Friday Fun Thread: Beautiful Buicks

As we continue our swing through the Top Ten from the Big Three, our next marque is the Buick brand in the General Motors family. The Buick brand pre-dates GM itself, getting its start in 1903 as the fledgling American automotive industry took its first few tentative steps. Over the years, Buick served its role as an entry-level luxury model second only to Cadillac, the last stop before full-blown opulence.

Here's my Top Ten favorite Buicks:

1. 1987 Grand National. With a turbocharged and intercooled 3.8L V6 engine, the full-sized GN shouldn't have been as cool as it was. Even the V8 didn't move this pig at anything resembling a fast speed; it seems almost counterintuitive that a smaller motor would work better.

2. 1938 Y-Job. Considered to be the very first of the "concept cars". Designed by the automotive legend Harley Earl himself. Styling cues carried forward well into the 1950s and beyond, as evidenced by the Buick Blackhawk concept in the earlier part of this decade.

3. 1972 Riviera. The "boat-tail" Riviera, the early 1970s models are instantly recognizable by their aquatic-styled rear quarterpanels. They're also large enough to land commercial aircraft on, and typically weigh more than an elementary school.

4. 1959 Electra 225. The "Deuce and a Quarter", 1959 saw the debut of the 225 (so-named because that was the car's length in inches). Over the years, the Electra would evolve into a bloated land yacht and then a front-drive mid-sized sedan, but the original '59 just looked the best.

5. 1977 Regal. This is a sentimental favorite, as it was the first new car my family owned. It would eventually be totalled, hit by a triple-axle dumptruck that slipped out of gear, rolled down a hill, and plowed into the Regal. The only damage done to the Regal was that the door was caved in...

6. 1954 Skylark. Can't really say why the '54 Skylark makes the cut, except possibly for its clean styling, timeless good looks, and signature cues like the toothy front grille or the swooping side trim.

7. 1967 LeSabre. Really, pretty much any LeSabre from the mid 1960s through the 1970s would make the cut; however, pre-1970s models had more their own feel to them and less of a "Corporate GM" cookie-cutter look that they would obtain in the '70s and especially the 80s, where "ChevyOldsmoBuick" would become the norm.

8. 1953 Estate Wagon. The last of the true "woodies", the '53 Estate wagon is one of the nicest grocery getters around. The Estate nameplate would continue to be used until 1990, although in '89 and '90 it was used for the wagon only. And it didn't have real wood, although there was a sweet 350 V8 under the hood...

9. Super Sedan. Many of the styling cues of the Skylark would be shared with the Super; yet the Super would be one of the "forgotten" cars of the 1950s; a chrome-roamer lost to the ages. Well, not on this list it ain't.

10. Reatta convertible. Oh, sure, it was a SOP to the Mazda Miata to offer the Reatta as a drop-top, but the Reatta came out several years ahead of the little Mazda. The Reatta suffered from brand-orphaning - no one expected a lithe little two seater from Buick, of all people, and sales languished. The blue-hairs that bought Buicks in the late 1980s were about as far from the demographic that bought Miatas as can be humanly possible in the same species.

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There's my list of Top Ten Buicks. The #1 and #2 spots are simply non-negotiable, but the rest of the list is open to interpretation.

What are your favorite Buicks?

That is all.