If I had been asked for much of my life up to a certain point what a “riviera” was, I would have simply answered, “a Buick.” In fact, when I had sat down to write this, and even though I had a vague idea of what a riviera was, I had to look it up. Of course, there are proper nouns like the French Riviera on the Mediterranean in the southeast corner of France, but I was looking for a more general definition. Merriam-Webster defines a riviera as “a coastal region frequented as a resort area and usually marked by a mild climate.” The word itself is Italian in origin, translated as something close to “seashore” or “coastline”. Onomastics is the study of the naming of things, and I think often of how automotive names have been chosen to represent various products. To me, “Riviera” connotes the excitement of a destination holiday or trip to a beautiful, beachfront locale.
1996 Buick Riviera print ad.
I think the name was well-chosen for the stunning, introductory 1963 models. Since the style of the original cars was so flawless, inside and out, it would have been a tall order for any subsequent Riviera to seem deserving of this name. The Riviera had its ups-and-downs, both in terms of style and popularity, but I’m not here to bash any of my least favorite model years of Buick’s long-running flagship coupe. I’ve read it somewhere that people are often remembered by their most recent appearance (I suppose that CC writers are similarly thought of by their most recent article), and the Riviera’s final one was an absolute knockout. Let’s focus on that for the next five minutes or so that it takes you to finish reading this.
Rogers Beach Park.
Imagination is such an important part of life, or of mine, anyway. It’s what marketers use to sell products. It’s what therapists use to help patients envision what their lives could be or become with different choices. It’s the optimistic view of things that gives us permission to view that glass as being half-full and full of sparkles and magic without focusing solely on the realities of science.
I live by a large body of water called Lake Michigan. It is enormous and part of the Great Lakes, which I have read being described like freshwater seas. Summer by the lake in Chicago can sometimes feel almost tropical, and aside from the absence of truly large, surf-able waves, the beaches here rank with some of the most beautiful I’ve enjoyed, including in over a decade I had spent in Florida. It’s not hard to pretend that I’m actually in another country on some summer afternoons while at any of the string of neighborhood beaches on Chicago’s north side.
When I had first seen the final, eighth-generation 1995 Riviera in mid-’94, it looked like some sort of gorgeous, exotic creature, though still totally American and instantly recognizable as a Riv. To me, it was the first truly distinctive and beautiful Riviera since the late ’60s. The 1971 – ’73 boattail models were distinctive and I like them, but their looks weren’t for everyone. The ’79s still look great to me, but share too much visually and proportionally with their E-Body cousins Oldsmobile Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado. I’m also not a fan of a severely vertical rear window, popular though that look was for a time.
The reborn ’95 Riviera looked like absolutely nothing else, and in it, I saw the reintroduction of the kind of class and style this model had originally stood for. The trouble was that the market had shifted away from coupes by the time of its introduction. There was never going to be a Riviera renaissance, no matter how great the ’95 could have been. I had wanted to believe that successful, upper-middle-class tastemakers were going to flock to this car, but most were buying Japanese luxury sedans. That was just reality.
1976 Plymouth Silver Duster. Brochure photo sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
What also detracted from this car in my mind was that one of my best high school buds had compared its profile to that of a early- / mid-’70s Plymouth Duster. I was mad at Fred for saying that out loud. I’m sure I’ve said things over the years that he wishes I hadn’t, but the Duster comparison was a low blow, even if it wasn’t intended as a personal insult to me. And yet, I could see what he was talking about. I remember him laughing as he pointed out that the back of the Riviera seemed almost as long as the front, just like on the Duster.
Maybe after Chrysler Corporation had gone full-steam with their “cab forward” stylistic idea in the mid-’90s, other manufacturers might have thought that’s where things were headed. This profile works really well on both cars. People talk about how the Duster stole sales from the E-Body Barracuda, which it did, but it wasn’t because the Duster had fashionable long-hood / short-deck proportions. The Duster succeeded in spite of its lack of that look, with its low price point and available power. I do like the looks of the Duster (my family had a ’71), but a budget Barracuda or ponycar it wasn’t, in terms of its appearance.
