(First posted September 28, 2014; now with some revisions) While the 1990s were not the most exciting times for Buick, they were nonetheless good years to Buick from a sales and profitability standpoint. Unlike other GM brands, Buick had a clear focus and brand image as the traditional American premium car, but the 1987-1996 Regal is a Buick that has always baffled me as I’ve never been able to figure out who Buick saw as it’s intended buyer.
Was it supposed to be sporty? Comfortable? Luxurious? Affordable? Family-oriented? Personal? Youthful? Mature? In many ways, Buick tried to market it as all of the above, and no Regal model better represented these multiple dichotomies than the Gran Sport sedan.
Unlike past or future Gran Sports, this generation Regal GS received no performance upgrades. Differentiating it from lesser Custom and Limited trims, Gran Sports did receive two-tone paint with a lower gray accent, 16-inch aluminum wheels, bucket seats, and a standard gran touring suspension. It also appears that most GS sedans received the available trunk-mounted luggage rack – the closest thing one could get to a spoiler on a Buick from this era.
Inside, leather bucket seats were optional to give a hint of sportiness, though broad, flat cushions and sew style made this was a very faint hint. As a ’96, this example features the more ergonomic dashboard than the original, one that accompanied the addition of a passenger’s side airbag in 1995. Although a welcomed update, the more modern interior came at the expense of downgraded material quality, looking shockingly cheap just to muddle the car’s image even further.
Photographed in Hanover, MA – September 2014
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1996 Buick Regal Olympic Edition – Go For The Gold In Your W-body
The memories this post brings back! My beautiful ’93 Regal GS which was white with the grey two-toning and the same dove gray leather seats as shown here. Of the many, many cars I’ve had over the years, this was the most comfortable, best driving, least troublesome vehicle ever.
For those who have never experienced these seats, they were supremely comfortable. On more than one occasion, I would take my mother to Georgia to visit family (about a 400 mile trip) and then turn around and drive back to North Carolina in the same day. I haven’t owned a car since that has made me want to do this again.
However, the pattern in which the leather was sewn did mean the seats would eventually chafe in a particular spot and eventually split. Just about every Regal with these seats that I have seen have done this – unless the car is very low mileage or the owner sat on a towel or pillow or something to protect the seats. I wasn’t rough with my car but over time, the drivers seat still split.
When I worked at a phone company in the 90s an account executive had one of these…I forget what color it was. I was more interested in the guy’s other vehicle…a RWD Dodge passenger van with the vary rare single side and single rear door combo. That van I remember, it was blue over blue.
I go past a similar car most days during my therapeutic walk around the neighborhood. It has struck me as among the more attractive GM10s if one doesn’t let the obviously-cribbed-from-Mercedes grill get to be a bother.
I think its owner passed by one day when I was washing my 1995 Dodge Intrepid, and commented on its excellent condition. I really should compliment him on his Buick, which was probably garaged for most of its life, though it’s not, now. Cars sure can look better at nearly two decades than the did when I was a kid.
I did a double-take on the interior shot; the dash looks very similar to the XV10 Camry.
Thank you for this article and photos Brendan. I never really warmed up to these. I thought this generation Regal looked like a less attractive relative of the first generation Taurus and Sable. Only the Fords come across as cleaner and more original, with better integrated lines IMO. The wheel well shapes for example, don’t seem to match the rest of the body.
I like the Pontiac version best. But I think GM was still trying to find a styling identity here. Like a mashup of the square 80s look, with a softening of the sharp edges and upright rooflines, without making a clean break.
This steaming pile of GM offal makes one realize why SO MANY Accords and Camrys were sold in this time period.
Replete with a luggage rack! That’s a bewildering craze that I am glad to see gone.
Even more amazing – it’s styled like a luggage-rack-cum-spoiler!
I think the GS cars got a better final drive ratio, if memory serves – 3.33 vs 2.83 or something like that – my 95GS would blow the tires away from a stop, my aunt’s 88 Royale (3800 but diff. body) never could even get a chirp.
The GS Regal came std with the 3800 and for 1996 that engine was the Series II with 205 horses. 1993-1995 Regals had a 170 HP 3800. The only final drive available for any 3800 Regal GS, Limited or base was a 3.06:1. The full size GM sedans such as the Olds 88 for the 1988 model year came with a 2.73: ratio and keep in mind that the 3800 for model years 1988-1991 was the 165 HP engine so that would be the reason for the full sized car’s lower performance.
Ugh… the “swollen plastic” years!
This era Regal has always looked extremely awkward to me, in the same way the worst of GM’s ’80s front-drivers did. The roof is kind of cool and reminiscent of the ’59-’60 sedan bubble top, but I’m not so sure that it really agrees with the rest of the car. At least it has the 3800 and firmer suspension, being a GS model.
When these were new, I was in junior high and they seemed like the most uncool, hopelessly out of style cars on the road. If a single buyer under 60 purchased a Regal in 1996, I’d be shocked.
The next generation Regal GS, on the other hand, I was way into. One of the coolest sleepers of the ’90s.
I have to agree. The Buicks looked like a slapped-together mishmash of different themes. The Pontiac looked more coherent, but still all cladded up; the Oldsmobiles looked the best by far. I doubt any of them made Toyondassan lose a second of sleep.
On the other hand, I still like the ’97 B-O-P W-Bodies (especially the Regal GS), and they executed the organic theme MUCH better than their fish-faced Ford contemporaries.
