I thought these were the most stylish ’77 B body wagons upon introduction.
The quasi-port holes work well, as does the ‘BUICK’ applique on the tailgate, along with the road wheels.
And the title says it all. When these were new, you’d never spot them in front of a coin laundry… though you certainly would in cottage country. 35 years later, it still looks elegant.
In my area, this light yellow was popular, as was light metallic blue and white, surprisingly. I did prefer the lighter shade of fake wood Buick introduced in 1980. Always remember them with whitewalls when new, but blackwalls compliment Buick road wheels reasonably well. Though it could use with whitewalls here.
Unfortunately in rust country, these would have body rot long before the fake wood was worn out.
Nice find!
Funny that you mention those colors. They did all seem to be one of those three shades in New Orleans too. When I was growing up, I knew 2 different families who had virtually identical light blue Estate Wagons. I remember that both of them were very nice and well equipped, incuding the road wheels. There was another family at my school who had a white one, also fully loaded, with woodgrain, red vinyl and road wheels that was really sharp. Overall, it seemed like at least 50% of B-Body wagons in New Orleans were beige or yellow with woodgrain, regardless of make.
Yes, I’ve had it for just over two years now. It’s an `88 Caprice with around 228k on it. The second owner used it in a few winters unfortunately, but I’ve been pretty successful in staving off the rust.
I agree with Daniel. These are my favorite GM wagons, ever, period. The heavier look of these Buicks suits the wagon best over the “lighter” look of the Old’s and Chevys. And, these continued to look great up until the last year, ’90 I believe. The later ones with their turbine-style alloy wheels, I think, look particularly striking. However, the “Magnum 500” style rims on this one look great too. Great find, Paul.
The car looks like it was made for the Laundromat now, but when this car was new which car could have been “made” for the Laundromat? Maybe a 1965 Buick wagon?
I wanted a B or G Body wagon but alas none were around to buy in even decent condition. I wound up satisfying my RWD American car taste with a 1985 Cutlass Supreme Brougham with a pretty good condition top.
I later satisfied the wagon lust with a 1990 Volvo 240
Change the color to a steel metallic gray, change the engine to the diesel, and that was my father’s car in the late ’70’s-early ’80’s. And it served him rather well, although he didn’t keep it as long as he was normally starting to do. Can’t remember its replacement, although it was another Buick. And, the car ended up being the flower car for a local funeral home.
I learned to drive on a 1970 Buick Estate Wagon. A one year body style for Buick, the 1971 were the awful ‘clamshell’ tailgate cars. I named her ‘Etta’ after Etta Place, The Sundance Kid’s girlfriend. She had the 310hp 528lb ft of torque 455 V8 4bbl… great for stump pulling and scaring the crap out of idiots in their Camaros! lol
In 2000, I bought a beeeautiful 1989 glossy black Electra Estate Wagon, about 30k miles, with a burgundy velour interior and those chrome/alloy turbine wheels. That car had lots of exterior chrome trim! It was beautiful standing still. But OMG…everything on that car that could break did break. And the 307 V8, while fine around town, was horribly underpowered for fast freeway merging and forget about passing. Even then, the nice ones were becoming rare and I remember old geezers stopping me in parking lots to talk about the car. Those wagons have a great ride and you knew you were in a big, heavy car the minute the wheels started turning.
Then in 2003, about the time I must have replaced about every part on the car, I rear-ended a Tempo and the Buick was declared totaled. So I found a ’97 Town Car from a funeral home, blue with white interior (beeeautiful) which I had until 2009. Starting about then, things on the Lincoln started breaking and with the wagon experience still fresh in my memory, I bought my first new car since 1987 – a 2009 Grand Marquis. BTW, that 1987 Caprice coupe will go down in my memory as the best car I ever owned. Totally reliable, smooth, powerful and good-looking with its landau vinyl top and wire wheels, I owned it 13 years. It was starting to smoke at 170k miles when I bought the wagon.
