(first posted 1/15/2013) I’ve always liked GM’s formal rooflines of the ‘70s and ‘80s. They were such a breath of fresh air when introduced, and the look worked so well with the downsized platforms that GM had started rolling out across its lineup. The inherent space efficiency of the design didn’t hurt: Back then (at elementary-school age), I thought that verticality of the roofline must be directly proportional to the cost of the car; after all, the Seville had the most vertical roofline of all and was the most expensive Cadillac.
Even the new ’77 full-size Cadillac didn’t have quite as upright a greenhouse. When the 1979 Eldorado, Toronado and Riviera came out, I delighted in their uppity upright (and very sharp edged) formal rooflines. Stunning! And with a price tag to match.
But then they took it too far and turned everything upside down. GM was eager to spread the “Seville school of styling” look to more cars, and at first it worked quite well. By 1981 you could get a Chevy Malibu with a Seville roofline, and Buick’s Century was touted as a “Little Limousine”. Let’s not forget the X-body FWD Olds Omega and Buick Skylark twins, which were ¾-scale versions of the original Seville. And, lo and behold, the Seville itself abandoned the formal roof for a 1930s-inspired fastback look! (I rather like that too, but that’s a different story).
That brings us to 1986 and the car I saw recently at the post office – a surprisingly clean 1986 Buick Skylark, part of the N-platform family that started replacing the ill-fated X-cars in 1985. Even though Ford had moved on to jellybean shapes (and Japan had never really copied the Seville look), GM was still soldiering on with its latest version of the Seville school–and even brought back the formal look to the Seville, which now looked dangerously similar to the much cheaper N-body.
There’s a bit of curviness to this roofline, although it’s upright as ever. These cars weren’t especially successful, but they did have some interesting features and sold well enough to continue until 1991, when they were replaced with a completely different and much wilder version that threw out the formal look once and for all. The rest of GM’s line followed suit, and after the 1993 Fleetwood Brougham, the upright roofline was history, at least at GM.
On its own merits, this Skylark isn’t such a bad little car. This example is a low trim-level version, crank windows and all, but it’s actually pretty nice for a car near the bottom of Buick’s lineup (the J-based Skyhawk was the smallest and cheapest Buick). Even on this base model, you had a cool pod-styled dash, brushed-metal (look) trim, recessed pull handles and plush looking seats. Little limousine, indeed! Buick did its best to put Buick cues onto the N-platform shared with Pontiac’s Grand Am and the Olds Calais.
The full-width taillights are very Buick, harking back to the 1965 Skylark, and the front end is very refined and “Regal”.
But whether you like the broughamy, limousine-like details or not, the market was moving toward cars like the 1986 Accord, which couldn’t have been more different in its no-nonsense sport sedan look–and with sporty pop-up headlamps to boot. We all know which won, but I love them both. Here’s to Buick’s last Little Limousine!
I was graduating from college at the time that this car was built, and wondered, “What must GM be thinking…or smoking?”
Even then, with my first real job and dreams of buying a new car, these cars failed to be something to which I’d aspire. With their squared-off rooflines, it was as though GM was trying to share a common styling element across its model lines in an attempt to build a brand identity. Only problem is, GM’s model lines at the time attempted to address an extremely broad range of buyers, without much differentiation of the basic platform.
Perhaps this is a bit harsh (and I actually like Broughams), but it works when you’re BMW in the 1980s and using a twin-kidney grille and a Hofmeister kink to evoke images of a 7-series in the minds of young, potential 3-series buyers. It utterly fails when you use a Brougham-inspired roof to evoke images of a Cadillac in the minds of young, potential N-car buyers…espeically when the Cadillacs of the time were driven by a somewhat less-than-agile buyer, shall we say.
I agree with you. I think the only people who really bought these cars new were little old ladies who either were too cheap to buy a big Buick or just wanted a small, easy to maneuver car with the looks of the bigger Buicks. I think we can agree that the Skylark nailed it with this small target market.
It hit with a few target buyers, the young, blong pretty and recently out of college single daughter of our across the street neighbors bought a blue 1985 Buick Somerset Regal.
I’m with BuzzDog. I graduated from Law School in 1985 and was ready for a new car. By this time, virtually nothing from GM was calling my name, although I tried to be open-minded about a Cavalier Type 10. I was driving a 77 New Yorker (yesterday’s CC) at the time, and everything that was still broughamy was a crashing fail compared to what I already had. But I was done with Broughams, and ready for some performance.
