Early bird buffet, anyone?
So, armed with my first job, I was now tasked with buying my own wheels. My parents had been very generous with tuition and transportation up to this point. I was 25 and it was time to pay my own bills, and I was fine with that. But, my new job was “eat what you kill”, meaning I got to keep a percentage of my gross. As a newbie and low man on the totem pole, though, there wasn’t much gross or net.
So, I examined my meager savings, and budgeted accordingly. I was about to be engaged as well, so I needed money for a ring too. I was barely paying my rent, so I wanted to keep a cushion on hand. I really didn’t like the idea of a loan or additional monthly burden.
I decided I had $5,500.00, max, to commit to wheels. That didn’t leave me a lot of good options. It was about the same as $8,700.00 now. That ruled out recent Hondas, Toyotas and the like. I knew that I could probably get more bang for my buck with a used American car. Today, I’d probably be looking at used Dodge Avengers (and maybe used Centurys)!
I didn’t have any brand affinity; no one in my family had ever owned a Ford anything, so I ruled that out. Nothing wrong with a Ford at all, they just didn’t register with me and I didn’t know one from another. My grandmother had driven Bonnevilles for years. She was on a 1990 after the 1984 I used to wax so often. So, maybe a Poncho?
My grandfather on the other side of the family had driven nothing but Buicks since his WWII discharge. He traded every three years or so, and did so (still nothing but Buicks) up to his passing in 2008. His 1976 Electra really seared itself into my memory as a young boy; so big, so floaty, so luxurious. We had a 1976 Volare prior to the 1979 240D. Geez, that Electra was another automotive dimension from those two entirely!
By this time, he was on a 1993 or so LeSabre, the “rounded off” looking one from the second front wheel drive generation. My girlfriend from grad school (soon to be my fiance, and now my wife of 21 years) lived in a nearby big city. One weekend, I went to their Cadillac/Olds dealer. It was billed as one of the largest in the USA at the time. I sure couldn’t afford their new cars, but knowing my grandfather’s buying habits, I surmised they might have more quality used cars than they knew what to do with.
I drove a loaded late 80’s front wheel drive Park Avenue. It was at my price point, in good cosmetic condition too, but had close to 100,000 miles. And it looked a little too “old” for a 25 year old guy.
Restrained and tasteful by Detroit standards of 30 years ago….
I wandered the lot and sure enough, a good looking 1991 Buick Century towards the back caught my eye, silver with blue cloth. Wire wheels, but no vinyl roof. Only 40,000 miles! Brand new whitewall Michelins too (do they even make those anymore?) Call me crazy, but in 1995 this was a tasteful, good looking car. It looked “adult”, but not “retirement home”. It was a Custom, which meant it had a low sheen navy blue cloth with a plain design as opposed to the shiny, loose pillow velour of a Limited.
But, oddly for a Custom, it was loaded: power windows, power locks, cassette with equalizer, tilt wheel, power seats, cruise, wire wheel covers, and the optional four speed automatic with a 3.3 liter V6, a destroked version of the anvil-like 3.8 Buick V6.
Only problem was, it was priced well above my wallet; $8,995.00 I vividly recall. But, the salesman made a few ill-advised remarks that caught my attention. He said they had sold it a couple of times, but the loan fell through each time. He also said with the high brow new car clientele they stayed busy with, they just didn’t have a lot of used Century shoppers. Thus, it was sitting in the back of the lot. One and two year old 98’s and Fleetwoods lined the street.
At the time, my state used windshield inspection stickers with the date of inspection marked. Dealers had to inspect new and used cars before they were put on the lot, so I could tell from the sticker, the car had been sitting there for many months.
I made my low ball offer. I told him I could go to the bank and bring them $5500 cash, all in, not a penny more, right now. He rolled his eyes and went to talk to the sales manager in the typical glass booth in the middle of the showroom.
$8,995.00 for that car somewhere else would have been a quick sale. A used car lot away from the franchise dealers, or even better, a buy here/pay here lot. The shoppers at this lot at that time were, I would imagine, a lot of elderly people who paid cash for a new DeVille. The right buyer just wasn’t passing through the hallowed gates of one of the largest Cadillac/Olds dealers on the East Coast. It’s still there, too, as a Cadillac/GMC/Buick dealer, somewhat ironically.