This ’96 Riviera was a decent performer with the optional supercharged 3.8 liter V6 with 240 horsepower (35 more than the base 3800), capable of propelling the car from 0-60 in a hair over seven seconds, according to one period review. Other strong suits included an aesthetically pleasing and functional interior. This Riviera was also hermetically quiet inside, which I know I would like after a long workday. Handling was said to be not great, with noticeable body roll in corners, and the steering was deemed to be numb. One review drove home the point that while its performance was more than adequate, it was not a true driver’s car, which actually wouldn’t have been the point of a personal luxury coupe like this.
Production for the ’95s started in May of ’94, with over 41,400 sales over a model year that extended close to eighteen months. This ’96 was one of about 17,400, with sales ticking slightly upward to 18,100 units for ’97, then down to 10,600 for ’98 before less than 2,000 rolled out for ’99 after the final models left Orion Assembly in November of ’98. A total of almost 85,600 eighth-generation Rivieras were produced over five model years.
The setting of this Riviera as parked in beautiful Rogers Park next to Lake Michigan was perfect, in an area of the city that while lacking in tropical flavor commonly associated with a riviera, reminds me of such an area of the world, all the same. Old, charming, historic buildings overlook the lapping waves and beautiful sunrises of the lake with various birds and insect life contributing to the aural symphony. I have learned to embrace the art of appreciating the magic present in seemingly everyday things. So much beauty is lost amid today’s omnipresent cynicism.
So what if the once-mighty Riviera went out with sales and acclaim that was but a faint echo of that of the first model? To me, it was still a gorgeous, desirable, well-executed personal luxury coupe. If this one was mine, I would pretend every day that everyone else loved and celebrated it as much as I did.
Rogers Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, August 26, 2023.
The Riviera tag started as the differentiator for Buick’s hardtops as compared to post sedans. It became a proper model name for the stunningly beautiful ’63.
CK, Indeed. Our 1950 Buick Riviera 2 door and 2 tone green hardtop was (IMO) one of the best looking post WWII cars on the road, even if some said the front end made it an acquired taste.
With no PS and no PB, it was a bear to steer at slow speeds and kind of hard to stop at high speeds, which were normal characteristics back in those days.
The straight eight and Dynaflow made it drive and sound like an old wooden cabin cruiser, slow, smooth, and comfortable.
The Duster’s style was very carefully and consciously tweaked to mimic the Nova’s short deck look on the existing long tail Valiant chassis. The severely curved greenhouse helps a lot.
Again: The.1970 Barracuda was a flat out dud. Wrong car at the wrong time. Chrysler knew it as soon as the public said “Meh.” Chrysler wanted to sell 200K E bodies per year. GM only sold 160K official 1971 Camaros and Firebirds in 12 months and nearly dropped them instead of updating for bumper compliance. Plymouth was lucky to sell over 200k Dusters instead of another 20K Barracudas that might have been sold if dealers didn’t have a nice compact coupe that was exactly what the market really wanted.
Excellent biography, and photos Joseph. Your mix of Riviera pics, with beautiful nature photos, work well together. This Riviera’s lines and shape, do look nature-inspired. It is a standout design. And a design icon of the 1990s.
At the time, the soft exterior lines reminded me some of the 1991 Mazda 929 Serenia. One of my favourite eras for automotive exterior design. And your analogies to nature, work very well in this context. Much 90s styling often appearing, quite organic. With much automotive advertising, exploring this connection to nature. Like you, I too find happiness in everyday things. As in your Riviera find. Nature is a wonderful tonic for the daily stresses of life.
Your ’90s Riviera and Lake Michigan shots, immediately reminded me of 1992’s ‘Walk on the Ocean’, by Toad the Wet Sprocket. Wonderful song, full of memories from that era. Well done Joe!
Mazda 929 Serenia.
I also love that era 929!
Me too.
I kinda wished the 929 would’ve evolved into the Mazda 9, like the 323 became the 3 and the 626 became the 6.
Alas, that never happened.
The 929 got the proportions right. The Riviera looks bloated and front heavy, yet with massive hips.
Wow – Toad the Wet Sprocket. My nephew played with them for a while. Don’t know if he was on this one though.
I do love that song.
