential, unfortunate scenario in the future where someone’s actions or whereabouts as identifiable in one of my pictures might lead to unwanted consequences – for the owner, or for myself. I’m not super-paranoid, but you do see my point – right?
With that said, I found the custom plate on our featured car almost as intriguing as this classic Buick, itself – an example of the very last model year of any full-sized Buick convertible, ever. (I reflected upon such finality when taking these pictures.) “SHE LUV U”… Just what on Earth could that mean? Unblurred license plates be darned and without any Carfax-stalking, I knew I had to have some fun with this, just thinking about the possibilities.
Though the conjugative form of the stylized verb (lacking an “s” at the end) would suggest an urban, ethnic dialect, the pronoun in the license plate really doesn’t give a clue as to the gender of this LeSabre’s owner – especially given its location in the diverse area known as Lakeview, in this progressive, modern city of Chicago. There weren’t any clear indicators presented by the car itself that it belongs to a man or to a woman (which, I will concede, is of no importance). Aside from tomato-red paint that looked like a non-factory (but inoffensive) hue, this LeSabre looked clean. Even if it was slightly frayed around the edges, the body looked straight and rust-free. Perhaps this car was a gift from the owner’s wife / partner / girlfriend / special lady. Or…
Perhaps the “she” in the string of characters on the license plate refers to the car itself. (I really like this idea.) Many of us have assigned to cars we have loved both a proper name and a gender. Maybe this LeSabre’s owner feels the love of being perched atop all of that supple, white vinyl upholstery on the front bench seat, as he or she stares down that long hood at the stand-up ornament at its end. Two hundred five horses push over two tons of Buick from the rear wheels, while those torquey, four hundred fifty-five cubes burble quietly and smoothly away.
Girlfriend is thirsty, but true love can be blind to monetary costs and inconvenience (i.e. fueling up each and every day this vehicle is taken out for a drive). One of just 5,300 ’75 LeSabre convertibles ever built, she knows she’s rare, special, and worth everything it takes to enjoy her company. Her original base price of $5,133 translates to about $23,500 in 2018, though this is before many factory options which were both likely and necessary. By comparison, the ’18 Buick Cascada convertible starts at $33,065, but the newer car includes a host of standard features not figured into the ’75 LeSabre convertible’s base price, many of which were probably simply unavailable at that time.
Come to think of it, I could think of only these two, not-implausible scenarios with respect to the message on this car’s tags. It doesn’t really matter what I think, though. I imagine that part of the fun of driving a car with custom plates is the thought that others are left scratching their heads as you (or they) pass by. If anything, though, it’s great to see an expression of “LUV” anywhere these days – especially when attached to a beautiful, all-American, full-sized convertible. After all, sometimes love neither needs nor requires any explanation.
Wrigleyville, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Related reading:
- From Paul Niedermeyer: Curbside Classic Capsule: 1975 Buick LeSabre Convertible – Own The Last Of Its Kind For 50¢/Lb;
- From Brendan Saur: CC Outtake: 1975 Buick LeSabre Convertible – A Topless Exit; and
- From Yours Truly: CC Capsule: 1975 Buick LeSabre Custom Convertible – Candy Apple Cooler.
Nice car, theres a very similar Buick convertible cruising locally but metallic green white top
As much as I luv that profile shot against the brick wall, I still can’t avoid comparing these to the perfect 71s and almost perfect 72s. These photographs are taken in the public domain and therefore licence plates are fair game, but I must admit I share the same sentiments as you Joseph.
Make mine a Centurion.
Don, I think my favorite of this generation might be your two picks, but in reverse – the ’72 (which I find slightly more visually interesting) and then the ’71.
I wouldn’t kick this ’75 out of my (very large) garage, though!
The librarian at my high school drove one of these, silver-blue with white top and interior. It was nearly new at the time and I was intrigued by it. He was in his late 30s and considered himself pretty stylish, but he seemed too young for the car.
