Deuce And A Quarter: 1969 Buick Electra Drop-Top
Yes, it’s a beast, all 225 inches and 4500 lbs. of Buick’s 1969 top dog, the Electra 225 – and in this case, it’s a drop-top. Other than some spooky and goofy-looking headlights, this big baby looks as the designers from Flint intended. It’s impressive and it can be yours for $23,000. This car, which Buick’s ad agency tagged as the one “you’d really rather have”, calls Houston, Texas home and it’s available, here on craigslist.
Buick’s ’69 lineup placed the Electra 225 and 225 Custom at the top of the heap with the sporty Wildcat and the mainstream LeSabre in less exalted positions. Positioned as GM’s near-luxury division, Buick had a solid year in ’69, reaching fifth place with 665K copies in the domestic production auto race. As for the Electra convertible, 8,200 units emerged from the Buick City assembly plant. Buick was a force in ’69; they’re a fuggetaboutit anymore, IMO.
The seller tells us that the “interior leather” looks great for its age. While I agree with the optics, I’m pretty certain that the upholstery is vinyl and not leather. Regardless, there’s a lot of red going on and it looks pretty good with no sign of top-down damage and just a bit of front seat sliding in-and-out wear. A two-door body style of this size was actually, a pretty comfortable backseat ride, and ingress/egress wasn’t half bad either. Interested in hearing Barry White through a Grateful Dead-inspired sound system? Got you covered with what looks like an original Buick, color-matched eight-track tape player booming through some seriously sized trunk-mounted woofers. Diminished hearing anyone?
A whammer-jammer this size needs big power and in this case, we’re talking 360 gross HP developed from a 430 CI V8 engine while working through a Turbo-Hydramatic three-speed automatic transmission. The listing says nothing about operating characteristics so an inquiry will be necessary. The mileage is listed as 8K miles so it’s at least 108K miles – and maybe more.
The exterior, and there’s a lot of it shows well, though it’s not stated if the finish is original – not that it really matters. The finish is deep and shows no sign of thinness or fade. A sharp-looking beige folding top, nice chrome, complete stainless trim, and Buick road wheels complete the exterior picture. There are images in the listing showing this Electra wearing and not wearing its fender skirts. I don’t like them and think this big Buick looks better without them but that’s just a matter of preference. And, those previously mentioned headlights? They’d be first on my file 86 list. If you would like to see more, here’s a walkaround video for your review.
This sale is being handled by Clasiq and if the Clasiq listing’s details and those of the eBay listing don’t line up, don’t be surprised, they often don’t. Anyway, as I have opined before, big two-door models like this, be it a convertible or a hardtop, won’t come our way again but that fabulous experience, the one that we had so many years ago, can still be enjoyed with fine examples such as this Buick convertible. Get em while you can, right?
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Comments
A real Buick!
Excess! What more could we ask for? It seems we are falling into that trap again.
Good luck to the seller.
Hubba hubba!
By far my favorite land barge. The deuce and a quarter was just smooth like butter. Ultimate comfort. And other than those things they’re calling headlights, this one is perfection. If my life was in a better place I would make sure this one was mine. Beauty a
I like the rims. But overall presentation has me wondering about the price. I agree that the interior looks more like vinyl to my eye as well. A great cruiser!
Back in the day, if you were a loyal buyer of domestic cars, it seemed like the older you got, the bigger the car. All my grandparents had giant cars. My co-workers who had to manage downsizing their mom & dad’s stuff also had to deal with huge rolling barges.
What a beauty ! I tend to dislike “fender skirts” (I swear I remember a different name for them, but I’ll be damned that I can’t remember the name) but this looks like there’s something missing without them. If they had them from the factory they need to be there, if they didn’t have them there’s no need for them !
Some people called them ‘spats’.
A car that’s actually longer than my Superbird.
Hey Mike K. If you go to the Craigslist ad of this car they show a pic of it with the “skirts” on it. For the life of me I don’t know why they even show it without them. Just looks incomplete otherwise. As I said before, My favorite land barge of all time.
I notice all the windows have a full tint job.
Story time: I’ve got a high school buddy who has a 70 Electra hardtop. It’s seamist green with green interior and a white vinyl top. Bench seat, column shift, whitewalls, road wheels – looks totally like your grandpa’s ol’ cruiser. That is until he stabs the gas pedal. It’s got a highly worked and bored over 455, worked over aluminum heads, turbo 400 and a gm 8.5 3.42 posi rear. It’s about 10:1 CR and runs on premium pump gas. It idles mildly choppy but it drives so smooth and it pulls like a freight train. I’ve got to admit, it sure is fun to cruise the town with him. Nobody suspects this large Buick is a stoplight brawler. About two years ago, in the mid-morning we were stopped at a light on an expressway and a newer Scat Pack Challenger pulled along side, my buddy revved the engine and the younger guy in the Challenger literally laughed. My buddy nodded at him and revved the engine again, the Chally driver smiled and looked pretty amused, but nodded back and revved his engine. Light turned green, Chally got off the light ahead but my buddy’s Electra ran him down and blew past him. By the time we stopped at the next light, probably a third of a mile later, the Challenger driver had the most dumbfounded look on his face. He was in the next lane a car behind, so we did not get a chance to chat with him, but I can almost guarantee that later that night he was in one of the Mopar forums asking people what he could do to make more power. I imagine he was quite shocked getting vanquished by this large land yacht. Pretty sure that Chally driver received his first lesson in Buick torque that day.
Body mould missing off the right hand side and you can see in the walk around video where the paint has been scrapped off the right rear corner, does the roof go all the way down and the front right floor, is that mould or sand he tries to brush away, and those are just quick observations. So after a full paint job and do the upholstery repairs, change the head lights and pull out that stereo unit so you can put luggage in the truck what is left that needs doing. Personally I can not see the value in their asking price when you add up what needs to be done to bring this up to scratch.
Lose the tints
The headlights, that steering wheel cover, and the giant speaker box make me think this was a kids car. I’m betting it’s had a roughnlife.
For what it’s worth, I agree that this car probably had a rough life. Yet, if any car could withstand abuse, it’s a Buick of this era.
A cool driver!! I love the skirts! Headlights, not so much. If the government really starts installing kill switches in 2026, I’ll be driving something like this. In style!!
If you want to defeat the the government kill switches wear a tinfoil hat. The alien mind control lasers don’t work then.
I hope the skirts are in the trunk! And what’s up with those headlights???
First things first, replace skirts, then replace headlights with T3s, get rid if the incredibly stupid woofers (those are only for insecure people who seek attention)
And then go for a cruise
I’ve had a few Buick convertibles from the sixties. Great cars.
My Uncle Steve had a succession of Buick Electras/Roadmasters over the years. No convertibles, but always sedans. They were super smooth to ride in. Buick stopped using the Dynaflow transmission after 1963. When my uncle traded his ’60 Electra for a ’64, my Aunt Helen said that she liked the old car better because you could feel the new car shift.