There’s something jarring about seeing an upscale car like a Buick Reatta in this sedentary state. It’s not unlike seeing a childhood hero or heroine in a sad position in life after you had spent much of your time idolizing them. It produces a feeling similar to seeing a wrecking ball hit a mall or large concert venue (like the Palace Of Auburn Hills in suburban Detroit) that you can remember from when it was new and the talk of the town. How did this fancy, two-seat Buick end up here, looking like this? The Reatta’s entire four-year production run between 1988 and ’91 yielded just over 21,700 cars, a figure only slightly above what Buick had hoped annual sales would look like. There won’t be any new ones, and remaining examples will only get thinner on the ground.
My nature as an empath, my default setting of which I am increasingly and solidly aware, tends to want to rescue people and sometimes even inanimate things. “This Reatta needs me! I can make it all better and make it look and feel loved again.” I could bring this red beauty back from this neglected state, shine it up, put some air in those tires, and make it appear, sound, drive, and be seen exactly as had been originally intended by Buick brass after it rolled out of the doors of the Reatta Craft Centre in Lansing, Michigan.
That kind of thinking can also lead to a sick cycle for an empath if one has little-to-no awareness of how we naturally feel compelled to operate, especially in the absence of healthy mental, emotional, and financial boundaries. Assuming there’s not something terribly wrong, mechanically, with this Reatta, how much money, time, and effort would be needed to bring it back to something approaching its original glory, after it had been allowed to be parked for a long time (as evidenced by at least two flat tires) next to a non-functioning pay phone in the back of a gas station parking lot?
There was once a giant movie palace called the Granada Theatre built in 1926 in the nearby Rogers Park neighborhood that had stood within maybe ten minute walking distance from where I live. It had stopped showing first-run films in the late 1970s, after which it acted as a concert venue, off and on. It was well-maintained and a gorgeous and historically significant piece of architecture, even in what is arguably the architectural capital city of the United States. Up through the mid-1980s, it stood proud, adjacent to the Lake Shore campus of Loyola University.
To make a long story short, a decision had been made in 1987 to no longer hire security to protect the big, ornate, empty theater, right around the time that production of the Reatta was ramping up and its rollout was imminent. Maybe this was done to save some money. The reasons are still not entirely clear to me, even after some deep diving on the internet that I’ve done on the Granada. Literally, in less than two short years afterward, what had been a magnificent, palatial, pristine, and historic movie house had been gradually and steadily ransacked and plundered into a gutted, stripped, graffitied, and urban-mined eyesore that ended up being demolished right before the dawn of the ’90s.
Once ne’er-do-wells had found a way inside the Granada, it was all over, with no security to stop what eventually happened to that once grand theater. It still makes me both sad and furious. It was said at one point that even after major destruction was well under way, the Granada still could have been saved and renovated – but for a ton of money, when all that was needed in the first place was a continuation of the kind of security that had already been in force. It’s sort of like the same thing with a car like this Reatta. Even if there’s a lot wrong with it, how was a somewhat bespoke, halo car like this allowed to get to this sad state? Who would spend the money to really fix it up now? Similar to what happened with the Granada, if this Reatta has issues with intrusion but with water leakage instead of vandals, it could also mean lights out for this pretty, red coupe.
Curbside doesn’t seem to show a whole lot of love for the Reatta and cars of its type, like Chrysler’s TC by Maserati and the Cadillac Allante. This doesn’t change the fact that it was still a very nice ride when new. To adults like me who were car-loving adolescents when the Reatta began arriving at Buick dealerships around the country, this model has never really lost its halo. Granted, this particular car doesn’t look as far gone as the Granada Theatre was prior to the latter’s demise, but this example just looks so sad (and so 1980s) sitting next to that busted pay phone. My sincere hope is that on my next walking trip past this gas station, this Reatta will not be sitting there, and not because it has been towed off to the wrecking yard.
Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, October 10, 2020.
Click here for some external reading on the Granada Theatre, and here and here for a couple of other Curbside resources on the Reatta.
Fitting to see it next to a vacant pay phone cabinet !