I had a similar experience with my ’90 Olds Custom Cruiser when it came to the power of the 307. Once I got used to how to use it’s limited powerband, I got by okay (two lane passes had to been selective). I even towed with it occasionally too and it was okay in drive. My car was pretty reliable mechanically though. Even all the power stuff still worked without any repairs ever (other than the power antenna) up until it was destroyed in a fire at 20 years in age. I would probably still have it today if it wasn’t burned. It was still pretty well rust free too, even though it saw 10 Ontario winters. When it went from daily driver to weekend driver I stopped driving it in winter.
The person responsible for equipping all the 4200-4300 much heavier wagons at GM should have been shot. The much lighter Caprice sedans used the fuel injected 305 with 30 more Hp by this point so it’s a total mystery to me why the low calorie 140 HP 307 was used in the heavy wagons from 1987-90 for the Caprice and 1981-90 for the Buick/Olds versions. A 350 should have been made available at the very least.
Replace the sport wheels and blackwalls with whitewalls and the standard trashcan lid wheel covers, get rid of about 30 years of wear and tear, and that could be the wagon my dad bought when I was in 4th grade. It’s not, though. A marauding ’77 Thunderbird whose old-biddy owner mistook the gas for the brake took care of that.
That T-bird rear ended us so hard she bent the frame over the rear axle and knocked the non-reclining front seat back down flat. My mom cried when the insurance company hauled the Buick off. It was replaced with a Slant Six ’79 Dodge Aspen wagon that still makes my mother spit on the floor and curse like Andrew Dice Clay when it’s mentioned.
Speaking of a very rare 1979 Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare I would love for Paul or Dave to spot on the west coast, is the one year only ‘Sport Wagon’.
It was offered in 1979 on the Aspen/Volare wagons. It included a front air dam, fender flairs, and was available with the very elegant ‘dart board’ alloy wheels Chrysler offered at the time. Plus blacked out accents and tasteful striping. As Volare/Aspens go, it was a nice looking appearance package offered on the wagon that year. My God were they rare… I’d love to see one still on the road. Or one available for purchase.
Check out the Monteverdi Sierra, an Aspen/Volare made over by the Swiss manufacturer of Mopar powered exotica.Proof you can make a silk purse from a sow’s ear
Thank you Gem, I’ve read up on the Sierra. The Volare/.Aspen was, like most compacts at the time, transformed with one of the larger V-8s. And build quality was good by ’78-’79.
I like this a lot,more than the sedans,the style seems to look like the wagons came first and the sedans and coupes were an afterthought.Woody,V8 RWD what’s not to like?
That is a nice looking Nissan Hardbody! Anyway, even the nicest cars (or the shadows of their former selves) will show up in the sketchiest areas once they fall down a few rungs on the socioeconomic ladder.
I had my parents’ ’78 Estate Wagon as my college car in the mid-80s. Light blue over light blue vinyl with no fake wood and a 401 V8. Shredded the transmission, but otherwise it was mechanically indestructible.
I too, thought Buick had the best design of the ’77 B-C Bodies. The grille and slanted headlight pods had more character than Chevy’s, Old’s, and Pontiac’s planar fronts – and were equal to Cadillac’s iconic egg-crate grille. The rear caps were elegantly handled, on both LeSabres and Electras. The dash was particularly nice, with the clock set off to the right, and even the fake wood was more realistic than the awful designs used across the ’71-’76 B, C, and D bodies.
That said, the carpet was horrible – it snagged plywood splinters like mad in the back, and quickly stained and wore out up front. Not long after we got it, strange grey goop began dripping out from beneath the seat belt anchors on both B-pillars and continued until I sold it in 1988.