Toad the Wet Sprocket does need to get credit for getting the most pop music mileage out of a single Monty Python reference. 🙂
Thanks, Daniel! Stateside, the Mazda was called just the 929 (no “Serenia”), but I also thought that car was such a beautiful design that has still stood the test of time. I do also remember that Toad song from watching MTV in the ’90s, even if I’m not super familiar with much of that band’s output, outside of “All I Want”.
With about four inches of wheelbase added at the leading edge of the doors, the profile might have been slightly better proportioned between the hood and trunk lengths. Subtle, but there is a difference.
That short dash-to-axle ratio, leaving a tiny sliver of fender between the door and front wheelarch, was pretty common to FWD GM designs of the era, so there was probably an engineering vs. cost reason why they didn’t want to invest in extending that dimension for any new model or platform revision — i.e., they’d already set that as a hardpoint when they engineered one platform, so all models on that platform and its derivative platforms had to keep it.
This generation of Riv was based on the G platform, which from ’97-on was basically identical to the C, H, and K platforms of the era, tho’ for some reason GM kept those separate platform designations for their respective models and their VINs on what had effectively become a single unified platform, up thorough the 2011 Buick Lucerne.
Hi: I did a similar experiment with Paint. I added about the width of a tire between the front wheel arch and the leading edge of the door. But I also took about 2% off the height of the glasshouse and nudged it back about 10 cm. In that form it becomes really gorgeous. That said, I still like the Riviera as it is. They had some unfortunate hard points to deal with.
This past weekend was the nearby regional Concours show. Each year, in addition to high-end and exceptional cars, they feature a marque or model or two. One feature this year was early Riverias – I believe the cut-off may have been ’73, I was in hog heaven! Makes you wonder if there will ever be a feature for the 8th gen someday!
That sounds like an event that would have been right up my alley. I like to think their 8th generation cars (it’s still hard to believe the featured car is *27 years old*) will get their due.
Probably one of the best looking American designs of the 1990s. Still, this Riviera was doomed no matter how good it was – as Joseph mentioned the market was moving away from full-sized coupes at this point, and nothing was going to reverse that.
” I do like the looks of the Duster (my family had a ’71), but a budget Barracuda or ponycar it wasn’t, in terms of its appearance… “
The ’71 Duster that we bought (to have a safer family ride than the ’64 Beetle) was a bare bone 225/6 three speed manual, all drum brakes exercise in, well, cheapness. But that’s my fault because of my then, well, cheapness.
The Duster would probably have blossomed with a V8 and TorqueFlite and disk front brakes. However, I did like it’s plaid green/yellow seats.
Even the Mustang, literally a true pony car, didn’t really come alive with the 170 or 200 cubic inch 6 cylinder engine, three speed manual, and drum brakes. But make a few upgrades and … Wow.
Both cars were “youth” oriented designs of more prosaic and practical sedans, the Falcon for Ford, and the Valiant for Chrysler.
These youth targeted designs worked beyond expectations, and I was one of the millions who went for the “look” and put my money down.
All Rivieras, of all model years, were well beyond my financial reach. But it was nice they were around back then, if not for us.
The Great Lake water scenes are attractive. Great Lake waves may not be suitable for surfers, but for boaters, the lakes can get really nasty – really fast – in a storm.
https://www.mibluesperspectives.com/stories/health-and-wellness/the-dangers-of-great-lakes-waves-and-rip-currents
Our son attended the University of Chicago and he actually had to take a swimming proficiency test as an incoming freshman, presumably because of the hazards of the nearby lake. As for the car, sorry, but mehh. Compared to a ‘73 or ‘66, weak. And even as a clean sheet design it still pales compared to the Valiant-based Duster which deserves its classic status. But as always a great Tuesday morning read, with a good lesson in etymology and vocabulary. I never realized that the word has no relationship to river, rather to riparian as in relating to riverbanks or shores in general. In fact river in Latin is fluvia which could almost be a Lancia.
Rivieras were always far, far above anything my family of origin could or would have aspired to own. I’m trying to think of when I might have even ridden in a Riviera. I know I’ve written here about having *sat* in a ’73 that belonged to a friend of two friends. I still can’t think of when I would have ridden in one…
Way back in the fall of 1999, I found a ’95 supercharged Riviera for sale online at a local used car lot. I was planning on going out to look at it that day. However, in the morning my uncle asked me if I could drive him to the dealer to get his ’97 Silverado, which was in for a transmission rebuild, under warranty. This was a Chevy-Dodge-Isuzu dealer.
