harder-edged automobiles.

During Harley Earl's era, Buick produced a one-off that came closest to being a Buick sports car: the 1954 Wildcat II concept, bearing resemblance to the Chevrolet Corvette, with dramatic front fender cutouts and bolder front and rear styling.

Thirty years later, for the 1985 Wildcat II concept, Buick worked with McLaren on a turbocharged, dual overhead cam (DOHC) motor, and with Indy Car sponsor PPG industries on a revolutionary body; a body which blended windshield and hood together in a unique aerodynamic aerodynamic design which joined transparent and solid portions together. There were no traditional doors: as the canopy raised, the steering wheel tilted forward.

It would not be until January 1988 that the promise of a production Buick sports car was realized: the Reatta. Recall that, at the end of the '50s, Buick had elected to downsize and somewhat de-chrome its vehicles, finding its balance in this new vision. Yet, for all its impressive, 0.34 coefficient of drag, the 2-passenger Reatta was, perhaps, a step too far from Buick's traditional grace (and space); just as cool reception to the 1986, more compact Riviera had prompted Buick to smooth and lengthen its lines for 1989.

Lessons learned from Reatta and that Riviera would produce the final Riviera for 1995. Through 1999, this magnificent machine cleaved the air much as had the original, 1963 model that had borne its name, while meeting Buick's high packaging standards.

it has been deemed a modern classic.

"Remember Riviera: it's the most beautiful machine on wheels this year," mused Bob Plunkett for the Houston Post.

"Riviera, the car, represents beautiful vistas on wheels in a personal luxury coupé whose distinctive extended prow and dramatic exterior lines have set styling trends in automotive circles, dating back to the first edition in 1963."

Bill J. Jinkins of the Grapevine Sun found "silky, one of a kind looks, responsive performance, and handling plus interior volume that rivals a gigantic 2½-ton Bentley Continental R coupé."

Al Haas of the Philadelphia Inquirer called the Riviera's styling "the most original and arresting to come along in this decade.

"This car's body has a kind of voluptuous muscularity, and packs as many visual surprises as a nervous chameleon. As you move around it, styling elements reveal and conceal themselves, creating different looks, allowing the car to reinvent itself constantly."

In 1995, Wheels gave the Riviera its Future Collectible Classic award. Popular Mechanics bestowed upon it its Design and Engineering award. the Chicago Sun-Times listed it among the 10 Best Vehicles of the year.

The final, 1999 Riviera was produced in Orion Township, Michigan. For twenty years, the Riviera Owners Association has catered to drivers of these 1963-99 coupés, in all their generations.

In 2007, Riviera returned as a gull-wing concept, engineered to accommodate a new hybrid system. Riviera was nonetheless most noted for its design: for its Buick waterfall grille, its corners upturned into a slight smile, and for vivid lines of blue light running down the middle of the hood, along the bottom of the side panels, highlighting the Buick emblem and outlining the headlights which, their shape influenced by pale-jade antiques (Chinese objets d'art), stretched back to incorporate vestigial portholes.

Despite having been developed with global design input by the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, a Shanghai-based design and engineering joint venture between GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, Riviera's lines were characteristically Buick, including a long curve beginning at the front fender, and a short hop over the rear wheels.

Inside, Riviera sought to remind its occupants of a "day spa," with a mix of suede and brushed metals. "It's beautiful, quiet, and comfortable," said Dave Lyon, GM's executive director of exterior design.

"You'll arrive refreshed and relaxed."

Between 1963 and 1999, GM sold more than 1.1 million Rivieras in the United States.

One particularly special Riviera was the Silver Arrow I concept of 1963, which lowered the roofline, lengthened the hood, and eventually became the personal car of GM design chief Bill Mitchell.

Finally in the world of Buick hedonism, the Buick Blackhawk concept was not simply a customized car, but one with classic styling combined with contemporary proportions. A 2+2 convertible with a retractable top, Blackhawk featured the classic 1939 Buick grille: a pattern of fine vertical bars. Its major sheetmetal combined the sleek bodies of 1941 and 1948 Buick Roadmasters. All but the grille was modified, and the final car, with its black cheery paint, doors without handles, and hidden headlamps, was a stunning combination of streamlined yet retro design.

What is the true measure of a fine car? What lends an automobile its élan; its distinction?

Authoritative road manners? These, certainly. Graceful static lines must be matched by gracious dynamic confidence.

There must, also, be presence. Perhaps Britain's influential CAR magazine put it best, calling the 1965 Buick Riviera "the greatest marriage of restraint and raw-boned Detroitness ever parked" (CAR, July 1998).

The Riviera was, in September 2006, picked by Automobile magazine as one of the 25 Most Beautiful Cars Ever.

"Enjoyment of a Buick Riviera starts long before the ignition key is turned," wrote Car Life magazine of the '68 Buick.

"It starts even before one enters the car. In fact, it starts with that first good look The 1966-68 Riviera is a beautiful car. Seldom has any car achieved such widespread acceptance of styling" (Car Life, November 1967).

A Buick's presence must be fortified by a lasting impression of confidence; confidence in evolution over fleeting fashion, and confidence, in the timeless, enduring values that triumph over transcendent trend.

Classic beauty, a richness of detail, and muscular grace have set Buicks apart for more than a century. Emblematic of neither unadorned purity, nor of brash opulence, the Buick seeks its own niche.

"It's cars like this that keep me from despairing utterly," wrote Brooks Peterson of the 1995 Buick Riviera for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

"It has a lithe, slithery personality all its own."

Almost 40 years earlier, Motor Trend had named the 1959 Buick Invicta the best-looking car, overall, in the industry. "Detroit's most changed car!" the cover of the magazine's October 1958 issue had screamed.

Today, renowned Italian jeweler Nicola Bulgari proudly displays his collection of about 50 vintage and modern Buicks in Rome (he has even more in the United States).

The grace that characterizes Buicks past and present is of three distinct, if related, forms: a graceful presence, when still; timeless grace, through the ages, and dynamic grace, on the road.

In making the Buick a sensuous experience, the designers and engineers have their goal: to produce cars that ride the road with renowned comfort and composure, project with that sophistication a confident, if understated, presence.


Buick has a long history of graceful design; grace, and yes, presence, that has been envied and emulated.

