Not much can be said about the Buick Skyhawk which hasn’t been covered already, but this red ’86 T-Type is one of the rarer J-bodies and is a great compliment to this morning’s black ’62 Skylark. While the latter car’s spirit is very much with us in cars like current Regal, this car represents a less sterling moment in its maker’s history. Not only was the Skylark continually cheapened and dumbed down until reaching its nadir in the aptly named N-body, but Buick was so intent on chasing higher volumes that they also got a version of the J. Surely, they could’ve at least let Oldsmobile get the most out of the Firenza.
But let’s not talk about the obvious any longer than necessary; this is one of the nicer original Js, and we can surely appreciate it for that. Skyhawks were plentiful throughout the mid-eighties and early-nineties, but I can’t remember the last time I saw a T-Type like this one; does the “power bulge” on the hood mean this is a turbo? If so, we’re looking at a very rare bird.
Those alloys were also featured on Somerset and Skylark, and while that doesn’t automatically suggest a great deal of commonality, I have to wonder how fundamentally different the J-body and X/A/N/L-body were under the skin. After all, they were concurrently made by the same parent and shared a lot of the same engineering concepts and the J was rather heavy for its size. I suspect they have more in common than GM ever suggested.
It seems that all Skyhawks came with the decklid-mounted racks as seen here. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one in use, but they were wildly popular accessories in the late ’80s and it makes sense that Buick would festoon their Cavalier clone with as much jewelry as possible in an effort to lend it some distinction. The illuminating center panel/reversing light, shared with the Century, was nifty to my eyes as a child, but the full-width job on the Skylark was the coolest (and actually looks nice today). Yes, it’s just further proof that that nicest of the N-bodies should’ve been the entry-level Tri-Shield, and that Old Red here never needed to exist. A hat tip to c5karl for photographing this reminder Buick’s small car past.
Maybe if GM had dropped the separate dealerships in the late 70’s allowing GM dealers to sell everything in GM’s lineup there would have been no need for every division to have a copy of every car. I remember when the J cars came out and thinking why would I buy a Buick version when the Pontiac version or Chev version was better. These also may have been the last time GM cars from different divisions offered slightly different engines
Not really, for example, the W-bodies had some different engines from division to division, true that they all debuted with the 2.8 MFI V6, but by the early 90’s, Chevrolet was offering the 2.5 TechIV in the base Lumina, not shared with the other W’s, Pontiac and Oldsmobile were offering the Quad OHC as the base engine in the Cutlass and Grand Prix and the Regal was offering the 3800 exclusively. The Twin-Cam 3.4 V6 was offered by Chevrolet, Pontiac and Oldsmobile, but not Buick. The rare turbocharged 3.1 V6 was Pontiac only.
Same for the big cars in the 90’s, Cadillac was using the Northstar exclusively, Oldsmobile did have the Northstar derived 4.0 liter in the Aurora, but it was a unique displacement, Oldsmobile also had the exclusive 3.5 Northstar derived “shortstar” in the Intrigue and Aurora as well.
The question is whether that small level of differentiation was enough to justify GM’s massive dealer footprint.
The answer is that it clearly was not.
The thing is, especially during the post WWII boom time, every town with a stoplight pretty much got a GM dealership, or 2, and once they are there, unless they fail, its very tough to “get rid” of them, franchise laws and all……
This car was nothing special, when they say t- type just like the regal was with a 3.8 turbo, that was a real t-type not these false made up cars. I think if they would have put in a 3.8 turbo motor the Corvette sales would have dropped. Thats all they care about is selling there corvette. There was one year , 1986 there was 1,000 IROC-Z”S made it out the door with 350 from the factory it was faster then the Corvette, they slowed them down in 1987. Just like they got rid of the Grand National and also the GMC Cyclone with the 4.3 supercharged motor, i guess they dont want to have any rare cars anymore?
My experience with this generation car are best forgotten but I keep opening my favorite site and finding pictures. Thanks.
Classic does not always mean good.
My sister had an ’88 hatchback with the hidden headlights. It looked kinda neat but was pretty basic inside. I remember driving it to Boston. Pretty good on gas but slightly underpowered and felt tired even though it had less than 70,000 miles on it at the time.