The thing that always bothered me about them (and unfortunately about their immediate successors, which were much better looking on the outside) was the interiors. It’s the only time I’ve really felt British critics’ incessant carping about cheap-and-cheerless plastic quality. The wrinkled-leather seat trim really is at odds with the dash and console, which doesn’t seem in keeping with the Buick brand or the list price. (I had the same complaint about the final Riviera, which I think is lovely on the outside and has a disconcertingly ugly dash design that seems very cheaply executed for the class.)
IMO, the mid 90s were the absolute worst era for GM interior quality. It was pretty bad at times in the 70s too, but usually you could option those cars out to a point where they’d appear passable. With cars like these, there was just no getting past that puffy-but-hard plastic and chunky switchgear, which was like calculators or phones with huge buttons for old people. And Buicks from this time were generally a little higher quality than the other divisions, so it gets much, much worse than this.
I know I’ve mentioned it on here before, but I’ve always thought the last Riviera dash would have looked great if they had given it some contrast to match the original it was referencing.
This is a very cheap aftermarket kit, but with something like it from the factory, and perhaps a more pronounced center stack, I think they would’ve had a winner:
One of my big objections to the Riviera dash of that generation is the way the dark gauges and vents are set into the generally light-colored panel — it ends up created a pockmarked effect. The inserts (or another BD Trims kit I’ve seen that adds wood to the dash and doors) do alleviate that, but you still have the console, steering wheel, and lower dash, which remind me of the trim on cheap assemble-it-yourself office furniture.
The thing the BD Trims wood kit did emphasize was something I’d never noticed about the Riviera before: There’s a continuous sweep of the upper dash into the window sills to create kind of a flying bridge effect. It made me think the ’94 Riviera probably had a very nice interior design at the concept stages, but that the accountants really went at it with the proverbial machete.
I must agree with you. the exterior of the final (for now) Riviera still sets my sails, the interior really did let these cars down.
There was just so much wrong with the look of these cars. IMO, the greenhouse always looked too tall, especially from the side. I’ll give it one plus – It looked better than the Oldsmobile version’s roof. That was hideous.
Besides the roof, the front fenders also look too small for the car, as does the grill. The shape of the wheel wells is totally wrong too, They just don’t go with the shape of the car. Honestly, nothing went with the shape of this car… Just ugly.
IDK, I guess I never got the look of this car.
The grill to big, really? It’s the biggest grill of any of the 1st gen and 1.5’s even. I had to tape mine up for the engine to run at optimal temp. I am in love with my 96 GS. Bought for $140 without heads and now wears 07 Series 3 heads. 21 year old car with 235k miles and still runs strong! But hey, to each their own.
I am also strongly thinking about swapping on the front clip of a 2 door Cutty. I think the mix would be perfect!
At least by 1995 they updated the dash and added a normal radio instead of the of the control head on the dash and the actual radio stuffed deep behind the dash making it a pain to add an aftermarket radio and a pain if you need to replace the factory radio with another factory radio unit.
On one junk yard visit about 10-12 some years ago, I saw a W body getting crushed at a ‘pick n pull’ for the first time. Seeing the luggage rack, cladding, and B pillar handle disintegrate was pleasure, 🙂
I’ve only seen these cars in pictures, and I’m surprised that they were the same size of a Taurus. These Buick looks like it was smaller, and I think the styling doesn’t work at all, making for a hideous result (I think that the W Body Oldsmobile looks cool in pictures, though).
I think the main problem was that GM obsession in making the lower line of the windows way too low, making the proportions wrong and the car look disjointed, specially in the Lumina, but also here. And on top of that, they make that line an odd curve…
This was likely not the designers fault, as GM concepts from these times are cool. But fitting cool designs on fixed platforms or set dimensions for cost cuttings results in ugly compromises (I.e. Aztec)
Also, that grille is right for a Dodge, but a Buick?
I highly agree with you, as my GS replaced our ’00 Dakota with a very similar grill. Plus on this car is too big, and is the biggest of all w body’s.
I was shopping cars and tested a used rental Regal in 1995 because I liked the looks. The interior and the drivetrain were so awful (2.8 not 3800 in ex rental special) that I drove it out the side entrance of the lot, started laughing at it, drove around the corner to the front of the lot, and drove back in.
GS – that badge should not have been available without the supercharger.
That is all.
The Gran Sport was the Oldsmobile of Buicks.
To quote Chevy Chase as Fletch – “How do you like your Oldsmobuick?”
I just bought this “93 Limited for a grand. It needs a little work, but it’s a solid, comfortable car. I think I’m going to enjoy it.
As replacements for the G / (rear drive) A bodies that carried a lot of styling cues dating to the 1973-1975 era at GM, the first generation W bodies were quite jarring when they came out. They were definitely modern, and sort of took some Ford themes from the mid ’80s to a certain level of almost weirdness. GM was definitely smarting from accusations about look-alike cars after the introduction of the 1982 front-drive A bodies, and took model differentiation seriously, which eventually required shaping a lot of sheet metal around the same basic hard points, doubling down on the weirdness.
GM definitely dialed it back with the second gen W bodies…..
The new 95-96 interior, unlike the earlier version, was shared with the Oldsmobile Cutlass, right?
That it was more ergonomic than the previous version is debatable (though having a normal radio was unquestionably an improvement). The old version looked much better IMO though.
The radio, HVAC panel, and top center vents were located in the same place, but the center stacks were not interchangeable, as the towards the top, they differed in shape and concavity. Gearshift selectors with bucket seats and consoles also differed.
She looks sexy