There was certainly a market for a small, broughamy car, but by 1986, most of that market preferred a Century or a LeSabre, which got considerably better fuel mileage than anything from the 1970s. These cars were aimed at people of my Mother’s age. In her case, she lived with a Plymouth Horizon from 1980-85, then splurged on a Crown Victoria. There were a lot of people like her, who had settled for small during the fuel price scare of a few years earlier, then returned to something bigger than these.
Wow the owner is apparently paranoid about it being stolen. Clean car though. And it’s cool to see a GM car of this era with a floor shifter and hand brake.
Yes, I noticed the period correct ‘club’ steering wheel lock. I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen one of these and they used to be everywhere. Cars have gotten a lot tougher to steal in the past 20 yrs.
Kia disagrees
The reason being that any GM car of that era is pathetically easy to steal. Just for the sake of not helping anyone, I won’t detail the method here. While the car itself may not be worth anything to speak of, if all you need is to “borrow” a set of wheels as a robbery getaway car or to head to the hood and score your drug of choice, you don’t care about that.
Chris totally nailed the “square = good” vibe of the times. The upright backlight did make sense if you were trying to maintain rear-seat headroom in a shortened non-hatchback. The modern solution is to drag the c-pillar so far back that you might as well have a hatch.
What really undermined the little-limo pitch was that, on every smaller 80s GM fwd car, you basically sat on the floor. A Horizon’s seat was a dignified Volvo throne compared to these velour beach chairs.
And of course GM did also do the quasi-hatchback roofline thing with the Aeroback cars, which were a commercial failure. I remember Car and Driver musing that that fact had singlehandedly convinced GM that the public wanted all backlights (except on Corvettes and F-bodies) to stand up straight and true.
Isn’t this car also called the Somerset Regal?
I wondered the same thing. I remember a classmate buying one of those. I remember thinking: “Buying this must make a guy feel like a real adult”, but I just couldn’t make myself do it. The Somerset seemed to me like a one-way ticket to a boring middle age, and not being out of my 20s yet, I wasn’t ready to completely grow up.
The Sommerset was the upscale version, I believe.
The Sommerset also had one interesting radio:
These radios were so cool! I almost included that picture in the article, but the low-trim example I found didn’t have it, so it either wasn’t on 4-doors or wasn’t offered by this year. (Honestly, I’m not completely sure if the car I found is a 1986 or 1987.)
Glad to help! This car must be a 1987, because the pod radios were only used for 1985 and 1986.
I have an 1986 and it looks just like it.
People hated them back then. Factory stereos could be ridiculously expensive, so there was a huge aftermarket. Not being able to replace the radio was a huge downside.
GM spent a bunch of money on strange radios in the 80’s, this was a tip of the iceberg, have you ever seen the pedestal mounted one on a Camaro Berlinetta? It swivels from side to side for driver and passenger use. GM also loved to used the split radio and casette unit in many 80’s cars( and the full size trucks until 1994), not to mention the strange “try and get an aftermarket unit in there bud” square radios that were used in the 1988 Regal and Grand Prix.
Thanks for that memory, Carmine! The first thing that came to mind after spotting that Camaro Berlinetta radio was the old Blaupunkt Berlin radio with the remote mounted stalk and radio control head. I believe they came on some late 70’s/early 80’s Porsche 911’s.
I worked at Delco Electronics during 1984-86 where these radios were made. We had a problem with Packard Wire in Ohio who made the wiring harnesses that exited the radio and connected inside the dash – they were too short!
That didn’t make the people on the assembly lines very happy . . .
Here’s how the Buick N-cars went: the coupes were introduced for 1985 as the Somerset Regal. It is widely believed that these cars were going to replace the larger G-body cars, so the fancier names were given to them (Somerset Regal, Calais Supreme, Grand Am). In 1986 the sedan appeared and was given the Skylark name. After 1987 all Buick N’s were called Skylarks. In traditional Buick fashion, the base models were Customs, and the upscale models were Limiteds.
Here’s another little tidbit for you all…The pod radios for 1985 had a fake woodtone trim that went around the outer edge of the pod, and in 1986 it was changed to the silver look as seen in the pic above.
And FWIW, the optional cassette deck would have been mounted in the console just below the climate controls…
Oh how I love late 80’s car design. With the space-age digital dashes on Japanese cars. Back when even Toyota had character.
My best high school friend had a 1985 Sommerset Regal as his first car in 1993. I always refered to that radio as a “Fish Finder”. He was not amused.