The front of the 75 Buick came off better than the fronts of the other GM big cars that year (Cadillac excepted), which seemed on a downward trend after 71-72.
I don’t obscure plates of cars out in public places. My one exception is if the owner talks with me and shares info on the car that I would not otherwise have, and more as a gesture of courtesy and goodwill than anything else.
That light-blue / white color combo seems to have been very popular…
I know this isn’t the exact color you’re probably referencing, but I had seen this ’75 Caprice convertible I had posted to the Cohort back in 2015 (https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-outtake-1975-chevrolet-caprice-convertible-the-last-big-chevy-ragtop/), and the more I think about it, the more trouble I have thinking of other color combos I’ve seen without using an internet search.
This would be an awesome car in which to cruise around the streets of Chicago – only in fair weather, of course. Your pictures have caused me to remember riding in a ’75 or ’76 LeSabre that belonged to one of my mother’s cousins. It was such a contrast to the poop brown metallic Torino my parents had at the same time.
Joe, I’m not sure how it is currently, but for a long time Illinois would sell you personalized plates for the same price as regular plates provided the sequence ended with either a number or letter. I still see personalized plates all over when I’m in Illinois, but not so much in my adopted state to the west. When I had my ’75 Thunderbird, Illinois sold me plates that said “BIG BRD 1”. Those less automotively gifted sometimes asked why I had the reference to Sesame Street on my car.
hehehe. Tell me it was yellow
That would have been icing on the cake, but Ford called it Copper Starfire.
Your impressions of IL vs. MO vanity plates are correct. According to the most recent survey of such things (by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators), 13.4% of Illinois plates are customized, as compared to 3.4% of Missouri plates.
My own state of Virginia is #1 on the vanity plate ranking, with 16.2% of registrations.
Incidentally, Illinois has a number of rules for vanity plates that are unique. Intermixing of letters and numbers are prohibited (so BIG BRD 1 is OK but BIG 1 BRD would not be), numbers must be separated from letters by a space, and there can be no space between numbers themselves. It’s almost like Illinois is a very bureaucratic state or something.?
I’ve noticed in Illinois that a popular combination is for a couple to have their initials plus their year of marriage on their license plate (like BH KH 97) — and I assume one reason for that is because it can be done even with the state’s myriad rules. I rarely see that format on vanity plates in any other state.
Oh, and in case you couldn’t tell, I’m a license plate collector… hence my interest in such minutiae.
That was one of the things that immediately struck me when we moved here 16+ years ago. Vanity plates were not that common in Georgia, so their prevalence here really stood out. I used to have 71VEGA (on same) back when I was in college, and currently have vanity plates on the SS and my RAM truck.
I’ve been thinking of changing the plates on my Chev SS to MANNA, however, because everyone keeps asking, “What is it?”
Ha! Jason (and to Don’s point), I kind of wish your car had been yellow!
The beauty of getting a bunch of one’s friends together for a cruise in the LeSabre is that you could, literally, fit five other people in it comfortably (besides you driving). With gas money divided six ways, *boom*.
Maybe the owner’s a Beatles fan? (Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!)
Or it’s the opposite of HEHATEME? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Smart)
XFL!! I totally remember. Great reference. 🙂
You beat me to the Beatles reference.
I’d be tempted to have the following plate on my other car: YEAH X3
Heh, HE HATE ME was the first thing I thought of as well.
Seeing the license plates, my very first thought was that must be a big Beatles fan. That could be a way to let people know that they are his favorite group. But, that’s not me. While I was OK with the Beatles, was always more of a fan of the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Moody Blues. And, I can remember back to when the lads were considered as “The Fab Four.”
This post is a great way to start off February — an enjoyable read and of course it’s impossible not to think up more scenarios for the car and the plate.