Well, while we were there, he suggested we look at the new cars on the lot. I really didn’t want to, but by that afternoon, I was signing the paperwork on a brand new, 2000 Intrepid! The Intrepid ended up being a good car, but sometimes I would still wonder about that Riviera.
Then, on November 18, 2009, someone pulled a hit and run on my Intrepid while it was unattended in a parking lot, and with 150,000 miles on it, it was enough to total it out. I always remember that date, because it’s the anniversary of the date they officially announced DeSoto was being phased out. Perhaps it was an ironic twist that I replaced it with a used 2000 Park Avenue Ultra, which in some ways, is like a 4-door Riviera.
Those ’95-99 Rivieras aren’t perfect, and are a bit awkward from some angles, but I do still admire them. One thing I remember not liking about them was the interior. It just had a starkness about it. Not cheap, necessarily, just, well, stark. And, given the external dimensions, I thought it would feel bigger inside. I mean, it was still big enough, but I guess I was just expecting it to feel more full-sized, than mid-sized.
Thank you for this. I wonder if the way the roofline slopes significantly impacts interior space, or the illusion of space. Chevy-Dodge-Isuzu sounds like an unusual dealership combo! They certainly had a few bases covered.
The front seat was plenty roomy, especially if you ordered the fairly rare split bench seat that was available in ’95-96 (and gave this coupe a higher passenger capacity than many new SUVs). The rear seat had good legroom and width, but headroom was just barely enough for my 5’8″ build, not great for a car two inches longer than a Park Avenue.
My dear Mr Dennis, your words never fail for attention. You always craft a picture that is both pragmatically informative and contemplative (and it IS craft, of a high level, btw).
I can’t, though, be convinced that this car is as described. Indeed, if it were to appear on any given riviera, I do believe any occupants thereon would run screaming for their lives, as it does quite resemble a creature that might have washed up on that riviera from somewhere unfathomable. It really does have proportions that might only be acceptable, and of use, in very deep reaches. Those depths have somehow enforced both streamlining and inept gawpiness, resulting in an odd combination of blandness and offensiveness. But your defence of it is valiant, and admirable for that.
I love your idea of magic in everyday things. I think one see it more as age chases, and luckily, I see it a lot more now.
Haha – thank you, Justy! So poetic, even when subtly dissing my subject car. 🙂 And hooray for seeing the magic in every day that things. I think I at least try to chip away at a little bit of cynicism each day.
“Onomastic”…fantastic! I did not know that, and thank you Joe for teaching me a new word.
It stands to reason that there’s such a thing as onomastics, although I don’t think I’ve ever met an onomastician. That’s probably because they’re all working for the pharmaceutical industry nowadays (there aren’t enough jobs with automakers anymore). And I try to stay away from the pharmaceutical industry.
I remember having a conversation with my grandma when I was a kid, when she had opined that the names of many youths sounded like they were coined and didn’t have any particular meaning. She wasn’t saying it to be mean, or anything, but perhaps that she didn’t understand why “John” and “Mary” weren’t as popular as choices as before. As an adult, and as it relates to onomastics, I wonder how many names are actually just “coined” (as Grandma put it).
Now I can’t unsee that Duster comparison, Joe… Even the C-pillar looks close to the Riv’s in shape at that camera angle and the pic above it at a similar angle.
Great piece as always!
Haha – Rick, thanks, and you’re welcome!
The Duster comparison is apt; both suffer from the inherent limitations of grafting a sporty coupe roof onto a body whose proportions were that of a sedan. Kudos to your friend; I’d never made that leap before.
These never worked for me; the proportions are all wrong. It works much better as the Olds Aurora, although I have some issues with that too.
But if I had been a kid at the time, who knows; magic can appear anywhere.
I actually feel like I need to show this to Fred to let him know that others agreed with his Duster comment. And that I also came around to agreeing.