Thank you Dan, now I will forever think of these as fish finder radios. I still think they’re cool, though.
I guess it was supposed to have that component/aftermarket look, but it also looks like they ran out of room to put the radio and climate controls in the dash so they just tacked on a couple of pods/boxes.
There were some confusing name changes with these cars. In 1985, Buick’s N-car was a coupe only, and called Somerset Regal. In 1986 you could get the Skylark 4-door and Somerset coupe (the Regal name was dropped). Starting in 1988, both coupe and 4-door were called Skylark.
Also, the original Somerset Regal was a special trim package on 1980 RWD Regals, and it continued in 1981, I believe.
You sure do know your midsize Buick history well, Chris Greencar.
Paul, a GM deadly sin story would be the constant name burn game they played (and continue to play to some extent). Brand killing strategy.
Thanks, I vaguely remembered part of it, and looked up the rest. For some reason, Oldsmobile and Buick have always been my special favorite cars. It probably comes from spending a lot of time in Texas church parking lots as a child 🙂
Yes, I’ve been thinking the same thing…
I saw my first Somerset Regal in 1980. Tan with blue velour seats; blue pinstriping outside; reverse order inside. Back then, although I liked A (later G) bodies, I thought this one looked like a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. No thanks! I do recall the N bodies being Somerset for the coupes, Skylark for everything else. Aero headlamps came along for ’88 MY.
They sort of pitched the N-cars to sort of be a replacement/equivalent the RWD G-body coupes when they first came out, Olds did the same, using not only the popular Cutlass name but ALSO a trim level from the Cutlass, Calais. Pontiac re-hashed a midsize nameplate once again for the third time, the Grand Am, which was finally, the first time the Grand Am name was success.
The Buick N was interesting, only 1985-1986 models had that unique pod radio, and all Buick N-cars came with a full digital dash standard. All Buick N’s had a floor shift for the first several years too, a column shifter came later.
The high spec Somerset Regal Limited was nicely equipped inside with snazzy velour buckets with available leather, door warning and courtesy lights, rear seat armrest and reading lights, not your usual compact fare.
OK Carmine, do you think the car I shot is a 1987, then?
It doesn’t have the pod radio, but it does have the quad non-aero headlamps, so it can’t be any newer than 1987.
I’m going to go with 1987, Buick used brushed trim for 1987 in several cars, it was tastefull, my grandmother had an 87 LeSabre Limited with the brushed trim, they reversed that idea in a year or so and went back to Superfake(TM) Wood trim on all their cars.
Both Buick and Oldsmobile were playing name games with their N-body cars, which confused customers. I’ve also read that these cars were initially planned to replace the old rear-wheel-drive intermediate coupes, which may explain the somewhat confused naming scheme. This was planned when gas prices were projected to hit $3 a gallon (in 1980 dollars).
At any rate, it’s clear that Oldsmobile and Buick were trying to tie these cars to their very successful intermediate coupes, which were selling well even in the early 1980s.
These were rolled out in the thick of the chaos caused by Roger Smith’s infamous reorganization of GM and attempt to heavily automate all GM factories. GM quality suffered greatly during this time. Everyone I knew who bought a new N-body during the first two years of production said it was one of the worst cars he or she ever owned. GM later did get the bugs worked out of these cars, but a lot of customers were lost forever to Toyota and Honda.
The revived Pontiac Grand Am was the most successful of the N-bodies (which included the Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais).
Strangely, despite all three cars sharing the same formal roofline, the sportier Grand Am looked smoother and more coherent than the “little limousine” Regal or the “shrunken Cutlass Supreme” Cutlass Calais.
Achieva. Sounds like a sneeze.
Like Aspire, Achieva just asks for “Well you should have achieved-a little more then.”…comments.
that was the nickname for my sisters ’94 Achieva. Its first 50,000 miles it was a great little car, then it quickly became a pile of shit. Maroon/red/maroon interior, painfully hot in the Texas summers and the door panels failed after 5 years, then it had some module die that permanently turned off the dome lights, the Quad OHC was a gutsy but not durable engine and a nightmare to do any basic servicing on if it involved more than a belt or plugs.
It managed to eek out life with her for 10 years, and she bought it brand new, and it had been well maintained, but the last 3 years it was on life support, and when she and hubby learned a kid was on the way, hubby, dad and I all agreed that that car was dead where it sat.
