Here’s something you would not expect to see amongst the typical late ’90s GM rolling stock at a small repair shop, yet there was this stately Special–looking like an elegant matron stranded at a Steak ‘N Shake–a car built during Buick’s early- to mid-1950s heyday.
You would not know it to look at one, but the Special was the shortest-wheelbase, plainest, and lowest-cost Buick that year. Top of the heap was the luxurious Roadmaster, then the Super, the Century (not all Centurys were wire-wheel covered Early Bird Special-mobiles), and finally, the Special.
Even the plain two-door Special sedan looked pretty nifty with wide whites, full wheel covers and snazzy black-over-yellow two-tone paint. You can see why Buick bumped Plymouth off its #3 perch for a few years in the ’50s.
The four-door Special had a price of $2416 and saw 66,977 sales. The most expensive Special? The $2775 station wagon, with the $2740 convertible right behind it.
And for you numbers fans, the most expensive 1956 Buick of all was the $3704 Roadmaster convertible coupe, which saw 4,354 assemblies.
Specials were much more down-to-earth, and were very popular. The best-selling Special was the two-door hardtop, with 113,861 sold. A 1956 Ford Fairlane could be had for $2294 and a pillarless Plymouth Belvedere for $2258, so the Buick, with its standard 220-hp 322 CID V8, was a pretty good deal for, on average, only $200 or so more.
It all worked to Buick’s benefit, as the company held third place in sales for the year, and had model year production of 572,024. Buicks were seen as a very pretigious make, and the 10% or so markup over a Chevy, Ford or Plymouth seemed a small price to pay for such a step up.
The lovely styling of these cars certainly couldn’t have hurt, either. Even this basic four-door sedan looks pretty good to me; a four-door hardtop or convertible would be even more stunning. Sad to say, though, 1956 was the last year Buick held third place. The marque dropped to fourth in 1957, and the combination of the ’58 recession and chromed Hohner harmonica styling plummeted Buick down to ninth place.
But the new ’59s were lookers, and things were back up to par by the early Sixties, perhaps hitting the peak with the unquestionably beautiful 1963 Riviera. Buick would never again soar quite as high as they did in the Fifties though, sales-wise.
I spotted this Special a few weeks ago, and finally stopped to check it out recently. It is in quite nice shape, and appears to not have been messed with. Nice to see such a well-preserved example. If you’d really rather have a Buick, better head over to the Quad Cities sometime soon!
Cool find! There was always something both elegant and muscular about those mid-50s Buicks. I find this Special so much more appealing than the compact Special that would show up in 1961. Didn’t the Special name live into the 1970s as the lower level Century in the Colonade years? I seem to remember that my mother had some neighbors who owned one from around 1976 or so.
When I was in high school in the late 70s, there was a kid whose dad worked at a service station. The dad bought a black Buick 2 door hardtop (can’t recall the model) out of an estate. After a couple of years of daily-driver duty, the rust holes were becoming fairly noticeable, but it was in remarkable shape for its age. Funny, that seemed like such an ancient car then, much older than my 20 year old Crown Victoria in the driveway is now.
You mention a 4 door hardtop, and I think 56 was the first year they were offered. Also in the 70s, I recall seeing a 56 Buick 4 door hardtop that was the most swaybacked car I ever saw. Rust must have weakened the structure, because the top of the front door glass overlapped the rear door glass by about an inch when the doors were closed due to a sag in the middle of the car.
69 was the last year for the Special name as it’s own model and even then they had dropped the straight Special and the lowest model was the Special Deluxe.
With the Colonnades the started with just the Century, added the Regal first as a trim of the Century and then as a stand alone and finally at the end they did add a bottom feeder Century V6 Special that shared its 2dr roofline with the lowly Chevelle.
The one you described was what I remembered. It did not have the standard Century/Cutlass Supreme roofline, but the more fastback roofline of the lowlier colonade coupes. I remember seeing the “Special” nameplate on the car and being surprised that Buick was still making a Special.
There was a ‘fastback’ Century coupe body available for all Colonnade years, 1973-77. Different trim levels each year. For 1973-74, could get Gran Sport with Stage I 455 V8.
The 76-77 Century Specials were ‘value’ models, had some basic features like power steering/brakes, but entry level prices.