He came back after a bit, and said “Go to your bank, it’s yours. I’ll get it washed while you’re gone”. Really, it’s mine? Was I sure I even wanted it? I mean, I liked it, but what would my family think? Would they think I had gone off the rails? The paperwork was done, and I drove out a Buick man.
I soon realized that I would, indeed, rather have a Buick. There’s plenty of reasons the Century and Olds Ciera took the middle class, senior citizen, rental fleet and government motor pool world by storm up until their 1996 demise. They were cheap, quiet, generally reliable, roomy enough, had freezer-grade A/C, got decent fuel mileage, a huge trunk all things considered, and with the V6 had pretty good scoot as well. You could chirp the tires with ease, with the typical overly responsive GM gas pedal. The factory stereo was the best I had experienced in a car up to that point. The silence, comfort and power accessories as compared to the 320i and Prelude was, frankly, welcome. It’s apples to oranges to compare those three cars, I know, but I was ready for a change.
My girlfriend was fine with it……she had a Cavalier at the time, and her first car was a new 1986 Escort. So she had low expectations, I guess you could say.
My parents were probably aghast but were polite about it. My 80ish grandmother was over the moon in love with it; wanted to go for a ride that minute; told me it was “classy” and “so tasteful”! She probably would have said that if I pulled up on a tractor, she was that kind of nice and supportive person. But to a newly minted working man, trying to stay within budget, getting engaged soon, and wanting to look “grown up” to my employer and clients, it seemed right. It wasn’t the car I wanted, but it was the car I needed.
We got married in 1996 and I continued to commute for a time from her “big city” home base back to my job. At work, the Century racked up miles quickly. More effort=more travel=more gross for the firm=more net for me. Soon, I was covering a five county area for one of our bigger clients. I didn’t hit all five counties every week, but sometimes I did.
With our other car being the Cavalier, the Buick was usually the ride of choice. We were visiting family, going to friend’s weddings, going to the beach, and generally staying on the road every weekend. By 1998, the Century had racked up 30,000 miles a year or 130,000 miles total. All it had needed was a set of tires and a muffler. I changed the oil every 3,000 miles (didn’t everyone back then?) but I wasn’t picky about what went in…..I usually got the cheapest service at Walmart or Jiffy Lube. It had escaped the factory with a much better than average paint job, it still shone like new.
My dad piped up about this time with a lead on a used car for us. He had retired, but his former employer still called him to help dispose of company cars no one wanted. There was one coming off a four year lease that the executive didn’t want to keep. The buyout would be pretty cheap; they usually structured it that way so the employee could buy it cheap at lease-end.
Borrowed from another CC post in fact……
We decided to keep the Buick; that seemed like the logical choice. It had high miles, but looked good and ran great. Our first child was on the way, so the two door Cavalier didn’t seem like it would work for us when she arrived. The Cavalier went back to my in-laws who had bought it for my wife in college. They traded it for a new Ford truck. And we were off to the bank to get our first car loan, and first car together!
What was your first “adult” car purchase? A car you didn’t necessarily want, but knew you needed?
As the proud (former) owner of a ’93 Century I know of what you speak. We were looking for a car in the $2000 range to tide us over during a move (long story).
A quick search found a one owner ’93 with the 3.3, three speed automatic, power windows and locks, with only 41,000 miles. It had been purchased new by an elderly couple; he loved that car so much there was car wax caked in a few crevices and he had even waxed the wiper arms. Sold.
Other than brakes, the car was great. The only problems I had with it were self-inflicted; I changed the plugs and wires and one of the wires I failed to secure flopped around, touching the O2 sensor, frying the engine computer. The other was my running a car with 20 year old transmission fluid; it started to slip one day and I had it flushed out. It was fine after that but still never seemed quite right.
That’s a factor in my we sold it.