Everything has a limited life span
From one empath to another, in recognition of your love of music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDYfEBY9NM4
I used to say they’d play that one at my funeral, but after of lifetime of referring to it in so many moments of emotional (distress?, upheaval? confusion? fill in the blank…) I’m kinda tired of humming it to myself, so I hope “they” don’t.
YMMV 😉
That was a perfect song to listen to this morning. Thanks for linking that.
My son was born premature and spent his first days in the NICU. We were allowed to hold him for a time each day. One day, a baby was in distress, then another and another. The nurse put on this song and started singing along. After a few minutes, the babies quieted down and went to sleep.
It may have been my lack of sleep, but it was one of the most awe-inspiring things I’ve ever witnessed.
Yet more evidence of the Beatles’ cross-generational appeal. 🙂 Love the personal tie-in between this song and the birth of your son. I wonder if he likes this song today.
Wow – our country has alot of sad waste doesn’t it? Perhaps we deserve cheap Disney-esque architecture that is torn down and replaced every ten years b/c we sure as heck don’t appreciate stuff built for the long haul.
Similar with cars. Once the resale value gets low, send the car off to the junkyard rather than repairing the car b/c you like the car and want to keep the car. Hmmm, the resale value is $2500 but it needs a $1500 repair to last another ten years but instead a person could go sign on the line for car payments on a newer $30K something.
I guess we shouldn’t complain too loudly that so many people volunteer to go from car payment to car payment. Keeps the used car business well stocked with perfectly good rides.
“Perfectly good cars” go to the junkyard because you can buy a running car that doesn’t need the last-straw repair (and probably a lot of deferred repairs and maintenance) for about the cost of the repairs. That’s because there are lots of other people who want and can afford new/newer cars to replace serviceable older cars, like they can afford to give away old clothes that aren’t completely worn to rags.
The person who sends a broken daily driver directly to the junkyard usually doesn’t have the cash/credit/budget for a new car. They’d already be driving a better car.
Joey, I’m with you. I don’t like seeing serviceable things go to waste, but Scampman, I see the quick cost analysis point you’re making.
I suppose it can also depend on the old thing in need of repair or replacement. I realize this isn’t quite the same thing, but I recently bought a used DVD player from a thrift store for $16.50 including tax which worked amazingly, versus a new $50 one from Target.
My gamble was that my $16.50 DVD player is going to last long enough for me to get my money’s worth before it dies, versus using that same money toward the new $50 unit.
Cars are different to me than electronics and appliances, though. That’s why Curbside Classic exists in the first place and we don’t all drive Camrys.
That’s because $16.50 isn’t an amount of money you’d miss. Not making light of it, but if you dropped a $20 bill and didn’t realize it, it wouldn’t be a big problem.
I’m reminded of the Steve Martin quote on the side of a Starbucks cup when they were doing that many years ago….It went something like: “If you’ve got a dollar and you spend 29 cents on a loaf of bread, you’ve got 71 cents left; But if you’ve got seventeen grand and you spend 29 cents on a loaf of bread, you’ve still got seventeen grand. There’s a math lesson for you.”
So true.
People may do that same math and perhaps pay the $1500 the first time to fix it, but then when it needs another $1500 repair a few months later…and the value is still $2500, that changes the whole equation in a hurry. You have to be rich to afford a cheap car. Or handy as well as having the time and a very understanding boss. Few people who drive a $2500 car in the first place have all three.
My daily driver is a $500 car. Our other “car” is a nice recent vintage SUV well suited for long trips and towing. I prefer the one cheap car, one nice car plan. We have several antiques as well.
A cheap car can remain cheap. I’ve owned upwards of three dozen cars over the past 35 years. Buy them cheap, make a few repairs that the previous owner neglected, drive them a year or so and resell – usually breaking even or making a little money.
In some cases drive them many years – like my current ride – a lowly domestic sedan that could never be as reliable as an Accord or Camry I’ve been told for 20+ years. Its a good commuter. It was a good car for the family I bought it from. I know them well. Not the car I’d choose for a cross continent trip but not because it isn’t reliable enough. Just not as comfortable as something else or something newer. In a year’s time it requires very little attention.
So this Buick – if not half-ass repaired – would likely be a good car. I recognize that some people are dependent on expensive mechanics that may or may not be worth their fees. Never once in my ownership of any car did I lose both an engine and a transmission – the only repairs I could imagine that costs that much.
