A quick trip back to my hometown of Flint, Michigan last weekend reminded me of this sighting of a mid-run, sixth-generation Buick LeSabre I had seen after work about five years back. Looking at this photo again made me smile. I had taken Drivers’ Education in new examples of these in the summer of 1990, in the city where many of them were manufactured. Genesee County loved these cars (for good reasons), and they were positively everywhere in that place and time. After the veritable crap-fest that was much of GM’s product lineup in the ’80s (which led directly to loss of market share and, indirectly, to loss of factory jobs in Flint), in the LeSabre, we had a genuinely attractive, competitive, quality-built Buick, when that make was still headquartered in the Vehicle City.
The first front-wheel-drive LeSabre was like a hometown hero wearing a Tri-Shield, and Buick moved over 163,000 of them in 1990, the year I first drove one on the road. (For comparison among the LeSabre’s H-Body platform-mates, Olds moved about 117,000 Eighty-Eights, and Pontiac sold roughly 86,000 Bonnevilles that year.) This generation of LeSabre famously took home J.D. Power & Associates’ award for highest in initial quality in its class for a few years. This was a big source of pride for us Flintstones, and probably a bit of a shock to the rest of the automotive world when this accolade had first been announced. To see them being built at the Buick City factory on the north side was a thrill. The LeSabre seemed to give us all renewed reason to celebrate our area’s car-building legacy.
As far as my recollection of my teenage driving impressions of these cars was concerned, I remember thinking that, besides being decidedly much more conservative than anything I could have imagined even the future, forty-something year old me driving, it was big, roomy, cushy, responsive, and way, way nicer than anything in my parents’ driveway. Our ’84 Ford Tempo GL was slow and stalled often, and our ’88 Chevy Nova, while a nice, reliable car, was also slow, a bit on the small side, and an econobox devoid of any style – all in comparison to this palace on wheels called the LeSabre.
These Buicks all had big bench seats with velour for days and excellent visibility in all directions – the latter being one thing a new-driver student like me really appreciated. The solid, percussive “chunk” sound of closing the driver’s side door seemed almost musical. It certainly seemed magical to a young teenager who was learning to drive, along with that intoxicating smell of a new car’s interior.
Flint Southwestern Academy High School. Sunday, February 20, 2011.
I had gone into Drivers’ Ed at Flint Southwestern High School that summer, first being very disappointed that we would be learning to drive on these ultra-conservative, family man-mobiles. (I mean, if we needed to learn to drive in the presumed safety of bigger cars, where were the sportier Pontiac Bonnevilles?) In the end, though, the LeSabres all won me over – buttoned-down personality and everything. It was almost like a foretaste of learning to like wearing Dockers regularly in an office environment. I smile, to this day, whenever I see a running example of one of these cars on the street. Flint, here’s to you for a job well done.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013.
My only time driving one of these was as a loaner from the dealer when our 1986 Taurus was in the shop for some warranty work related to a Technical Service Bulletin. There were not enough Tauri to go around so we got a LeSabre from the used car department. I remember it smoothly, quietly and competently befitting the Buick name but clearly of an American-generation earlier than the Euro-flavored Taurus. As always, I took a peek under the hood and remember that it opened strangely. Release the latch, pull hood forward slighlly, after which it opened from the rear? I think…it’s been a while.
That hood was a thing of beauty, the way it covered the whole front end. I always thought that was one of the prettier body panels of the time.
I learned to drive in a Buick, too. 1976 Regal sedan, with powder blue wood grain velour, one of the oddest automobile upholstery jobs ever.
Yes, just like a contemporary Saab. The LeSabre and Electra shared the hood, but no other GM car did.
Lucky you. My Driver’s Ed cars were a Dodge Omni and a Plymouth Reliant. In the hilly area we practiced in, you’d have to put the pedal to the metal to crest a hill, then modulate your speed accordingly. I was somewhat experienced, having done some off-road driving previous, but we took our classes with partners, splitting up the driving time. The girl I rode with had never been behind the wheel before, so between the necessity to accelerate heavily on hills, then smoothly transition with the 3-speed gearbox hunting feverishly for the right gear, and the propensity for those little Mopars for torque steer under heavy pedalling, it was a lucky thing I wasn’t prone to car sickness. I was tempted to duck for cover in those cramped back seats more than once.
I drove one as a used car loaner while the local Chevy dealer was doing some major work on the old Celebrity. Other than the quality of the interior materials and the god-almighty torque of the 3800 I couldn’t tell a substantive difference between a 1st Gen H and the lowly A-body.
I was however tempted to bid on some fleet spec LeSabre’s of this generation when they came up in the district auction. They had 3800 and crank windows and had pushed 200,000 miles in fleet service. But people were willing to pay more for them than the $500 I thought they were worth to me.
