Back in the 80's I was all about imports but these Rivieras, Eldorados and Toronados always caught my eye. Handsome, romantic, modern, classical, available in a beautiful range of colors, quintessentially American... they got this one right.
I fully agree with you. My guess is not only is this 80s Buick full of character but also It is the case that most present day cars are devoid of design flair and are unbearably anodine .
GM modelled really expensive fuel by the mid-80s in its planning. If we had had $100 a barrel fuel by '85, the downsized Rivs would have made a lot of sense. But the opposite happened. Expensive oil and slowing growth in consumption quickly reduced the price of oil and big vehicles were back in vogue. The E-body designs were actually quite sophisticated. But GM debuted a lot of the look on cheaper cars (the Somerset Regal) which made the new Riv seem like a cheaper car. The should have differentiated them better. But that era GM was terrible at that!
@@MarinCipollina Agreed. I feel like their time will come in terms of retrospective appreciation. It was a very interesting attempt to do a uniquely Buick car in this space -- unfortunately just as the big, personal luxury coupe market plateaued and started to shrink.
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Adam, my dad, and the entire family worked for GM since the 1940s. Flint, Saginaw and Detroit. I lived in Saginaw in the early 1970's. My pops quit that lifestyle to become a cattle rancher and beekeeper in Fresno County and in his huge ranch in Jalisco México, the land of Agave & Tequila! Those Mid 80's Buick Riviera's I rode in them and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme's brand new! My friends dad from church owned the dealership: Enns Buick, Pontiac & GMC in Reedley California. 70 years selling new cars. I remember the cars coming on the railroad all the way from Detroit, Lansing etc...to the West Coast and being unloaded off to our small town! Those Mid 1980's GM mid sizes cars were really good! There were tons of them in my small town and in Fresno County! Great memories! Great post! Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! Greetings from Santa Clarita California!
I had an ‘83 Riv that I ordered from the factory but I didn’t get the turbo engine. The reason was that I had a new ‘79 Regal Limited with a turbo that failed after 2.5 yrs. Started burning oil so badly that I had to keep a case of oil in the trunk and stop every few miles and add a quart. It smoked worse than a diesel…broke my heart because I loved that Regal more than any car I’ve ever owned, and partly because of that turbo lag! I loved the way it would bog down whenever you started to pass a vehicle and you’d be thinking it wasn’t going to pass, when suddenly, whoosh, the turbo kicked in with a surprise, always bringing a smile…the effect never got old! I traded it for an ‘80 Toro with diesel which was a huge mistake. Loved the car, hated the engine. By the time the ‘83s came out, there seemed to be a difference in the E-bodied cars, as the Riv seemed lighter than the Toro, not as quiet, with a harsher ride. But as I type this, I’m just now realizing what may have been the reason for the different ride/handling characteristics: I’m wondering if when I ordered the Riv, if I ordered the touring suspension, and while I cannot recall, I’m betting that I did! All these years later, and me commenting on this page may have answered a 42-year old mystery!
A car-enthusiast friend had one of these new, and "discernably turbo-charged" is accurate. Noticeable lag followed by turbo sounds and a swell of power. It was a gorgeous car and was enjoyed immensely.
Thank God. I thought I remembered seeing an ad in magazines back in the ‘80s for T-Type Buicks that included the Riv, but until now I’ve never seen one in person or even in photos. I was sure I’d imagined it all, so this is so good to see. The lines of this car were SO much nicer than the Regal of the era. And extra props for the vinyl top delete; it was a plague for so many cars in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Joining the chorus here…Adam, thank you for entertaining and informing us this past year with your insightful trips down the automotive memory lane. If we all lived in the same town you’d have more friends than you could handle. You’re a true gentleman and a total class act. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year!
auto reverse plays the flip side without having to physically flip the cassette...the cassette runs in reverse hence the name. Also, it can modulate the Cr02 and metal cassette tapes.
I'm so glad you mentioned the wheels. As far as the styling goes... with this, or any make & model, the wheels are so integral to the overall appearance! Thanks for featuring this one!
I owned two ‘85 Non-intercooled computer managed turbo V6s But on the rear drive regal platform. The engine is exactly the same as the Riviera. Extremely reliable drivetrain. Hit 200k and not one single engine related failure of any kind. I don’t think there was even a check engine light that came on at any time. Only the usual issues such as leaks/AC, things like that. I only made one modification and it makes a HUGE difference: gut the catalytic converter. This allows the turbo to spool SO Much quicker and almost completely eliminates off idle turbo lag. I believe you made reference the Riviera is still using the three speed automatic (?) that could make a big difference with the turbo performance if it does not use the 4 Speed automatic with a more performance gear ratio. The turbo regal uses the excellent, 2004R automatic coupled with 3.42 axle Which makes for great torque multiplication from the standing stop with the turbo. It can’t be over emphasized how much better this computer managed V6 is over ANY other power plant on this 79-85 riviera platform. Drivability is SO Much better! And I will argue, even with a bit of turbo lag, this engine still performs Better than any Carbureted unit available in these cars, Including down low RPM. Adam, I would not completely rule out one of these for Parts issues. Many of the same components are used on the 86/87 turbo regal. Those cars have a huge following with a depth of technical knowledge available for upkeep.
I was the proud owner on an '85 Riviera the same color as this one that was a showroom display model. It was fully loaded with a moonroof, the sports steering wheel like this one and a digital dash, and I've never have seen another '85 Riviera (or any '79-'85 Riviera) that had a digital dash - so I guess it must've been pretty rare. When I walked in the showroom and saw it, I just HAD to have it - and I loved every minute behind the wheel of that beauty!
My late first partner bought an '83 Riviera from Seaside Buick in San Diego. It was Cotillion White with Maple leather interior. We looked at the T-Type, but thought the standard V8 would be more durable. I remember Larry adding True Spoke wire wheels to make it look unique and the Delco Concert Sound, AM/FM Auto Reverse Cassette, being pretty remarkable at the time. I was a Hospital Corpsman stationed with the 3rd Battalion /1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. Sometimes he'd let me take it on base and people always complimented that car. Thanks for posting. Brought back bittersweet memories.
Totally agree. The roof of the Riviera/Toronado/Eldorado during this period was one of the best ever. And the sharp crease idea for the rear deck lid is perfect. Great video! I'm not a Cadillac man, I'm a Porsche man, but the Eldorado from this period, with the black and silver two tone? THAT is a sharp car. Like the '70's Seville, they really got that car correct from every angle.
I agree, the '76-'79 Seville was a beauty and the two tone black/silver Elegante edition with those wire wheels was pure class. I've always been a car fanatic, and I was amazed when I found out they made them from a Nova platform and was clueless about that for years until I read about it somewhere.