Maybe one scenario would be that the owner put that plate on the car so that his wife wouldn’t mind the car so much. It reminds me somewhat of a family I knew in the 1980s where the husband bought a 1960s Lincoln Continental, much to his wife’s annoyance. In order to blunt her outright antagonism, he ordered a vanity plate with her name on it. Good strategy, but I’m not sure it worked so brilliantly — he sold the Lincoln after 2 or 3 years and replaced it with a new LeBaron convertible, still with her name on it.
And incidentally, this was the first recorded usage of the word “conjugative” on Curbside Classic — congratulations!
Thanks, Eric – and I like your scenario. It’s a shame this tactic didn’t work for the family you knew back in the ’80s. 🙂
Your comment above about the high percentage of vanity plates in both Illinois and Virginia – wow. I wonder where Michigan falls in that list. Where I grew up might have had much more to do with me not seeing custom plates back then, rather than where I grew up.
(RE: “conjugative”, I’m glad the results of my being ready for vocab test pop-quizzes have finally paid off. LOL!)
Michigan was fairly low on the list — at about 2.5%. That survey was conducted 8 or 9 years ago, and I’m unaware of any other survey that’s more current, but I bet that for most states, those proportions have held relatively constant.
I feel a CC Question of the day coming on about vanity plates
I’ll start- I don’t believe in them. My reason? Why make it easy for people to remember your plate? Admittedly in an age of dashcams and smartphones, that argument is somewhat blunted. But still…….
Then there is my reason: Why on earth would I pay the State government more money to register my car than I have to?
When enough people want vanity plates, doesn’t it become increasingly difficult to conceive one that’s unique? It’s like standing up in a stadium: when enough people do it, the value of it is neutralized.
Everyone nods when Robin Williams’ Genie says, “It’s what’s inside that counts.” But who really believes this Aesop?
Joseph: I think your LeSabre could have had the fuel sipping 350 instead of the 455. Maybe there are some external markings that identify a LeSabre with the 455; I know of none.
I like the colors on the dash, visors, A pillar trim and door cards.
Buick was very stingy with engine callouts on B-Bodies even in the 60s.
Ironically, only the 1976 V6 ones had any ID at all, a small “V6” (imagine that)
on the fender. A-Bodies, on the other hand, continued to call out big engines
until 1974. (witness the 455 callout on Kojak’s Century, a series I’ve been watching at home as of late and doing some freeze framing).
You are absolutely right. There were no cues, external or otherwise, as to what was under the hood. I guess my thought process when I was writing this piece was that given the low production and hefty curb weight of the ’75s, most would have left Flint with the 455 big block – just for the sake of it.
Strangely enough, the base price of the convertible started at only $126 ($578 / adjusted more than the Custom hardtop coupe. I would have surely thought the convertible would have cost much, much more.
Remember, they were factory built, unlike later converts. There were economies of scale involved that made it relatively cheap to do.
Being it was right after the 1st gas crunch, and GM was really touting economy and their new use of catalytic converters in ’75 in service thereof, I’d wager most were 350s. The ’75 LeSabre Custom 4 dr hardtop I owned briefly in the early ’80s was a 350. That Buick small block was an excellent engine.
This car, with that color combo and those wheels comes really, is really, really close to one of my longtime dream cars. Ideally it would be a ’73, but ’75 would be my second choice.
If I were to own a Buick convertible I would choose a 1971 or a 1972, I’ve thought those two years were the best of the full sized Buick’s due to the smaller bumpers and them not being fully smogged out.
That car’s an elegant beauty. What a super fun way to go cruising with three or four friends. Once we rented a minivan for a wine tasting tour, wish we’d had one of these instead!
Glad to see Buick’s back in the convertible business (thanks, Opel). Cascada’s an odd name but it’s a fine looking car. Never seen one here in Cascadia.
A nice reminder of my late ’74 LeSabre convertible, which was the factory shade of red (darker than this). The 350 was quite capable of hustling it around the city, albeit at the cost of 9 mpg!
I’m glad you mentioned the ’74. I was busy on my lunch break today, but I had a chance to research the ’74 models (as I honestly couldn’t remember what their frontal styling looked like).