For true presence, there's nothing quite like being first. Buick designed and presented the world's first concept car: the Y-Job of 1938, penned by Harley Earl, effectively the industry's first design chief.


Built on a production Buick chassis modified by chief engineer Charlie Chayne, this 2-seat sports car featured hidden headlights, power steering, flush door handles, and electric windows. To look at the car today is to realize how far-sighted Earl was. Y-Job appears more as though from the flamboyant Fifties, than as a Depression-era design.

Y-Job's streamlined lines, with sleek, organic forms combined with a long and low body, became the norm.

Today, every concept car at motor shows around the world owes a little something to that pioneering Buick!

Nearly five decades after the Y-Job, the Buick Wildcat II concept received the coveted 1986 award for prototype projects at the 1985 Turin Auto Show, in Italy.

Meanwhile, through 2008, Buick has built a total of 25 concept cars.


It is true that, in its restyling for 1989, the warmer reception which awaited the new Riviera, relative to its predecessor, illustrated the importance of length, and of a wider sail panel/ C-pillar, to a Buick's presence. Lengthened by 11 inches in its tail, Riviera pleased those who had been unhappy with the truncated look of the previous model.

Yet true Buick presence is rooted in careful, yet authentic dichotomy: in the longtime paradox between stately and elegant; between upright and swept back, and between brash and understated. Lines may occasionally disappear here and there, but the overall effect must be sincere.


In the elegance of a Buick, aft of the fascia, the automaker has regularly asked the question, should form really be subservient to function?

In the July, 2006, issue of Britain's CAR magazine, former editor Gavin Green posed this very question.

Form follows function has become a mantra that has taken on a life of its own. Rooted in German prewar Bauhaus ideas, by which each aspect of a product's design mirrors its function, the wholesale adoption of this ideology by an automotive industry suffering from a dearth of ideas in the fuel crises of the '70s resulted in a series of cookie-cutter cars in the '80s, and manifested into a series of molds which were applied to various segments, across brand and parent companies, in the '90s.

Green asked whether "cars that can eke out every square inch of cabin space from their modest dimensions, cars which sip fuel like a miser yet still go briskly, and cars which are conceived down to the last penny in computerized cost control" should truly be the goal for today's automotive industry. Lamenting the absence of "great design and engineering romantics" (formerly, men such as Jaguar's Sir William Lyons and Fiat's Dante Giacosa), Green asked whether the car had become a "consumer good."

Indeed, why should form be subservient to function, across every segment and brand? There is, certainly, room in the market for Buick's brand of enduring values, clearly communicated, and for Buick's unique design compromise between stoic presence, and sprinkles of romanticism, in graceful body lines aft of an imposing prow. Buick's very mission is elegance without ostentation.

The automobile is more than transportation; more than simply a consumer good. If every vehicle is inherently a compromise, each should clearly outline a compromise chosen by a single person.

In his piece, Gavin Green bemoaned that "elegance, like manners and restrained language, is a dying breed," adding that, "car style has become all about being seen.

"Eye-catching is more important than eye pleasing. Modern cars are increasingly aggressive, in yer face."

At Buick, General Motors Vice Chairman of Product Development Bob Lutz, in 2001, gave a speech in which he espoused similar thoughts, suggesting that several recent automotive designs looked "either like a whole family of angry kitchen appliances, demented toasters, furious bread machines, and vengeful trash compactors," or were "the assemblages of mere steel tubes, leather, and plastic, looking like exercise machines."

Designers, Lutz said, were "no longer designing for the public, but rather for each other, trying to be ever more off-the-wall than the competition."

Concepts "seemed to be drowning in a sea of sameness: tiny windows, flat fronts, rhomboidal headlights, and slab sides."

Today's Buick may be understated, but such descriptions could never fit it. its curvaceous surfacing and form, and attention to detail, belie the mass-produced nature of the segments in which it plays.


In form, the Buick has sought a stately, yet elegant presence. A decade after Buick first began producing cars, the 1914 Model B-38 was its first production model with a fully enclosed, coupé body. That year, with its rounded hood and nose and fenders set lower than previously, the Model B-55 marked a break from the more staid styling confines of Buick's early years.

Thus, gradually, began the Buick contradiction, albeit a pleasant one, between upright fasciae and swooping carriage lines, within the same design. By 1918, Buick had begun to gradually slope its windshields, their slight, rearward slant giving open Buicks a racier appearance.

The gently sloping hoods and smoothly molded fenders of the new 1924 Buick attracted much attraction as Buick gradually moved from the look of a mass production automobile to that of a premium car.

This was the brief of the legendary Harley Earl.


It is fitting that Earl was born, in November of 1893, to the son of a custom coachbuilder. He grew up believing that personal transportation should be an extension of personal style, and it was this guiding principle that brought him to Detroit in 1927, as the head of GM's new Art and Color section. Located on the 10th floor of the company's headquarters, this was the division that would, over the next decade, evolve into the industry's first Design and Styling department.

For 1927, a Gothic Goddess radiator cap replete with wings topped off the Buick Master Six. Bullet shaped, nickel-plated headlights replaced barrel-shaped units for 1928.

For 1931, celebrating Buick's 8-cylinder line-up, the radiator cap bore a figure 8.

Under Earl, Buick introduced an innovative new range of paint colors. The press would refer to 1927 as the polychrome year of automobile history. By 1929, the year of Buick's Silver Anniversary, 43 exterior colors were available.

Earl made his mistakes, to be sure, as Buick pushed forward. 1929 saw a 1½-inch bulge below the belt-line that few observers thought elegant. It was corrected the following year, with a height reduction of 2 inches for 1930. "My primary purpose has been to lengthen and lower the American automobile," Earl would explain, toward the end of his career, three decades later.

By 1932, the Buick windshield slope had been extended to 10 degrees, accentuated by longer, more streamlined fenders, and by dual tail-lights at the rear. For 1933, the Buick's height was reduced again (by 2¼ inches), as Earl and his team gave front and rear fenders deeper valances and more sweeping curves.

The turret top Buicks arrived for 1936, their "vee" windshields inclined further still, and their front fasciae beginning to slope in accordance. For 1937, bodies were lowered again, by 1½ inches. Buick hid folded convertible tops in a package tray, eliminating the erstwhile cluttered look of that body type.