It soon developed an issue that could only be fixed by restarting it at speed, as it would die for no apparent reason that we ever found, it got to the point that when I still had my own not terribly reliable ’86 Pontiac 6000-STE and my newly purchased 6 year old ’95 Explorer that I was going to give her the Explorer just to get rid of that pile of good looking crap. She traded the Olds in just shy of 140,000 miles and got a measly $250 for it exactly 10 years to the day she bought it. I felt sorry for the dealer as I watched it stall out as they were test driving it.
Here in the Great Southwest that year of GM car would have none of that silver paint left on it! Maybe it was repainted? These are also candidates for the low rider treatment on a budget. Perhaps this is the reason for the steering wheel bar?
The 1981 Malibu 4-door sedan, I didn’t liked the look compared to the 1978-80 models. The “Seville school of design” didn’t fit well for it. However. the 1982-86 FWD A-body sedans (Celebrity/Century) seems to have a better “Seville look”.
This calls once again for the memorable 1986 Ford ad making fun of the look-a-like GM products:
You guys may not know they followed this ad up with another one that showed the owner of the “black Cadillac” now with his “new Lincoln Town Car”.
My boss bought a new Olds Calais two door with the Quad Four engine. Soon after, we went on a business trip and she drove. That Quad Four was loud and buzzy. The rest of the car was unimpressive as well.
On GM cars of this vintage, the mass airflow sensors had a way of crapping out about 80-120K. The stall at speed – restart thing was common when they broker. A replacement (along with an O2 sensor) and all was well.
I have always liked the looks of this era but have never, ever, been tempted to buy one.
N bodies sold fairly well here in Chicago in mid-80s, as an alternative to the Grand Am for younger women. But, by 1991, Skylarks were dated and dumped into fleets.
The radical looking 1992 was too little, too late, and ended up as old ladies or fleet cars.
Kudos, Chris, on a well written piece. By the way, your photo car is a 1987.
A couple of additional points- Buick seemed to really struggle with the Skylark name after 1972. The compact Apollo was introduced at mid-’73, and when it was redesigned in 1975, the coupe was called Skylark while the sedan remained Apollo until 1976 when both were called Skylark- which of course is remarkably similar to the same fate that befell Somerset ten years later.
Part of the name roulette was unintentional- I worked for Buick for 20 years beginning in the early 80s and the Somerset Regal was a last minute name- the little N car was originally intended to replace the RWD Regal until Buick execs reconsidered at the last minute, so it ended up with the awkward Somerset Regal. Chris is correct that Somerset had been a trim option on Regal coupes for 1980 and 1981.
Also as far as the stalk radio is concerned, it wasn’t related to trim level- all 1984 and 1985 Buick N bodies had it as well as a digital cluster. The panel was redesigned for 1986 with a conventional cluster and radio.
Thank again for the trip down the Great American Memory Lane.
Of course the Palm Springs Automobilist would know the answers to our detail questions. Thanks! So, how exactly can we tell that this is a 1987 model?
I should point out that the lead photo is not the same car as in the later shots, if that wasn’t already obvious. The lead photo is from a google image search for a 1987 Skylark, as there were no decent pictures when searching for a 1987 Skylark. So I guess that was serendipitous.
First I’m going to correct myself and say that the stalk radio was indeed deleted for 1986, but the standard electronic cluster remained until 1988.
I dated it this car as a 1987 by the horn pad and wheel covers.
Jeff
Aha! The steering wheel does look newer.
The stalk radio was still there for 1986, and there is no such thing as a 1984 N-car, they were new for 1985.
Heres a pimp red leather 86 Somerset with the pod radio.
Oh wow, I almost grabbed this pic for my post up above, but then I realized it did not have the woodgrain trim on the radio, so I didn’t use it. GM used very nice and supple leathers back then…
I always though the interior off the N-cars was pretty nice in the high spec versions, the dash design on the Somerset really apes the RWD Regal when you look at them
Those seats are a lot like the Eldorado seats of the time.
Bet that wasn’t the factory name for that colour!
Nice find, Chris. There is still one Skylark around here, a sedan with a light tan over black paint job. The black paint is owner-applied, and hides lots of rust. When I first saw it from a distance, I thought it was a factory two-tone! I’ll have to get pictures the next time I see it.
Also, does anybody else remember the Skylark Luxury Edition with the blanked-out rear quarter window? They looked like a mini Fifth Avenue (image from brougham_geezer’s photostream on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28706630@N06/).