I sold the car to a teenager who loved it dearly. Recently I saw the boy’s father and learned he has recently sold the Buick after it had some little gremlin that kept showing itself. The new owner quickly found the problem and is driving the tar out of it. I saw it about two weeks ago and it still looks great.
Ah, when a young man’s fancy turns to…Buick. I believe I was about the same age as you were when I bought my first one, a LeSabre T-Type from a Cadillac dealer, bringing down the dealership’s age demographic by a significant margin. It was a great car and like you followed something very different, in my case an ’86 GTI.
I’m enjoying this series immensely, it is very relatable to me.
Agreed, the best used cars come from elderly prior owners who bought them new. The AAA or AARP sticker is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. 🙂
I never had one of these, preferring to stick with the bigger cars. But my middle son is doing the very same thing now, rocking Grandma’s 2006 Lacrosse, which has been an excellent car so far.
I wonder when you will treat us to an article about this LaCrosse. I think somewhere you commented about the ergonomics of the seat.
I believe he already did with this: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/future-classic/future-curbside-classic-2006-buick-lacrosse-how-to-make-your-very-own-cc-at-home/
Comin’ right up. 🙂
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/future-classic/future-curbside-classic-2006-buick-lacrosse-how-to-make-your-very-own-cc-at-home/
Nice Buick, great story .
-Nate
Well done story, well done negotiation and I feel it’s still true: ” in 1995 this was a tasteful, good looking car. It looked “adult”, but not “retirement home”. That means I won’t call you crazy. In fact it was a very rational choice.
Is that an actual picture of your grand parents? Just lovely!
Here is my question: which car fits your description of the ’91 Buick Century today?
“They were cheap, quiet, generally reliable, roomy enough, had freezer-grade A/C, got decent fuel mileage…… silence, comfort.”
I bet the Buick Lacrosse will make that list.
I sure hope so. I’m 52 and want more comfort (and quiet – the tire noise on Oregon’s interstates is deafening) in my next car than I have now. I’ll be trading when I’m 56. I had a good experience with my 95 Ciera, which was a great car for the interstate road trips I like to do.
Not my actual grandma! But they could be sisters, actually. Pretty close for a stock photo. Today? Lacrosse would be on the list. There’s a lot of older, low mileage DTS’s and Lucernes bouncing around my area too. Close to $8700 might find you a decent one on a good day. $10K or so ought to do it.
How, how can this story of a handsome, comfortable, smooth, quiet, well-made and reliable car be true – when it is, of all things, an AMERICAN car made by GM???!!?
Broken clock, twice a day and all that. If only GM would let itself sort out the gremlins before canceling in favor of the new newest thing where they have to fix all the big and little problems all over again.
Mine was a 1991 Olds Cutlass Ciera, mid level trim, only 22k miles, white with blue cloth interior. I loved that car, understated yet classy, smooth and quiet (and compared to my previous ride, a 1987 Hyundai Excel, the Ciera seemed like a Rolls-Royce!)
There was nothing wrong with these cars that a little updating couldn’t fix. Problem is, GM left them to rot on the vine for far too long. At least they got an improved roofline in ’89. But those awful door-mounted seatbelts – that would be enough to turn me away.
I can’t imagine the replacement cost of huge one-piece taillamp in the rear…
Pick-A-Part will probably take $50 for one
Mine was a 1980 Pinto wagon base model. 50k miles, 2.3 Lima, 4sp manual trans, little else. I paid $1850 for it in 1985. Since I would be attending college 400 miles from home, it would serve as a good truck to haul all my earthly possessions between home and college. Turns out I never returned home after that freshman year, but the car was a sound investment. I drove it six years, and took my (now) wife on our first date in it. Sure, I got all the jibes about Pintos being nerd-mobiles, exploding gas tanks, etc., but it was pretty much the perfect car for me at that stage of life. I long to find one to restore as an homage to my first car.
Neat story about a car that is getting real thin on the ground.