I was very excited when my girlfriend’s Aunt bought a new Riviera in 1996. (Today, these people are my in-laws) Anyway – my now, father-in-law, was a Mr. Goodwrench throughout his career with Oldsmobile and Buick. So, his sister was comfortable plunking down a substantial amount of money for her new Riviera. By the time I returned from university in Germany – the Riviera was gone. She traded it in because the Riv was constantly plagued with all sorts of problems. I have no doubt that if these problems were minor, she would have kept the car. My father-in-law said that the car had too many issues right from the design stage to be dependable. Naturally, I wouldn’t question Mr. Goodwrench on that.
I like the way this car looked. It was real competition, in my mind, to the Lincoln Mark. However, based on what I know about it – this generation Riviera, did not live up to its appearance or Riviera legacy.
The Riviera and the Mark VIII looked similar and had similar missions in life. But–and while I’m more a GM fan–the Mark VIII was a lot more car. It was on a superior platform, it had a better engine, and the interior materials and feature set were far fuller. The Riviera was caught in an uncomfortable spot where it couldn’t upstage the Eldorado, and it showed.
In 1998, the Mark VIII would have been about $5,000 (roughly $9,300 today) dearer than the Riviera (on which the supercharged engine was newly standard), and would have been well worth the price premium.
I’m really sorry to hear that quality control was lacking, even by the second full model year of this design.
I inherited my aunts pearl white 1998 Riviera when she passed in 2005, in her late 70s. My aunt had been buying only white Riviera’s since the 1960s when my parents were buying T-Birds. Starting in the mid-70s she would call me when she was ready to trade & I had about two weeks to show up in South Carolina for car shopping, regardless of what state or country I was living in. We would shop and test drive two -door luxury cars but she would always special order a white Riviera optioned her way. Four-door cars made her feel old, no sunroofs because that would mess her hair (her sister, my mother, preferred convertibles and keep a silk head scarf in her cars at all times). My aunt only knew park, reverse, and fast. I have wonderful memories of speeding day road trips in my aunts white Riviera’s visiting ancient family cemeteries and long abandoned family homes in the southern states. Aunt always kept her cars spotless and seldom drove in the rain unless it was her weekly beauty shop appointment. She had even been at her beauty shop appointment two days before she passed at age 76.
So it was no surprise she left her 1998 Riviera to me. I was living in Canada at the time, flew down to SC, and drove back to Ottawa. I never drove the car in the rain and stored it during winters. It was a wonderful smooth long distance cruisier that could go at 95 mph all day (road trips to Boston and central Florida).. 2014. my daily driver was a Camaro and I was buying a 1966 T-Bird conv. for my summer car. I had to let the Riviera go. 86,000 miles and pristine. Leather upholstery perfect / excellent, and undercarriage without rust. I advertised the car with a high-end price, some pictures and a little family history. A day after the ad was posted received a phone call from an elderly couple who wanted to meet ASAP. They had previously owned two 1998 Riviera’s. They came, looked at my Riv. in a dimly lite underground parking garage. He handed me a cashiers check for my high asking price. I insisted we take the car to my mechanic, put it on a lift, inspect everything. That we did. The buyer was going to ship the Riv. to their winter home in Phoenix, so I knew it would be treated with care.
I still miss my aunts 1998 supercharged pearl white Riviera. But I know it went to a good home with owners that would care for it like my aunt and myself.
From childhood I will always remember my aunt kept a red umbrella in her white Riviera’s. When I sold her pearl white 1998 Riviera I kept her red umbrella. which I still have.
I loved reading this during part of my lunch break and wanted to thank you for sharing it. I have an aunt that I’m in regular contact with, and as you did with your aunt’s red umbrella, I would do something similar. I love that the sight of white Rivieras provide you with some connection with her.
Thanks – that´s a nice story. I can imagine what kind of a lady your relative was – nicely well-mannered and sensibly particular.
It is so true that certain cars grab us during our childhoods and never let go.
As for me, I wanted to like them, but there were just too many styling oddities. Beyond the general proportions, I found it odd the way the rear end is so visibly more narrow than the front part of the car. I am sure it made for a great wind tunnel performance, but it was a blot on the styling for me. I had never thought of the Duster comparison, but now I totally see it.