There was a Special trim version of the cheapo Colonade V6 Century, there even was a Special scumliner trim series for the aeroback 1978 Century too, Special badges were kept to a minimum, I think that they even brought it back one more time on a “value” trimmed end of the run FWD A-body Century.
Correct. The badges were teeny tiny 1″ by 3/8″ bushed metal rectangles underneath the “Century” nameplates on the quarter panels. Somewhere I have a couple of them stashed away. I was saving them for a modern interpretation of the Special. If I’m not mistaken the model might be the holy grail if you’re building a G-Body race car. According to “The Standard Catalog of American Cars” it has a claimed shipping weight of 2,999 pounds. It’s the only G-Body model that weighs under 3,000 pounds not that, that one pound makes a heck of a lot of difference. Lots of aluminum and plastic used on those 78-80 G-Bodies.
One feature of those 75-77 colonade Specials is the odd fire 231 V-6 and T-50 5 speed transmission. Boy do I miss the availabilty of a bare bones stripper model in todays model lineups.
Remarkable, Jim. Likewise in the late 70s, a used car lot on Union Square in Somerville (next to Boston) had a ’56 Buick much like this one in very attractive shape. Me and my student housemates lusted after that car. We all went to see it, and talked about each chipping in and buying it. I wonder what if we had. Funny, that seemed like such an ancient car then, much older than my 20 year old Miata in the garage is now.
A very nice car, indeed!
What I really like about these is they look good in pillarless AND pillared styles, 2- or 4-door. What I think makes it all work is that curve around the back door window and the back light which gives it a uniqueness all its own.
These are the only tri-fives other than Chevy I would like to own because of that simple design feature.
The side spear molding looks really good, too. In fact, I can’t find a single thing I dislike about this car!
Very, very nice.
One thought I’ve always kept in the back of my mind is how cars from the ’50s, whether it be a low trim version like this on, or the most expensive Cadillac, all look ritzy and expensive on the exterior. Undoubtedly its because of the acres of chrome, two tone paint combinations, fins, and other over the top styling elements.
Detroit really knew how to make every driver look “special” to the world back then, even if they were driving a base model with little more than an empty shell of an interior. My mind always experiences a state of cognitive dissonance when seeing a car such as a 1959 Plymouth, with such an ornate exterior and a dull, no frills interior.
One point to be made here is that back then, the “brand hierarchy” meant more than it did later. There were plenty of bare bones, no frills cars offered in the 50s, but they were Ford Mainlines, Chevy 150s and Plymouth Plazas. Black tires, dogdish hubcaps, black rubber trim around the glass and not side chrome. You never see them now, because they all served as the parts cars for the Bel Airs and Fairlane 500s. When you went up the ladder, you got a nicer car, even in the lower trim levels. Buick had been a very prestigious car for a long time, and Buick in those years knew its market well. Want a cheap car? That was what Chevy dealers were there for.
That changed a bit when the recession hit in 1958, and as it lingered into the early 60s, upper priced brands seemed to move lower and lower down the ladder. A base 61 Buick Special was a pretty grim transportation appliance compared to a base Special of 1955. As the 60s progressed, GM (in my view) did a worse and worse job of separating its brands, and bottom-end Buick Specials had little to distinguish themselves from a base Chevelle.
“…bottom-end Buick Specials had little to distinguish themselves from a base Chevelle.”
JP, you are so right. A friend’s dad bought a new 1966 Buick Special 4 door sedan. Tan with black interior. Although it had A/C, PS, PB & a radio – no idea what engine, I thought “What’s so “special” about this car? It’s supposed to be a Buick!”
Looked like a Chevelle 300.
Dad’s 1960 Impala sports sedan was more “upscale”.
To older buyers at the time, any Buick was ‘prestige’. Lots of base Specials and LeSabres back then driven by elders, since they saw ‘low price 3’ as step down.
“Brand Hierarchy” was especially relevant if you lived in a small town, or were an office worker. You wouldn’t want to buy a Buick if your boss had one or anything flashier than your boss had. On the other hand I knew plenty of families where the breadwinner was self employed or worked in the shops of heavy industry of western PA that drove Buicks or whatever they wanted. By the way, 4 door hardtops were first offered in 1955. I still have the brochures I collected as an 11 year old.
How times have changed. Yeah, I know its anti-American, but there is something neat and orderly about a class hierarchy. As long as you’re not too low on the list, of course.