My first “adult” purchase was a ’75 Monte Carlo bought for $1200 in 1988. I was working for Chrysler Credit as a field rep, and part of the job involved separating people that couldn’t pay from their current ride, so everyone that worked for the firm were a bit shy to finance a car that you might have trouble paying for. The Monte was bought because I had a company car, but knew within a couple of weeks of working for the firm that it wasn’t going to be a long term proposition and that a set of “escape” wheels were needed.
As an aside, I can recall a retail sale of a used ’89 (demo) Daytona with the 3.0 Mitsubishi V-6 running up a note for $48,200, once interest, insurances, and various other add-ons were included. Big surprise that the first payment bounced. Examples like this caused most employees to avoid debt financing.
Picture of the Monte was taken a number of years after acquisition.
Is that the one you still have? If so, it looks like you made a great call on an inexpensive used car.
Jim
The one that you saw in Dearborn is the twin, which I’ve had around 17 years (see the subtle differences in the same shot). The original has been very reliable and is still on it’s original driveline. It was bought with 113k and now has about 265k miles. The body originally had a cheapo redo in 1988, and a nice redo about 4 year ago with a new vinyl roof. The body was still decent after all that time, attributable no doubt to an annual oil spray.
A Buick also followed me home some 20 years ago, Although not a Century, it was a Grandma special. Perhaps I needed a bit more parental supervision before making “adult” car purchases!
I recall driving the Centuries and Cierra’s when I worked for a car leasing company. To me, the latter v-6’s made the car as quiet, peppy, and Buick-like. The Iron Duke versions were a bit too much of a hair shirt compared to that.
Dean, that’s a wonderful LeSabre. About 2000 I encountered its tan sibling, an ’83 model, with about 50,000 miles. Test driving it was wonderful but I had too many cars at the time. In retrospect, I should have bought it and sold some of the others.
The first car I “needed” that I never would have purchased myself was a 1988 Chevy Corsica. It was my first company car. We had a great relationship with our local Chevy dealership and made multiple purchases from them. They’d deliver 10-15 new cars to our office, and off we’d go. The Corsica was a plain four door with a four banger. Let’s just say I was ambivalent. After 100,000 miles in three years I loved the darn thing. It was like a faithful pet. It was always there eager to go do business, no matter what rotten road conditions the nasty CNY winters might create. It never broke or let me down.
After it was replaced by a 1992 Grand Prix, our controller bought it and took it over 200,000 miles. The GP almost put me in the hospital with back spasms, but that’s another story for another day.
FSDusk: the way I felt when I bought the ONION: ambivalent, but after 12 years, I’m obsessed with it in a sick way.
Somehow, asinine ignition switch and all, it has wormed it’s way into my heart with it’s polymer panels, low cost of ownership and overall weirdness. Still looks like a late model, the awkward styling is almost conservative compared to current offerings like the Civic, and the fuel economy is respectable.
Only once in 12 years have I had a need to haul more than the trunk and back seat could handle.Studebaker Lark or Checker like with front and rear fenders that can be removed by disconnecting “bolts” or fasteners.
Sometimes the most modest things can reap vast rewards.
Only did that once. I came to the rational decision that running a 20+ year old Benz was not going to work when I only had one vehicle for the first time ever practically, and compromised by swapping a clapped out W124 (actually, it was swapped under a car cover) and an Isuzu FRR for an ’05 ML350 and a less transient flea market business. I hated the vehicle and the compromise, and when I replaced it 3 years later with a new Metris I swore I would never compromise again.
You’re certainly not the only young man to appreciate the virtues of a Buick. In 1986 my uncle bought a new Century Custom at the ripe old age of 25, having just obtained a law degree. His was sparsely equipped compared to yours. I believe the only options it had was AM/FM and AC. His Century had an Iron Duke under the hood, and to this day, I can still recall the coarse, belabored groaning that engine emitted at all times.
My first adult car, purchased new, was a 1986 Acura Integra. I bought it for rather odd reasons. I didn’t want, and really couldn’t actually afford a new car but as the wheels of life turned, it was my best option.