We should note that the Thunderbird production for 1995 was over 115k, so nearly 3x that of the Riv. I am sure that most Birds were less expensive, so that had something to do with it. But it was also a far more attractive car.
You bring up an interesting point between the Riv and T-Bird. In the ’60s and up to a point, the Thunderbird was the gold standard for PLCs. By the ’90s, the T-Bird was downscale from the Riviera, but selling in numbers that were a multiple of the Buick.
I never realized that riviera (i.e., lower-case r) was a word. Learned something new today. Like you, up to a certain point in my life, I thought Riviera was a Buick model, much later I learned it was a region of France. And there was a pizza take-out place near our house called Riviera Pizza, which I assumed was named after the Buick.
Regarding this car… I really wanted to like these at the time, since I strongly hoped that personal luxury coupes would stage an improbable comeback. But this generation of Riviera left me cold at the time. It just tried too hard, and had too many styling embellishments. Like Paul mentioned above, I vastly prefer the Aurora as far as big GM cars of this era.
Another thing that detracted from this car in my mind is that the buyers seemed to be largely flaunty older women. I’m not sure if that was the case all over, but in my neck of the woods it was. The only person I knew who owned one was a neighbor of my cousin… a woman who had the bushes in front of her house trimmed into Curly Q’s and had a hairless dog. She became the enduring image for me of this car’s target market.
But as is often the case, I’ve softened on these quite a bit in recent years. Not quite enough to stop and photograph one as you’ve done, but at least I admire them as I walk slowly by.
Eric, in reading through the comments this evening, I’m noticing a trend, with more than a few who had “wanted to like” these cars. I’m trying to think of I had formed any kind of demographic association with these cars, and honestly, I don’t think I have / had, outside of them being on the mature end of the continuum.
I’ve never seen a Duster in the eight gen Riviera, but I have recognized another Plymouth. The 1967 Barracuda coupe. It also has a very similar deck/hood length appearance. This was criticized in almost every road test of the era. It looked more like a two door sedan instead of a Pony car. Almost all modern cars now have very short rear ends, which makes the hood appear much longer. I always found the Barracuda to be quite attractive as a coupe, though I am very pro fastback.
The Riviera reflected the trend towards very smooth, lozenge shaped cars. Think Mazda Millenia, Infiniti J30, early 90’s Nissan 300ZX, Chrysler cab forward and Cloud cars, and the ovoid Taurus.
It was a short lived trend.
I just bought a ’97 Riviera a couple of months ago. Though it’s got low mileage, only 82,000 miles and runs great, I’ve been working on fixing some of the problems and replacing missing or damaged parts. The biggest problem is that the HVAC system is not working at all, and it may take professional diagnostics to figure out the problem. The electronics are complex, and there are a lot of them built into the car’s systems. This is going to be the Achilles Heel of mid ’90’s designs.
There’s a lot to like about these Rivieras, the structure is still extremely solid, and the supercharged V6 and drivetrain is very smooth and quiet. I find this type of car to be very attractive, especially in comparison with my ’06 Mustang GT. The Mustang is bellicose and aggressive, a bit of a street fighter. While the Riviera is suave, cultured, and controlled, an automotive Sean Connery. I suppose some of this preference is just due to my getting older. I still love driving, but I don’t need to deafen traffic around me like I did when I was younger, riding customized Harley Davidson’s.
Jose, I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying your new purchase.
About the long-hood / long-deck styling, I don’t dislike it. I love the Corvair, especially the second generation, as well as the second-generation Barracuda notchback (the fastback is drop-dead gorgeous).
It’s interesting now to look at cars of the mid-’90s with this cigar- / lozenge- shaped aesthetic, and it’s true that it really was a thing… the most numerous (I had to change the word from “popular”) example I can think of being the “ovoid” Taurus.
Sorry but i must disagree with most of you on this one. Even as a dedicated buick lover and owner of a century and a lesabre, this gen. Riviera is absolutely hideous. A fat, bloated blob of “melted plastic“. One of buick’s ugliest cars ever, second only to the 71 riv. The 79-85 was the absolute best looking riviera ever. By the way, love those beautiful beach pictures, joseph!