Yes, I have the showroom brochure (naturally) that features the Luxury Edition. It basically replaced the Limited.
The one thing I remember about these cars, the Buick and the Olds Calais, is the availability of the $895 Delco/Bose cassette stereo system. I remember thinking, “How many people are buying a $10,000 car with a $900 stereo system?” I have a feeling you could count on two hands how many of these rolled off the assembly line with one.
They did pack some high end options on to these, Bose radios, trip computer on the Olds, alloys, MFI V6’s, leather, etc.
The other interesting thing about the N-cars was their lack of the GM multifuction stalk with the wiper and cruise on it, the N-cars had their light and wiper controls on either side of the instrument cluster, a reverse of what almost every other GM car was going to at the time, taking the wiper control from the dash and placing it on the turn signal lever.
Really though, as nice as the Bose system was, it wasn’t all that necessary, as GM stereo systemsfrom the mid/late 80’s, at least those with the ERS system, were very good. Sound quality was very good for it’s day, and still compares well with some factory systems today, if not better in some cases.
GM loved boasting that little “Delco-Bose” emblem, I’m trying to recall what was the first car that GM offered a Bose speaker option, I remember they started showing up around 1984 on the Toronado/Riviera.
I’m almost certain the Delco/Bose debuted on the 1983 E-body’s (Seville, Eldorado, Riviera and Toronado)
All I can add to this post is that well, I like the styling of these cars. Always have. This for me at least, was always the perfect size car for me. My Alero is in many ways a reminder of these cars for me. I guess it could be said that the Verano now takes the Skylark’s place, but I still like a large compact car, and will always lament the loss of them.
Oh, and the full-width tail lamp module looks really neat at night!
Wasn’t Buick Verano also a “little limousine”? Or wasn’t it qualified due to its modern styling? Many limo today have modern styling too, you know, with angled rear window and all.
I also wondered about the presence of “the Club”. Does this car still in any danger of being nabbed by thieves today? It even had manual windows! And hubcaps! And plush cloth seats, maybe attractive to CC readers, but perhaps not too much for today’s auto buyers (and by extension, car thieves).
The Verano abandons the “little limousine” look for the “we designed a hatchback and then awkwardly tacked a trunk on because we think it’s still 1995” look.
Well I’ll be! I never thought I’d live to see my little Sky Lark here hit the BIG TIME!
My son-in-law Gary passed along your WWW log to my AOL screen page and rang me at a half past noon to share the news. Now when I first saw it, I thought I’d be half a fool to think someone wasn’t trying to put a fast one over on me. I said, now Barbara Jean you old star gazer, you know what that man said in the news program about minding the computer, how they can get your bank card and have you jammed up in some kinda fix real good for yourself! But I think I can see what all of the big idea is here. My son-in-law Gary sent me an AOL text message that reads “it is safe but do not put your confidential information This Message Was Sent From My Nokia CPM2600 TapaTalk”
So let me say a few words about the Sky Lark Buick, an auto that is really quite DIVINE!
I purchased her from one Wm. T. Finnegan’s Buick-Pontiac-Isuzu Motorcars in Viejo Beach, CA on a rainy Tuesday in the spring of ’87. They say rain brings luck for babies and weddings so I say why not autos as well? Now this establishment is a very reputable motorcar dealer trusted in our family since my father purchased a secondhand Hupmobile tourer there in the lean years before the war. When I came to be acquainted with the Sky Lark to myself I had been in the stead of my second husband Bill’s Centurion Buick for quite some time. That old dreadnought Centurion Buick hadn’t been wet behind it’s ears since long past a beagle’s age worth of fortnights, but I’d be spinning a yarn to say it wasn’t still QUITE a handsome affair! What STYLE and ELEGANCE as it graced the boulevard, gliding over all! I even received a kind word on it from the actor James Dunn once as we crossed paths in the car park of an automat!
But you see, my Bill – bless his soul – had passed some time since. It was an unfortunate mix-up with a wayward Union-Pacific steam engine.and the memory of my poor Bill was simply too much to bear. I had never cared for that “Centurion” name either, reminds me of the old gladiator pictures. Crude and barbaric, I say. For a lowbrow crowd! My dear father always said a Buick was a CLASSY car for CLASSY people! It lets folks know you come from a family of some means without no stuck-up about it!