@@TomSnyder-gx5ru I kind of suspected that since it was the same size. The '79 Eldorado in that black and silver with 17 inch BBS alloy "wire" wheels with a 400 hp LS conversion and a decent suspension setup would be something to take a Cars & Coffee event. That would be an Eldorado with a capitalized "E"!
The 79-81 Riv turbo was referred to as the S-type. Also in 1984-985 the engine was rated at 190 hp and 200 in the Regal due to a better exhaust on the Regal. These ran 8-9 psi boost. Parts can be sourced aftermarket through some Turbo Buick businesses. This should be a 4 speed OD trans. The turbo 6 emblem was designed by a gentleman with the named named Molly.
I remember seeing this car back in 85 in a Time Magazine ad for Buick. Even then I thought the car looked dated, but many Americans liked it and bought a lot of them.
Thanks Again🎉🎉🎉 The Genius of this Channel in really crediting all the work that went into creating these rare cars from planning all the way to those instituting these rarities into the cars on the assembly Line is just Admirable. Clearly, the "Cronkite" of cars with the personality of Paul Harvey.
Agree fully. It's as if all of us watching are all part of a club that receives an inside track that isn't normally available. The relevant stories about discussions within the companies, trials they faced etc adds a ton of depth to your videos. Your channel is my one subscription that I refuse to miss even a single video. Merry Christmas everyone.
I have a '72 Riviera (preferably a GS) on my "when I win the lottery" list - I've been enamored by the boat tail Rivieras ever since they came out in '71. I didn't like the trunk lid vents on the '71 and don't consider the '73 a true "boat tail" after they chopped off the actual boat tail.
This '85 Riviera T-Type has many similarities to the 1978 Buick Regal Turbo V6 my dad owned. It was the first year Buick Regal offered a turbo. Sky blue color, no vinyl roof, and the accelerator had that exact same lag kicking into a turbo 'WHOOSH' as Adam talked about. I have to say I just LOVED the sky blue velour seats in the Regal, too. General Motors mastered the art of making comfortable pillowy cloth seats, for sure!
I found this era of Rviera, Eldorado, and Toronado especially good looking, the Toro the most. I'd still like to have one. Thank you as always, and like others have written, Merry Christmas!
In 1985 I had one of the first turbo charged factory pick up trucks. It was the Toyota SR5 XtraCab turbo. I love that truck and I wish I still had one today.
Adam you are literally the very best at what you do. Your knowledge, and willingness to share it, makes my life a whole lot more enjoyable. I've always owned what my family members or friends call "land yaghts". Its great to know others love them as much as I do. having owned a 1985 Riviera, I beg to differ about the comfort of the rear seats. Its deceiving, but once back there quite a nice place to be for a trip. Of course that was years ago, and now I'm on my 2nd beautiful Town Car.
I agree, I also owned an '85 Riviera and never had any of my backseat passengers complain about being uncomfortable. I drive a Toyota Tundra PU today - go figure!
Merry Christmas Adam. What a great automobile to feature! Coming from a huge Buick fan!!~ Remember this is the last years of that platform. 86+, a totally different automobile.
The 79-85 riviera was a beauty in its day. Honestly though I preferred the regular model over the T type. Those early turbos weren’t great engines, tons of lag, prone to all sorts of failures. I also prefer the styling of regular models as the T type black mirrors road wheels and steering wheel didn’t suit the car as much as the base model details. The rivieras without the vinyl tops had a wider quarter window than the vinyl top ones. Really changed the look of the car.
I never realized the Rivieras without vinyl tops had larger quarter windows than the vinyl top ones, so had to go see pictures for myself and you're right - never too old to learn I guess. I wonder why they did that, doesn't make sense.
As a lifelong northern european resident, I come at these videos from a bit of a different angle than most other people in these comments it seems. Most of the cars featured are ones that, even in their "base form" really were never sold here at all, and hence are quite a rarity. I certainly have no personal connection to any of them at all. These videos are therefore a great and easily digestible source of info for learning more about stuff that I never had a chance to see really, and as a vehicle enthusiast in general (and, from my vantage point, uncommon vehicles specifically), these kind of cars are right up my alley. Cheers mate!
Merry Christmas Adam and to all the subscribers! These generation of Riv's, and Toro's were STRIKING cars. The only thing about GM at that time was they seemed to use the cheapest plastic for everything, even for the knobs, the tail light lenses's bumper fillers.
The person I cut grass for as a kid had that or a Regal with the turbo. As a 13 year old kid that Turbo emblem on the hood really impressed me as I thought it was a really elegant car with power. Thanks for the video! Merry Christmas!
This and all T-Types were the precursor to the GrandNational and the GNX super cool ride I used to see these back in the day but I always thought the T-Type was just an appearance package never knew it involved turbo charging.
No, there was a lot of information that I don't really think was spot on. I worked in a Buick dealer in this timeframe. There was a Regal Grand National actually in 1982, you can research that. The TType (stood for touring, not turbo) appeared about 1983. You could soon get it almost across the board. I had a Skylark TType, no turbo, it had the 2.8HO that the X11 had, nicer rims, 2 tone paint, F41 suspension, so basically Buick's version of the X11. They had the TType Skyhawk and Century, on the LeSabre in the later 80s (I had an 88 LeSabre TType). The GN came out again in 84, but you could get a TType if you didn't want the GN, mainly people bought those if they didn't want the black. But to add to the confusion, you could order a black TType. You could also order a Regal TType without the turbo V6!
I remember seeing this gen of Rivieras all over the place in the 1980s into the early 90s. The 1979-1985 Toronado was hard to tell apart from these 1979-1985 Riviera.
So nice! I've always liked that style of Riviera. A few people that I knew, had them. The Riv, along with the Eldo, with the brushed stainless roof, were my favorite GM cars, at that time and really still are. The 1974 Electra, is also one of my favorites. An fine car, all of the way around. An excellent video, as always.
Back then, I preferred the Eldorado because it was the Cadillac, but 40 years later, I now think the Riv was the best looking of the trio. I agree that the lack of a vinyl roof and the non-wire wheels look fantastic.
They do almost look better without the vinyl top - as they show those lines around the C pillar, which are a key component of the car's overall design.
Turbo lag… in college I drove a buddy’s new ‘89 Saab 900 Turbo coupe and got a scary lesson in turbo lag and the need to plan for acceleration. I had taken my mother’s rarely driven ‘87 560SL to school, so I was used to strong, *linear* acceleration. I pulled out into traffic on Route 9 in Wellesley MA and damn near got slammed from behind by a BMW 735iL before the turbo spooled-up and the 900 became a rocket. It was a blast, but you definitely needed to tip-into the throttle BEFORE needing the power or it wouldn’t be there to save you in time 😮😂. Love those old E-bodies from GM, especially the Toronado!
That older C3I ignition system was a Magnavox setup. They used it up until the 3800 tuned port engine and it had a very high failure rate. Worst part is, all 3 coils and the module were replaced as a whole unit. Later 3800s had a GM C3I system that had the typical two post coils that could be replaced one at a time and the module was separate as well.