No one else in this thread has mentioned the style of the ’74 as being one of their favorites, but I actually really like the frontal styling! Those individual headlight “pods”, and the low, wraparound, horizontal grille – I think Buick did a great job on the front of the ’74.
I used to own a 1975 LeSabre convertible almost just like this one in the early 90’s! Love it!
Mine was a similar red even, which was not an original color. Mine had been white, but the original owner I bought it from had it re-painted red because you just can’t beat a red drop-top. The factory colors only had a metallic burgundy, that was slightly darker, I think. It had the optional parade boots as well.
As stated above, a 350-4 V8 was standard and there’s no way to tell externally which it has. Mine had the 455-4 and I put dual exhausts with dual cats on mine (with a 1974 dual exhaust chassis crossmember and the tailpipes coming out the rear at a factory-looking angle). Mid-70’s malaise kept it from being a real powerhouse, but it had some decent get up and go.
I bought it with the wide, white letter tires. I am not usually a fan of non-stock tires, but I kind of liked it in this case. It gave the car a semi-muscle car look that fit with the red convertible and big block engine. I sold it before needing new tires, but I would have eventually put white walls on.
I noticed the interior shot shows the headrest having the base for a shoulder belt guide as well as the seat being a 2-door standard bench. Since these cars didn’t have shoulder belts and the convertible only came in the Custom trim level which had a notchback bench with center armrest (vinyl required on convertibles), I believe it has had the front seat replaced at some point. I’d be curious if the rear seat upholstery style matches the front.
I vote for the Beatles interpretation, with the S dropped from LUV cause it would be too many letters, with the double meaning that this big, happy car loves you.
Jon, your car was a beauty. I think the raised, white-letter tires work perfectly with those Buick Rally Wheels and the red paint.
Regarding the seats, that’s awesome that you know that (from firsthand experience). The mystery behind this car continues!
Thanks! I wish I still had it, but it wasn’t practical for me to keep it at the time:(
It’s great that this Buick is still in daily service. The 1975 full-size (non-Cadillac) GM convertibles regularly show up for sale at the various Carlisle events. It seems about 90 percent of them are the pale, non-metallic blue that GM used for about two years in the mid-1970s. All of them have white vinyl seats. This is regardless of the brand.
A 1975 LeSabre convertible in that color was offered for sale there a few years ago.
A school friend’s parents had a ’72 Buick convertible, dark blue with a white top. I’m not sure if it was a LeSabre or not. But it sure looked cool!
I call these scissor top GM-bodies David Lynch Specials. If you have viewed all his works you’ll know what I’m talking about. Notable appearances include Leland Palmer’s car in Twin Peaks and Kyle MacLachlan wheels a ’73 Olds version in Blue Velvet.
My cars have always had vanity plates. I guess the reasoning is that it’s so damn expensive to plate a car in Illinois, why not have some fun with it? I had ham radio plates for years, which were nice because they cost the same as a non-personalized plate. Plus the state has a ton of special plates- every major sports team, a lot of major universities, and other special interests (the IL Route 66 plate might be a favorite of this crowd.)
Just retired these in expectations of turning in the Mini lease soon.
I guess also, for what it’s worth, I come from a line of unimaginative vanity plate holders — my dad’s 1985 Riviera was plated MY RIV 85 (as I believe Joseph stated in the article, IL charges less if you start with letters and put a number at the end, hence that and my plate above.)
He is a fan of redonkulous on youtube (Terrence Popp)…she looooove me!
I know one just like this that lives down in Beverly.
It looks like it’s had its springs replaced. The crossover craze has gone too far.
A duckduckgo image search of 1975 LeSabre yields about 90% convertibles.
Not sure how I missed this last time around. If I would have found one of the “last” of the Buick Convertibles in the last year or so I would have brought one home. Alas none turned up in my searches and I’ve since purchased a different convertible.