Now there was a time that a woman going to see a man about an auto would have seemed very forward and uncouth, scandalous even! But I’ll tell you I had a mind about me to be rid of that Centurion Buick in a hurry and without much fuss. I strolled into the display room and was tended to by a charming young man by the name of Dewayne Tompkins, very articulate, who showed me right away to the Park Avenue Buick. It seemed a fine auto but I wasn’t interested in showing off something with such ostentation. I could hear the wash women at the bridge game saying who I think I am behind my back already. I had noticed the oriental autos fast becoming the latest craze amongst the young jet set crowd and while I know plenty of their kind are red as a buffalo nickel I’d like to think I’ve always kept myself on pace with the latest fashions. I asked Dewayne if Buick sold an auto like this. “Why yes” he said, “come right this way – it’s called the Sky Lark”. Hmm… Sky Lark, I said. I rather like that! Sky Lark… like a bird, like a free bird, a free spirit flying in the blue sky!
When I first stepped inside I thought oh no, this is far too small. It will fold like a three-piece suit if it ever has occasion to get crossed up in a traffic wreck. But DeWayne assured me that the Sky Lark was designed by very bright robots that knew how to make it’s metal shell as strong as a bank vault. And how smart it looked! We settled on a very reasonable price and I wrote the check right there. Why window shop at Gertz when you’ve already got Macy’s in your closet?
I call the Sky Lark “my gal friday”. She takes me all over town to The Sizzler restaurant, my orthodontists office, my general practitioners office, my chiropractors office, The International Pancake House restaurant, the Wal-Green drugist and to church every Sunday. When I first brought her home a neighborhood girl, Francie Nolan, said “is that your car miss it sure is pretty” what a DARLING! I know the Sky Lark isn’t quite what she used to be, but who is? What counts is that she’s still got MOXIE! If you can believe this one, she has over 40,000 miles and still starts right up every 10 days or so when I put on my finest blouse to go out and run my errands. I’d never imagine leaving her anywhere without my trusty The Club. My only troubles have been that the safety belt unlatch lever is EXTREMELY hard to push. I wrote a letter to the Buick Motor Company telling them they should issue a replacement but so far I haven’t heard back. The roof lining is also losing a valiant struggle against gravity, but it doesn’t bother me. I like the plush look of sagging roof material. It makes me feel as if I’m a wise desert QUEEN in an Arabian Nights tent!
send email
send
put email
go WWW email
^ LOL this is awesome. Whoever penned this, please consider writing a regular column.
Here’s a nice one in CO.!
http://cosprings.craigslist.org/ctd/3545939134.html
Bought a 1986 Olds Calais in 1994 that had 21,000 one owner senior miles on it at Century Olds in Van Nuys, CA.
[Just Calais,BTW. Supreme was not part of it’s name when it came out, tho they may have used it as a trim level, unlike Buick with it’s Somerset Regal/Skylark name plays. Additionally, Calais didn’t become “Cutlass” Calais until 1987 or 88.]
It went through three alternators, two AC Compressors, brakes every 15,000 miles, heater core, torque converter switch went out so it would randomly chug up to a stop light like it was a manual trans left in 4th or 5th gear. Headliner died [initially fixed with corkscrew upholstery pins]. All this within the next 30,000 miles I drove it. Fixed everything, had it painted, the headliner replaces and gave it to my parents.
They drove it for years, loaned it to a friend for a couple of years who returned it when she went into a home and then they gave it to my brother who still has it. It runs but sits over a pool of trans fluid in their garage.
In that time it ran well but developed water leaks at the cowl into the interior and blew a head gasket, as the 2.5 [Yester]-Tech 4 [and Iron Duke] used to do quite often. So it made it to 100,000 miles over time, much like one poster’s sister’s Achieva did: with a lot of help.
That car got Cadillac level servicing when I had it and disproves the theory: “:Take care of your car and it will take care of you”. Have over 55000 miles on an 05 ION and have never had to replace the brakes yet, so that car was treated like a fine piece of automotive art and not driven hard !
Sad. I still love it, love the way it looks, love the agricultural 2.5 liter four and the velour interior which has held up better than the headliner did. To me it looks like a 2/3rds Eldorado.
Car and Driver suggested the seats in it were a”perch” and initially hinted at Olds demise if they didn’t do something to appeal to a younger demographic but did call it the “best Olds Cutlass [G Body style]” they had ever built. But that wouldn’t do them any good with future buyers. That was at intro in 1985 !
The Ns were to appeal to the BMW intender. Literally, that was in the articles written at the time. They were marketed to Yuppies” with the high disposable incomes and were referred to as “New Values” customers by GM’s crack demographic miners.