The late Skyhawks with the more rounded hidden-lamp nose (Skyhawk Limited, I think?) were, to my eye, the best-looking of the original J-cars. Especially in wagon or hatch body style. A close second goes to the mostly-hidden lamp Sunbird GT.
Overall I’ll agree that this car didn’t really need to exist at all, but I like the way they turned out. The N-body Skylark was good-looking from some angles but too soft/bland from others.
Your sister’s car would have likely been an ’87. Hatchback J-Bodies didn’t exist in ’88, since ’87 was the last year for them, across all J-body models. Skyhawk specifically only had the hatchback model in two years, ’86 and ’87.
They are great for one thing- They have the same steering wheels as the G-body T-types. While they aren’t leather wrapped, they fit and might even still be in a junk yard.
That’s how I got mine, for my 82 Regal.
I believe that is a Chrysler Voyager behind the Skyhawk. A rare and quirky rebadge, at least in this country.
You are correct. The Voyager was the only 4th generation Chrysler-badged minivan to have gray bumpers.
Dang. I was the photographer of the T-Type. Kicking myself for missing the Chrysler.
Those jellybean minivans are easy to ignore, even when they’re an uncommon variation.
And what is weird is that not all the stripper model Caravans of that generation have black bumpers. My stripper Caravan is Ice Blue, but the bumpers are a dark Navy Blue which almost look Black.
Also the Chrysler Voyager has an egg crate grill with a strip on top for the Chrysler logo.
I bought a new 83 Skyhawk 4 door with the 1.8 engine, 5 speed manual transmission and T-type suspension/tires. I also got automatic touch climate control which was an option on the Skyhawk in 83.
Sorry to comment on an old article, but I’ve been trying to find proof this option existed ever since reading the brochures I’ve collected. It appears Buick tried to make a luxury J as well. Suede leather was available in 83 as well. Notable to mention no Cimarron ever got “Auto climate control”. If only higher Brands within GM had offered their vehicles with more unique features rather than the GM must stock base models this may have worked. My ideal Skyhawk would be a 87 Limited sedan with the turbo package and 83-85 climate control. This combination never existed.
Did this early automatic climate control work well? If only my 87 Trans Am GTA had this.
This brings back memories. The local Buick-Pontiac dealer had one of these on the lot in silver, and I thought it was reasonably sharp for the time. It did seem to be a cut above its Chevrolet and Pontiac platform mates in this trim level.
Buick and Oldsmobile probably got their own version of the J-body because there were still a fair number of standalone Buick and Oldsmobile dealers during those years. The second fuel crunch in 1979, followed quickly by the severe recession that lasted until late 1982, scared everybody. We thought that gas would cost $3 a gallon (in 1980 dollars) by 1985.
Buick and Oldsmobile dealers probably wanted their own J-car in the showroom to hedge their bets. Sales figures for the Skyhawk and Firenza showed that most buyers still identified Chevrolet and Pontiac with cars of this size.
The Buick and Olds version was delayed by some months and they got a different looking dash. Buick offered the automatic climate control for the first couple of years or so.
I had forgotten about this variant of the Cavalier, then I remembered an ad I saw on a visit to the US in 1982 for a special edition of this car called the “Golden Hawk”. I like the headlight treatment, and it looks like it’s got some new shocks as well given its ride height.
Ladies and Gentlemen of Curbside Classic –
We are the ones that gave the auto world the “Malaise Era” and “The Brougham Age” into classical car discussions.
Today, I wish to announce a new term which defines the vehicles GM produced during the 1980s, which are remembered today as uniquely terrible in so many ways. These cars took GM from a 60% market share in the United States, into a death spiral from which it had struggled ever since to emerge. These are the cars that made Oreo cookies look customized from one another. These are the cars that demonstrated that a billion dollars would actually fit into a toilet – to be flushed away. These are the GM vehicles which forced Americans into demanding Lemon Laws. These are the cars that drove two generations of buyers into the arms of foreign brands.
Today – I wish to announce this GM era as the:
ROGER SMITH DISASTER DECADE
Who could ever forget the front cover of Newsweek magazine, showing two GM cars which appeared identical, to actually be of differing market segments? Who could ever forget the evil spawn of Roger Smith, such as Cadillac Cimarron? Who can ever forget the Roger Smith Eldorado or Riviera? Who will ever forget what happened when a bland, colicky, accountant took the reigns of a great automobile corporation and turned it into a constipated disaster?