When for 1938 Buick introduced parking lights as separate units from the headlamps, they mirrored the bullet headlamps in form.

For 1940, Buick General Manager Harlow Curtice went so far as to introduce a series of custom bodied vehicles available on special order from Brunn & Company in Buffalo, New York.

For 1941, headlamps were now placed at the edges of the front fascia, as both grilles and bodies grew wider.

When the government, anticipating wartime, prohibited the use of chrome trim on January 1st, 1942, Buick embraced military production.


Chrome brightwork has long been used as a highlight of the Buick's form; indeed, since 1928, before which Buick had used nickel plating (1913) and, before that, brass (1908).

It was of no surprise, then, that chrome returned with force when production resumed for 1946, continuing through the Fifties, receding on occasion, but never quite abating through present day, when it has made a comeback.

'50s Buicks, in particular, were famous for their chrome, sporting what was called the Buick dollar grin: thick, highly polished ribs that somewhat resembled gleaming teeth.

In station wagon lines, chrome would visibly delineate the departure of wood as a structural element. Buick was last to produce a true woody wagon, with the 1953 Super and Roadmaster Estate models: the entire tailgate, liftgate, and rear window posts in the cargo area used large wood pieces, or were made entirely of wood.

Today, "chrome bumpers have gone forever... you just couldn't do a visible bumper with today's safety regulations," muses Head of MG Rover design Peter Stevens ('Iconography,' evo, September 2004). Yet the Buick LaCrosse delineates its front corners with chrome spears.

Chrome is not the only aspect of Buick that dates back far further than one might think. The white sidewall tires, no longer used today, which seem a product of the '70s, were in fact first made available on the 1923 Buick. Meanwhile, as cord tires became standard across Buick's range in 1921, the bulky spare tire propped up on the Buick's rear seemed pedestrian; a spare tire cover became standard for 1923.

This was Buick sweating the details. Concealed door hinges had debuted for 1915, while 1919 had seen an increased number of louvers in the Buick's hood, perhaps highlighting the prevalence of the new Buick Six across the line-up (in much the same way that the number of portholes across today's Buicks signify the cylinders under the hood).


As postwar production resumed, Buick was becoming synonymous with style, power and prestige. Through the early years of the '50s, Buick continued to reflect the power of its new engines with high hoods, and the substantial, road-hugging, large-radius forms that Earl held so dear.

Buick of 1949, specifically, with the 1949 Roadmaster Riviera, was a master of the "hardtop convertible" style, much imitated. Hardtops even featured on the 1957 station wagons, although Buick, which gave the buyer a choice of hardtop or B-pillar, found wagon buyers to be the pragmatic sort, opting for the latter. Nonetheless, "more than any other cars, those big, brassy Buicks symbolized the new American confidence after the war," recalls Forbes columnist Jerry Flint ('Reinventing Buick,' Forbes, March 4th, 2003).

Behind the scenes, however, postwar automotive design needed a nudge. Buick's 1951 XP-300 concept provided the impetus, with a puissant 335 horsepower kept in check by cooled 4-wheel disc brakes under an aluminum body that, if necessary, could be raised on its own integrated power jacks.

Never one for restrictive compromises, Buick made a second effort with the 1951 LeSabre concept, drawing on the XP-300 concept's mechanicals while visually referencing the sleek USAF F-86 Sabre jet. LeSabre featured the world's first wraparound windshield, foreshadowing the wraparound tailgate windows of 1957 and 1958 Buick wagons, and a magnesium body.

By 1956, Earl's staff consisted of 1,200 people. They settled in brand new design facilities in the $125 million Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. Designed by Eero Saarinen, it was the first industrial park of its kind, and still hosts much of Buick's (and GM's) design work.

Inspired by Earl's work, General Motors created the Motorama, its own traveling motor show, premiering in New York every year, and criss-crossing the country. Motorama became a national institution. Eight were held between 1949 and 1961, attracting more than 10 million people.


For 1973, Buick's 2-door hardtop convertible gave way to the Colonnade coupé design, seen on Century, Century Luxus, and Regal. The combination of hardtop styling, diagonal center pillar, and large quarter windows eventually replaced 4-door pillarless hardtops as well.

For those who wanted true open-topped motoring, Buick produced several choices, and chose a 1953 Skylark convertible (the first Buick to offer a power top) to celebrate its 50th anniversary. In 1975, the last of the Buick convertibles (à la LeSabre) rolled off the line - only to be reprised with an independent conversion of the 1982 Riviera and, for 1990, the factory Reatta convertible.


Buick, notes author Lawrence R. Gustin, has been well represented in entertainment.

"A 1940 Buick Limited Phaeton is in the famous airport scene with Humphrey Bogard and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca," he recalls (David Buick's Marvelous Motor Car, Lawrence R. Gustin, Buick Gallery and Research Center, 2006).

"Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman drive a 1949 Roadmaster convertible across the country in Rain Man.

"Vintage Buicks are prominent in Pearl Harbor and The Road to Perdition.

"Stephen King places a 1954 Buick (but with a '53 mistakenly on the jacket) at the center of one of his horror stories, From a Buick Eight. It became a movie.

"And somewhere out there is the music video, Aliens Ate My Buick."


"For thousands of collector car enthusiasts, the question, Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick, is answered with a resounding yes," writes author Terry V. Boyce (Standard Catalog of Buick 1903-2000, Ron Kowalke, Krause, 1999).

Certainly, the Buick brand has passed this test of timelessness through the ages.

Yet for today's designers, if form and function deserve equal priority at Buick, then those designers must, in form, be cautious to avoid pandering to fleeting fashion.

Grace endures. Pretentiousness is quickly routed. So, too, is the incongruously shear approach to surfacing that features in some automotive design, and that GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz dubbed, "jack o' lantern" styling, at the 2001 Automotive News World Congress.

"It took me two-and-a-half years before I was totally at ease with the exterior design," said BMW's own senior product manager at the E65 BMW 7 series launch to CAR magazine.

"Despite a fifth glass of red wine, there was no smile on his face," CAR remarked, with usual good-natured irreverence.


"Looks like a Jaguar with a street-rod attitude," wrote Mike DuPre of the 1995-99 Buick Riviera for the Janesville Gazette.

