I’ve been reaching so much into the CC Cohort’s finds, my own backlog needs a bit of reduction, so I’ll share a couple of street-side views from our recent walks. Someone’s got a very pampered little Skylark there, that they plan to keep for the long haul. Unlike the next one:
I’d like to catch this ’69 Skylark on the street, to get a full set of shots for a proper CC. Beaters like this are getting very rare indeed. I’ll have to swing by again. Oh, and this one is for sale too:
If it were a 70+ Skylark at that price I’d be on the phone right now! Still, it’s a heck of a deal for someone out there!
That little X body looks to have more ground clearance than some SUVs!
That little X body looks to have more ground clearance than some SUVs!
They do, a buddy in college had one although his was the only compact GM car I ever saw have transmission trouble with the FWD TH125. The one in My Celebrity (a much heavier car) couldn’t be killed.
Sold my 69 Dodge as I was going to the Pacific. Rented one of these for the period before I went. 350cid and ran like a scalded dog. Altogether, IMO a better car than the Dodge Cornet 440 that I had just sold.
Looks like clean little 80’s Skylark under that cover, seems to be 4 door, but I cant tell, I would like to find a clean X Skylark coupe as a little around town driver. They are getting scarce, they used to be everywhere, they were like the standard old lady car, I’m surprised they didn’t have Angela Lansbury as their spokeswoman.
Had a real nice X bodied ’78 Skylark from 1994-1996 in Honolulu. Clean for a Hawaii car (rust issues right rear backlight and splash area lower driver’s door and lower rear portion of the left front fender).
THM200 (!) crapped out (imagine that!) at 90K. Transmission rebuilder in Wahiawa told me, “I’ve never seen these (THM200’s) last THIS long! First year even firing 231 V6; being a 49 state car, it had no air pump. No a/c. Real easy to work on and, averaged 23mpg on Oahu. Ended up selling to a young sailor with a new bride and new baby(!) hard up for a sedan like RIGHT NOW. This guy didn’t keep it washed and frequently waxed (a must with older cars in top on down/bottom on up tropical salt-air Hawaii). Rust I’d fixed came back and then some. Sad to see it go downhill. Saw it trashed in the hands of a young soldier around 1997. ’73-’78 Skylark/Apollo “X” cars were pretty solid, indeed.
Like the late ’60’s Skylark. Same period in Hawaii I had the ’78 X sedan, a friend found a suprisingly very clean ’68 Skylark California Special 2-door post with the GS 350 package. Black vinyl top over metallic blue with GS wheels. Now THAT was a rare car! Still had the 1968 Hawaii registration sticker on the lower passenger’s portion of the windshield. Had only a few rust bubbles on the lower fender and trunk lip. None under the vinyl roof as would’ve been common in the Aloha State. Estate sale – car had been garaged since new from Schumann Carriage (one time Honolulu Cadillac-Buick dealer; Beretania Street).
“Californian” Special for the Buick – as Ford had the CalifornIA Special Mustang.
Technically, both cars were supposed to be sold to “just” California dealers, but I do know of some of these cars (especially those pulled out of distribution and shipped to places, like Hawaii)that did wind up being sold new in neighboring western states. Example in my youth an acquiantance whose parents took delivery of a ’68 Calif. Special Mustang from “Friendly Ford” in Las Vegas.
Take 2.
California! The one my buddy had, that was back in 1996. Only other (Skylark Calif.) I saw was when I was about 9 years old – when these were new. And, yes . . . . the ’68 was a PILLARED two door sedan. Much like in ’68 and ’69 the SS was also available on the Malibu and Chevelle 300 Deluxe . . . and that 442 Oldsmobiles could be had as post 2 doors as well (and GTOs).
“a PILLARED two door…Much like in ’68 and ’69 the SS was also available on the Malibu and Chevelle 300 Deluxe”
I think the Chevelle SS was only available as a pillared 2-door for one year, which was 1969. IINM, the SS was a distinct model, based on the Malibu (and therefore hardtop-only), through ’68. Starting in ’69 the SS became an option package available on any 2-door Chevelle — not just Malibus, but the lower-line models as well. (I’m guessing that Chevy did this to better compete with the Plymouth Road Runner.) This change made the SS available as a pillared 2-door for the first time. Chevy completely dropped the pillared 2-door from the Chevelle line at the end of the 1969 model year, however.
Whatever the exact details, I’ve always found it odd that Chevy placed less emphasis on the 2-door pillared style than the middle-priced GM divisions did. You’d think that the pillared style would be more attractive to Chevy’s more downscale customer base than to B-O-P’s. While Chevy never offered 2-door Malibus in pillared form at any time in the 1964-72 era, the B-O-P divisions offered pillared 2-doors all the way to the top end of their midsize ranges, including the muscle cars based on those series, for at least a few years. In addition, some of the B-O-P divisions (possibly all three) kept offering pillared 2-doors in their low-end midsize series beyond the point where Chevy dropped them.