I’m glad you liked the beach pictures. I may have to go back once the leaves on the nearby trees have changed and before the days are too short. Local sunset tonight is already all the way up to 7:08 PM.
Ive never seen one in person, but guess with this cars ovoid shape its styling is best appreciated walking round it, or seeing it moving on the road. The rear end reminds me of the original Olds Toronado, a great favorite of mine.
Now that you mention it, I do sort of see some early Toronado back there. I like that connection.
As much as I love the 1995-1999 Riviera, the design is polarizing. People either adore it or abhor it, but few would say it’s as universally gorgeous as the original 1963-1965.
As far as the market at the time, yes, these personal luxury coupes were dropping like flies…with a lot of them American. The foreign competition was putting up a good fight, and I can see why coughing up a few grand more for a 1995 Acura Legend Coupe, for example, would have been a more palatable choice.
It’s worth noting that GM didn’t even put its own best foot forward. The Riviera was hamstrung by cheap materials and indifferent build quality and the regular 3800 was nothing to write home about in such an expensive car. It was a noticeable downgrade from the Cadillac Eldorado of the day, and even its mid-premium platform cohort, the Oldsmobile Aurora, got far better digs.
As far as the history of the model itself, the Riviera skipped the 1994 model year and debuted this final generation in early calendar-year 1994 was a 1995. The 1995, specifically, had the OBD 1.5 protocol (OBD 2 wasn’t required until MY1996), the Series I 3800 N/A, and older electronics (keyless entry, radio, A/C controls). It also lacked the (fake-looking, but real) wood trim around the center stack bezel that was added in 1996. In 1998, GM made the supercharged engine standard, and in 1999, GM finished off the line with a final run of 200 sequentially numbered “Silver Arrow” Rivieras.
The Oldsmobile Aurora did get a version of the Northstar, and some GM engineers snatched one of those and stuck it under the hood of a 1998 Riviera, which also got special blue-green paint and custom wheels, as a proof of concept. Management was not convinced and never greenlit the Northstar Riviera for production, but that concept car occassionally makes its way across the auction block.
Cool – thank you for these facts and this perspective!
One subtle but crucial, signature design detail of these is the way the fenders have a slight, creased peak where they fold over from the flanks and then back down by an inch or so to meet the hood/trunk shutlines.
I seem to recall reading that was a significant expense (just try to imagine how those panels would need to be stamped) that the designers had to fight for — with good reason, as it adds some critical, rakish definition and a sense of “tailoring” to what would otherwise be a very (well, even more) shapeless blob without them.
I have noticed the creased peaks that you mention, and hadn’t thought about the engineering that went into those dies and stampings. A “tailored” look is really a great description for it.
To me, it looks especially nautical, with the creased peaks as well as the way the sides taper inward toward the front and rear. Your pictures of it in front of a lake are very apt, because it’s a proper 90s land-yacht. At 207.2 inches long, the exterior dimensions are absolutely huge.
By contrast, a Rolls-Royce Wraith is only an inch longer.
The Buick Park Avenue (1997) had the same feature. It is nice touch and rather distinctive. The designer was Bill Porter who by all accounts is a great fellow and a good teacher. You can read his thoughts in a book called The Art of American Car Design by C. Edson Armé (if you can find it and will pay the hefty asking)
I had a 95 Riviera and drove it for 278,000 miles. Original engine and did not use any oil! I used Mobil 1 and changed the oil every 5,000 miles. Replaced the transmission once. Not supercharged. I drove for work and that car was a dream to drive. It floated down the road and was quiet. Sure don’t make any like it anymore.
Those are some impressive miles. I’m always happy to read about great ownership experiences with the cars I admire.
Interesting article and nice photos. I actually got to sit in an ‘81 during a high school trip to the Buick plant in Flint, Michigan, and I marvelled at the flat floors. I never really warmed to the last Rivieras, though…I’ve always liked the look of the first two generations the best. Recently I’ve come across a nice silver first generation Riviera. I pass it on the way home from work on my bike, parked on a quiet Toronto side street. I’ll keep an eye out for it for the next little while; soon it’ll be parked somewhere safe from the salt and slush of a Canadian winter. If it’s a ‘63 it’s been on the road as long as I have…both me and that Riviera need a little more maintenance to keep us running fine.