And there was one persistent reminder of GM bean-counting on each front door. The Chevy and Pontiac B-bodies had an inverse cant at the top of the front fenders that continued into the front door. The Buick and Olds had smooth front fenders. Someone at GM must have decided to build all wagon bodies with Chevy/Pontiac front doors, because the Buick and Olds wagons all have a filler panel welded to each front door. It’s true that divisions that had radically different sedan/hardtop bodies would share a wagon body, at least each division got to use its own doorskins!
My Dad bought a 1978 Estate Wagon….burgundy with the red notch back interior….That interior was gorgeous with the chrome trim on the edges of the seats and the fold down center armrest. The dashboard was beautiful too with the brushed stainless bezels and the huge quartz clock above the glove box. All of the idiot lights were placed in a small linear pod dead center atop the dash board.
Plus we had the Olds 403…only 185 hp, but 320 lb/ft of torque
As a youngster my family had a 1980-something Caprice wagon with a noisy 350 diesel. We dubbed it “the Tank”.. It had the rearward facing third row seat that always had a puddle of water on the floor after heavy rain. It took us on numerous roadtrips and family outings. Eventually it became difficult to start and then I guess it gave out completely.. my dad tore that motor apart, unable to figure out what the hell went wrong.. really pissed him off so he had a wrecking yard come and haul it to the crusher. Shame since it looks SO clean in the one home video I have with it, the rootbeer-brown paint and shiny wire hubcaps looked brand new.
I thought these were the most stylish ’77 B body wagons upon introduction.
The quasi-port holes work well, as does the ‘BUICK’ applique on the tailgate, along with the road wheels.
And the title says it all. When these were new, you’d never spot them in front of a coin laundry… though you certainly would in cottage country. 35 years later, it still looks elegant.
In my area, this light yellow was popular, as was light metallic blue and white, surprisingly. I did prefer the lighter shade of fake wood Buick introduced in 1980. Always remember them with whitewalls when new, but blackwalls compliment Buick road wheels reasonably well. Though it could use with whitewalls here.
Unfortunately in rust country, these would have body rot long before the fake wood was worn out.
Nice find!
Funny that you mention those colors. They did all seem to be one of those three shades in New Orleans too. When I was growing up, I knew 2 different families who had virtually identical light blue Estate Wagons. I remember that both of them were very nice and well equipped, incuding the road wheels. There was another family at my school who had a white one, also fully loaded, with woodgrain, red vinyl and road wheels that was really sharp. Overall, it seemed like at least 50% of B-Body wagons in New Orleans were beige or yellow with woodgrain, regardless of make.
Now I want to drive mine! Alas, there’s salt on the ground, so any lazy trips will have to wait a few months.
I didn’t know you had one. Any pics or info? Just curious.
Yes, I’ve had it for just over two years now. It’s an `88 Caprice with around 228k on it. The second owner used it in a few winters unfortunately, but I’ve been pretty successful in staving off the rust.
Gorgeous Caprice Jordan.
That metallic blue and wood paneling look great together.
+1
+2
+3
Nice Caprice wagon. These were near the top of my favourite 77-90 B-body wagons. I like the colour combo, but I still prefer dinoc free wagons.
Call me crazy, but I’d kinda like to have one of those wagons. Too bad all the local ones rotted away years ago.
Plus, all the caps on those Buick sport rims appear to be present (at least on the side we can see). That’s always good to see.
I agree with Daniel. These are my favorite GM wagons, ever, period. The heavier look of these Buicks suits the wagon best over the “lighter” look of the Old’s and Chevys. And, these continued to look great up until the last year, ’90 I believe. The later ones with their turbine-style alloy wheels, I think, look particularly striking. However, the “Magnum 500” style rims on this one look great too. Great find, Paul.
I absolutely love the turbine-wheel Buick wagons also. Gorgeous in dark colors!
Looks like the “wood” around the back needs refinishing…..
Nothing a little (furniture) polish can’t take care of… 😉
Where I come from, that car and a laundromat were made for each other.
The car looks like it was made for the Laundromat now, but when this car was new which car could have been “made” for the Laundromat? Maybe a 1965 Buick wagon?