Riviera first arrived in the marketplace more that 40 years ago. It was an instant modern classic. By the time the last Riviera had rolled off the lines in Orion, Michigan, on November 25th, 1998, the car had been named the Most Dramatic Design of the Decade, the Most Collectible Car of the Future, by the National Automotive History Collection of the Detroit Public Library.

The modern Buick is never brash, nor pretentious. Chrome is a subtle, if shimmering, detail, highlighting the classic statement of the waterfall grille, and of the ventiport.

Rather than crassly overshadow the car, these details complete the Buick: a car of eloquent musclature; of gently curving, continuous lines; of timeless, stately elegance and romanticism, executed in the metal through sinuously sculpted panels, fit with eye-pleasing precision.

Certainly, precision and presence are timeless.

Timelessness does not imply emulation. Understated the Buick may be, but it nonetheless achieves this effect in its own way. Not for Buick, for instance, the raised rears of German design, emulated en masse by the Japanese after, particularly, the E36 BMW 3 series of 1992.

Why should form be subservient to function? Rather, function and form deserve equal priority in, with Buick sedans through very recently, slight downward slope in front and rear.

Even the 1985 Somerset Regal, a car designed to target upscale import shopping boomers, stayed true to nuanced incline within its more dramatic wedge shape, with flush, raked windshield, and flush, vertical backlight.


It takes the tacit knowledge that only decades of design and engineering history can provide, to grasp the importance of both form and function, and the delicate balance between these two aspects, when designing for a brand known as much for its ergonomics and engineering, as for its grace.

Less strict, softer, round-edged window frames first debuted on the 1923 Buick. Wood spoke wheels were discontinued at the end of 1932, as Buick moved toward wire and steel-spoke wheels for the entire line. Cowl-mounted windshield wipers featured across the entire line for 1937.

Style and engineering, it must be said, have not always gone hand-in-hand at Buick. y the early '30s, Buicks were growing complacently heavier. Harlow H. "Red" Curtice, formerly of the A.C. Spark Plug division, lightened the Buick, introducing the Series 40 for 1936. In 1937, for the first time since 1928, Buick production surpassed the 200,000 mark.

The government banned the use of chrome trim upon the eve of 1942; and it was just as well, as Buick, to whose brand chrome was such a key, was to engage in the production of military equipment. All the while, the Buick of years past remained in the minds of millions.

"During the years just prior to the war, Buick had become one of America's favorite cars," notes author Terry Boyce.

"Large, but fast, and with sporting lines, the prewar Buick symbolized upward mobility.

"The Buick's role as part of the postwar dream was more than an ad man's pitch. This was born out by public acceptance of Buick's 1946-48 models, although they were little more than warmed over 1942s" (Standard Catalog of Buick 1903-2000, Ron Kowalke, Krause, 1999).

So the desirability of the Buick survived World War II. Today, these models remain prized among collectors.

Wood continued to be used structurally until 1953, after which Buick moved to all-steel body construction.

Buick's form was, again, about to change. Harley Earl was introducing clay modeling to the design process, bringing styling to the fore. Fascinated with aerodynamics, and sleek, streamlined chassis, Earl sure liked oblongs more than squares, and he bet that the public would too.

The first indication of Earl's plans for Buick had been the the 1938 Y-Job concept, the industry's first concept car. It was a revelation; a '50s design twenty years in advance, with innovations such as electric window regulators and cooled brake drums, and with more than a few touches that would not be adopted by the mainstream for decades hence: disappearing headlights, flush door handles, and a concealed convertible top.

"It was the first Buick with a tapering boat-tail rear end; the first GM car with enclosed headlights; the first without running boards, and the first on which the fenders' curves extended into the door panels," recalls columnist Mark Phelan for the Detroit Free Press.

"It also helped establish Buick as a luxury brand, with futuristic features like power windows, a fully automatic power soft-top, and the first DynaFlow automatic transmission.

"The decades have been a friend to the Y-Job" ('Buick Y-Job set the tone for car designs,' Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press, May 21st, 2006).

In the early 1950s, Buick General Manager Harlow Curtice commissioned two concept cars: one to suit form, one, function.

The LeSabre, under chief stylist Harley Earl, was a study in form. The XP-300, under chief engineer Charles A. Chayne, emphasized function. Chayne was the man who had given Buicks aluminum pistons in the '30s. Excited about the XP-300, Chayne exclaimed, "we could go as far off the beaten path mechanically as we planned to go style-wise."

Buick's new form/ function fusion for the '50s debuted in the 1953 Skylark convertible, penned by Ned Nickles and previewed by XP-300 concept's sheetmetal, trim, and waterfall grille. Vestigial rear fender forms disappeared into the body, full-cutout wheel openings were a first for Buick, and windshields integrated into the sheetmetal and glass surrounding them. Inside, was a leather interior. The car rode on 40-spoke wire wheels produced by Carlo Borrani, and imported from Italy.

In production, Skylark outsold, twofold, its Oldsmobile Fiesta and Cadillac Eldorado counterparts, combined.

On January 20th, 2006, a 1954 Skylark sold for $181,500 at the Russo and Steele Scottsdale sale. This followed the $189,000 sale of another '54 Skylark at the Barrett-Jackson auction at West Palm in April 2005.

It was the Skylark that ignited postwar ideas of Buick grace, and Skylark would influence everything after it. "The Beautiful Buy was all many Buick ads said... it was a becoming modesty," muse authors Dunham and Gustin (Buick: A Complete History, Terry B. Dunham & Lawrence R. Gustin, Automobile Quarterly, 2002).

The Wildcat I concept, also designed in 1953, went a step further, mounting the traditional Buick ventiports atop the fenders. Taillights and fender tops were couched in glass, while the front brake discs remained stationary behind revolving wheels.

Drawing from Skylark, the Buick of 1954 sat its driver behind a sweeping expanse of gracefully contoured glass, wrapping across the body for both style and visibility, with a proud, gleaming Wide Screen grille up front, and a smart sweep in its tail assembly at the rear.

1955 saw Nickles and assistant chief designer Homer LaGassey evolve the chrome-tooth grille into a mesh surface, adding the glitter to the front that chrome taillight bezels added to the rear (themselves drawing from the Wildcat II). As it had been in 1954, the Buick was again the third best selling nameplate industrywide. The market appreciated the Buick's burgeoning curvaceousness; the crisper surfaces of the 1956 Centurion concept, a 4-passenger coupé with a fiberglass body, glass top, and the air of an extravagant jet, remained on the drawing board.