Beautiful. Love the color in and out here. Seems quite well equipped, though considering that I'm surprised this car doesn't have a power seat on the passenger side. I'd still buy it (and swap in the equipment for a power seat). The CONCERT SOUND came with six speakers instead of four, and I think were all upgraded speakers. It first became available in Riviera in the '81 model year. It was a very nice sounding system from what I recall.
I like these Rivieras, especially as you mentioned, without a vinyl top. Other than the boat tails, I like the big 1974-76 ‘E’ body Rivieras, especially the ‘74 with an aggressive 1973 looking front end.
The '74-'76 Rivieras were decent looking cars, I especially liked the extra set of tail/brake lights under the back glass on these - the '77-'78 Riviera was just a dressed up LeSabre - but boy did they hit it out of the ballpark with the 79's!
The other interesting thing about that radio is that it can receive AM stereo stations. There may not have been many AM stereo broadcast sources, but back then we had some in the Toronto, Ontario area. Also, the pre-sets can be manipulated to add extra stations by pressing two adjacent buttons at the same time when you are holding them down. Four buttons, seven pre-sets. Back in the day, this radio was used in an Olds Cutlass as the head unit in a contest winning competition. Sounds systems have come a long way.
I remember when the 77-78 Rivera came out we called them saber-Riv's. My uncle had one for his demo and all he could say about them was boring. I think he had five or six 63-65's at different times. And he really liked the 79-85's.
These Riviera's had the Grand National 3.8 detuned. You could easily pull 300hp out of the stock configuration with just a tune chip, cone air filter and a free flowing muffler. I've had many Grand Nationals and T-Types but I never knew the Riviera had the turbo 3.8 in them.......... Bummer. Great video though. Thanks
GM most likely detuned the 3.8 turbo since it was a FWD application. Harder to make a FWD transmission handle the power. Would really let the magic smoke out. 😂😂
I had a “79 Riv S-Type turbo. Precursor to the T-Type. Mine had a full vinyl roof instead of the usual half-vinyl, Silver on Red Velour Buckets. Very cool at the time. Loved the idea of the turbo 3.8, but in ‘79 they were carbureted. The only electronics were some rudimentary idle controls in the carb. These 3.8’s weren’t really ready for prime time. They kind of barely mimicked the 307 V-8 that was available but the reliability was terrible. I cooked a turbo, replaced it and then spun a bearing. I swapped in a 252 Cadillac version of the Buick 231 motor that was available at the time and tossed the turbo. It worked fine but wasn’t much “S” in the S-Type anymore.
As you child a buddy and neighbors dad worked at GM it seemed every 9 to 12 months they had a new GM. I remember but sadly didn’t appreciate (at the time) the number of vehicles they had…including this vintage Tornado & Riviera (as well as many others). They were very nice cars in their day. Thanks for the review.
Lovely car you decided to cover today. I'd seen one in an accident while I was driving in Norfolk one day. An older couple was driving a black T-Type through an intersection that had several blind spots, and someone in a Toyota Highlander turned left and hit them. The Buick was pretty badly damaged, and the couple somewhat the worse for wear as well. Fortunately, an ambulance and police were already on the scene. When you think about the idea that the Riviera was a good performance car at the beginning, the T-Type comes closer to the original in spirit, it seems to me.
Beautiful Riviera, my Dad had one same color I believe it was called lite Briar brown. Ours had dark brown leather. Still one of the nicest driving cars I've ever driven. Just about everyone wanted one of these or a Toronado or Eldorado. They were all HOT🔥
Totally agree about vinyl tops! Back in the late 70's, I saw a burgundy Monte Carlo without a vinyl top, and it was stunning. I don't care for the late 70's MC's with that ridiculous half vinyl top. Amazing how the plain top made such a positive difference. Keep it up, I enjoy your videos
As always a comprehensive and excellent review. Your explanation of the sail panel/C-pillar was spot-on. An intricate and beautiful design detail that as you pointed out was lost when optioned with a landau/vinyl roof. Always interesting how vehicle styles/preferred options change with the times. I recently have seen here in the NY Metro burbs a couple of newer Lexus ES350s and Nissan Muranos with vinyl roofs (have also seen the convertible Muranos). I believe they may have had FL plates. There is still someone out there catering to the dying need some still have for the vinyl roof.
This generation of Riviera was first GM model to have the mirror housing that flared out from the window like ones on Mercedes-Benz from 1971 onward instead of anchoring onto the "pole" attaching to the door. The stereo system panel could move up to line up with the vent bezels better. The HVAC control panel could be expanded vertically to line up with the black boxes.
The Riviera without the vinyl top always looked great, the vinyl tops on these and its siblings looked ungainly to me. The color is called Light Metallic Rosewood - almost a mauve, when it was polished looked quite nice.
My father's first luxury car was one of this series Riviera. also sans the vinyl top. It is a beautiful car and great to drive. He went of to a series of Cadillacs. but the Riv was always my favorite.
The T-Type Riviera was a beautiful car and minus the vinyl roof you are spot on, and what made the car a classic design. The only thing that GM & Ford couldn't get a grip on was the bumpers protruding out past the sides of the car. It must have bothered Chip Foose as a child he likes to section the bumpers and remove the undesirable excess.
I remember a cool feature of some of those Delco radios. You could press the adjacent station preset buttons together to get an additional station. This feature wasn’t consistent throughout models, however. Had the identical radio in my ‘86 Delta 88 and ‘88 Le Sabre- one had this feature while the other did not.
I LOVE this generation of the Riviera, and think it is even more attractive than the Eldorado and Toronado of the era. The only problem is I can't stand the 305 or 307 V8. Id still love you to do a catty video on the 77 78 stopgap Riviera.
I had a 85 riv with the ol 140hp 307. Bought it as my first car in 1996 with 137k miles. It still had all the emissions maintained and hooked up. So it ran very quite and smooth. Where most cars in this era idled at 750 to 875 rpms the 307 idled at 625 650. I did spent 2 weeks before i got my license replacing what seemed like miles of vaccuum hoses. I mention this because all the cars this era i ran across which had the emissions defeted either in the false belief of gaining power or it was just cheaper than fixing it right (even if you could gain 5 to 10hp from taking off the air pump belt the difference between 140/145/150hp is negligible in a 4500lb car) To be honest it was prob more like 2 or 3 hp gain max. The problem was most would just mangle the fittings into the exhaust so they werent sealed. So a venturi effect was created sucking a inconsistent amount of air into the exhaust triggering a check engine light and causing a warm idle issue. Anyways i also want to mention im pretty sure that goofy defrost switch was only on the cars equipped with the problematic digital controls.
Most people don't understand check engine lights. It's essentially the EPAs way of controlling emissions on the fly. Depending on the severity of the emissions violation, the engine is designed to run poorly or even breakdown if the problem is not corrected. This is forced compliance most people don't even realize is going on.