I had lived outside the United States for right at a decade until my company forced me home with an unasked for promotion and transfer. It was a case of ‘if they ask you to dance, and you say no, they probably will never ask you again’. So ‘Mercia here we come!!’. I needed a car, of course, but soon discovered a snag: no credit. After a decade of no activity, you become a non-person in credit terms. Car loan? HAH! Banks understand good-credit history, and they understand bad-credit history. They don’t understand no credit history. They run in terror. Well, using our life savings, I could afford to buy a car in cash, but I would still have no credit , no credit history, and still couldn’t get a credit card. Without a credit card, in America you can’t do nuthin’.So, I needed credit. With the help of a friend, I found a Credit Union willing to (sort of) work with me. I had to deposit the price of the car in a Certificate of Deposit, and then the Credit Union would give me a loan for the car…AND a credit card with a $500 limit. Done, and and Bless You Credit Union; I remain a loyal customer to this day.
Now why the Integra? Fate. I was a car-mag fan-boi so I knew of the Integra and Honda’s plans. There was a new Acura dealership that had just opened in our city. However- Honda had not yet started any advertising and nobody knew what an ‘Acura’ was… and nobody was buying them thanks to the ugly lesson America had just learned about buying unfamiliar funny-named cars (hint: Think Hyundai Excel and Yugo). The Acura salesmen were starving-. My other Ace in the Hole was a friend who was a professional negotiator for our company, who bought the car for me; I didn’t show up till it was time to write the check. He was brutal with the car salesman and told me later he had just kept pointing out I didn’t have to buy an Integra and every time he said that the salesman winced. I honestly believe that I am the only person ever who bought an early Integra below list price. Even more amazing, because the radio was an extra $600 option on the base Integra, I demanded to and actually bought the car without one. After the car was mine, I went to the parts department and bought the same radio for $400 and installed it myself in less than an hour – the car even already had the speakers installed from the factory.
Summary – the whole experience was an amazing lesson in American capitalism.
As an A-body fan whose favorite color is blue, I nearly swooned when I saw the picture of that blue interior!
My first “adult” car purchase was probably our ’86 Chevy Celebrity wagon in 1995. It was getting a little rough around the edges but whadda ‘ya expect for $1,500? It was fairly attractive, though- white with wood grain and it had a maroon red velour interior. It only needed one major repair at the beginning, which was to install a rebuilt power steering rack, which my father in law and I did ourselves. After a professional alignment, my wife and I were rewarded with a fairly solid and highly useful vehicle. This particular Iron Duke four cylinder with THM125 3-speed auto trans took a licking and kept on ticking economically for about 8 more years in our family.
During this time at least three other ’85 through ’93 A-body GM cars passed through our extended family. Most were pretty drama-free. A Buick Century owned by my father in law grenaded it’s Iron Duke, but that particular car had been purchased cheaply. The body and interior was still good, so we installed a junkyard replacement engine and the car gave him no other major issues.
I had quite a few adult cars as a kid – but they were all well past their “best if used by” date. Wouldn’t have been in my price range otherwise. My 1st adult car as an adult needing a family car was a 1989 Eagle Premier LX. A wonderful driving car, but not a durable one. 3k miles/$10k off the Concord CA Budget Rent-A-Car sales lot.
First adult car was inspired by my parent’s brown 84 Olds Ciera, Iron Duke and all. Quiet, well trimmed, roomy. I loved it.
I found an 84 Citation II notchback two toned with champagne beige upper and lush brown metallic lower. Mag wheels. $1600, 80,000 miles.
After having the Valiant as a daily driver for ten years, this Citation was a revelation: auto [no 3 speed on the column], AC [that worked], cruise control [that didn’t], Iron Duke, power disc brakes [rather than non powered drums] in front, power steering [developing “morning sickness” at that point], well trimmed and like my Father’s Olds, rode well and was quiet.
The start of a long fascination with GM. A 99 Cavalier 2 door would be my first new car because of that Citation, by the 96 incarnation, so close in size and spec to that 80-85 X Car.
Followed by the 86 Olds Calais, which didn’t ride as well as either the Ciera or Citation but handled way better [and still does, little bro has it now] and as nicely trimmed.
My affection for GM fizzled awhile ago. I’m more inclined to seek out an Avenger/Sebring/200 to 2015 than anything from GM at this point.
