CC Follow Up: Buick Reatta Clue Explained!

We have lots of sharp eyes (and sharp minds) among the CC faithful, and many of them spent part of their yesterday trying to make sense of the Clue for the Buick Reatta piece (found here).   Because we are a responsive bunch here at CC, we are back today with a full demonstration of what inquiring minds want to know. 

First, the clue car was not actually pictured in yesterday’s CC.  Jeff Nelson and I have already posted that his computer software would not process the photos as they were taken from his digital camera.   Hey – if we were really tech geniuses, would we be writing about Buicks?  So Jeff had to use other photos in his piece, but forwarded the clue photo to me.  I was able to shrink it and post the clue, which is re-printed above.  The view is of the bottom corner of the back window, where it meets the drivers side C pillar and rear deck.

The subject of the clue photo is shown also on the opening photo and on the one below.  The biggest  point of confusion seemed to be what appeared to be a chrome or bright reveal molding around the back window.  Some readers were convinced that the Reatta used flush mounted glass with no molding, but independent research and these photos show that this is not the case.

This view (above) shows the back window a little higher up, and clearly shows the black soft plastic reveal molding that surrounds the glass.   (The opening photo shows a similar molding around the windshield.)  The sunny conditions threw everyone a red herring by putting a little chrome-like glimmer on the plastic molding.  I went to a Reatta forum yesterday, and learned that this molding was not a seal, but was used to cover the narrow seam between the metal and the glass, and it is a nasty piece of business to deal with if you ever need to replace your Reatta back glass.

So, what do we know now?  First, that Jeff provided one of the toughest, most devilish clues we have seen in awhile.  But we also know that there is a lot more widespread knowledge in the world today about Reatta rear windows than was the case yesterday.  Thomas B Reed, speaker of the House of Representatives about a century ago, once observed of a colleague that he could not open his mouth without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.  Fortunately, we have been able to add to it instead, if even in the most insignificant of ways.