Pontiac was “sporty”, Buick,luxury, Olds who knows and Chevrolet opted out of the program. These were supposed to replace the mid size Grand Prix, Riviera and Toronado, but sales of those had improved enough to keep them going [and churning out profits ].
Engines used were many and included a 3.0 V6 [I think a cut down version of the 3.8 Buick V6], the Tech 4 [AKA Iron Duke], the Olds developed Quad 4, a Brazilian sourced 2.0 turbo and probably others.
Great article and a sweet car. Glad to hear it’s still serving it’s owner in style and meeting all those New Values customer needs.
I must admit that on the other side of the planet at the time, I didn’t like GM’s formal roof cars in the 80s. It wasn’t the roofline, that was fine; it was the way the proportions made the rear axle appear too far back on a lot of the offerings. Of course not getting any of them here new meant I never had the opportunity to get used to them though.
Hmmn, I’m trying to find out as much as I can about cars from the 80’s since a friends interested in buying one.. Should these be on my list?
Actually, Chevrolet did opt for the N-Body platform in mid-’87, it came in the form of what most of us know now as the L-Body Beretta/Corsica. That lasted until ’96, in ’97 it was replaced with the new N-Body Malibu.
It was also ironic that Pontiac in Canada revived the Tempest name which was really nothing more than a Chevrolet Corsica with minor grille revision to make it a Pontiac model – the only difference besides the nameplates, otherwise its the same exact car. I am not sure if Pontiac Canada had the FWD N-Bodied Grand Am back then otherwise both compacts with the same platforms were competing against one another in the same market segment.
They actually did offer the Grand Am… Pontiac was the Canadian equivalent to Chevrolet in America.
Canadian buyers preferred the Pontiac name the most.
I’m afraid I’d actually take the Tempest over the Grand Am. Just so long as it doesn’t have the terrible 2.8L V-6 that my ’88 Corsica LT had. I had much better experiences with 4 cylinder Corsicas.
Chevrolet developed the L body separately from the Olds-developed N body. Strange but true.
Yes, that may be, but the difference ends there.
The L-Body and N-Body had a lot of similar components when it came to suspension, brakes, overall platform length (both were 103.4 inch wheelbase,) and overall construction, as well as drivetrain components (namely all transmissions as well as the use of the Quad 4 High Output, and in ’94 the usage of the L82 3100 V6.) Granted it was developed and designed independently of the BOP N-Body, the L-Body and the other N-Body cars were originally planned to replace the RWD G-Body cars for ’83 (as the FWD W-Body replaced the RWD G in ’88 anyway)
Right, and a lot of that is because they can both trace their roots back to the J body. It’s weird how two divisions within the same company decided to take separate routes to the same destination. Perhaps Chevy thought they could do it cheaper, since the N body was supposed to be more premium? Doesn’t seem like the separate development costs and body shells would have been worth it, when most major mechanical parts were shared anyway.
My mom brought a 1985 Calais Supreme, new, totally loaded. She wanted a sunroof so bad, she had the dealer install a pop up one. It was a 2 door, medium grey over a lighter grey velour. It was a V6 automatic. The car rode beautifully, and held up amazingly the entire 10 years she owned it. I always like the look of the car, as it was kind of sporty, kind of luxurious. I also liked the fact that Oldsmobile used a former Cadillac name for the car. I though that was interesting.
Funny, I have cabinets in my shop that in a previous life apparently were GM production pieces that were part of a test station for some N-body electrical component.
Whatever was being tested apparently was similar but slightly different between divisions, because each model name is boldly labeled along with its unique test scheme.
Point is, I’m regularly reminded of these otherwise forgettable beauties by seeing the cabinets’ “loud” labels. LoL
A good hand could remove an N-body 2-door’s door glass “tool-less” and without removing the door’s trim panel. (YES, in one piece LoL)
A really good hand could reinstall it the same way.
But I don’t recall why the glass had to be removed so frequently?
Possibly to replace that crappy GM window track guide “shoe” that would fail and allow the glass to tip?
I give this vehicle a “meh”, it absolutely does nothing for me; it appears GM stylists simply took the 1st Generation X car and rounded the edges to make it look more “contemporary.” It looks like Buick tried to create a small luxury car for little old ladies to tool around town in, the proportions are totally off, the greenhouse looks too big for the rest of the car, the rear wheels arches intrude into the greenhouse area, another GM redesign done on the cheap.