“You never see them now, because they all served as the parts cars for the Bel Airs and Fairlane 500s”
+1
The fact that almost every car featured in every had had wide whites and full wheelcovers also helps a bunch, you hardly ever saw the “hobo special” blackwall and dog dish car in any ads or even in brochure shots.
Actually, Carmine – there are kinescopes of some of the Milton Berle Buick programs (1953-54) where they prominently feature a plan-jane 2 door Buick Special coupe on a couple of them to emphasize their “priced just above the lowest priced cars.” A Desoto ad from ’57 on “You Bet Your Life” has Groucho pitching the Dodge-based Desoto Firesweep. It has dog dishes and blackwalls, but the camera pans in real quick so you don’t see too much of that. As far as print ads, yes, you are definitely correct. Same with the brochures. I recall seeing a newspaper print ad in 1978 plugging the Pontiac Grand Prix as being “priced lower than the Toyota Celica GT.” Problem was, the GP base then (and showed in the ad) had blackwalls, dog dish hubcaps and not seen, a three-on-the-floor, power steering, brakes, tinted glass, AM radio, A/C all extra . . .
This definitely was part of Buick’s golden age. Very nice indeed. Even the lowest model was Special. Love the two tone paint job. Too bad the interior wasn’t black and white instead of black and red.
I agree – I was around when these cars came out, and I never saw one in the black and bright yellow colors shown in the brochure. I definitely saw many white, black, and red cars with the red and black interior shown though.
There still seem to be a good many 1950’s Buick Special coupes and sedans with 3-speed transmissions around – almost every month I see one or two in HMN. I don’t suppose there were any more of them new than similar Fords and Chevys, but that fewer of them have ended up being parts cars for restorations of higher-line cars.
This car is just gorgeous. Thanks for sharing it. The color combination is perfect.
I love that Dynaflow badge on the trunklid. The typography really captures the spirit of that slushbox,
I loved these gargantuan old Buicks, “muscular” is a good descriptive term, I always thought they were very heavy looking, and that old Dynaflow droning on would add to that feel. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe the “Dynaflow” script on the trunk lid was original. There were a lot of these Buicks around L.A. when I was a child, and I only remember the “Dynaflow” moniker being used on early ’50’s Buicks, it had disappeared by 1954 or so, I think. A great looking car, nonetheless. A good friend of mine in high school in the early ’60’s had one of these, but a Special four-door hardtop version. It seemed so old by then, but we spent a lot of time tooling around in that big beast.
Can’t say for certain one way or another, but you’re not the only one who looked at it and immediately felt that something didn’t look right. I’ve got two big problems with it:
1. Although still an option at that point, Dynaflow was in something like 99% of all the ’56 Buicks from Roadmaster down to Special. It was no big deal anymore. Proudly announcing that the owner had spent extra for the automatic died out 3-5 years after the initial introduction.
2. Back in the ’50, GM did not put trim asymmetrically on the trunk. If that Dynaflow script was original, it would have been centered somewhere on the trunk lid. The asymmetrical aesthetic is rather a product of the 60’s and later.
Edit: Just for the hell of it, I went to classiccars.com and looked up a few original condition Special’s and Century’s. None of them had any Dynaflow script on the trunk lid. Just the center emblem with spearpoint wings and the key slot.
The Dynaflow script is from an earlier car and not right on this car, the only Buick that came with the Dynaflow standard was the Roadmaster, it was optional on all the other Buicks, but the take rate was really high across the line.
Whoever had this ’55 lifted the Dynaflow badge off of an older Buick as by ’54, Buicks didn’t have to “call out” that their cars (the huge majority of them) had the 2-speed Dynaflow.
Am I correct that the Dynaflow’s two forward speeds had to be selected manually? In other words, the transmission did not automatically shift from low to high?
That’s right — in Drive, you were reliant entirely on the torque converter. You had to select Low manually if you wanted the extra geared ratio.
Dynaflows don’t shift at all, there was a separate low that you could use if needed or regular D, which would just let your Buick ooooooooooze up to any speed without any shifting at all.
“Ooooooze” is a great descriptive term for that DynaSlush. Describes that heavy droning to a “T.” That must have been one of the most distinctive automotive sounds ever. I had two Cub Scout den mothers with Buicks, one a ’54 Super and the other a ’56 Roadmaster, and my mother’s friend with her ’57 Super, I rode in those cars often. I will never forget that lovely “oozing” sound!