The A-bodies had their merits, for sure, including shut-up-and-keep-running dependability, inexpensive repairs (mostly), and utter anonymity in traffic. They had their drawbacks, too, including those hideously unsafe door-mounted seatbelts in the apposite year range (one of GM’s stupidest ideas, and think about that for a minute), rather poor headlamps after the switch away from sealed beams, general crudity throughout (some more than others: iron duke vs V6, etc) and an enduring position near the top of most-stolen-vehicles lists.
An idea isn’t responsible for who believes it, and a car isn’t responsible for who steals it. 🙂
The FWD A-body managed to hit that GM sweet-spot target of being ‘just good enough’ for domestic loyalists or those without the cash reserves for a Camry or Accord. But, as stated, they had to put up with those door-belts (among other things). It’s hard to know who was worse, GM’s manual door-belts or Ford’s motorized mouse-belts. Either way, I have no doubt that it’s just another reason there were more than a few former domestic buyers who switched to a Japanese product for their next car.
My first “adult ” car purchase, with no help from anyone was when I was 20.
I lived on base at Ramstein air base. I was told not to bring my truck over as it would stick out like a sore thumb.
I was making payments on it ( mom co-signed the loan)
I couldn’t do two payments on my salary and still do anything fun, that wasn’t going to work in a place I really wanted to explore.
I bought a used beater from a coworker for a whole $500.
It was a 87 Ford Sierra four door hatchback.
He bought it from another guy in the shop a while before.
That guy’s wife hit a guard rail on the autobahn. The front fender was caved in the drivers doors were gray and the rest of the car was brown.
It had a big Heineken sticker on the back window…… that when I took it off my boyfriend said it was the only way he could recognize my car…….
On a different note, your second picture, of the Buick Electra looks just like the one my mom bought in 1991. I really loved that barge
Well written story and interesting COAL.
My first “adult” car was a 1992 Ford Taurus. My wife sold her 1982 Camaro Sport Coupe and we traded what was my first brand new car, a 1984 Chevy Cavalier Hatchback, for it.
We were open to size and make, but knew we wanted a 4 door. So before settling on the Taurus we looked at the Chevy Lumina (quality issues, or perhaps more fairly the impression of such), the Olds Acheiva (hard to overlook an Olds emblem simply falling off the car during a test drive), Mazda 626 (almost bought), and the Honda Accord and Civic (the dealer just wouldn’t deal and had a lot of added-on mark-ups).
Not really our first choice at the time, but our blue Taurus with it’s 3 liter V6 turned out to be a very good car. Perfect for a growing family, and never let us down in well over 100,000 miles. A lot of great family memories with that Taurus.
Mine was a ’69 Chevy Impala, 4 door, brown with a black vinyl roof and I want to say a 307 under the hood. I got it in ’76. I loved that car until an idiot friend I stupidly lent it to wrecked it, and I got a ’71 Nova, 2 door, green, also with a black roof and a 307, which felt like an anonymous stripper in comparison the Impala. BTW, I now drive an ’02 Stratus with almost 300,000 miles. Sitting next to it in my driveway is my last car, a ’92 Buick LeSabre, which I loved, but finally quit me at 333,000 (I got it with 130,000). Anyone know what I should do with it?
I’m a high school teacher so I have a lot of opportunities to chat about cars with 16 through 18 year olds. A lot of my students start out with BMWs, including several with brand new models. I was looking forward to this week’s post, because I’ve long wondered about what happens to these kids when it’s time to leave the family nest.
I still own my first “adult” car – a 2004 Mazda 2. Every car or motorcycle prior was purchased at least partly because I wanted it rather than just needed it. I did not want that Mazda.
We were living in the city and making do without a car, but my wife was tapped by a Royal Mail van during her bike ride to work, while pregnant with our first child. She sent me to the auction to buy “something with four doors, not too big”. It cost £1200 with 86000 on the clock (1500 inc fees). That was in 2012, it has now done 123000 and going strong but very rusty, and has been relegated to being my commuter with the arrival of son number 2 and a Renault Scenic.