Look upon this vehicle and recognize the tell-tale signs of the Roger Smith Disaster Decade!
The cookie-cutter, could be a Chevrolet, or a Pontiac, or an Oldsmobile, or a Cadillac, or a Buick styling. The interiors, composed, or (decomposing), of recycled mouse fur fabrics and carpets, headliners which collapsed, generic dashboards which appeared across the GM model lines. And in your color choice of either gray or black. The engines which couldn’t accelerate these cars beyond 60.
The fetid stench of failure of the X body GM cars, were only a bottle of Lysol away from these J bodies. What they did was find a way for GM to get their money back from the hundreds of millions of dollars they spent making Chevrolet Citations self destruct after a year of use. The reason there are so many J cars, is that GM had to keep the J car for over years, whittling down the amortization necessary to keep the corporate stock viable until 2009. With each sale of a J car, GM recouped a profit sufficient enough, that when coupled by the dime-store electronics and metalized stickers glued upon the generic black dashboard knobs which appeared within every GM vehicle between 1980 and 1990, kept ROGER SMITH’S GOLDEN PARACHUTE and H. ROSS PEROT’S EDS buyout from forcing GM into Chapter 11 for another week.
The ROGER SMITH DISASTER DECADE demands to be acknowledged by our esteem group of Best and Brightest among the Curbside Classic salon of auto experts!
Thank you!
VanillaDude
If it would work on here, I’d post the ‘applause’ gif, VD.
I don’t think GM actually ever had quite 60% of the market. They did get over 50% at some point, but tried not too because of concern that the government would break them up into Chevy-Cadillac and Pontiac_Olds_Buick.
In my opinion once the Japanese imports got a foothold (which they did after the 73 oil embargo) and American’s figured out that they were not half bad cars, there simply was no way for the big three to hold onto their share of the market.
There is going to be market bleed, even if you have a great product, more choices, equals more competition, if all you have to choose from is hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza, then thats all people are going to buy, but once tacos, fried chicken and shushi become available, you’re not going to sell the same number of hamburgers, even if they are great burgers.
In the late 1970s, GM was inching towards a 60 percent share of the market among the remaining domestic auto makers – GM, Ford, Chrysler and AMC. It did not, however, claim a 60 percent share of the total new-car market.
The media, however, kept repeating that GM was nearing a 60 percent share of the market, without qualifying that this was among the four domestic manufacturers. The imports somehow didn’t count, even though they already had over 15 percent of the total market by that point, if I recall correctly.
The imports had 20%+ of the market by 1980. GM’s share of the total was 41% or so. See http://seekingalpha.com/article/122761-as-gm-goes-so-goes-the-nation-part-1
This was a replacement for the 1975-1980 H-special Skyhawk, Buick dealers still wanted a little car, and remember that the 2nd most successful FWD X-car after the Citation, was the Buick Skylark, so there was precedent that Buick could do well with a little car, but for most Buick buyers, this was too little, there were sporty versions, like the featured car, that were an attempt to lure in younger buyers to the marque, but like sporty versions of the Oldsmobile Firenza, they found few takers, and were pretty rare, most Oldsmobuick J-cars ended up as perennial “little old lady” cars, lots of small sedans with wheel covers and whitewalls.
I remember the first J-car Skyhawk I ever saw, it was when my grandparents were taking delivery of their brand new 82 Regal Limited coupe, the dealership had just gotten one of their first Skyhawks in, and they parked it right along the side of the dealer showroom, it was a silver sedan, with wheel covers and whitewalls, I remember thinking that the center mounted reverse light with the BUICK name across it was a pretty cool touch.
Though, I will say, if the opportunity came up to purchase and obscure performance oriented “senior” Oldsmobile or Buick J-car came up, I wouldn’t say no if the price is right, from time to time a really clean one of these will pop up on ebay, there was a silver T-type Skyhawk coupe that was very clean a couple of years ago, I almost bought it.
This is probably one of the nicest looking J-bodies I’ve ever seen. The Buick was definitely the best looking, and the coupe roofline looks good. Too bad they were not much nicer than a Cavalier on the inside.