There were major differences between the 1980-85 (up to 1986 in Mexico) FWD X-Body Platforms and its successor the 1985-96 FWD N/L-Body Platforms. The FWD X-Body Platforms provided the basis for the FWD A-Body Platforms. The FWD N/L-Body Platforms were identical to those used by the 1982-2004 FWD J-Bodied Platforms. The Platforms mentioned were of a different designs none of their underbody parts can even interchanged lets say between a Chevy Citation and the Cavalier based Grand Am and Tempest. The differences were even akin to night and day.
As Pedro accurately stated, these were not reskinned X bodies. You’re thinking of the “A” body: Cutlass Ciera, Celebrity, 6000 and Century.
Its amazing to me how GM made Chicken Salad from chicken $#¡t with those cars. They might be related underneath, but they really did deserve to be at opposite ends of the alphabet.
1986 Pontiac 6000 LE (or “Goooley” as kids called em)
Here’s a beautiful 1989 Cutlass Ciera. I’d trade the 2000 Ford Mustang I’m driving now for it without hesitation, and I’m really a Ford guy!
Now Buick’s “little limo” is the Encore CUV from GM Korea.
Agreed.
I further contend that the GMC Terrain is the modern equivalent to 90s-00s Grand Am. A basic disposable economy platform dressed up in an overstyled, popular body to sell at a slight premium to people who are self-proclaimed “too individualistic” for a mere Chevy.
After the X Car fiasco, many of us simply gave up with GM for a while. By the time GM revealed these cars, there were far more exciting things happening at Ford. Worse, these cars looked like throwbacks to a decade earlier, seemed smaller than the competition and not modern.
I’ve had a chance to drive a few of them over the years as rental cars and didn’t like them. First off, they sat too low. They were too small. The Ford products, the Chrysler products, and the foreign brands didn’t require that you squat to get into their cars. I clearly recall driving a Buick Somerset/Regal/Skylark/Whatever for a day and it seemed that the front of the driver’s seat collapse under me, leaving me a feeling that my legs were in a hammock, the complete opposite of my need to man-spread. While there were attractive touches, they were a generation behind the competition.
The thing about reviewing curbside classics is that younger readers are unaware of the contemporary competition in the market in many cases. Consequently, without being aware of what the market competition was at the time, these cars stand on their own merit, and on their own, often do well. I’m not the only one who wonders why a storied independent brand with cool cars fails in the market, but I wasn’t in the market at the time to know what those cool cars were up against competitively.
A 1962 Studebaker seems like a car that should have done better in the market than it did in 1962. However, compared to what the Big Three was selling, it is easy to understand why Studebaker was failing. In this case, the Buick Skylark of this era seems to be a car that should have sold better – however, compared to the competition, it was not a car most buyers would have chosen.
As per usual, my love lies with the Oldsmobile version. Give me a Calais coupe with a Quad 4 and a manual.
This one was for sale last year, not a manual but a beautiful car I’d love to have for a Walmarter.
Never been a fan of Buick styling, the SomersetRegalSkylark was no exception.
While not an X car my Father got a new ’84 Pontiac Sunbird to replace his ’78 Chevy Caprice Classic wagon which had been hit in the side; he didn’t want to bother fixing it so he traded it. Probably the biggest car mistake he was to make; the Pontiac turned out to be the worst car he was ever to own…despite being dealer maintained per schedule, it went through 2 replacement engines before being junked after 5 years…it lost its timing belt when the car had less than 1000 miles on it; did not portend good things. It also had leaking power steering and cracked plastic on the switchgear…it was a hand-me-down to my now deceased youngest sister, was so bad she never bought an American car.
I know these are a bit different, but to me are about the size of the Sunbird, albeit more rounded in shape. Don’t know why my Dad downsized so drastically for the family car; though my sister and I had moved out and they no longer needed a wagon as the family got older, a bit more passenger space would probably have been appreciated…and the price of gas went down in the mid 80’s though I’m sure my Dad didn’t know what would happen.
Remember seeing these when new at my condo when I was finishing up graduate school…they looked nice but didn’t have much substance, probably didn’t do much good to inspire confidence in GM for future purchases by their owners.
That seems rather a curious location for the rear door handle. It seems too far forward. I guess it’s driven by space constraints for the mechanism between the cutout for the wheel arch and the low beltline, but I don’t recall any other cars (except its GM buddies at Olds and Pontiac?) having the handle there.
Agreed. it’s not only odd looking, but made the door a bit awkward to open as I recall.