I know I’ve said some harsh things about these later Centuries but is nice to hear you had such a good experience. These were solid used car buys and even when new, I can understand why someone would buy one as they were a proven quantity and a lot of metal for the money. Of course, GM still should have updated these or, better still, built the Skylark and Regal with the same care. All GM cars of the era should have been at the top of JD Power rankings, not just the A-Bodies.
I’ve owned 3 Buick Century’s- 1989, 1991, & 1993 all wagons and all with the 3300. All went close to 200k very reliably, and when a drunk driver with an F150 broadsided my wife, she walked away without injury. The wagons were very versatile and actually fit in the average garage.
Good cars IMHO.
My first ‘adult’ car was a 16 year-old dark green Mercedes 250 sedan I bought in 1988. Once I got it fixed-up, cleaned-up, shined-up, and added a pair of factory Hella fog-lamps, it looked like a million bucks!
It was the first car I had that didn’t cry “impoverished teenager”, with a wonderful straight-six that idled smoother than some V8s. I think I did get a bit more respect driving that thing, especially the following year, when I was shopping for my first house.
Drove it until 2002 when the rust finally caught up with it!
Happy Motoring, Mark
Great story, man.
My friend had an 86 Escort exactly like your girlfriend’s, same color, too. He went everywhere with that car…New Hampshire, tons of times.
Great cars…So much so, I bought a white 86 Escort wagon.
Now, my first car, was a 73 Cadillac Coupe de Ville…I actually DID want it. Wish I had it now. 🙁
The car I had to have at the time, because it was winter and I needed to get to work, was a 73 AMC Hornet sedan, primer gray and ugly as heck…but that Straight 6 ran mint.
I also have a Buick in my stable of cars…an 85 Regal Custom coupe, with only 70,000 original miles.
I bought it from my good friend, whose a retired firefighter. It’s a great car, and one purchase I don’t regret buying. 🙂
First adult car out of college was bought when I finished college and got a job as a support engineer/tech at the same university and lived at home, all while I was still gunning for more lucrative work in industry in the Midwest (to be closer to my then gf, now wife). I made the 10 hour drive out each way every month to see her, my ’98 MPV Allsport hand-me-down did a great job in the snow and was fantastically comfortable, but also got about 19mpg and always had something in need of repair (and parts were often times dealer-only and painfully pricey). I started with a budget of $10k for a used newer sedan that got 30mpg,+ ultimately ended up buying a lightly used (11k miles) ’12 Civic LX 5spd manual for $15k, took out a small 36 month loan to make up the difference in my budget that I paid of quite quickly. Kept it for 3 more years after I got the sweet industry-gig in the Midwest, ultimately grew quite bored with it (I like cheap old cars I can tinker with). Sold it on craigslist for quite a good price ($11k), worked out to a quite low cost per mile. Sad to say, I don’t really miss it. I have more memories associated with the 2 $1600 cars I owned for less than a year each after it.
This is exactly how I feel.
I’m currently on my fourth midsize sedan. I leased the first two, an ’04 Accord LX and an ’07 Sonata GLS. They were both great cars, but I never really warmed up to either one. To me they were appliances devoid of quirks.
The next two were beaters – a ’94 Volvo 940 that I ran for almost eight years, and which was replaced this spring by a ’97 Camry LE that I acquired for the princely sum of $500. Neither one was perfect, but through the sheer passage of time alone, both sedans had a acquired a certain heritage and patina that made them unique and interesting in their own right.
My first adult car was the 2001 Trooper, bought new when Binky came along and I needed 4 doors and air bags. While it’s no longer my daily driver, it’s still serving us well on vacation at it’s semi-retirement post in New England.
My aunt and uncle bought a ’92 Century as their last new car. Same color and all. It served them well I’d say although my aunt replaced it with a gently used Camry after 17 years.