As we all pile onto GM for it’s numerous sins of the 80s under the (un)leadership of Roger Smith, those of us started driving in that era, using 70s malaise-mobiles shoulds pause to remember that, while the J-car was indeed overweight for it’s size, when Pontiac introduced the Turbo Sunbird in 1986, Car and Driver loved it–16.3 second quarter mile, I think. Pretty good for that era.
A friend of mine, who didn’t read any car magazine, bought one, and loved it. 9 years later, she replaced it with the then-new, Mercury Contour. The Ford may have been a better car (I liked it!), but after 4 years of problems, she got rid of it.
So, a small salute to the J-car, lol
1984 was when the first 1.8 turbos could be had in the J-cars, in both the 2000 Sunbird and the Skyhawk. 1987 is when it was upgraded to the larger 2.0 unit. You are right about Car and Driver liking the ’87 Sunbird turbo though; they did a comparison test of 10 sport compacts of the day, and it was the highest ranking domestic of the group, finishing third (behind a VW GTi and the winning Acura Integra). By comparison, its cousin the Cavalier Z24 finished sixth.
I have to admit this is the first time I’ve ever seen the entire “Buick” lettering on the back of one of these. The letters seemed to have been glued on individually, and in eastern Pennsylvania, all that would be left was either uik, or buck.
These letters were certainly prone to fall from the back up light lens! I knew someone who had a light blue 1985 4 door SkyHawk with 425,000 kms on it and it still had all it’s Buick letters at the back! But it had bad surface rust all over the sides!
There was also another silver Skyhawk in my hometown that had all it’s lettering and emblems replaced by Pontiac/Sunbird lettering (as were the wheels). It’s owner must have been a Pontiac fan!
….does the “power bulge” on the hood mean this is a turbo? If so, we’re looking at a very rare bird.
From what I’ve gathered, the T-Type bulge was there turbo or not. What set the turbo apart were the “Turbo-1.8 Litre” badges on the bulge and turbo-only wheels…
Here’s a link to a thread on a J-body forum from 2012 discussing a mint T-Type turbo that had come up for sale…lots of detail photos….
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=28&i=13298&t=13298
Want.
In terms of future replacement/”spiritual successor”, the Buick Verano actually filled the niche’ a little over two decades later. The Skylark was replaced by the Regal about a little over a decade later. The FWD W-Bodied Century and Regal were replaced by the La Crosse almost immediately. If we only have the Park Avenue (Same as the Law Enforcement issue specific Chevrolet Caprice PPV which both were based from Holden’s large car made for the Chinese Market), it would have replaced both the Le Sabre and Electra Park Avenue.
Not a great Buick, but much nicer than a Cavalier. GM’s bottom cars always tended to share a lot, yet were still much better differentiated than the bottom cars from Ford and Chrysler (which were lucky to get unique grill inserts and tail light lenses). By the time that you moved up to the compact X car, there was quite a lot of differentiation, and as Carmine pointed out, the Buick Skylark was a good seller.
This car may have been profitable even in low numbers due to the minimal differentiation and slightly higher prices. As much as anything, GM was struggling with CAFE rules and an incremental increase in sales of the small J body may have been this car’s primary duty, along with giving dealers something to work with in the expanding subcompact class.
I thought the Buick X and J cars were the best looking of the GM bunch. Though the red feature car looks terrific, like with all of the Js, I can hear the OHV engine ticking away in the back of my head. I remember GM dolling up the J-cars pretty good at the beginning with more bright trim than you would expect. I drove one of the 90s Cavalier Coupes once and found it to be the second worse car I’ve ever driven, right behind the Dodge Neon.
In 1981 I got transferred from northern Ca to central Texas and wanted/NEEDED a small car with A/C to replace my Fiesta. I looked at the Cavalier…too plain/cheap looking, the Firenza…only available in my immediate area as a 4 door sedan with automatic, the Skyhawk didn’t even “register” as a choice being a Buick…and besides it was a duplicate of the Olds…so why bother? So I opted for a J2000. Mine was a hatchback which I thought reinforced it’s resemblance to a Firebird.