Being able to properly work on your own car is and will always be a worthy skillset.
Being able to properly work on your own car is and will always be a worthy skillset – especially if a person is cash poor.
So, I think its a waste what we Americans throw away.
I don’t disagree about the skillset being nice to have, but I think you’d be shocked what you’ll get quoted to replace a set of brakes or a suspension or diagnose electrical gremlins, including sometime like a check engine light on a non-OBDII car, especially if you aren’t clear that you know exactly what it is you want and need. Not everyone grows up with the opportunity to learn how to fix a car. Not everyone has a driveway or a garage where they can work on a car, never mind having the time to do so, nor do many have a supportive partner. An engine or transmission replacement is far, far more than $1500 for almost any car, anywhere, especially for someone who doesn’t know who exactly to call for whatever service and doesn’t have the time to call multiple vendors and wait for multiple quotes to compare, especially when there isn’t another car in the driveway to take in the meantime and stuff still needs to get done. Not every independent mechanic is trustworthy or honest and many/most do not provide loaners, hence some people who may only have one car now would need to rent one, or hoof it to work and to pick up the kids and grocery shop or whatever.
More wasteful than the crap we throw away is all the excess crap we buy in the first place, which includes cars.
PS If your daily driver actually runs, drives, stops, and doesn’t leak or have fist size rustholes through the body, it may have only cost you $500, but it’s worth significantly more, especially these days.
If you have that skillset you won’t be getting quotes for much of anything, brakes and suspension happen in your driveway with rockauto and self service junkyards as your supplier and you hop on an internet community for your car to figure out diagnostic tips.
I understand obtaining this skillset isn’t realistic for everyone but not getting eye popping quotes for some malady is the exact payoff of having the skillset to repair your own vehicle. The key is knowing the limitation of your abilities and your toolset – I can do pretty much everything except bodywork, so I can keep a car alive as long as the body doesn’t rot out, others it might be at the point of needing a complete engine transmission replacement, but in many cases a very basic toolset on a harbor freight budget is enough to keep many an old car like this Reatta serviceable for quite a few more years with minimal money sunk.
Friend told me this week that they took their ~40K mile car to the dealer for an oil change. Naturally the car needed rear brakes. Really? $300 for the repair. On a car that most likely did not require rear brakes.
My $500 wonder sedan is likely still rocking the factory brake shoes now 20 years later at ~180K miles because of how its been used. I own a 20 year old CRV whose rear brakes lasted ~225K miles.
Friend let the dealer rob them rather than asking me. I’d do it for the price of the parts – or maybe free b/c friend is a good one. Rock Auto shows pads cost about $18. Dealer has alot of overhead to pay for – I get that. Still no excuse for dishonesty.
Friend is one of those people who dealers and mechanics take advantage of. Many years ago their other vehicle was said to need a full suspension rebuild. Due to the cost, friend approached me. I crawled underneath and found a tiny bit of slop in one steering joint. Told them to drive it and ignore it. Now 15 years later and many miles, the situation is exactly the same and friend learned that the dealer is often reaching into your pocket unnecessarily.
As much as I like cars, I wish our society was better suited to walking and bicycling like the Netherlands. People would realize just how much owning and operating a car on a daily basis costs them.
YouTube videos can go a long way towards learning to work on a car or a house for that matter. I’m pretty sure there are lessons for brain surgery on YT if we looked long enough. 😉
YT and vehicle forums have been some of the most useful parts of the internet. I’m learning to work on analog electronics in my spare time right now using info gleamed from all over the internet. Jukeboxes and antique radios. One of our radios has been repaired by me and returned to good working condition. Off to a good start. I have a jukebox to restore this winter.
Great shot! I’m guessing the Reatta’s residence in that spot roughly corresponds to the payphone’s defunctitude. That’s kind of ironic, since I’m betting that the Reatta was available with a cellular car phone, at least as a dealer add on, which is exactly the sort of thing that made that “phone from car” payphone no longer used much.
I’ve seen a few of the “phone from car” phone locations, at least one of which was still in service as recently as 10 years ago. I never understood the concept. Is it just a phone you can park next to, or was there some sort of extended cord that you could sit in your car and talk?