@TeeroyHammermill ill agree with a few asterisks thrown in. It's forced compliance in the sense that a lot of times all that's really wrong is that orange light staying on. There's plenty of situations where the light can be tripped and the vehicle still runs perfectly fine. So ppl pay a bunch of money just to turn that light off. However I don't think the light being on in itself will make the car run bad. It's the other way around. It's a symptom not a cause. The 307 I was talking about was like another common gm engine of the era. The 3.8 2bbl. What these had in common aside from the air injection pump emissions was computer controlled carburetors. This system had a oxygen sensor, a solenoid in the carb to vary the mixture for lean or rich. Aside from a throttle position sensor on the carb, the system only had the other basic engine sensors to detect the running condition. Like a knock sensor, water temp, possibly a vacuum sensor in the intake manifold but not much else. So when the main thing it pays attention to (the exhaust oxygen) is changed if it's outside what the carb can compensate for, it'll run awful. Which brings us to modern cars. It seems every manufacturer has proprietary codes in their computer system. Which causes ppl to have to take to the designated dealer. For example I work at a cdjr dealer. When we work on a ford, or especially Japanese makes, we can only do the most basic of code clearing then it has to be sent to the makes dealer to finish it. Another example I'd agree with the forced compliance thing is modern diesels. If the Def goes low your not going anywhere.
Thanks for this one, Adam.. Buick GNX was the best performance Buick of the 1980s for my money.. I'm not a fan of front wheel drive arrangements, generally speaking, but I did like the design of this generation Riviera.
I remeber when these cars where everywhere, nobody wanted them anymore. I usually found them for a price range of about 800 to 1500 dollars, in running condition with limited minor issues.
The tan 78 Riv you pictured reminds me of my 75th anniversary edition. It had a similar two tone exterior featung black and silver. The interior had grey leather and carpet with black dash... The fake wood grain was deleted in favour of a brushed aluminum accents on the IP and door panels. 1400 made and I had one LOL wish I still did
Merry Christmas Adam! Thanks again for a nice gift here. Wish GM could have continued the 350 option as it was standard on the 79-80 cars. Love this body style. Two 80s movies featured these premium personal luxury coupes Thief with James Caan drove a black Eldorado Raw Deal Arnold had the white with red interior Riviera convertible sad that it got crashed in the shoot out scene in that classic film. Thanks again and Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas and thanks for providing good interesting and informative videos without a bunch of BS hype. After watching many, many videos I began to wonder how many cars you own?
I remember seeing a lot of Riviera's of this era driving around the North Shore of Milwaukee, along with the Toronado's and Eldorado's. This platform was one of GM's more successful attempts in downsizing their cars. The 1979-1985 models did not have that "too small" look like the next generation did.
I like it. The one thing that always puzzled me was the way the A pillars were connected across the hood. Almost like a last-minute design change, and it was supposed to be more raked at first.
The main reason they use fake wood in cars is that it is far cheaper to make and install. But also, during an impact event, wood can splinter and actually stab passengers. Plastic tends to bend and thus is considered safer. However, In the past 15 years, auto makers have learned how to fashion wood so that it is not an issue during a crash and that is why you see it being used again. Frankly, you can have it. The only car I've ever owned that had wood in its construction was my '85 Porsche 928S2, which had an actual black painted plywood panel covering the fuse box under the floor mat at the front of the passenger side footwell. Yes they came from Stuttgart like this. There were actually three pieces that made that cover, a lower fixed piece, a large piece that covered the fuse box and was removable, and a wood block to aid in positioning. My kind of wood interior!
My Boss had a Silver Plane Jane with hubcaps and the 307. It was very nice driving and the power was plenty to move it around. Big power was gone but big comfort and ride and drive quality was way up.
Had a 1984 T-Type. The turbo versions of 1979 up to when the ttype name change came out were called and labled S-Type (which won Motor Trends Car of the Year). Mine had everything including digital dash and real suede interior (which rubbed down actef 35k miles) and Bose stereo (which was the first Bose and is the most accurate sound system ever made, and with only 4 speakers), except i did not have the digital auto climate control. Wonderfull car.
Adam, I do own an 85 t type. There’s a lot of tech support on turbo Regal sites for drivability issues. The ride is a bit more firm than the standard version but not harsh. There were upgrades to the transmission in the turbo models. Not sure exactly what they were but standard models had an A designation and turbo ones had a B designation for the transmission. Rare, but not valuable. This car is always the only t type Riv at a car show with many surprised people who didn’t know it existed. You have a great channel, and I look forward to seeing any car you put in the spotlight!
The "T" in T-Type stood for Touring package, like the Buick Regal T-Type, it didn't mean when you ordered the "T" or "T-Type" option you got the turbo engine. Gorgeous vehicle. I believe it had 200hp.
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Back in the 80's I was all about imports but these Rivieras, Eldorados and Toronados always caught my eye. Handsome, romantic, modern, classical, available in a beautiful range of colors, quintessentially American... they got this one right.
hows yer new ev?
They sure did!!
Merry Christmas Adam and to all your family, friends and all of us "Subscribers."
These old Delco sound systems were really nice.
They bumped and they had really nice sound for the day.
How could they come up with such a classy design that still looks good today, 40 years later, and drop the ball in such a monumental fashion in 86?
I fully agree with you. My guess is not only is this 80s Buick full of character but also It is the case that most present day cars are devoid of design flair and are unbearably anodine .
GM modelled really expensive fuel by the mid-80s in its planning. If we had had $100 a barrel fuel by '85, the downsized Rivs would have made a lot of sense. But the opposite happened. Expensive oil and slowing growth in consumption quickly reduced the price of oil and big vehicles were back in vogue.
The E-body designs were actually quite sophisticated. But GM debuted a lot of the look on cheaper cars (the Somerset Regal) which made the new Riv seem like a cheaper car. The should have differentiated them better. But that era GM was terrible at that!
@@tonyflorio3269 Buick bounced back well with the 1995 Riviera.
They let the bean counters were in charge of the ship. You are one of the few that appreciates beauty
@@MarinCipollina Agreed. I feel like their time will come in terms of retrospective appreciation. It was a very interesting attempt to do a uniquely Buick car in this space -- unfortunately just as the big, personal luxury coupe market plateaued and started to shrink.
Adam, my dad, and the entire family worked for GM since the 1940s. Flint, Saginaw and Detroit. I lived in Saginaw in the early 1970's. My pops quit that lifestyle to become a cattle rancher and beekeeper in Fresno County and in his huge ranch in Jalisco México, the land of Agave & Tequila! Those Mid 80's Buick Riviera's I rode in them and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme's brand new! My friends dad from church owned the dealership: Enns Buick, Pontiac & GMC in Reedley California. 70 years selling new cars. I remember the cars coming on the railroad all the way from Detroit, Lansing etc...to the West Coast and being unloaded off to our small town! Those Mid 1980's GM mid sizes cars were really good! There were tons of them in my small town and in Fresno County! Great memories! Great post! Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones! Greetings from Santa Clarita California!