By 1957, however, voluptuousness had reached its limit. Buick's roofs bulged to a degree that their arched definition lines could hardly reign in. These were heavier Buicks and, for the first time, Buick had found the limit of its mandate. Sales dropped, and attempts to lengthen and lower the Buick over the next two years were too cautious for the market, if too extreme for the Buick. An economic recession was, partly the blame; but was stoicalness, no matter the climate, not the essence of Buick?

The '58 Buick was a masterpiece of detailing, with 160 faceted diecast chrome squares across its "Fashion-Aire Dynastar" grille. In many ways, however, that year's XP-75 concept, designed by Pininfarina in Italy, was a better portent of the future. It previewed wing-like rear fins and sculptured metal sides; and Buick began to rethink its plans.

For 1959, razor replaced round. A full 126.3-inch wheelbase on the Electra 225 flagship extended into an expansive deck, while slender roof pillars and wing-like blade fins pushed the vertical extremities of the car. Less baroque than before, and more delicate in the years to follow, Buick had found its balance.

The '59 Buick, it was said, was the year's Most Changed Car. Yet nothing could prepare for 1963.

Buick had previously applied the Riviera name to the 1949 Roadmaster. The years to follow had seen the name affix several other hardtop convertibles of the '50s. For 1963, Riviera became a coupé in its own right: Model 4747.


Riviera. Perhaps no Buick has been so synonymous with style. A sharp, sculptured roofline; a sheer profile; a low silhouette, and unique, frameless side glass, ensured that Riviera stood apart. There was uncompromising style, too, in hidden headlights shielded by masks that flipped open wide at the flip of a switch (a feature that would continue through 1969).

"If it means that we have to spend a little more to give you a little better - we do," Buick explained.

"A marvelously balanced prestige car," wrote Ward's Automotive Yearbook.

"The Riviera proclaims by purity of line and understatement that its occupants have the confidence in their tastes to eschew ostentation," wrote Car Life, in February, 1966.

Car and Driver noted, "Riviera stands alone among American cars in providing a combination of luxury, performance, and general roadworthiness that approaches Bentley Continental standards, at less than half the price."

Writing a decade after the Riviera's introduction, Cars magazine, which had given the Gran Sport Riviera and GS Skylark a shared, Top Performance Car of the Year award in 1965, summarized, "Riviera has for many years maintained the position of the top luxury/ performance vehicle in this country. In its heyday, there was nothing in its class that could stay with one from a traffic light, a drag strip Christmas Tree, or a twisty mountain road" (Cars, February 1973).

Automobile magazine has since credited the Riviera with being the inspiration for the 1968-79 Jaguar XJ6. "When the Mark X sedan flopped in the States in the early 1960s, Jaguar chief executive Sir William Lyons, as always, looked around to see what people were buying instead.

"He took the 1963 Buick Riviera as the inspiration for a four-place GT car, which he later turned into a sedan, adding mix-and-match Jaguar styling elements.

"When the XJ6 launched in 1968, it garnered almost universal acclaim as the most beautiful car in the world. The car's gorgeous shape endured in production until 1979, and its lithe elegance has influenced every Jaguar since" (Automobile, September 2006).

Britain's CAR magazine reminisces, "the W-section nose with those slatted sidelights is unrepeatable, and to make the rest of the car live up to the front is a mean achievement... a car fine enough for a world top ten" (CAR, July 1998).

Riviera's style reflected across its period, '60s counterparts. 1965 marked the beginning of the full length Buick taillight, a characteristic of the marque that has, largely, continued today.

"Every year, everybody wanted a look at the new Buick... the top of the line Electra 225," recalls a colleague who was stationed at Fort Louis, Washington, at the time, and who remembers making trips from the base to the nearest Buick dealership.

"It had everything you could want on a car... luxuries, at an affordable price, and bulletproof dependability."

Michael J. Burton, director responsible for the Buick Lucerne's interior design, grew up in Chicago during that era. In a recent issue of Buick's The Style Review in-house magazine, he recalls his uncle buying an Electra 225 - "the Deuce and a Quarter" - every four years.

It's been called the boat-tail. Some refer to it as a torpedo back. No doubt, the 1971-74 Riviera's rear stirred opinions, and continues to do so. Yet Motor Trend's period writing was perhaps the most surprising.

"A return to some of the solid values of earlier times," said the magazine of the '71 Riviera, articulating the dichotomy in noting that, "in spite of the fact that the car is a bold departure from what is current and accepted," the new Buick bore resemblance to the 1963 Corvette, and the 1951 Cadillac LeSabre (Motor Trend, December 1970).


When Buick is done stealing the eye, it may well turn to cheating the wind. By 1968, concealed wipers were standard on all Buicks, but streamlining, in the modern sense, began a decade later, for 1978, with the Century Aeroback.

Though the Aeroback proved too early for the market, lessons learned were applied to the 1980 LeSabre, where a rear deck spoiler, sloping hood, and reduced frontal area cut drag by 14%.

For the 1981 Regal, an aerodynamic restyle reduced the drag coefficient by 18%.

The 1982 Century offered the lowest coefficient of drag in Buick's period line-up, with flush glass and outside mirrors that were integrated into the basic form.

The 1986 Riviera boasted a coefficient of drag of Cd = 0.36.

The silver/ blue 1988 Lucerne concept streamlined the traditional Buick front end, while retaining its elegance in detailing. Some of these aspects, along with flush glass and door-into-roof construction, were applied to the 1988 Regal, resulting in a 33% aerodynamic improvement, over its predecessor, and making this 6-passenger coupé the most aerodynamic design of any Buick in history to that point.

The light green 1989 Park Avenue Essence concept, a precursor to the much heralded 1991-96 Park Avenue, began the modern practice of integrating front bumper and grille together, with an elongated, elliptical grille opening of which Harley Earl, who loved ellipses, would likely have approved. The production 1991 Park Avenue's drag coefficient was no greater than Cd = 0.31.

The rear was the next subject for experimentation. Buick's 1990 Bolero concept sat its rear deck slightly higher than the hood, with fiberoptic light panel extending across its width. Vertical bar grille notwithstanding, the shape was more wind cheating than might be expected of Buick, with a deeply raked windshield. Across the body, the emphasis was on delicacy, with slim roof pillars and recessed door frames accentuated by slivers of chrome.

