Here’s a car I don’t readily associate with Austria. But T-Minor found it in Korneuburg, and it seems to be in the hands of a loving owner there. Maybe Austrians have some innate affinity to these? I ended up with one, as a company car, and it actually treated me pretty well, despite being a first-year 1980 model. I’ve always been convinced that the Skylarks were built better than the Citation, which was probably under more cost-cutting pressure.
Of course they all were prone to some of the same Fragile-X Syndrome issues, but the fleet of four identical 1980 Skylarks at the tv station acquitted themselves pretty well, considering. They were ordered with every HD part possible, and the wider wheels and fatter tires might have mitigated the rear-wheel brake lock-up issue that was otherwise so common. Maybe I managed to avoid a panic stop. But it scooted right along, with its 2.8L V6, given the times.
There have always been fans of American cars in places like Austria, so I can see someone buying gone of these, despite it not having the usual big-American car attributes. And it managed to survive all these years. Maybe there were a few old-folk Buick buyers in Austria at the time too, just like in the US, and it ended up in a garage for decades.
For some reason the Skylark featured on this photo appears to be a 1982 model because it was the last year of the sport and steel mirrors and the front end looks similar to the later X-body Skylark’s.
Weird, as the taillights with the amber turn signals are from the 1980 model, unless this one was built for export in which case later years may have used them too. Front is from ’82 or later with indicator lamps moved inside rather than outside the headlamps. Interior visible through window shows low-back seats with separate headrests – those would be ’83 through ’85. Gauge faces look black rather than the silver that was used in 1980 only.
Reminds me of the old (best?) Saturday Night Live. The “Two Wild and Crazy Guys!” Seems to me they would look just perfect in this car 🙂
Gee, thanks for the flashback to one of the cars I have owned!
This one is a facelifted 1982-1985 model with the taillamps taken from 1980-1982 model. I could have done that to get those amber turn signal indicators for my 1982 Skylark.
While I enjoyed the abundant interior space and plush seats, I detested having to do heavy repair work on replacing the broken subframe bolt, shattered CVJ, and other gremlins. In addition, I vowed not to own any car with spaghetti emission control system. A minor fire melted many of grey vacuum tubes, and repair handbook showed no such a schematic graph on reconnecting them to the specific plugs. Consequently, its hefty appetite for volatile remains of dinosaurs (about astoundingly 5 mpg city and laughably 9 mpg highway). So much that I sold it to a guy who later got busted at the border for ferrying the illegal immigrants to the US.
What a colourful character that car is!
OK, True Confession time. I actually really liked the “Little Limousine” when it was introduced. Mind you, I wasn’t old enough to drive yet, but my adolescent self imagined me behind the wheel of a coupe version of this car. I have a weird affinity for mini Broughams. For some bizarre reason I loved these as well as others, like the Monza Town Coupe, the K-Car LeBaron, and to a lesser extent the Mustang II Ghia.
In all honesty though, I really do think the styling folks did a great job transferring the Seville’s lines and proportions to the X-body Skylark. I still think it’s a very attractive car.
I also coveted the ’80 Skylark Limited coupe when I was a 14 year old when they were new. Seemed practical but luxurious, and I didn’t know how problem-laden they were yet.
Definitely nicely appointed velour interior. My sister-in-law bought onenee in 1980. Downsides: The front bucket seat headrests limited forward views for rear passengers and I found it miserable to start having frequently flooded the engine. The exhaust emissions standards and the lack of fuel injection I believe caused the problem.
Looks like it has a slight “donk” treatment, but in a size that’s right for old European cities. As mentioned above, it has the correct American car “lines,” but in a mini package. Actually looks kind of cool!
My Dad had one of these in the later ’90s, a 1984 model that had pretty low mileage and was in great shape when he bought it. Had nice lines and the luxury interior with pillow-tufted seats. It drove ok but some bugs remained; it had the same “morning sickness” with the steering rack that his Pontiac 6000 wagon had suffered from, and the handling and workmanship left much to be desired. And why were the doors so heavy and clunky, when it was supposed to be a “weight conscious” vehicle designed for efficiency?
Probably intentional by GM to give large car buyers downsizing from GM’s larger cars a sense of big car stoutness.
My 86 Calais doors feel the same way. A reassuring “clop” when the close, just like big GM cars from the 70s.
The “donk” look makes this Skylark look good, there’s a market for these Buicks, especially in Holland and China, even Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan have their X-car “stashes” and the look lends itself to groovy customising! I even saw a Citation notchback coupe turned into a “Zagato”-type roadster here in Vancouver, pretty nice!
I think it looks tacky as hell, but to each his own.
Very…ummm…interesting paint job. But it’s clear someone loves that car, and kudos to them for preserving what must be quite the oddity in Europe!
It does seem that these Skylarks outlived all the other X-cars, at least as measured in how frequently they could be found in regular service as late as the early 00’s. Mostly gone now, but these seemed to enjoy much longer service lives than Omegas, Citations, or Phoenixes (though I never saw many of those in the first place).
They sold better than the Pontiac and Olds counterparts, and were on the market for one year longer than those two. In its last year (1985), the Skylark even outsold the Citation.
Probably also due to buicks often being bought by old people. I still see the odd skylark once in a while, while the other x bodies are long gone, other than a citation I saw a few years ago.
Motor Trend had a report on a Skylark and Citation in Europe when they first came out. It was a run across the Continent and as I remember the Skylark gave a good account of itself.
I despise the paint to be honest, but the larger wheels and tires look much better than stock. Biggest sin about the design of so many of the early FWD GM cars were the factory roller skate sized tires/wheels. When you look at concept renderings of many of these cars the wheels were drawn about this big. Just needs to be about an inch lower and it would be perfect.
The design has aged fairly well, they look like mini LeSabres. For me the X cars were the LAST well differentiated designs between divisions. The A-bodies derived off them were much more lazy efforts.
This (as some might have guessed) is a picture I took and I have a little confession, namely it is not per se a CC given that the car made its appearance in a car meeting (http://www.motornights.at/) which takes place every first Friday at Korneuburg’s old shipyard (the water in the background is the Danube). However, given the rarity of the car I had to post it up…
Yes, these were imported to Austria but through one of the grey importers, not GM, as they would have not fitted anywhere within GM’s European range. I suppose they offered a viable alternative to someone who wanted to experience the “American way of drive” but did not – or could not – want to face the horrendous gas bills associated with the intermediate and full-size cars, had no parking for a big car or considered an Oldsmobile diesel too slow. Fast forward to 2017 and the same applies; such cars (read: smaller Detroit FWDs) are usually kept by those who for whatever reason cannot stretch to the “real” thing. Yes, the owner might secretly desire a donk (a real one would not be legal here anyway) but no one got fooled and those smaller Detroit cars are not held in very high esteem by the hard core RWD fans… It was however very much loved by its owner (whom I did not meet) – there was not a speck of rust on it and the interior looked like new. Presumably it was a classic, gently driven, one owner from new and always kept garaged during the winter to save it from the salt they spread on the road here.
I always wondered what an X-body Skylark would look like with a nice, flashy set of aftermarket wheels on it…
…and it looks great! I always liked the look of the ’80-’85 Skylark, both the two and four door.