I heard that Jalisco is the spiritual home of Mexican cooking ❤
@777jones U Betcha! The Best!
I remember Enns Pontiac very well!
I had an ‘83 Riv that I ordered from the factory but I didn’t get the turbo engine. The reason was that I had a new ‘79 Regal Limited with a turbo that failed after 2.5 yrs. Started burning oil so badly that I had to keep a case of oil in the trunk and stop every few miles and add a quart. It smoked worse than a diesel…broke my heart because I loved that Regal more than any car I’ve ever owned, and partly because of that turbo lag! I loved the way it would bog down whenever you started to pass a vehicle and you’d be thinking it wasn’t going to pass, when suddenly, whoosh, the turbo kicked in with a surprise, always bringing a smile…the effect never got old! I traded it for an ‘80 Toro with diesel which was a huge mistake. Loved the car, hated the engine. By the time the ‘83s came out, there seemed to be a difference in the E-bodied cars, as the Riv seemed lighter than the Toro, not as quiet, with a harsher ride. But as I type this, I’m just now realizing what may have been the reason for the different ride/handling characteristics: I’m wondering if when I ordered the Riv, if I ordered the touring suspension, and while I cannot recall, I’m betting that I did! All these years later, and me commenting on this page may have answered a 42-year old mystery!
A car-enthusiast friend had one of these new, and "discernably turbo-charged" is accurate. Noticeable lag followed by turbo sounds and a swell of power. It was a gorgeous car and was enjoyed immensely.
Anything T-Type is a yes in my book
Agreed, LeSabre T-Type was tops in my book...it really had the look
Thanks Adam, and have a Merry Christmas
Thank God. I thought I remembered seeing an ad in magazines back in the ‘80s for T-Type Buicks that included the Riv, but until now I’ve never seen one in person or even in photos. I was sure I’d imagined it all, so this is so good to see.
The lines of this car were SO much nicer than the Regal of the era. And extra props for the vinyl top delete; it was a plague for so many cars in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
My aunt had one when I was a kid. Super cool car.
Joining the chorus here…Adam, thank you for entertaining and informing us this past year with your insightful trips down the automotive memory lane. If we all lived in the same town you’d have more friends than you could handle. You’re a true gentleman and a total class act. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year!
auto reverse plays the flip side without having to physically flip the cassette...the cassette runs in reverse hence the name. Also, it can modulate the Cr02 and metal cassette tapes.
And don’t forget the DNR. Dynamic Noise Reduction. GM was too cheap to license Dolby’s NR.
@@patrickr9372 The upside of DNR was that it worked with AM, FM and all tape variants. Dolby was only effective with compatible cassettes.
I'm so glad you mentioned the wheels. As far as the styling goes... with this, or any make & model, the wheels are so integral to the overall appearance! Thanks for featuring this one!
I owned two ‘85 Non-intercooled computer managed turbo V6s But on the rear drive regal platform. The engine is exactly the same as the Riviera.
Extremely reliable drivetrain. Hit 200k and not one single engine related failure of any kind. I don’t think there was even a check engine light that came on at any time. Only the usual issues such as leaks/AC, things like that.
I only made one modification and it makes a HUGE difference: gut the catalytic converter.
This allows the turbo to spool SO Much quicker and almost completely eliminates off idle turbo lag.
I believe you made reference the Riviera is still using the three speed automatic (?) that could make a big difference with the turbo performance if it does not use the 4 Speed automatic with a more performance gear ratio. The turbo regal uses the excellent, 2004R automatic coupled with 3.42 axle Which makes for great torque multiplication from the standing stop with the turbo.
It can’t be over emphasized how much better this computer managed V6 is over ANY other power plant on this 79-85 riviera platform. Drivability is SO Much better! And I will argue, even with a bit of turbo lag, this engine still performs Better than any Carbureted unit available in these cars, Including down low RPM.
Adam, I would not completely rule out one of these for Parts issues. Many of the same components are used on the 86/87 turbo regal. Those cars have a huge following with a depth of technical knowledge available for upkeep.
I was the proud owner on an '85 Riviera the same color as this one that was a showroom display model. It was fully loaded with a moonroof, the sports steering wheel like this one and a digital dash, and I've never have seen another '85 Riviera (or any '79-'85 Riviera) that had a digital dash - so I guess it must've been pretty rare. When I walked in the showroom and saw it, I just HAD to have it - and I loved every minute behind the wheel of that beauty!
My late first partner bought an '83 Riviera from Seaside Buick in San Diego. It was Cotillion White with Maple leather interior. We looked at the T-Type, but thought the standard V8 would be more durable. I remember Larry adding True Spoke wire wheels to make it look unique and the Delco Concert Sound, AM/FM Auto Reverse Cassette, being pretty remarkable at the time. I was a Hospital Corpsman stationed with the 3rd Battalion /1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. Sometimes he'd let me take it on base and people always complimented that car.
Thanks for posting. Brought back bittersweet memories.
A timeless design with lots of design cues of the first Riviera. Would def. drive one today!
Totally agree. The roof of the Riviera/Toronado/Eldorado during this period was one of the best ever. And the sharp crease idea for the rear deck lid is perfect.
Great video!
I'm not a Cadillac man, I'm a Porsche man, but the Eldorado from this period, with the black and silver two tone? THAT is a sharp car. Like the '70's Seville, they really got that car correct from every angle.
I agree, the '76-'79 Seville was a beauty and the two tone black/silver Elegante edition with those wire wheels was pure class. I've always been a car fanatic, and I was amazed when I found out they made them from a Nova platform and was clueless about that for years until I read about it somewhere.
@@TomSnyder-gx5ru I kind of suspected that since it was the same size. The '79 Eldorado in that black and silver with 17 inch BBS alloy "wire" wheels with a 400 hp LS conversion and a decent suspension setup would be something to take a Cars & Coffee event. That would be an Eldorado with a capitalized "E"!
Adam, Merry Christmas!!! As you are the owner of a genuinely classic 1967 Riviera, it is amazing to see how excited you get about this FWD 1985. 😉
Interesting Buick, do not see them anymore. Thanks Adam
The 79-81 Riv turbo was referred to as the S-type. Also in 1984-985 the engine was rated at 190 hp and 200 in the Regal due to a better exhaust on the Regal. These ran 8-9 psi boost. Parts can be sourced aftermarket through some Turbo Buick businesses. This should be a 4 speed OD trans. The turbo 6 emblem was designed by a gentleman with the named named Molly.
I remember seeing this car back in 85 in a Time Magazine ad for Buick. Even then I thought the car looked dated, but many Americans liked it and bought a lot of them.