Bolero's wedge shape would be expounded upon by the 1992 Sceptre concept, in preparation for the all-new Buick Skylark, a more aggressive theme intended to offer more youthful Buick expression. Skylark's 0.319 coefficient of drag dramatically bested its predecessor's 0.374 figure.

LeSabre, also new for 1992, fielded a drag coefficient of 0.32.


For all of the improvements in efficiency made as time has marched on, more modern models remain Buicks, and reference a design heritage that many a manufacturer would love to have.

New for 1992, the Skylark's grille was inspired by that of the 1939 Buick. Some thought it an odd touch on such a small car, and it was clear that historical references would need to be made more inherently: in form, rather than simply detail.

Under the design direction of Bill Porter, '90s Buicks reprised an old design cue: the sweepspear, in the '40s a curved line running the length of the car which curved gently down, almost to the rocker panel, before curving around the rear wheel and meeting the taillights. The sweepspear had lasted for over 30 years before being eschewed for the more open wheelhouses of 1970. When Porter referenced it, he did so in a somewhat wavy belt-line that dropped subtly at the waistline. Today's 2010 LaCrosse proffers a rather more pronounced sweepspear across its flanks.

Another key Buick design cue has made a comeback: ventiports. Back in 1949, inspired by World War II fighter planes, Buick designer Ned Nickles had cut holes in the sides of the hood of his 1948 Roadmaster convertible, installing flashing amber lights astride them to give the impression of a potent engine with a flaming exhaust. Buick chief Harlow Curtice had liked the portholes so much that he'd ordered them used (without the lights).

With Cadillac chasing more technical design, Buick is free to explore the more traditional side of American luxury. "The form language, shape, and expression inherent in Buicks are very muscular, with free flowing, animal forms... these are not machine shapes," says John Taylor of GM's Advanced Portfolio Exploration Group (APEx).

"They are very much connected to the psyche of the traditional person. There is a straight art - a visual relationship - between the way the car looks, moves, and flows, and the way that person's mind works" (American Car Design Now, C. Edison Armi, Rizzoli, 2003).

Dr. C. Edison Armi, graduate professor of Art History at the University of California at Santa Barbara, clarifies, "whereas Cadillac projects a message that it was designed inside a computer, untouched by hands, the Buick projects a message that it was hand-sculptured."

It is, Armi adds, "a visual language with what former GM design Vice-President Wayne Cherry once called classic flowing curvature. The sculptured look; that is what Buick does" (American Car Design Now, C. Edison Armi, Rizzoli, 2003).


True beauty lies not solely in appearance, but in the understanding that some things are imperfect: roads, for instance, and driving conditions.

The first production Buick debuted 15 years after John Boyd Dunlop developed the idea of using the air contained in a sealed hose to make his bicycle rides somewhat less painful, and 12 years after Edouard Michelin invented the modern pneumatic tire.

Ever since, Buick's dynamic recipe has been to blend hushed cabins with pliant road manners. Put simply, the Buick takes the edge off a rough road.


In many a Buick, from the LeSabre coupé of the '80s to today's LaCrosse and Lucerne CXS models, customers have been able to select stiffer springs and damping, larger stabilizers, and faster-ratio power steering, at times matched to forced-induction engines routing power through shorter axle ratios, with positraction differentials and dual exhausts, and comprehensive instrumentation. Through history, these have been badged Gran Sport (or GS), Gran Touring (F41), or T-Type.

Yet the fluidity of the more traditional Buick should not be underestimated. The key here is not to engineer the front to feel as though all is made of rubber; but, rather, to offer pliancy with precision. Without compromising ride quality, there should be no scruffy scrambling of tires wanting to let go when the Buick turns in; no refusal to go in a new direction. Rather, one seeks moderate, linear lean, and a gradual increase in side loading through centrifugal force, upon what Buick has referred to as a Skyhook suspension: the feeling that the faster one drives, the further the limit of adhesion dances on ahead.

"I was surprised by how well it held the road, took the turns, accelerated onto freeways, and isolated its occupants from noise and bumps," wrote the New York Times of the 2000 Buick LeSabre, calling it "a compelling value."


Buick is among the few manufacturers who products' gait is an integral part of its brand. As Autocar executive editor Richard Bremner writes, "Peugeots lope. Ancient Minis jerk and bounce; modern Minis do the same if they're Coopers. Citroens proceed in a state of well controlled float, while Jaguars pad with quiet serenity. Porsches steer brilliantly despite carrying the burden of power aft of the driver, while Lotuses advance with their own brand of darting suppleness" ('Turning the corner,' Autocar, April 6th, 2004).

The Buick gently cushions, responding fluidly to the road's imperfections. It has not always been thus, but Buick has worked hard toward this moving goal. It is so vital a target at Buick that the 1997 Riviera's rear suspension was re-cast in aluminum - mid-cycle - in its control arms, knuckles, and related hardware, resulting in a reduction in unspring mass and, correspondingly, a more responsive ride.

That's an expensive mid-cycle change. Yet, at a division long focused on continuous improvement, it is unsurprising.


On larger Buicks for 1911, full-elliptic rear springs gave way to three-quarter elliptics, in the search for better wheel control. Buick rear suspensions switched to cantilevered rear springs for 1915, and to semi-elliptic units for 1917, affixed more flexibly to the car body. Cord tires were standard on Buicks produced after January 1st, 1921, while balloon tires followed for the 1925 Buick.

Suspension systems were lowered and refined further for 1923, with revised rear spring hanger positions to reduce rebound and side sway. A new, strong, double-drop frame with deeper side channels for 1928 enabled body height to be reduced by 3 inches. Four-wheel "Lovejoy" hydraulic shock absorbers featured on the '28 Buick.

Independent front suspension has been a feature of the Buick since 1934; at the time, dubbed "Knee Action," and teamed with a rear stabilizer. For 1937, the torque-free spring enabled a stable ride, one that would become a hallmark of Buick. All-around coils debuted for 1938.

BusinessWeek recently drove a 1940 Buick Limited Model 91, marveling that, more than 60 years after the car's debut, "driving it is almost effortless, without the loss of road feel... the large steering-wheel and long-throw column shifter are well positioned, in front of the high seat, and both move smoothly and easily.

