Boattail Barn Find: 1971 Buick Riviera 455-4
The personal luxury coupe genre is something that doesn’t really exist anymore. Sure, you can get a Bentley Continental or a Rolls-Royce Wraith, but what about us plebeians? Buicks are (very) nice, but they don’t cost as much (or more than) your house, so they’re still within reach for normal people like you and me. What’s more, the third generation 1971-1973 Buick Riviera had a unique design calling back to the famous Auburn Boattail Speedster, giving this comfortable, fast, and uniquely American continent-carver a distinctive and appealing shape. You can find this boattail here on eBay, but hurry because the auction ends soon!
Under the hood is the iconic Buick 455 V-8 driving the rear wheels through an automatic transmission. The seller states it starts, runs, and drives well, and “it will leave a black mark for half a block if you want.” Which, I’m not advocating for doing anything illegal, but it’s certainly nice to have seven and a half liters of V-8 under the hood to merge with highway traffic. Is it necessary? No, absolutely not. My 995 cubic centimeter, 90 horsepower, hybrid Honda Insight merged with traffic just fine, but living life ostentatiously and excessively sometimes has its own charms about it.
It might not seem like it, but 1971 was fifty years ago now. It’s important to remember that even though, as the saying goes, “used GM will run poorly longer than most cars will run at all,” this is still a half-century old. It has some rust. There is at least one hole in the fender captured in the pictures, some of the trim is not attached completely, and there is some surface rust on the frame you can see in the picture. The seller does mention that they feel comfortable driving this all day long, and I’d be inclined to believe them.
As with anything (and classic cars especially), it’s important to know and be comfortable with what you’re buying before you buy it. The Boattail Riviera represents a class of vehicle that no longer exists and does it with striking looks pavement-melting power. It also was made during the malaise era, and as those of us weirdos who like the cars that came from that period of American iron like to gloss over, reliability and longevity are somewhat questionable. It’s lasted fifty years already, though. What’s another fifty more?
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Comments
Sorry Ben, this Buick predates the “malaise” era by a good two years.
My mom had one in 78, Blue and it would leave two BLACK Makes for a city block. Great Cruising Car. Use to piss mu sister off when I came home on leave, Cause I’d leave her vette in the smoke.
As for the malaise era comments in this article, as I think we all know, it was not all of the American cars that were unreliable or that had poor longevity in the 70s and 80s. There is truth to that, but it’s also a massive overgeneralization. There were a few notable examples at the time, e.g. the Vega. This is not one of those cars. Buicks were always better cars. I can’t think of too many Buicks at all that were notably poor – though I can think of many from other GM divisions. In 1971 the malaise era hadn’t even started yet – not until 1973 at least when a lot of emissions controls were added on. Catalytic converters weren’t added until 1975 which reduced the power output of most engines. The fuel crisis also hadn’t happened yet so you still had larger engines that were appropriately sized to the weight of the vehicles they were put into. The 455 engine and transmission in these cars are bullet proof. This car is definitely a driver that needs some cosmetic help, but from the sellers description, if accurate, it should be fine mechanically. But it should be used as a driver or plans should be made for a restoration. I see the bidding is over $6300 at this point – these are cool cars but sorry, there’s no way I’d spend that much with the rust through on the bottom of the fenders, the rusty quarter panels, etc – even if it is in decent mechanical shape.
Nice price for a nice car!
It is a good price and it is a nice car, but I hope it found its way to the right owner (item no longer available).
What you have here is a 50 year old car with rust showing. Not a big surprise there. But judging by the fact that the chrome & vinyl side trim spears are missing, along with the rivets that attached the clips those spears were attached with, it has been repainted at least once already. So you have a 50 year old boat with rust showing, probably a lot more hiding under at least one repaint, a dry looking vinyl top, and an interior that from what I can see is hiding under seat covers (worn upholstery? Or simply protecting pristine seats? I bet the first choice.
I LOVE these cars! Buy this one needs some loving, and to do it right will take a LOT of money. She deserves it though. So, I hope she found the right “forever” home.
It is not missing the metal studs and clips for the side sweep spear trim they were only on the 72 and 73.
Sold $7,225.
I remember the gas crisis of October 73 very well. I had been working at a Pontiac dealership for a year at that time and my wife asked if I should get out of the car business. I said no, they will always need someone to close the books. I enjoyed 10 years with Pontiac and they were great years.