It was my dream car when I was in my 20s
I had a 79 Riviera for 11 years it was the best car ever had
I worked on these when they were new as a Buick technician...Great
Thanks Again🎉🎉🎉
The Genius of this Channel in really crediting all the work that went into creating these rare cars from planning all the way to those instituting these rarities into the cars on the assembly Line is just Admirable.
Clearly, the "Cronkite" of cars with the personality of
Paul Harvey.
Agree fully. It's as if all of us watching are all part of a club that receives an inside track that isn't normally available. The relevant stories about discussions within the companies, trials they faced etc adds a ton of depth to your videos. Your channel is my one subscription that I refuse to miss even a single video. Merry Christmas everyone.
The boat tail Rivers was a good looking car along with this one.
I have a '72 Riviera (preferably a GS) on my "when I win the lottery" list - I've been enamored by the boat tail Rivieras ever since they came out in '71. I didn't like the trunk lid vents on the '71 and don't consider the '73 a true "boat tail" after they chopped off the actual boat tail.
Thanks Adam & Merry Christmas!! :-) BTW, You are a remarkable bean counter! 😉
This '85 Riviera T-Type has many similarities to the 1978 Buick Regal Turbo V6 my dad owned. It was the first year Buick Regal offered a turbo.
Sky blue color, no vinyl roof, and the accelerator had that exact same lag kicking into a turbo 'WHOOSH' as Adam talked about.
I have to say I just LOVED the sky blue velour seats in the Regal, too. General Motors mastered the art of making comfortable pillowy cloth seats, for sure!
I had an 85 Tornado with the 307 Oldsmobile V8. It wasn’t powerful but it was the smoothest running vehicle I’ve ever owned.
Happy Christmas dear Adam. A big Thank You for all you gave us!❤
I found this era of Rviera, Eldorado, and Toronado especially good looking, the Toro the most. I'd still like to have one. Thank you as always, and like others have written, Merry Christmas!
I also had a Buick T-type in the 80's. A Skyhawk with the 1.8L four turbo and a 4 speed. It could stay right with the T-type Riviera.
That beigh color was inescapable in the 80's.
In 1985 I had one of the first turbo charged factory pick up trucks. It was the Toyota SR5 XtraCab turbo. I love that truck and I wish I still had one today.
What a handsome design !!!! Old Buicks are amazing
Those Delco radios were great, even better when you upgraded the speakers
Adam you are literally the very best at what you do. Your knowledge, and willingness to share it, makes my life a whole lot more enjoyable. I've always owned what my family members or friends call "land yaghts". Its great to know others love them as much as I do. having owned a 1985 Riviera, I beg to differ about the comfort of the rear seats. Its deceiving, but once back there quite a nice place to be for a trip. Of course that was years ago, and now I'm on my 2nd beautiful Town Car.
I agree, I also owned an '85 Riviera and never had any of my backseat passengers complain about being uncomfortable. I drive a Toyota Tundra PU today - go figure!
Merry Christmas Adam. What a great automobile to feature! Coming from a huge Buick fan!!~ Remember this is the last years of that platform. 86+, a totally different automobile.
And not in a good way!
Merry Christmas, Adam. Here's to another great year!
The 79-85 riviera was a beauty in its day. Honestly though I preferred the regular model over the T type. Those early turbos weren’t great engines, tons of lag, prone to all sorts of failures. I also prefer the styling of regular models as the T type black mirrors road wheels and steering wheel didn’t suit the car as much as the base model details.
The rivieras without the vinyl tops had a wider quarter window than the vinyl top ones. Really changed the look of the car.
I never realized the Rivieras without vinyl tops had larger quarter windows than the vinyl top ones, so had to go see pictures for myself and you're right - never too old to learn I guess. I wonder why they did that, doesn't make sense.
As a lifelong northern european resident, I come at these videos from a bit of a different angle than most other people in these comments it seems.
Most of the cars featured are ones that, even in their "base form" really were never sold here at all, and hence are quite a rarity. I certainly have no personal connection to any of them at all.
These videos are therefore a great and easily digestible source of info for learning more about stuff that I never had a chance to see really, and as a vehicle enthusiast in general (and, from my vantage point, uncommon vehicles specifically), these kind of cars are right up my alley. Cheers mate!
Cheers, GoldenCroc!
I think this is one of the best, most beautiful models from GM.
Merry Christmas Adam and to all the subscribers! These generation of Riv's, and Toro's were STRIKING cars. The only thing about GM at that time was they seemed to use the cheapest plastic for everything, even for the knobs, the tail light lenses's bumper fillers.
The person I cut grass for as a kid had that or a Regal with the turbo. As a 13 year old kid that Turbo emblem on the hood really impressed me as I thought it was a really elegant car with power. Thanks for the video! Merry Christmas!
Thank you Jessica Fox I had a blast with you in this car driving around Manhattan during the 80s
This and all T-Types were the precursor to the GrandNational and the GNX super cool ride I used to see these back in the day but I always thought the T-Type was just an appearance package never knew it involved turbo charging.
No, there was a lot of information that I don't really think was spot on. I worked in a Buick dealer in this timeframe. There was a Regal Grand National actually in 1982, you can research that. The TType (stood for touring, not turbo) appeared about 1983. You could soon get it almost across the board. I had a Skylark TType, no turbo, it had the 2.8HO that the X11 had, nicer rims, 2 tone paint, F41 suspension, so basically Buick's version of the X11. They had the TType Skyhawk and Century, on the LeSabre in the later 80s (I had an 88 LeSabre TType). The GN came out again in 84, but you could get a TType if you didn't want the GN, mainly people bought those if they didn't want the black. But to add to the confusion, you could order a black TType. You could also order a Regal TType without the turbo V6!
I remember seeing this gen of Rivieras all over the place in the 1980s into the early 90s. The 1979-1985 Toronado was hard to tell apart from these 1979-1985 Riviera.
So nice! I've always liked that style of Riviera. A few people that I knew, had them. The Riv, along with the Eldo, with the brushed stainless roof, were my favorite GM cars, at that time and really still are. The 1974 Electra, is also one of my favorites. An fine car, all of the way around. An excellent video, as always.
Back then, I preferred the Eldorado because it was the Cadillac, but 40 years later, I now think the Riv was the best looking of the trio. I agree that the lack of a vinyl roof and the non-wire wheels look fantastic.
They do almost look better without the vinyl top - as they show those lines around the C pillar, which are a key component of the car's overall design.
Not to mention the better engine.....
This model made me fall in love with cars.
The Riviera was always a nice car. I like every model Buick made.
Buick should bring back the Riv
Congrats, redneck.
Thanks!
Welcome!