"More interesting, though, is that the car doesn't seem as large as it is. The ride is soft by modern standards, but not soft enough that it feels ponderous" (BusinessWeek, May 16th, 2006).

In 1958, Buick became the first American manufacturer to develop and produce all-around air suspension. Authors Dunham and Gustin explain, "a high-pressure tank, fed from a compressor run by the engine was mounted on the car frame. The air in the bellows was to be kept at 100 pounds per square inch, counteracting roll and sway on curves or crowned roads.

"Each bellows was composed of a chamber consisting of a metal container, into which a rubber diaphragm was compressed by means of a plunger connected to the suspension.

"An added feature was a lift actuated by a lever under the instrument panel. It permitted the driver to raise the car body 5½ inches, and was designed primarily for use in tire changing, getting out of deep mud or snow, or when a high curb interfered with opening the doors" (Buick: A Complete History, Terry B. Dunham & Lawrence R. Gustin, Automobile Quarterly, 2002).

Load-leveling systems have been a key feature of Buick suspensions in years henceforth. The 1983 Century T-Type placed a sensor at the Panhard rod of its rear suspension, telling an air pump in the trunk to add more air to the rear shocks, or let some out. The 1986 Electra Park Avenue, like the Park Avenues of the '90s and into the Millennium offered load-leveling rear suspension.

Testing the 1968 Buick Riviera GS against four domestic competitors, Motor Trend found that only the innovative Oldsmobile Toronado could match its ride/ handling combination. "The Buick and the Oldsmobile are clearly ahead of the others in this regard," wrote the testers.

"Both are truly superb road cars that beg to be cruised around 100 mph. They feel very secure and stable at high speeds, and are practically immune to crosswinds, undulating surfaces, and other perturbations" (Motor Trend, August 1967).

Buick had a lighter side, too, and the Buick Stage 1 455 GSX, one of the fastest muscle cars ever produced, exhibited it well.

"The Buick GSX is the best handling supercar we have ever driven," gushed Cars magazine.

"Bar none.

"Yes, we know that's a pretty hairy statement, and it takes in a lot of territory. But it's true.

"Why? Because Buick engineers have found the perfect combination of springs, shocks, anti-roll stabilizer bars, wheels, and tires for their car" (Cars, October 1970).

Road Test magazine agreed, noting, "for the first time, an auto manufacturer has incorporated all of its luxury achievements and performance achievements into one car without losing any quality from either" (Road Test, September 1970).

By 1970, Buick was learning much from Mercedes-Benz, another storied brand with a certain timelessness in its looks and demeanor. A wide span, triangular front lower control arm permitted better dive control than had the lateral control arm with locating strut. The new configuration reduced bump steer in the '71 Riviera, whose 4-link rear suspension was redesigned, as a result of switching to a full-perimeter frame. "A firm but comfortable ride, and the ability to hustle around a corner in a level attitude," mused Motor Trend of the new car (Motor Trend, December 1970).

This was Accudrive, Buick's term for suspension geometry which produced a counterforce to the centrifugal force, generated during cornering, which caused body rotation andean. First introduced in 1970, Accudrive for 1971 relocated the steering gear and linkage from their traditional location, above and behind the front wheels, to a new position in front of and below them.

Also for 1971, rear shocks were moved forward of the axle, to reduce road shock.

"The most obvious characteristic of the new suspension setup is the almost complete absence of body roll under really hard cornering conditions," mused Road Test, who concluded that the 1971 Buick Centurion offered "the best handling of any full-sized car we have tested" (Road Test, January 1971).

Riviera, in one comparison test, was the only car in Motor Trend's test group (including the Ford Thunderbird and Oldsmobile Toronado) to feature variable-ratio steering, dropping to 14.56:1, well below the rest, to improve on-center responsiveness, against just 2.94 turns, lock-to-lock.

Variable-ratio steering soon became standard on all full-size Buicks. Through the years to follow, large Buicks would offer this feature, with the 1995 Buick Riviera becoming the first to combine hydraulic, electronic, and magnetic control to provide variable steering assist. This practice continues today.

"The new Riviera is a big car," wrote Cars magazine of the '73 Buick coupé, adding, "however, it is a rather agile car... the power front discs work beautifully, and the power steering offers great road feel" (Cars, February 1973).

Meanwhile, Buick's Accudrive suspension was steadily evolving. The geometry involved in and around those wide lower A-arms aimed at countering all road, motion, and other forces within the suspension, to minimize the need for steering-wheel course corrections in crosswinds and over rough roads. In the new intermediate Century/ Century Regal for 1973, Accudrive cast the steering knuckle with the integral steering arm and disc-brake mounting bracket, for greater ride and handling uniformity.

"The car goes where pointed, and doesn't require constant fresh corrective inputs," noted Road Test magazine.

"The ride is soft and comfortable at the top end, on a good road, but firm under that, for good control on irregular surfaces. Response to driver inputs is excellent, with some of the crispness of sports car underpinnings" (Road Test, May 1973).

At the rear, Buick's new midsize cars offered a wide-splay, 4-link rear with shock absorbers mounted ahead of the axle for an optimized combination of vehicle control and ride comfort. For 1976, Teflon inside coatings improved shock absorber operations.

T-Type Buicks from 1983 through 1989 offered firmer springs, recalibrated shocks, and hefty stabilizers to control their additional power.

By the late 1980s, the Buick was as fluently responsive as the pyramid of deflected-disc valves in each of its Dynamic shock absorbers was fluid; adjusting in diameter and thickness to changing driving conditions. Even the entry-level 1997 Century continued this modern tradition of deflected-disc valving technology in its shocks and struts.

For 1991, new steering gear - mid-cycle - improved the Riviera's on-center feel. All Skylarks for 1995 - mid-cycle - benefited from a new, tubular rear axle which placed rear springs and shocks along the wheel center line, improving handling and smoothing the ride.

For 1999, the Century - mid-cycle - received increased rear shock valving and larger front and rear stabilizers to reduce body roll. Meanwhile, the Regal received a new steering intermediate shaft with concentric isolator, offering more precise steering, mated to a quicker steering gear (13.3:1, from 15.2:1). Engine mounts in Regals were of a more rigid rubber, chassis mounts were more rigid, and shock absorber valving was increased.