Don, you have addressed a big hole in my automotive experience. For some reason, I never spent any real time in Buicks, particularly the older ones, so I have never had any real-life Dynaflow exposure. Your description helps to give me a taste of the Dynaflow sensation.
Ditto as a primary grade schooler, one of my friends’ Moms had a ’56 Special Wagon. It seemed ancient by 1967-68, but I thought it was cool. This was the same kid who’s Dad drove a ’65 Toyota Land Cruiser 4×4 truck. Not your mainstream suburban SFO family.
Good catch on the Dynaflow emblem. I knew something didn’t look quite right. As a kid I always used to notice these designations. Chevrolet stopped putting Powerglide on the trunk after 1954. I don’t recall ever seeing Hydramatic on the back of an Oldsmobile or Cadillac – did they? I do seem to recall that Oldsmobile put an embedded tag in the steering wheel around 53-54 that indicated “Power Steering.” And Chrysler Airtemp decals on the window were always duly noted.
The 55-56 Buicks were hugely popular. In the small town area in the midwest where I grew up I recall several white on red 55 Buick 4-door hardtops, one belonging to my Dad’s cousin, now in her 80’s, who still claims it was the best car she ever owned (a lot better than her Audi 5000, the one and only “foreign” car she ever bought. She also had a Chrysler Cordoba that was a real lemon and was replaced by the Audi!). The only complaint I remember was poor gas mileage – my Dad always said Buicks were “gas hogs” because of Dynaflow.
Oldsmobile had a “Hydramatic Drive” badge on early Hydramatic Oldsmobiles in the early 40’s, but not much after that. The “power steering” logo in the steering wheel center was popular, Buick had it too, Chevrolet used to have an a bowtie decal with the words “air conditioned” in it on a/c cars, later this trend continued with “front wheel drive” emblems popping up on cars in the 70’s and 80’s
Thanks for the vintage mid/late 60’s Airtemp sticker. Brings back memories of the relatives’ cars in Missouri. Felt special riding in the cars that had the “Airtemp” stickers on the windows. My Dad (in the Bay Area, where on the bay itself, for the most part, you didn’t really need a/c) never had an a/c car until the 1971 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser. Even the Honda Civic DX he had in the early 80’s was a/c-less. I distinctly remember Cadillacs in SFO and Marin – including Fleetwoods – well into the late 60’s that DID NOT have air conditioning. Very common in the day.
I wish manufacturers or possibly dealers dealers would do something with two tone paint on todays new cars. Many would look good with well thought out two tone paint. And, it would not be very expensive to do this. Sure would like to see some color on the road, not just silver, silver, and more silver.
There is someone who posts regularly to CC who is a very talented artist. Can’t recall who it is. He shows what cars would have looked like if two door instead of four door, etc. If you are reading this maybe you can come up with some interesting two tone ideas for current cars. Thanks.
I like this car, but that ’63 Riv is just something else. Never get tired of those lines and proportions.
Stay tuned–I have more pics of that white Riv 🙂
Stand up hood ornament says it’s a ’64, right?
I really like the black and yellow special in that ad. These colors would not usually apeal to me. I think its the way the two tone is done as it just seems to flow perfectly. Last one of these I seen was in a neibours back forty where he had amassed a bunch of caddillacs, buicks and oldsmobiles from the fifties. This would have been in the late eighties and all of them where rotten up to the door handles. I used to spend hours just dreaming about what they must have looked like when still on the road.
Another stumble down memory lane. School friend of mine (Steve Castro), his mom had a white over yellow ’56 Buick Special. They lived in a real affluent part of the San Rafael’s Dominican neighborhood, but his Mom loved that car and hung onto it well into the early 1970s. I recall it was a loaded special 2 door hardtop. I know this car so well, because Steve’s Mom left the keys in it and we’d turn on the accessory position to play with the power antenna and windows!
Re: Century 1936 was first production car that would do 100 mph. Thus the name. Must have been quite a thrill hitting a hundred given the roads, tires, and suspensions of the day!