Turbo lag… in college I drove a buddy’s new ‘89 Saab 900 Turbo coupe and got a scary lesson in turbo lag and the need to plan for acceleration. I had taken my mother’s rarely driven ‘87 560SL to school, so I was used to strong, *linear* acceleration. I pulled out into traffic on Route 9 in Wellesley MA and damn near got slammed from behind by a BMW 735iL before the turbo spooled-up and the 900 became a rocket. It was a blast, but you definitely needed to tip-into the throttle BEFORE needing the power or it wouldn’t be there to save you in time 😮😂. Love those old E-bodies from GM, especially the Toronado!
That older C3I ignition system was a Magnavox setup. They used it up until the 3800 tuned port engine and it had a very high failure rate. Worst part is, all 3 coils and the module were replaced as a whole unit. Later 3800s had a GM C3I system that had the typical two post coils that could be replaced one at a time and the module was separate as well.
Beautiful. Love the color in and out here. Seems quite well equipped, though considering that I'm surprised this car doesn't have a power seat on the passenger side. I'd still buy it (and swap in the equipment for a power seat).
The CONCERT SOUND came with six speakers instead of four, and I think were all upgraded speakers. It first became available in Riviera in the '81 model year. It was a very nice sounding system from what I recall.
I like these Rivieras, especially as you mentioned, without a vinyl top. Other than the boat tails, I like the big 1974-76 ‘E’ body Rivieras, especially the ‘74 with an aggressive 1973 looking front end.
The '74-'76 Rivieras were decent looking cars, I especially liked the extra set of tail/brake lights under the back glass on these - the '77-'78 Riviera was just a dressed up LeSabre - but boy did they hit it out of the ballpark with the 79's!
Love the A and C pillars on these cars.
The other interesting thing about that radio is that it can receive AM stereo stations. There may not have been many AM stereo broadcast sources, but back then we had some in the Toronto, Ontario area. Also, the pre-sets can be manipulated to add extra stations by pressing two adjacent buttons at the same time when you are holding them down. Four buttons, seven pre-sets. Back in the day, this radio was used in an Olds Cutlass as the head unit in a contest winning competition. Sounds systems have come a long way.
I think it also won Motor Trend car of the year award.
The first model year, 1979, did.
I remember when the 77-78 Rivera came out we called them saber-Riv's. My uncle had one for his demo and all he could say about them was boring. I think he had five or six 63-65's at different times. And he really liked the 79-85's.
I found a turbo riviera on a used car lot in the late 80s and test drove it. Interesting car.
These Riviera's had the Grand National 3.8 detuned. You could easily pull 300hp out of the stock configuration with just a tune chip, cone air filter and a free flowing muffler. I've had many Grand Nationals and T-Types but I never knew the Riviera had the turbo 3.8 in them.......... Bummer. Great video though. Thanks
Without the inter cooler added in 86-87 Regal T and GN the Turbos were not the Corvette killers they became.
GM most likely detuned the 3.8 turbo since it was a FWD application. Harder to make a FWD transmission handle the power. Would really let the magic smoke out. 😂😂
@edbaczewski2959 The '70 Eldorado had over 500 ft/lbs in a front drive setup.
I owned a burgundy '78 LeSabre Sport Coupe that had the 3.8 tubo engine - great car!
I had a “79 Riv S-Type turbo. Precursor to the T-Type. Mine had a full vinyl roof instead of the usual half-vinyl, Silver on Red Velour Buckets. Very cool at the time. Loved the idea of the turbo 3.8, but in ‘79 they were carbureted. The only electronics were some rudimentary idle controls in the carb. These 3.8’s weren’t really ready for prime time. They kind of barely mimicked the 307 V-8 that was available but the reliability was terrible. I cooked a turbo, replaced it and then spun a bearing. I swapped in a 252 Cadillac version of the Buick 231 motor that was available at the time and tossed the turbo. It worked fine but wasn’t much “S” in the S-Type anymore.
As you child a buddy and neighbors dad worked at GM it seemed every 9 to 12 months they had a new GM. I remember but sadly didn’t appreciate (at the time) the number of vehicles they had…including this vintage Tornado & Riviera (as well as many others). They were very nice cars in their day.
Thanks for the review.
Lovely car you decided to cover today. I'd seen one in an accident while I was driving in Norfolk one day. An older couple was driving a black T-Type through an intersection that had several blind spots, and someone in a Toyota Highlander turned left and hit them. The Buick was pretty badly damaged, and the couple somewhat the worse for wear as well. Fortunately, an ambulance and police were already on the scene.
When you think about the idea that the Riviera was a good performance car at the beginning, the T-Type comes closer to the original in spirit, it seems to me.
Beautiful Riviera, my Dad had one same color I believe it was called lite Briar brown. Ours had dark brown leather. Still one of the nicest driving cars I've ever driven. Just about everyone wanted one of these or a Toronado or Eldorado. They were all HOT🔥
Totally agree about vinyl tops! Back in the late 70's, I saw a burgundy Monte Carlo without a vinyl top, and it was stunning. I don't care for the late 70's MC's with that ridiculous half vinyl top. Amazing how the plain top made such a positive difference. Keep it up, I enjoy your videos
I guess beauty really is in the eyes of the beholder.
I can't knock people's love for these cars... but I'll never understand it, either. 🤷
LOVED THAT GEN !
That Midas-spec exhaust lets it down
As always a comprehensive and excellent review. Your explanation of the sail panel/C-pillar was spot-on. An intricate and beautiful design detail that as you pointed out was lost when optioned with a landau/vinyl roof. Always interesting how vehicle styles/preferred options change with the times. I recently have seen here in the NY Metro burbs a couple of newer Lexus ES350s and Nissan Muranos with vinyl roofs (have also seen the convertible Muranos). I believe they may have had FL plates. There is still someone out there catering to the dying need some still have for the vinyl roof.
This generation of Riviera was first GM model to have the mirror housing that flared out from the window like ones on Mercedes-Benz from 1971 onward instead of anchoring onto the "pole" attaching to the door.
The stereo system panel could move up to line up with the vent bezels better. The HVAC control panel could be expanded vertically to line up with the black boxes.
The Riviera without the vinyl top always looked great, the vinyl tops on these and its siblings looked ungainly to me. The color is called Light Metallic Rosewood - almost a mauve, when it was polished looked quite nice.
My father's first luxury car was one of this series Riviera. also sans the vinyl top. It is a beautiful car and great to drive. He went of to a series of Cadillacs. but the Riv was always my favorite.
The T-Type Riviera was a beautiful car and minus the vinyl roof you are spot on, and what made the car a classic design.
The only thing that GM & Ford couldn't get a grip on was the bumpers protruding out past the sides of the car. It must have bothered Chip Foose as a child he likes to section the bumpers and remove the undesirable excess.
I remember a cool feature of some of those Delco radios. You could press the adjacent station preset buttons together to get an additional station. This feature wasn’t consistent throughout models, however. Had the identical radio in my ‘86 Delta 88 and ‘88 Le Sabre- one had this feature while the other did not.