I don’t think I could claim to be an empath, but I do occasionally have the instinct to want to save special cars (and houses) in the face of all logic being against it. I’ve also had the “Pretty Woman” movie fantasy plenty of times that maybe under the rough surface or drugs is a heart of gold that I could redeem and have a happy life with. Never been crazy enough to pursue that, though! That Reatta doesn’t look too bad from 20 feet. If the tires weren’t flat, I wouldn’t suspect it wasn’t a driver. I think you’re right, if it’s water-tight it may have some potential. It just needs the right sucker, err..I mean enthusiast, to come along.
I don’t hate the Reatta, but also don’t love them despite generally being a irrepressible Buick fan. From the B pillar forward, they are fine. Pretty much like a contemporary Riviera, which I actually like. But the rear styling always struck me as unlovable. The stubby rear end gave it an unserious look coupled with the long front overhang and the wraparound backlight was just awkward looking. It looked better in short-lived convertible form.
I loved the connection to the Granada story. That sort of thing makes me really mad, when for lack of a small investment something of large value is allowed to be ruined, like a special car or building. I was longing for pictures of the theater until I found the link at the end. FWIW, I think at least one pic in the story would be totally appropriate. What a sad end to a glorious building. I think many cities have had trouble preserving early movie palaces. I know Phoenix and Houston both lost a couple. My guess it that the decision had been made to demolish and redevelop at the time security was cancelled, so there was no saving it anymore even without the vandalism. The new building looks very boring!
“defunctitude” – I like that!
A cell phone around the time this car would have been a huge deal, for sure! And now you’ve got me thinking of if and when I had ever used the phone-from-car. This may be one of those bizarre “a-ha!” moments that comes to me in the middle of the night.
I *loved* the Reatta’s styling, especially from the rear. It reminded me a lot of the 1983 Buick Questor show car that I had first laid eyes on as a kid at Flint, Michigan’s long-gone Autoworld theme park. The Reatta seemed like an updated version of the Questor, minus some of the more “Jetsons”-esque features of the show car.
When the model on the display used the “key” to raise the Questor’s actual body for ingress, my mind was blown and I was thoroughly smitten. It was just one thing of many that left a lasting impression on me during probably the only time I had gone to Autoworld as a fully-functioning theme park before it closed months later.
I had thought about including a picture of the Granada with this article, and looked in vain for “public domain” photos on the internet, but came up shy. I figured that including that link at the end was the next-best thing. And I agree with your assessment of why it was allowed to languish.
Yes, great photo of two 80’s/90’s relics. It does remind me of all the indoor malls built in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, that ripped up so much land and took so many resources to build, but in the end were only cool for 20 years at best before a pathetic 10-year decline to derelict status…until they were finally torn down.
Anyway, as for the Reatta, I never minded it (as did many buyers, lol). I can see how the proportions are awkward from the profile view, but to me it looks OK from most angles, and has clean, taut styling. That being said, the performance and build quality certainly didn’t make up for the penalty of cost and lack of a back seat.
…
Corey, your mention of the indoor malls made me remember a few years back when I was all into researching defunct malls, particularly the Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio, and the Randall Park Mall outside of Cleveland (once the largest in the world).
I agree with you that the Reatta’s styling was clean, and that more performance would have made it more appealing. As someone who would own only one vehicle, I would probably also need a back seat, but if I had room for a toy…
I loved the sentiment, which I have experienced many times. Many has been the time I have come across the automotive equivalent of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree and decided that “all it needs is a little love”. It has usually not worked out well for me. But cars like that make me sad, nonetheless.
A great analogy with the Charlie Brown tree. As you usually are able to do, you encapsulated the entire gist of my article in a few sentences. 🙂
One of the first cars with a touch screen to control the audio, climate controls, and other functions. Graphics not quite up to 2021 standards though…
This makes me want to get out my plug-and-play Atari tonight after eating dinner. Same graphics! I also wonder what ever happened to my Texas Instruments TI-81 graphing calculator I used for calculus during my senior year. Again, almost the same fonts as what we see here.
This basically is a couture LeSabre. By definition, couture is fashion, not function.