I would not have made the leap of comparing a Riviera to a Duster, even if the proportions are similar, the target markets were not. However I get the comparison and the way you describe it.
Just looking at the side view photos again, and the appearance of the Riviera looks a bit truncated. As if the car should be longer than it is due to the design of the roof and how the rest of the car should be more in proportion with the length of the greenhouse.
The comparison for similarity I drew was more closely aligned with the Toyota Prius across the street. The rooves both slope in a similar way. Ok roofs?
Great piece! Thanks for the writeup, your essays are always enjoyable.
Thank you so much. I do like that the rear panel of this Riviera has kind of a bluntness to it. If it had any kind of slope to it, it might have accentuated the length of the rear deck even more. I think that after the foreshortened ’86 models, the ’95 went in the entirely different direction with the length of the trunk relative to the entire profile.
This Riviera does have an aquatic feel, either as a nautical vessel, or as a sea creature! I seized control of the discussion and gave my Riv a suitable mascot for the rear window. The Hanna Barberra shark character named Jabber Jaws. I told my Wife that the car is like a shark, but a friendly one. It was either that, or Charlie the Tuna, and my Riviera was a predator, not prey!
I’ve always been a 2 door 70s lincoln mark series guy (still am) but when I got behind the wheel of my first Riviera I fell in love!! Now I own 2 Rivieras a Black 95 with a sun roof and a red 97 with all the add-ons! And of course both are Supercharged 3.8l!!!! If you are looking for a 95-99 Riviera find a 97-99 they have the better Supercharger and transmission!!!
That small oval grille is sooo 90s. Then Audi came out with their giant horse collar and grilles got big.
A lot of today’s giant grilles are due to changing pedestrian-impact regs that effectively require taller, blunter front-ends, so noses with busier styling and bigger grilles help camouflage just how tall they’ve become.
As for Audi, the introduction of their gimmicky, contrived “tombstone” grille marks the end of when Audi designs held any appeal for me. IMO if they wanted a bigger “signature” grille with more bling as a luxury/prestige signifier, they should have just enlarged the Auto Union rings to become the entire grille opening above the bumper. Pretty much only Audi could do that, having such a short, wide horizontal logo, so nobody else could really copy them in that regard.
You could argue the original Ford Taurus (and a few other Fords that came later) had a grille where the logo determined its shape.
I did a quick Photoshop exercise. If the nose was about 30 cm longer, adding mass in front of the door shutline it would have looked good. If the glass house had moved back by about 20 cm it would have been stunning.
At the front, the way the grille seems to be melted over the lamps is unfortunate. Ford worked out how do an oval grille on the Mk 1 Mondeo Series 2 in Europe.
There are well-recognised conventions for car proportions. There´s no point in trying sell a car without meeting those standards.
The Lancia Kappa, another lovely car, is hamstrung by being a bit too tall and having a nose that is a bit too short.
The Riviera is still a nice car though.
GM´s advertising copy implies that only Riviera can make your heart race (and implies nothing else that they make is at all exciting).
Late to the party, but had a busy week reading (and writing) other stuff. Can’t miss a Joseph Dennis post though.
Good find. I was always mildly disappointed by this Riv. Qualified kudos (can you do that?) to GM for breaking out of the rectangular mindset, and also for realizing at last that a Buick name on a lightly-restyled Chevrolet/Olds/Pontiac does not make a Buick. There has to be something distinctive that anyone can see from a distance. Like a different body. Especially when it’s ostensibly your range-topper.
So, score points for the body in general. It doesn’t look like any other GM car, good. Bonus points for rounding the front and rear corners; that’s GM embracing the current style. Take marks off for those awkward headlights with that square inner top corner. Lose more points for the odd rear end. The tail light panel looks like it has fallen an inch or two from where it ‘should’ be.
But the sides – the general shape and detailing is nice, but as others have said, the cab looks like it should have been about three or four inches further back. Hood’s too short, trunk’s too long. It needs that first Riviera’s classic stance and proportion, and it doesn’t have it.
Has anyone pointed out the late-production Mark VIII parked directly behind the featured Buick, in a similar color no less? Hands down would’ve been my choice were i shopping in the segment at the time.