I LOVE this generation of the Riviera, and think it is even more attractive than the Eldorado and Toronado of the era. The only problem is I can't stand the 305 or 307 V8.
Id still love you to do a catty video on the 77 78 stopgap Riviera.
Great looking car, and I too, love the wheels. Reminds me of BMW's Alpina wheel style from the same era.
I had a 85 riv with the ol 140hp 307. Bought it as my first car in 1996 with 137k miles. It still had all the emissions maintained and hooked up. So it ran very quite and smooth. Where most cars in this era idled at 750 to 875 rpms the 307 idled at 625 650. I did spent 2 weeks before i got my license replacing what seemed like miles of vaccuum hoses. I mention this because all the cars this era i ran across which had the emissions defeted either in the false belief of gaining power or it was just cheaper than fixing it right (even if you could gain 5 to 10hp from taking off the air pump belt the difference between 140/145/150hp is negligible in a 4500lb car) To be honest it was prob more like 2 or 3 hp gain max. The problem was most would just mangle the fittings into the exhaust so they werent sealed. So a venturi effect was created sucking a inconsistent amount of air into the exhaust triggering a check engine light and causing a warm idle issue. Anyways i also want to mention im pretty sure that goofy defrost switch was only on the cars equipped with the problematic digital controls.
Most people don't understand check engine lights. It's essentially the EPAs way of controlling emissions on the fly. Depending on the severity of the emissions violation, the engine is designed to run poorly or even breakdown if the problem is not corrected. This is forced compliance most people don't even realize is going on.
@TeeroyHammermill ill agree with a few asterisks thrown in. It's forced compliance in the sense that a lot of times all that's really wrong is that orange light staying on. There's plenty of situations where the light can be tripped and the vehicle still runs perfectly fine. So ppl pay a bunch of money just to turn that light off. However I don't think the light being on in itself will make the car run bad. It's the other way around. It's a symptom not a cause. The 307 I was talking about was like another common gm engine of the era. The 3.8 2bbl. What these had in common aside from the air injection pump emissions was computer controlled carburetors. This system had a oxygen sensor, a solenoid in the carb to vary the mixture for lean or rich. Aside from a throttle position sensor on the carb, the system only had the other basic engine sensors to detect the running condition. Like a knock sensor, water temp, possibly a vacuum sensor in the intake manifold but not much else. So when the main thing it pays attention to (the exhaust oxygen) is changed if it's outside what the carb can compensate for, it'll run awful. Which brings us to modern cars. It seems every manufacturer has proprietary codes in their computer system. Which causes ppl to have to take to the designated dealer. For example I work at a cdjr dealer. When we work on a ford, or especially Japanese makes, we can only do the most basic of code clearing then it has to be sent to the makes dealer to finish it. Another example I'd agree with the forced compliance thing is modern diesels. If the Def goes low your not going anywhere.
i like that generation of buick rivera😊.
That Grand Nat motor would've been a hot runner!!
Thanks for this one, Adam.. Buick GNX was the best performance Buick of the 1980s for my money.. I'm not a fan of front wheel drive arrangements, generally speaking, but I did like the design of this generation Riviera.
I remeber when these cars where everywhere, nobody wanted them anymore. I usually found them for a price range of about 800 to 1500 dollars, in running condition with limited minor issues.
The tan 78 Riv you pictured reminds me of my 75th anniversary edition. It had a similar two tone exterior featung black and silver. The interior had grey leather and carpet with black dash... The fake wood grain was deleted in favour of a brushed aluminum accents on the IP and door panels. 1400 made and I had one LOL wish I still did
Merry Christmas Adam! Thanks again for a nice gift here.
Wish GM could have continued the 350 option as it was standard on the 79-80 cars.
Love this body style.
Two 80s movies featured these premium personal luxury coupes
Thief with James Caan drove a black Eldorado
Raw Deal Arnold had the white with red interior Riviera convertible sad that it got crashed in the shoot out scene in that classic film.
Thanks again and Happy New Year!
That sense of privacy is a problem when backing up also called a BLIND SPOT in C pillar
Wasn't that bad.
A friend of mine bought a turbocharged Buick like this and kept it for over a decade
Merry Christmas and thanks for providing good interesting and informative videos without a bunch of BS hype. After watching many, many videos I began to wonder how many cars you own?
Happy Holidays Adam 🎅
I remember seeing a lot of Riviera's of this era driving around the North Shore of Milwaukee, along with the Toronado's and Eldorado's. This platform was one of GM's more successful attempts in downsizing their cars. The 1979-1985 models did not have that "too small" look like the next generation did.
I like it. The one thing that always puzzled me was the way the A pillars were connected across the hood. Almost like a last-minute design change, and it was supposed to be more raked at first.
My friend had one of these. We filled the trunk with about 300lb of firewood and the self leveling suspension adjusted 😂
The main reason they use fake wood in cars is that it is far cheaper to make and install. But also, during an impact event, wood can splinter and actually stab passengers. Plastic tends to bend and thus is considered safer. However, In the past 15 years, auto makers have learned how to fashion wood so that it is not an issue during a crash and that is why you see it being used again.
Frankly, you can have it. The only car I've ever owned that had wood in its construction was my '85 Porsche 928S2, which had an actual black painted plywood panel covering the fuse box under the floor mat at the front of the passenger side footwell. Yes they came from Stuttgart like this. There were actually three pieces that made that cover, a lower fixed piece, a large piece that covered the fuse box and was removable, and a wood block to aid in positioning. My kind of wood interior!
My Boss had a Silver Plane Jane with hubcaps and the 307. It was very nice driving and the power was plenty to move it around. Big power was gone but big comfort and ride and drive quality was way up.
Had a 1984 T-Type. The turbo versions of 1979 up to when the ttype name change came out were called and labled S-Type (which won Motor Trends Car of the Year). Mine had everything including digital dash and real suede interior (which rubbed down actef 35k miles) and Bose stereo (which was the first Bose and is the most accurate sound system ever made, and with only 4 speakers), except i did not have the digital auto climate control. Wonderfull car.
7:09 I believe that head unit has the AM stereo feature
I️ love that steering wheel. I️ had one in my 83 Regal Limited.
Adam, I do own an 85 t type. There’s a lot of tech support on turbo Regal sites for drivability issues. The ride is a bit more firm than the standard version but not harsh. There were upgrades to the transmission in the turbo models. Not sure exactly what they were but standard models had an A designation and turbo ones had a B designation for the transmission. Rare, but not valuable. This car is always the only t type Riv at a car show with many surprised people who didn’t know it existed. You have a great channel, and I look forward to seeing any car you put in the spotlight!
The "T" in T-Type stood for Touring package, like the Buick Regal T-Type, it didn't mean when you ordered the "T" or "T-Type" option you got the turbo engine. Gorgeous vehicle. I believe it had 200hp.