For someone who is so broke they have to drive a 30 year old Buick, any other Buick probably would be a more useful car. Driving this car as a beater is like wearing a 30 year old tuxedo to work in a warehouse.
From a hobby perspective, this is like a 66 Studebaker or a 6 cylinder Javelin: Is this the one car you want to park in your garage and spend time and money maintaining?
Ha ha…great analogy about the tuxedo.
With that being said, there is actually quite a large Reatta following among Buick folk. The AACA forums even have a dedicated Reatta page that seems fairly lively; people who like them seem to really like them.
I remember sitting in Reattas and Rivieras as a kid on the showroom floor; those touch screens are quaint by today’s standards, but I wanted my dad to buy a Reatta just so we’d own a car with a screen like that. Needless to say, it would have been a ridiculous purchase for a guy with a wife and two kids. Anyway, he did OK by buying a 5.0 Mustang convertible instead…at least it had a back seat and a rumbling exhaust.
I have a lot of positive experience with GM FWD C/H cars. If it were the only drivetrain in the world or there were some reason I could only drive Buick branded cars, it would be an appealing special car. But there’s a lot of market competition for a car that combines the style and utility of a sports car with the power and handling of an 80s family sedan.
I’d say “couture Riviera”, but as it relates to fashion, I’d liken this Reatta to that really cool, vintage shirt you’d find at the local thrift store that was worn and enjoyed, but still serviceable. You wouldn’t wear that shirt to rake leaves or clean the gutters. You’d wear something else you didn’t care about ruining, since that cool vintage shirt you just found had managed to make it “alive” that long.
Ideally, the person who would own this car wouldn’t need it as their only source of transportation, but to your very good point, there would be better project cars out there for someone who didn’t love Buicks as much as me and other people from the Flint, Michigan area.
The appeal of two passenger cars, and even two door cars fades rapidly after the first couple of owner cycles. If you’re looking for inexpensive transportation, you’re probably looking for useful transportation. The Reatta shared the platform with the Riviera, while no SUV is still a more practical choice.
I think that the Allante was the best looking of the two, but those touch screen controls, which were also shared with the Riviera are a real sticking point with collectors. I’ve considered Allantes, but all those soft touch switches and controls combined with the electronic speedometer scared me off. If these systems become inoperative there aren’t any simple repairs or workarounds.
Grand palaces like the Granada have become dinosaurs all over the country. Movie theaters transformed into multi-plexs many years ago, the current situation is making the need for theaters decline even further. I wouldn’t be surprised if the security was removed so that the building would be damaged beyond restoration, and it could be demolished with less protest. Legal fights over the preservation of historical preservation sites can go on for years in a state like California.
It’s not easy trying to save remnants of the past. I guess you just have to pick your battles.
The neighborhood where I lived just before moving where I am now met exactly that fate. Lots of very interesting duplexes and quadplexes in an area that had become very desirable due to proximity to… just about everything. It was eyed for decades by developers who wanted to replace them with a big high-rise apartment, but individual ownership of the small buildings made that difficult. Until someone with lots of money started buying as many houses as owners were willing to sell, paying high prices if necessary, each which would be emptied and abandoned, with windows sometimes opened or removed to expediate deterioration. The idea was to make the neighborhood become “blighted” to try to force others out, so more properties could be scooped up. Eventually this plan succeeded so the entire large plot could be sold to a developer to demolish, at a great profit to the person who bought and abandon the houses.
This kind of thing makes me furious. Some developer tried to buy a majority stake in my building not too long ago and it caused a big to-do. I can’t imagine how other people of limited means who rely on their location to be able to get to their jobs feel about being forced away from where they live. Sorry to take it there, but I feel strongly about this, even if it has nothing to do with cars or Reattas.
Me too Joseph Dennis.
Jose, I wondered how the pandemic was going to affect the movie facet of the entertainment industry, in general. Once all of this is all mostly behind us, I would very much like to go to the movies. I enjoy vintage and classic movies, and there’s something about watching one in a historic space versus a cineplex (or at home) that can’t be replicated.
I guess I always hope that purpose-built buildings for activities that are obsolete (or becoming that way) can be repurposed for other things. I realize that this is not always a possibility.