In 1986 I needed a car for college. My sister’s hand-me-down Mustang II was on its last legs. My parents found out about a car that was for sale through a friend. It was a 1984 Century Limited Coupe (yes coupe) that we got from the original owner – a middle aged couple – that special ordered it for the wife because they felt the Regal was too big. Well, the wife thought the Century was too big too – or so she said. I felt like a million bucks in that car. But alas – it was a lemon! Sadly, I had numerous problems with that car shortly after I got it, but I still loved it. Heck, a 19 year old in a 2-year old loaded black Buick Century Limited? I thought I was the coolest. And all my friends did, too. It was roomy, had the most comfortable red cloth pillow seats ever – and rode and handled great too. But the dreaded 3.0 litre V-6 was a nightmare. And I babied that car – so it wasn’t as if it was used and abused. Three rebuilds later I decided it was time to part ways. I bought a brand new 1989 Escort GT and it was a great little car. I kept it for a couple of years and bought another one in 1991 and loved that one too. But I never forgot about that Century. On a whim in between new cars I wanted a sports car so I bought a 1988 Nissan 300ZX that was not very good in bad weather. I only had it about 6 months and decided I needed something more practical. I had a neighbor that had a mint condition white 1987 Century Limited sedan with the rare ‘T’ package and I had told them if they ever wanted to sell their car I wanted it. Well, the timing was right and they decided to sell so I sold my 300ZX and grabbed that Century. With the 3.8 SFI engine that car was amazing. So reliable, fast and a real joy to drive. It was loaded with nearly very possible option they offered, too. I loved that car and drove it well over 200k miles. I can attest to the fact that if those A-bodies were optioned right they could be downright luxurious, not to mention they were roomy, good on gas and reliable. The original ones needed the bugs fixed – but as the model years went on GM perfected them and the result was simply great cars.
My 2004 Buick Rendezvous – not so much a purchase, but an inheritance. three years ago I was driving a well used and loved 1995 Ford Explorer with 350,000 miles on it. I had just wrecked it (first wreck that was my fault in 300,000 miles of driving!) but it was also starting to suffer a decline with the transmission slipping pretty good. I was relying increasingly on my 1977 Chevelle sedan, until someone made me an offer on the Explorer, when the 40 year old sedan was pressed into daily driver duty as I was not in a position to buy a car.
I drove the 77 for about a year, when Mom passed away, She and Dad were going to buy a new car to replace the Rendezvous and we had talked about me buying it, it was 12 years old with 90,000 miles on it. During all the funeral arrangements I had been driving the Buick since Dad could get in and out of it fine, and he finally told me to just drive it home and he’ll get the title to me. They couldnt see me driving the 77 around with a newborn.
And really aside from some minor issues due to me racking up 60,000 miles on it in the last 2 years – living 50 miles from work will do that, it’s been anvil reliable. A dull machine for sure, and I’ve never really taken a shine to it, but it has sentimental value, and I’ve got lots of good memories of road trips with my parents in it.
Would I really rather have one of these? Well, no. My 2005 Subaru Legacy daily driver (my only new car purchase, ever) is hardly a hotbed of driver involvement, but it beats GM’s Roger Smith Period avg. product by 3 cams, a bunch of valves, a reliable AWD system, and a coherent, user-friendly design inside and out. The weekend driver is a Series 1 E-Type FHC with 63k miles (this will be our 44th summer together). Whatever their differences, these are cars designed by people who refused to condescend to their customers, and actually made things they’d like to drive themselves…
I am 38 now so these were first produced when I was 3 years old and last produced when I was 17. Growing up I never thought much of these or the other cars like it. Now for the past 2-3 years I have had an unbelievable urge to own one! I’d like a wagon of course as I have been diagnosed with wagonitus and love all station wagons. I’d like either a Century or Cutlas Cierra. The problem is that good low mileage original condition wagons of these cars are like $9000. I’d like a nice 6000 STE sedan too but good luck finding one of those. My current dream garage would have a 1977-1990 Buick Estate Wagon, a 1996 Roadmaster wagon, and a 1996 Century wagon. All white with di-noc wood. All in that would be close to $30,000 for 3 old Buick wagons! I guess there are many others suffering from wagonitus and so the price for treatment has gone up recently due to limited supply and a large demand.