As the modern Buick rounds a corner, there must be positive, linear adaptation of body to road. The low frequency oscillations desired by passengers cannot override driver control.

A Buick's unsprung weight must be managed to meet sprung weight in the same, perfect sense as an expertly massaged design meets the customer's eye.

The Buick must be long enough in wheelbase to smooth the ride over bumps and dips. Only then can Buick engineers massage the modern Buick's all-around independent suspension to isolate each wheel.

The Buick's platform must be torsionally rigid, to hold rattles to a minimum. This is a moving target. Through the '80s, and into the early-90s, LeSabre and Electra were structurally reinforced. Wrote Road & Track of Electra, "an affordable contender in the Euro-sedan wars" (Road & Track, November 1985).

Little things, like lower rail reinforcements, new steering column supports, and stiffer cowl bars and dash barriers, have produced notable improvements in ride from year to year. Note that the 1995-99 Riviera offered, at 25 Hz, the highest torsional rigidity of any personal luxury coupé in the world.

Buick does not often flash these numbers about; yet the Buick driver notices the effort. Certainly, Car and Driver noticed the 2000 LeSabre's evolution in demeanor, writing at the car's launch, "it even dominated the fun-to-drive voting... some of LeSabre's increased ability to flash a little attitude comes from greater structural rigidity... it steers precisely, without the need to make constant minor corrections, and it takes the edge off a rough road."

It takes the edge of a rough road. That's practically this brand's mission statement.

A Buick's primary controls - steering, throttle, and brakes - must be intuitively linear in operation. As the late, great LJK Setright once advised, "whatever control you operate, do it progressively, not sharply.

"If it be a pedal, do not kick it; squeeze it.

"Whether your build-up to the full requisite pressure takes two seconds or two-tenths of a second is up to you; the rule remains, and it is equally applicable to the release of pressure."




One cannot conclude without a word on Buick's efforts in sports cars. Grand touring coupés - Rivieras - better befit the brand, but Buick has nonetheless experimented with harder-edged automobiles.

During Harley Earl's era, Buick produced a one-off that came closest to being a Buick sports car: the 1954 Wildcat II concept, bearing resemblance to the Chevrolet Corvette, with dramatic front fender cutouts and bolder front and rear styling.

Thirty years later, for the 1985 Wildcat II concept, Buick worked with McLaren on a turbocharged, dual overhead cam (DOHC) motor, and with Indy Car sponsor PPG industries on a revolutionary body; a body which blended windshield and hood together in a unique aerodynamic aerodynamic design which joined transparent and solid portions together. There were no traditional doors: as the canopy raised, the steering wheel tilted forward.

It would not be until January 1988 that the promise of a production Buick sports car was realized: the Reatta. Recall that, at the end of the '50s, Buick had elected to downsize and somewhat de-chrome its vehicles, finding its balance in this new vision. Yet, for all its impressive, 0.34 coefficient of drag, the 2-passenger Reatta was, perhaps, a step too far from Buick's traditional grace (and space); just as cool reception to the 1986, more compact Riviera had prompted Buick to smooth and lengthen its lines for 1989.

Lessons learned from Reatta and that Riviera would produce the final Riviera for 1995. Through 1999, this magnificent machine cleaved the air much as had the original, 1963 model that had borne its name, while meeting Buick's high packaging standards.

it has been deemed a modern classic.

"Remember Riviera: it's the most beautiful machine on wheels this year," mused Bob Plunkett for the Houston Post.

"Riviera, the car, represents beautiful vistas on wheels in a personal luxury coupé whose distinctive extended prow and dramatic exterior lines have set styling trends in automotive circles, dating back to the first edition in 1963."

Bill J. Jinkins of the Grapevine Sun found "silky, one of a kind looks, responsive performance, and handling plus interior volume that rivals a gigantic 2½-ton Bentley Continental R coupé."

Al Haas of the Philadelphia Inquirer called the Riviera's styling "the most original and arresting to come along in this decade.

"This car's body has a kind of voluptuous muscularity, and packs as many visual surprises as a nervous chameleon. As you move around it, styling elements reveal and conceal themselves, creating different looks, allowing the car to reinvent itself constantly."

In 1995, Wheels gave the Riviera its Future Collectible Classic award. Popular Mechanics bestowed upon it its Design and Engineering award. the Chicago Sun-Times listed it among the 10 Best Vehicles of the year.

The final, 1999 Riviera was produced in Orion Township, Michigan. For twenty years, the Riviera Owners Association has catered to drivers of these 1963-99 coupés, in all their generations.

In 2007, Riviera returned as a gull-wing concept, engineered to accommodate a new hybrid system. Riviera was nonetheless most noted for its design: for its Buick waterfall grille, its corners upturned into a slight smile, and for vivid lines of blue light running down the middle of the hood, along the bottom of the side panels, highlighting the Buick emblem and outlining the headlights which, their shape influenced by pale-jade antiques (Chinese objets d'art), stretched back to incorporate vestigial portholes.

Despite having been developed with global design input by the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, a Shanghai-based design and engineering joint venture between GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, Riviera's lines were characteristically Buick, including a long curve beginning at the front fender, and a short hop over the rear wheels.

Inside, Riviera sought to remind its occupants of a "day spa," with a mix of suede and brushed metals. "It's beautiful, quiet, and comfortable," said Dave Lyon, GM's executive director of exterior design.

"You'll arrive refreshed and relaxed."

Between 1963 and 1999, GM sold more than 1.1 million Rivieras in the United States.

One particularly special Riviera was the Silver Arrow I concept of 1963, which lowered the roofline, lengthened the hood, and eventually became the personal car of GM design chief Bill Mitchell.

Finally in the world of Buick hedonism, the Buick Blackhawk concept was not simply a customized car, but one with classic styling combined with contemporary proportions. A 2+2 convertible with a retractable top, Blackhawk featured the classic 1939 Buick grille: a pattern of fine vertical bars. Its major sheetmetal combined the sleek bodies of 1941 and 1948 Buick Roadmasters. All but the grille was modified, and the final car, with its black cheery paint, doors without handles, and hidden headlamps, was a stunning combination of streamlined yet retro design.

What is the true measure of a fine car? What lends an automobile its élan; its distinction? (more)

What is the true measure of a fine car? What lends an automobile its élan; its distinction?