Having owned a 1937 Special (same body as the Century, 248ci straight eight), and having gotten it up to a good head of steam on a downhill run, I passed a buddy’s ’66 Bonneville at an indicated (take that with a grain of salt) 105mph. Ohmyeffingghod!!!!!! How I kept that car on the road considering how the suspension was wallowing is still beyond me. Chalk it up to a victory for youthful stupidity.
having left the road in a 37 Chevrolet and rolled 5 times down a bank I wouldnt be too concerned Syke those old cars from the 30s were remarkably strong once allsteel body construction set in overbuilding was the norm, We used to speedway race old V8s and other 30s cars, safety was removing all the glass roll bars were unneccessary,
The old 37 survived the following morning 5 sober, straight, teenagers visited the farmer and offered to repair the fence if he would drag the Chev back thru it, deal done we righted the Chev and towed it on wheels out thru his fence we restrained it replaced the battens picked up the pieces of our car that had fallen off and tidied the scene the dude even tow started our old heap with his Fordson Major the battery had drained out the car ran fine it always had, it lost a mudguard L/F and the right headlight a couple of windows were missing and it was covered in dents but mobile, beating the tie rods straight fixed the alignment, but you cant stop a Chevrolet by rolling it over a few times, if anything you improve the streamlining at least that was one idea, the traffic cops had others, replace the headlight, replace the mudguard and make that other one cover the tyre secure the bonnet get the vehicle an new warrant of fitness it met the fate of most of its bretheren and got sold for wrecking it came partly wrecked anyway it was an easy sale.
I see your fordor and raise you a hardtop, there is a 57 for sale locally its on the cohort still wearing Wisconsin collector plates, the guy has quite a used car collection but wants 37k NZ for the Buick its a mint car some minor surface rusting on the rear bumper only it says Century on it,
A lot of folks think the ’57 Buicks were not as good looking as the 1955-56, but I love them. That one looks great in white over blue.
They were a whole lot nicer looking than the flashy 58s,the 59s soon put the glamour back into Buick
I prefer the less glam 57 much as I like the 55/556 Chevs not the glitzy 57
I agree, Tom, the ’57’s were the most attractive of that ’55-’58 period. My mother’s best friend back then had a ’57 Super two-door Riviera hardtop, a very elegant car. It had a much less ponderous appearance than its predecessors, short lived, though, as the ’58’s returned to that overwrought heavy duty look. The reverse slant to the taillights and deck lid, the raised sweepspear, the elongated ventiports, the angled A pillar, all contributed to a much lighter and more forward thrusting, “poised for action” look.
Tom, with the exception of the three-piece rear window, I agree. I think that back glass ensemble was a real mistake on the 57 Buick and Olds; most folks viewed it as “old-fashioned” at the time. I will unequivocally state that I’ve never understood the love for the 57 Chevy. By far my favorite 57 GM car is the Olds, with the Buick in second place. And I would take a 56 Chevy over a 57 any day.
Some say the 57 3 window treatment and the heavy handed 58’s were signs that it was time for Harley Earl to go.
That 3 piece rear window on the ’57 B bodies did scream “suddenly, it’s 1939!” The palace revolt at Warren in late ’56 in retrospect was justified. All it took was Chuck Gardener & Co. watching ’57 Plymouths and Dodges rolling off the line on Lynch Road, Detroit in August of ’56.
Forgot to mention the 3-piece rear window. What an awful contrivance, and thankfully short-lived. Even as a ten-year-old, I thought it was a strange retrogression at the dawning of the space age.
Completely agree with you about the ’57 Chevy, they were just another Chevy then, and still are, in my view. Never understood how they got raised to such iconic status. The ’58’s were far more advanced looking to me, but then, my dad had a ’58 Bel Air 4-door sedan as a company car, so guess I could be somewhat prejudiced! And the ’58 Impala was a knockout, too. The ’57 Buicks were my favorite GM car of that year, for the reasons mentioned above. Our family had that ’55 Olds 88 Holiday 2-door hardtop then, and I thought by ’57 it had taken on a much heavier look, made worse by that 3- piece rear window.
How graceful and elegant these cars were I’d have a Buick over a Cadillac anyday.Nice find
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this. In ’55, they didn’t make a Century (4-holer)
in a 2-door post, but the CHP wanted one and in those days, what they wanted, they got.
FWIW old Highway Patrol episodes on Hulu. Great spotting for 50s stuff.
http://www.hulu.com/search?q=Highway+Patrol
Most first season episodes used an actual CHP car on loan, then they switched to other, non-official brands.
The Buick episodes are the best.