I agree with you Joseph, I prefer watching movies in a large theater. I think that there may be a pent up demand that makes those venues profitable after the pandemic. In Downtown LA there is a group of very old movie theaters that are still standing. Some have been restored and are used is concert and event halls. My hometown of Oakland has the rescued Paramount Theater used as an event center. here’s a link to the LA site.
https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/things-to-do/discover-the-historic-theatres-on-broadway-in-downtown-los-angeles
You’re in Oakland? So cool! I had spent a little bit of time there years ago, as I had a family member who used to live there.
I took this picture of the Fox Theatre back in August of 2001 (it’s so hard to believe that was already twenty years ago!), which I see is now gorgeously renovated and used.
I suppose Loyola University made more useful space of what had been the Granada’s footprint, but I can only dream of the Granada looking the way the Paramount and Fox look today, being enjoyed by many.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=chattanooga+tivoli+theater&t=h_&iax=images&ia=images
We visited this theater several years ago for a concert. Beautiful venue!
This one too:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Ryman+Auditorium&t=h_&iax=images&ia=images
That’s just about our all time favorite venue. Both theaters require out of town travel for us.
I considered adding a Reatta to the fleet because it’s such an odd product, combining the utility of a sports car with the performance of a plebeian sedan.
Even more oddly, the few local examples I’ve found over the years have been both high priced and high mileage. I would not have thought these would have any market at all.
I’d consider a convertible varient at a fire sale price, in part because the mechanical components are reliable and familiar.
“The utility of a sports car with the performance of a plebeian sedan…” Well encapsulated!
I’m imagining cars that embody the inverse of this. There’s a part of me that will always have an active disdain for boring, boxy looking cars that perform like sports cars (our outperform them). It’s almost like someone telling me that anyone who cares about the way a car looks somehow has a undeveloped / underdeveloped “taste palate”.
I remember reading a comparison, years ago, between a VW GTI and the then-new Acura Integra three-door. IIRC, the GTI bested the Integra in most performance metrics. I remember thinking, why can’t they engineer the Scirocco to do that? Why does a performance car have to look uninspired to gain respect? I’ll always be drawn to flash and fashion – I just want it all to work correctly.
Always liked these, and looked good in red. that interior is great, to me. Inside the car’s not too shabby either.
Another empath here. As a child, I used to cry when lovely old houses were demolished and replaced with apartment blocks. Twenty-one families crammed in where one family had a nice house and garden. Dad tried to explain the gain in economics; I cried for the loss of aesthetics. Got my revenge when I had a story about an old house published last year!
I’m the same with cars too; although I don’t cry over their loss, I’m troubled in spirit. Guess I’m still a hippie at heart. Despite all the care-for-your-planet thing these days, so much of what we see nowadays is virtue signaling rather than really thinking about what we’re doing and living accordingly. Ours is such a wasteful society. Okay, off the soapbox!
Lovely car. I remember seeing these in Car and Driver when new, and wondering at that CRT system; it seemed so futuristic and also so complex. Maybe not quite an answer to a question nobody asked, but it certainly set the car apart. But now – in this condition? I’d guess the whiz-bang electronics gave out, and the car was not readily repairable. The mechanicals should be no problem.
I don’t think that was a soapbox at all – I share your view that our society can be wasteful. I think it speaks to a broader, collective mindset that applies to more than just old buildings and consumerism.
Now that you and others have mentioned it, it was probably the electronics that did this car in. Still sad to see it looking like this.
If the Reatta and Allante had been RWD, they’d be hot properties now, just like the XLR isn’t yet.
Joseph Dennis, I sure your passion of saving things. To me, it’s all part of history. In 2014, the wife and I purchased our last home. Built in the late 50’s, it had received only minor updates. We’ve done several things to it since then, always trying to preserve the look of a mid-century modern home.
I saw the immaculate Reatta in this photo in Alert Bay, BC, a first-nations island community better known for its dug-out canoes and totem poles.
They were all the rage.
They appeared on all the best television shows.
Folks swooned over their hit, “Wait Until You See My Top Off!”
Then that expose about how beneath all the Craft Center PR, the trendy style, the latest fashion – they were just half of what they claimed to be, lip-synching to the Rivieras.
By the time their tops were actually off, no one care about them anymore.