Corolla
I’m thinking more like a rusty 63 Ford Ranch Wagon.
I wanted a B or G Body wagon but alas none were around to buy in even decent condition. I wound up satisfying my RWD American car taste with a 1985 Cutlass Supreme Brougham with a pretty good condition top.
I later satisfied the wagon lust with a 1990 Volvo 240
Change the color to a steel metallic gray, change the engine to the diesel, and that was my father’s car in the late ’70’s-early ’80’s. And it served him rather well, although he didn’t keep it as long as he was normally starting to do. Can’t remember its replacement, although it was another Buick. And, the car ended up being the flower car for a local funeral home.
I learned to drive on a 1970 Buick Estate Wagon. A one year body style for Buick, the 1971 were the awful ‘clamshell’ tailgate cars. I named her ‘Etta’ after Etta Place, The Sundance Kid’s girlfriend. She had the 310hp 528lb ft of torque 455 V8 4bbl… great for stump pulling and scaring the crap out of idiots in their Camaros! lol
In 2000, I bought a beeeautiful 1989 glossy black Electra Estate Wagon, about 30k miles, with a burgundy velour interior and those chrome/alloy turbine wheels. That car had lots of exterior chrome trim! It was beautiful standing still. But OMG…everything on that car that could break did break. And the 307 V8, while fine around town, was horribly underpowered for fast freeway merging and forget about passing. Even then, the nice ones were becoming rare and I remember old geezers stopping me in parking lots to talk about the car. Those wagons have a great ride and you knew you were in a big, heavy car the minute the wheels started turning.
Then in 2003, about the time I must have replaced about every part on the car, I rear-ended a Tempo and the Buick was declared totaled. So I found a ’97 Town Car from a funeral home, blue with white interior (beeeautiful) which I had until 2009. Starting about then, things on the Lincoln started breaking and with the wagon experience still fresh in my memory, I bought my first new car since 1987 – a 2009 Grand Marquis. BTW, that 1987 Caprice coupe will go down in my memory as the best car I ever owned. Totally reliable, smooth, powerful and good-looking with its landau vinyl top and wire wheels, I owned it 13 years. It was starting to smoke at 170k miles when I bought the wagon.
I had a similar experience with my ’90 Olds Custom Cruiser when it came to the power of the 307. Once I got used to how to use it’s limited powerband, I got by okay (two lane passes had to been selective). I even towed with it occasionally too and it was okay in drive. My car was pretty reliable mechanically though. Even all the power stuff still worked without any repairs ever (other than the power antenna) up until it was destroyed in a fire at 20 years in age. I would probably still have it today if it wasn’t burned. It was still pretty well rust free too, even though it saw 10 Ontario winters. When it went from daily driver to weekend driver I stopped driving it in winter.
The person responsible for equipping all the 4200-4300 much heavier wagons at GM should have been shot. The much lighter Caprice sedans used the fuel injected 305 with 30 more Hp by this point so it’s a total mystery to me why the low calorie 140 HP 307 was used in the heavy wagons from 1987-90 for the Caprice and 1981-90 for the Buick/Olds versions. A 350 should have been made available at the very least.
Love Buick road wheels but with that much sidewall you do need a whitewall.
Pontiac Parisienne Safari is still my favorite B-body wagon overall of the “box” generation.
Replace the sport wheels and blackwalls with whitewalls and the standard trashcan lid wheel covers, get rid of about 30 years of wear and tear, and that could be the wagon my dad bought when I was in 4th grade. It’s not, though. A marauding ’77 Thunderbird whose old-biddy owner mistook the gas for the brake took care of that.
That T-bird rear ended us so hard she bent the frame over the rear axle and knocked the non-reclining front seat back down flat. My mom cried when the insurance company hauled the Buick off. It was replaced with a Slant Six ’79 Dodge Aspen wagon that still makes my mother spit on the floor and curse like Andrew Dice Clay when it’s mentioned.