It was an “okay” car but not a great car in any way. The steering had no feel so it drove like Maggie Simpson’s car seat. And little parts broke off, like the window winder knob and the shift knob. The most unusual occurance was the exhaust manifold that cracked then broke into 2 large pieces.
Oh, almost forgot the interior panels that faded into 4 or 5 shades of grey or light blue (car was medium blue in and out when new). Strangely, the headliner never “let go” in my 6-7 years of ownership.
Back in 1991, I came very close to buying one of these, but in silver. When we moved to Atlanta, we only had one car. My wife was tired of sharing the car with me, so I started to look for a car for me to drive. I was working the Toyota store and a Skyhawk T-Type came in from the auction. I’d befriended the head mechanic at that shop and he put the hard sell on me to get a Toyota of some stripe. Turns out, I left the job before I bought any car and ultimately I ended up buying a Yugo. It was a good idea anyway, because anything I would have purchased at that time was going to be beat to death in traffic. The Skyhawk that I saw was typical Buick, loaded to the gills and really a nice car. I would have hated to destroy it.
A good friend of mine bought one of the first 1984 Skyhawk 4 door sedans when they became available. It was pretty Buick-ed, meaning it had a lot of bells and whistles. It was rather unusual for a small car at that time to be so dressed up; the contemporary Cimarron only had a better interior, dash aluminum wheels to distinguish it. To my eye, the Buick was the better deal. He kept that car for 12 years and while it had the usual J-body maladies, it was still running well when he retired it. It no longer would pass Pennsylvania’s inspection regime without costing far more than the car was worth, so… He sold it to a guy in Ohio!
There’s something about seeing those original J-bodies that appeals to me. At the time the styling is so internationally influenced, but now knowing that they shared a lot with the Opel and Vauxhall versions, it makes sense. Like Carmine, I definitely would not turn one of these down if it were to be available.
The J car was the second time every domestic car division and the first (and only) time *every* GM car division had the same body,Opel and Vauxhall having sat out the ’59 B-bodies entirely while Holden never put their name on the ones they assembled and Isuzu hadn’t joined the party yet.
Been probably at least 5 years since I’ve seen a Skyhawk, ditto for Cimmarons and Firenzas.
From a styling standpoint, I like these 1st gen J cars. The coupes (notchback and fastback) are both pretty spiffy looking for the times. Yes, I know the mechanicals are sub par, but at least they LOOKED good. This car with a 2.0 turbo or even a 3.1 V6 hooked to a 5 speed and some decent suspension upgrades wouldn’t be a bad little ride.
BTW, does anyone else think that the aero nose used on these and the Firenza evokes the contemporary Camaro? This would’ve made more sense at Chevrolet, with the eggcrate grille of the Cavalier reworked for Buick.
Definitely very Camaro looking–perhaps too much so. Think of the criticisms, which have a point, of how Ford diluted the reputation of the aero Fox Mustang by making the ’91 Escort look too similar. The same thing isn’t going to happen with the Buick version of the J-car as it will never achieve that many sales.
Perhaps one of the best looking of the J cars(especially the hidden headlight version) True it did not sell very well but it’s very existence meant that Buick was realizing that most of its clientele voted for Calvin Coolidge and they had best get up and make a car that appealed to younger folks. I like this car because it was not pretentious like the Cimmaron (where they charged double the cost of a well equipped Cavalier for it)
My dad had a black ’84 turbo that didn’t have that rack on the trunk. I loved that car.
I bought a 1984 T-Type in 1985. The car was black with a gray tweed interior. No luggage rack on my Buick. it also had red pinstriping and the alloy wheels. It looked sinister with the blacked out trim and the hood bulge. The 1.8 litre Brazilian made four could only be had with a 4 speed in 1984. GM’s auto could not handle the torque this engine produced. It was very fun to drive but the torque steer when shifting to second gear at full throttle was horrendous. Hang on to that wheel! I ended up selling the car after one year, but only because I was offered exactly what I had paid for it. Sadly, the girl who bought it had wrecked it within 6 months. Great little car and one of my favorites I have ever owned. And I have had quite a few sporty cars.
Bought this 86′ Buick new. This is my car in the photo! Still have it, has new plates saved the plate in this photo. Car is for sale.
Selling it? It’s now eligible for collectors plates…