“I’ve always found it odd that Chevy placed less emphasis on the 2-door pillared style than the middle-priced GM divisions did. You’d think that the pillared style would be more attractive to Chevy’s more downscale customer base than to B-O-P’s.”
The Chevrolet label was, yes, a lower-income bracket but also a starter car. Part of Chevy’s market was young first-time buyers – customers who were style-conscious. Practicality and safety issues were secondary – such buyers wanted the flash. And the hardtop style was all about style.
Compact cars with the upscale brands…Alfred Sloan’s concept was that as a person moved upward with time, the more upscale brands were there to provide for him. A compact Buick buyer, hasn’t exactly made it – and probably won’t, or doesn’t believe he has or will. Such buyers will be older; more conservative; it’s less about trendy style and more about “owning a Buick” (Olds, etc.)
A pillared Skylark? I can’t remember ever seeing one!
Yup. You could get a pillared or pillarless GTO, Cutlass, Skylark, Chevelle. Saw lots of them as they were cheaper than their hardtop cousins. Ditto for full-size and compacts.
Remember that GTO was based on the Tempest/LeMans, was not the only mid sized Pontiac model sold in the 60’s, as some think.
Had a look at the ’69 brochure. The GS350, GS400 and GS California were not labelled as Skylarks at all (regardless of what the seller above thinks). And only the California had the “thin-pillar coupe” body style.
The stripper Special Deluxe (also not a Skylark) had the same pillared body, with no hardtop available. It also had portholes, which no GS had.
You guys are good, and jostled my memories about the GS C.
You may be right on that . . . I KNOW it was a California Special . . . dressed LIKE a GS . . . . but could’ve been sub-series . . . . and the one I saw as a ’68.
Come to think of it, I’ll default to you guys on that it most like wasn’t “full” Skylark status as I do recall, this had a plain, slight pleated vinyl bench seat . . . . but it DID have GS 350 accents . . . chrome surrounds on the door posts/window trim, and the Rallye GS wheels . . . .
I still see the occasional 1975-79 X-body in Upstate NY, but never the 1980 + (junk) X-body aside from the ultra-occasional Citation. I’m glad that the owner of this (junk) X-body Skylark is keeping it preserved.
I always liked the Weird last Skylark….. 1993 Comes To Mind… Looked like a mini Roadmaster. I recall renting one that I felt must have had a V6 due to it feeling very good on accelation…
My parents had a burgundy X body Skylark, dating from 1983 that they bought brand new that year. it was the limited trim complete with wire wheels, much like what you see peeking out from under the car cover in that top photo.
They never had any mechanical problems that I was aware of, outside of the paint crazing right from the get go on the hood (but not anywhere else that I can recall). The only other issue was a small burn hole in the headliner from a shorted out wire and they had to fight the dealer/GM/Buick to get it replaced on their dime, which they reluctantly did since it was obviously caused by a shorted wire.
We sold it in 1987 when we replaced it with a 2 year old Honda Accord SE-I that they found at the local Honda dealer. It was their first Accord 4 door (though they did for a short time had a ’76 Accord 3 door hatch that they had to sell due to 2 daughters in college at the time in 1978), and it had the 5spd manual and was also their first car with fuel injection too.
They didn’t sell the Buick immediately as Dad temporarily drove it as he gave me his 1978 Ford Fairmont for Christmas as I needed reliable wheels. He would buy another FWD X body car, the Chevy Citation with the same V6 as the Buick (2800) because he felt it was too nice of a car for him to have and it was a decent enough car, nothing too terribly wrong mechanically except that the brakes were very grabby when cold in the back and I don’t recall if we had the issue with the rack becoming balky when cold.
I hated that Citation for it was clunky, handled so, so, had bad brakes even when at their best but it would start and run though and it was also very uncomfortable, thanks to the wretched front seat.
He would drive that Citation until 1997 when he gave it to my oldest sister and her current husband when they needed wheels and they drove the wheels off it and donated it, sans headliner as it finally fell down over time but it was still chugging along by 1998-99 when they bought a used ’88 Dodge Caravan with the Mitsu V6.
The only major mechanical issue with that car outside of the poor brakes and I think the rack was the transmission decided to leak fluid on my way back from a road trip for a job interview at a podunk TV station in Klamath Falls Or and it began to slip on my trip back to Tacoma. A quick stop and topping off with fluid got me home and Dad had it dealt with shortly after that with no ill effects.
My parents had an 83 Skylark Limited Coupe that my dad special ordered new. It was sand gray (special order t-type color), with a dark maroon landau top, chrome buick road wheels, gran touring suspension (t-type specs) and the HO 2.8 V6. It was quite the little sleeper (think Grandma’s version of the Citation X-11), had one of the sweetest sounding V6 exhaust sounds I’ve ever heard, and was dead reliable, as in, never ever had a problem in 88K miles and 10 years. Come to think of it, my mother had an 81 Skylark Custom coupe, and my grandmother had an 82 Skylark limited sedan. Maybe it was a fluke, but non of them ever went back to the dealer during their ownership…..so much for them being complete “junk” as some on here call them.