Speaking of a very rare 1979 Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare I would love for Paul or Dave to spot on the west coast, is the one year only ‘Sport Wagon’.
It was offered in 1979 on the Aspen/Volare wagons. It included a front air dam, fender flairs, and was available with the very elegant ‘dart board’ alloy wheels Chrysler offered at the time. Plus blacked out accents and tasteful striping. As Volare/Aspens go, it was a nice looking appearance package offered on the wagon that year. My God were they rare… I’d love to see one still on the road. Or one available for purchase.
Check out the Monteverdi Sierra, an Aspen/Volare made over by the Swiss manufacturer of Mopar powered exotica.Proof you can make a silk purse from a sow’s ear
Thank you Gem, I’ve read up on the Sierra. The Volare/.Aspen was, like most compacts at the time, transformed with one of the larger V-8s. And build quality was good by ’78-’79.
Bwahahaha!!!
I like this a lot,more than the sedans,the style seems to look like the wagons came first and the sedans and coupes were an afterthought.Woody,V8 RWD what’s not to like?
When the Estate needs to visit the laundromat – perhaps when Mr. Laundromat Guy stops by to empty the coin boxes.
Terrible,but I think many of these,like Imperials ended up in sporting events with bulls eyes spray painted on their door.
That is a nice looking Nissan Hardbody! Anyway, even the nicest cars (or the shadows of their former selves) will show up in the sketchiest areas once they fall down a few rungs on the socioeconomic ladder.
Always liked the Pontiac wagons the best of the downsized B bodies. Nicer faux wood trim.
I had my parents’ ’78 Estate Wagon as my college car in the mid-80s. Light blue over light blue vinyl with no fake wood and a 401 V8. Shredded the transmission, but otherwise it was mechanically indestructible.
I too, thought Buick had the best design of the ’77 B-C Bodies. The grille and slanted headlight pods had more character than Chevy’s, Old’s, and Pontiac’s planar fronts – and were equal to Cadillac’s iconic egg-crate grille. The rear caps were elegantly handled, on both LeSabres and Electras. The dash was particularly nice, with the clock set off to the right, and even the fake wood was more realistic than the awful designs used across the ’71-’76 B, C, and D bodies.
That said, the carpet was horrible – it snagged plywood splinters like mad in the back, and quickly stained and wore out up front. Not long after we got it, strange grey goop began dripping out from beneath the seat belt anchors on both B-pillars and continued until I sold it in 1988.
And there was one persistent reminder of GM bean-counting on each front door. The Chevy and Pontiac B-bodies had an inverse cant at the top of the front fenders that continued into the front door. The Buick and Olds had smooth front fenders. Someone at GM must have decided to build all wagon bodies with Chevy/Pontiac front doors, because the Buick and Olds wagons all have a filler panel welded to each front door. It’s true that divisions that had radically different sedan/hardtop bodies would share a wagon body, at least each division got to use its own doorskins!
My Dad bought a 1978 Estate Wagon….burgundy with the red notch back interior….That interior was gorgeous with the chrome trim on the edges of the seats and the fold down center armrest. The dashboard was beautiful too with the brushed stainless bezels and the huge quartz clock above the glove box. All of the idiot lights were placed in a small linear pod dead center atop the dash board.
Plus we had the Olds 403…only 185 hp, but 320 lb/ft of torque
As a youngster my family had a 1980-something Caprice wagon with a noisy 350 diesel. We dubbed it “the Tank”.. It had the rearward facing third row seat that always had a puddle of water on the floor after heavy rain. It took us on numerous roadtrips and family outings. Eventually it became difficult to start and then I guess it gave out completely.. my dad tore that motor apart, unable to figure out what the hell went wrong.. really pissed him off so he had a wrecking yard come and haul it to the crusher. Shame since it looks SO clean in the one home video I have with it, the rootbeer-brown paint and shiny wire hubcaps looked brand new.