Fresh Off The Vine: 1979 Buick Riviera
It’s a real shame that you can’t get velour interiors color coded to the avocado metallic exterior hue these days. How much better would a new Regal be with green, tufted, semi-reflective seats? Not to fear; a nearly new option exists. Find this geriatrically preserved 1979 Buick Riviera available in Napa County, CA for an undisclosed price via craigslist. Tip from Kaibeezy
The sixth iteration of the Riviera saw the transition to front-wheel-drive. Also, personal luxury got that much more personal with a general downsizing of engines and dimensions. Motor options were pretty dismal aside from the 3.8 Turbo which offered more hope than power. No mention is made of which powerplant resides within these metallic fender-wells but my money is on the 4.1 V6 or 307 V8. Speaking of money, no price is disclosed but bring your negotiating pants and some comps.
Looking like it has actually been grown and nearly ripened on the vines in the background, this Buick only has about 70,000 miles since being plucked. Back in 1979, it was perfectly acceptable to ride around Napa with swoopy hair and a glass of Chianti. Those days are long past but you can still get bombed riding shotgun, vineyard to vineyard, in the most comfortably green place on earth.
Getting into this Riv is like climbing into a creamy bowl of guacamole with bits of pit used as wood accents. The gigantic slab to which all controls are affixed appears to still retain all of its layers and laminate. The seats and carpet look as though the car was parked deep in damp forest, overcome completely with moss and mildew. In other words, they appear completely brand new.
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Its… perfect. I would drive it as is, with the exception of some blinged out rimz and rubber-band low-profile tires. It's not murdered out, it's mossed out.
I'd drive this.
Green for the money gold for the honeys!
Gold Daytons and its done!
Green? You mean like money? zamoolians?
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Wow that's a lot of green! Reminds me of the similar vintage Olds Tornado my dad had for a while, but that car was burgundy everything.
KBZ-gotta ask, is the new badge an old guy's ear with unwanted hairs growing out of it? As the former owner of an '83 Toronado, I am personally….aw crap..you nailed it! Get off my lawn!!
research has revealed they symbolize a ritualistic status marking system among the geriatric male subculture, like knuckle tattoos, lip discs, flat brimmed baseball hats, etc. – you have to get right in there with a fine brush and tease apart the individual hairs to count them in order to get an accurate reading – helix, tragus and lobule hair locations have distinct semiotic significance, as do left to right differentiation, curled or dyed hairs, braiding, knotting, wax blobs, and so forth
This vehicle represents a turning point in the US auto industry, the point at which the Big Three went the Full Lemming and decided to plunge headlong off the FWD cliff into irrelevance.
You could make a case for the X- and J-cars and smaller being FWD. And yeah, there was the Toro/Eldo FWD experiment that worked only because 5000lb 'personal luxury' main battle tanks drove like ass no matter which end the power came from.
But this was the point at which Detroit plunged over the edge, made the decision that what worked for a 3000lb econobox worked for a luxury car. That was, of course, crap. By embracing FWD across the line they consigned themselves to never being able to compete above the Acura/ES300 level.
Why? Because it snows in Detroit? I dunno. But it consigned the high-line Detroit brands to oblivion.