Buick was in the same price class as Chrysler and the lesser Lincolns.
Yes, in fact, Rolls-Royce’s first V-8 was a fairly good copy of the Buick V-8. But, the transmission–although incredibly smooth–had a huge amount of slippage. That makes the ad copy stating that Dynaflow was “really easy on fuel”… laughable.
One of the “accessories” that JC Whitney sold (for a while, at least) was a kit with small red light bulbs to insert into the portholes, in order to simulate fire from the exhaust. Apparently, some drilling was required, but I wonder about the capacity of the anemic electrical system when additional bulbs were added.
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I had a '61 Buick La Sabre for a short, very short while… It had a 364ci engine and a “two-speed” dyna-flow transmission ( I had also heard it called a “Turbine-Drive…”).
Drive was only one gear and the Torque Converter allowed a lot of “slippage” to compensate for the one gear. Low was only low and it only worked when the selector was in Low…
The speedometer was mounted flat on the dash and the dash had a cover over it with a mirror that you adjusted to see the speedometer/odometer. There was also a sliding scale that you positioned under the speedometer numbers and when you reached that speed, it sounded an alarm.
It was not a fun car to drive and the 364 ci engine only held 4-quarts of oil. The first time I changed the oil, I put in the “normal” 6-quarts and started it up to circulate the oil before checking the level… When I started it, it sounded really weird. And when I checked the oil level, WoW, the dipstick was wet a long way up… Called a friend who checked a Chiltons and that was when I found out I had over filled the crankcase. Luckily the oil was not yet hot and I played with the drain plug and a funnel on a quart can to slowly drain out the two excess quarts. I guess the strange noise I heard previously was the crankshaft splashing the excess oil…
Nope, Buick was not my favorite car… Not only that, my Buick only had 3 “exhaust ports” on each side, something my Dad was quick to point out… L o L . . .
I bought a 67 Buick wagon in 76 when we were building. Sold the corvair. It was the vista cruiser type whatever Buicks name for it was. Paid $250 for to a woman where the guy had split and just trying to keep the house. I don’t know what engine but it ran terrible. Guy at work did the top end and said the rest looked new. Went like heck after that. $350 for the engine work, $100 for new tires and it was a pretty good lumber and cabinet hauler. There was evidence that the guy who owned it liked to weld everything. It either had posi traction or he welded the rear end to lock it. Terrible on ice but good in snow. Sold it after about five years for $250.
I think that car played a role in the movie “Every Girl Should Get Married”. A marriage-minded young, single office-worker woman is offered that car for free, if she’ll help an insurance salesman sell a policy to her supposed boyfriend & corporate CEO.
the4 idea that as you moved up the ladder you gained reliability was a fallacy. It might have been trur for GM but they build some soectacularly bad small cars.Curvaurm ,Vefa? compair them to a Fakcin or Valiant, For me, nothing made by gm has a comfortable seating position, yje seats and the windshields are too loware too low. That hies grin their smallest cars to Cadillac to their Suburbans to their class 8 trucks.
The only exception I found was a Saturn Ion, but that was designed by Opel.
… and that was the final year for DeSoto.
Of course, after the demise of DeSoto, Chrysler introduced the Dodge Custom 880, which was almost surely what had originally been planned as a DeSoto, because it was a mildly de-contented and mildly restyled version of a Chrysler.
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I don’t know what the occultations were but those cars rode very smooth. I always wondered about body work on those fins though, if you could order just the replacement fin and weld it on or have to replace the whole quarter panel. With severe damage anyway. I don’t know how they’d get a hammer up there.
When I look at that grill of the '61 DeSoto, I have got to believe that the DeSoto CEO told the engineers and designers to work it out themselves and then went to play golf and that is how the car got Two Grills…
I’ve never seen an 880 convertible before.
I think it’s considered to be fairly rare.
I think the fins/fenders were stamped in one piece, look at the other 57-59 Mopars with different chrome. Of the Mopars, the Dodges were my favorite, the chrome provided the best break lines for two tone paint.
The 59 Cadillac fins/fenders were stamped in two pieces with a chrome strip covering the seam.
Studebaker Hawk fins however, were fiberglass added to the fender stampings that dated back to the 53’s.
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This beautiful '66 Imperial convertible is for sale by a dealer in NJ:
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In 1996, I was looking for a car to restore that was already in good enough condition to be a daily driver. I was reading the philadelphia Inquirer one morning and saw an ad for a 1966 Imperial 4 door hardtop that was 15 minutes away. I called and made arrangements to look at the car that night. Turns out that the owner’s father bought the car new in 1966, and died at the end of that summer. His Mom didnt want the car and he kept it in his garage for 30 years with 32,000 miles on the clock. The engine started easily, and we went for a dtive. The car was perfect. Everything worked except the A/C. I drove the car home the next day. I was out of work at the time so i devoted the next day to the car. I changed the oil, checked all other fluids and they were fine. The transmission fluid looked, smelled, and tasted ( I always put one drop on my tongue) like Type A straight from the can, so I didn’t change it. I wanted to see why the A/C wasn’t working so i got out my R12 gauges, and i was surprised to find good static pressure on both high and low sides. I started the engine and pushed the “cool” button. I was even more surprised to see that the compressor had engaged and was spinning.Gauges stayed at the static pressure. I was frustrated and had a pair of 12" Channelocks in my hand and i gave the expansion valve a good whack. I heard a change in the sound and noticed the low sude pressure dropping and the high side pressure climbing. Both pressures promptly stabilized at normal values for the outdoor temp. I rotated the fast idle cam until the screw was on the first step. Got in the car and was very happy to see 55 degrees at the center outlet.
I got a call a couple days later that a friend had arranged a job interview for me. Unfortunately the company was 85 miles away up the New Jersey Turnpike. I told my wife and she said “ugh, you’ll need to buy a new car”. I said i’d take the Imperial. She said I had to be crazy to drive 170 miles daily in a 30 year old car. Maybe so, but I spent the next 6 months making that drive in the best car I’ve ever owned.
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In high school, the boss’s wife always had an imperial but the boss bought mainly fords. One year she ended up with a new Lincoln. It wasn’t very long though that Lincoln was traded for another imperial.
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I had only had my DL for about 6 months, but my uncle allowed me to drive his 1 year old Imperial LeBaron for a few miles. It was so much more refined, and more powerful, and more comfortable than my father’s Plymouth Belvedere! And, of course, it was huge.
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Thanks for the ad post. I’ve always liked this era of Imperials.
As for the drive you made in your uncle’s Imperial, we had a similar experience. My parents went to the local Olds/Cadillac dealer to test drive a new 1966 Cutlass Supreme. They drove it and then the salesman talked them into driving a 2 year old Cadillac Series 62 hard top. After the test drive they said they liked it but couldn’t possibly afford a Cadillac. When they heard that it would save $2000 on the purchase price, they were sold. I loved that car and learned to drive on it.
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I hate to sound like a senior citizen but I think the kids today have no idea what they missed with some of these cars. I remember we tried out a 65 mercury park lane or whatever it was and it was pure luxury. Not a Lincoln or anything but great interior, great styling, and rode smooth and solid at 70 mph. Woulda been a great date or prom car. Too bad the heater didn’t work or they probably woulda bought it. Nothing against the herky jerky performance cars today, but luxury is luxury.
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