What’s interesting about those old TV shows is they are a sort of time capsule: not only do you get to see old cars in their prime, you also get to see the landscape of the day, which esp. in the case of So. Calif., has changed a lot. The San Fernando Valley was where much of Highway Patrol was filmed, & it was pretty rural back then. And I was watching the ’67 Dragnet on Netflix & marveled at how much things have changed. Freeways had no Diamond Lanes, concrete-, or sand-barriers. No international symbols on road signs. You also see more Mom & Pop small businesses.
And Jack Webb was so “square,” he was cool: the ultimate Authority Figure.
Strange that the CHP didn’t ask Buick to carryover the Century “Special” for ’56. With the exception of some ’69 and ’70 Mercuries and a sprinkling of Oldsmobiles in 1967, CHP was Mopar until the 1980s (the St. Regis wheezing 318’s pretty much signaled the end of Mopar as a CHP vehicle until recently with Chargers).
My uncle bought a ’55, his first new car. It was yellow or cream with a green interior, best I can remember, three on the tree most basic two door model, the best a young engineer could afford with a new baby and house payment. Still, it looked like a step up from my dad’s new mint green Pontiac. Even as a very young child, I could tell the difference. Also, I got carsick more often in the floaty Buick than dad’s more firm-riding Poncho.
My parents’ first new car was a ’55 Pontiac Chieftain 870 sedan. White over green, two tone green cloth/vinyl seats, green carpet, Hydra-Matic. That is the car I came home in the hospital in and we kept it until shortly after I started the first grade. I loved that car and would see it in San Rafael well kept until about the early 1970s.
Couldn’t pass up the chance to go rummaging through my promo collection, here’s my ’56 Buick Century convertible, the second promo I acquired when I was nine years old. A little the worse for wear now, the inevitable drooping plastic, and the little vent wing frames broke off long ago, but the old gal still looks pretty good, with her snazzy red and white upholstery. Curiously, no white walls, though, maybe that was part of the “banker’s hot rod” look.
My father wanted to buy another new Buick in 1959 but he didn’t like the shape,so he flew to Melbourne [Australia] and bought a very nice 1955 Buick Special.It was black with a white roof and red interior,with clear plastic covers with circles in them to protect the seats.The 55 had very wide whitewalls,two heaters and unusually, it was airconditioned.The aircon was in the boot/trunk and from the rear parcel shelf arose circular clear plexiglass ducts which went from the shelf up to the top of the rear screen/headliner.At the top the ducts fanned out into wide but thin slots.I have looked at many pics of 1955 Buicks and none appear to have this aircon system.I wonder if it was original? Will post some pics soon.
My late father’s 1955 Buick Special.
Note the unusual clear aircon pipes from the rear parcel shelf.
1955 was the last year for the trunk mounted air conditioning in Buicks. 1956 saw the new Harrison unit used with a center vent on top of the dash and two vents at the extreme ends of the dashboard.
I read that GM received a lot of complaints from customers with 1953-1954 air conditioned cars expressing dismay that they didn’t receive as much cool air through the overhead vents as they thought they should. I understand the ductwork that connected to the clear plastic tubes mounted on the package shelf would collapse from moisture and condensation. GM advised dealers to just disconnect this ductwork and let the cool air discharge from the top of the plastic tubes.
For 1955, Buicks with factory a/c eliminated the overhead vents and incorporated an adjustable vane at the top of the rear tubes that allowed one to better direct the flow of cool air.
Cadillac retained the rear air system with overhead vents through the 1956 model year and then for 1957, went with the Harrison dash mounted system.
A 1955 Buick Special with factory a/c is rare, but they are out there. Over the years, I have seen quite a few so equipped, just not as many as Roadmasters.
Mr. Bill
Hamlet, NC
Mr, Bill,thank you for the information.I was born in 1956 and so memories of that Buick are a bit vague.My father sold it in 1963 to one of his workmen and he did not keep the car very long.My father said the handling,steering and auto gearbox was not very good.He said his 1948 black Buick was a much better car,although he said the best Buicks we owned were the 1924,1927 and 1930 tourers.I cannot recall those of course but I did like the 1965 Buick Skylark 4 door sedan which strangely arrived from the USA with the 1964 hubcaps.That was his last Buick and when he gave it to my brother in about 1997,it had only done 60,000 miles from new.It was a bench seat,basic, V6,always garaged car and it still looked like new.Thank you once again for answering my question.
You are welcome!
Mr. Bill