Your featured car is the absolute twin of my youngest brother’s first car. He had wanted a BMW but ended up with this Buick, a one-elderly-owner car that was probably 5 or 6 years old at the time. Oh well, it began with “B”. 🙂
My driver’s ed car was a yellow 1975 base-level Mercury Marquis sedan. I think it had a black vinyl top and black cloth interior. My best friend got a 75 Olds 88 sedan. I was *so* glad to not be him, as I was surrounded by Oldsmobiles in my life and wanted something exotic.
I have long maintained that everyone needed to learn to parallel park in a big mid 1970s full sized car. Parking anything else is a cake walk.
I took my driver’s test in Ohio in a ’75 Buick Estate Wagon. It was so long that it stuck out on both ends of the rectangle you were supposed to stop in as part of the “maneuverability” test that had replaced the parallel parking test. It stuck out about the same amount on both ends, so I passed. 😀
My guess is that your high school benefited from GM making cars in your city and they probably donated a few of them to be used for drivers ed. Perhaps GM had a few test cars that could not be sold as new so they gifted them to your driver’s ed program
GM had some deal going with the local Pontiac dealer when I was in high school. I don’t know what the details were, but basically the dealer got the cars from GM at some discount, they’d let the school use them for a few thousand miles, then the dealer would swap them out and sell them as “lightly” used cars.
As such our class to drive around in new Grand Am’s, Grand Prix’s, and a lonely Sunfire with a stick shift. In theory a late 90’s Grand Am could be had with a stick shift but for some reason we got a Sunfire instead.
Driver’s Ed was first a group of us all driving around in our own car on a fake driving course laid out on the school’s parking lot, which was later followed by some real-world driving on actual streets with the instructor in the car. For the driving course I always took the Sunfire since I wanted to learn how to drive a stick, no one else wanted to touch it, and I thought the Sunfire was the coolest car anyway. For the on the road test, the instructor wouldn’t let me use the Sunfire so instead I got to drive one of the Grand Prix’s instead.
My old high school kept this with the local Pontiac dealer all the way to the bitter end for Pontiac. Apparently they ditched the stick shift car and went all automatics a year or two after I went through. I don’t know what they are doing now.
You were lucky with the Sunfire. Our school stopped teaching a stick when I was learning in the ’70’s. I later learned on an International Scout that my Uncle owned. In hindsight that was pretty cool! But the Scout would dissolve like Alka-Seltzer in water when in salt ridden Winter in Wisconsin.
Bob
When my mother bought her 74 Luxury Lemans in the summer of 74 (at the tail end of the model year) she got a deal because the car had a couple thousand miles on it. She was told it had been a drivers ed car. The only thing I ever saw that indicated someone had used the car previously was when I later discovered that someone had inserted a conical spring into the gas filler pipe to prevent gas siphoning. Which I learned when I once tried to siphon some gas out of Mom’s car.
I suspect that dealers got a tax deduction for charitable or educational contributions.
It’s always interesting to see folks here reminisce on what cars they drove for Drivers Ed. Do most high schools even have cars for Drivers Ed anymore? Seems like a risky liability.
When I took it in high school the late 90s, it was purely a class on preparation for the written test; there was no actual driving involved. Actual driving was done at home in Mom’s Camry. IIRC, “Driver’s Ed” at our school wasn’t even a full class; it was just a unit that lasted a couple of weeks in our health class.
At least around here where I am in Massachusetts, most public high schools do have drivers ed cars still.
Keep in mind that there’s a hefty fee to take the driver’s ed classes and instructed driving hours, which more than enough pays for insurance. If I recall, when I took driver’s ed it was something in the ballpark of $600, and that was a decade ago.
Here in Oklahoma…no. You’d need to either teach your kid yourself (which my parents did) or enroll in a driving school. The driving schools here almost universally use whatever the latest Civic or Corolla is.
Me? I’m about Brendan’s age and learned to drive in Mom’s 2005 Nissan Murano SL. It’s not exactly cool, but it was (and is) certainly a common car of the times. I also learned on Dad’s 2007 Dodge Caliber SXT. I don’t know why he bought it because he certainly could have afforded something nicer.
Hmm. Both of those are CVT-mobiles. I later had to bribe a friend to learn how to drive a manual-transmission car, a 2009 MINI Cooper S Convertible.
My high school did and still does. When I went it was new Escapes, late fourth gen Tauruses and Focus’, and we’d maneuver around cones in the former senior parking lot(the campuses were split at some point, juniors and seniors went to the west side of town). We did road tests after school hours
I was a technician at a Pontiac Buick dealership in 1989 and worked on these cars. I also was a customer, as my dad and I looked closely at these Buicks to replace our Olds Cutlass Ciera.
Deep down, the cars were excellent, roomy, relatively lightweight for their size, reliable straightforward mechanical components and generally well done.
Unfortunately, Buick shot themselves in the foot, with the trim, tuning and marketing for these cars. The volume models and versions of these cars were the softly-sprung, squishy, Brougham-ey, overly decorated versions, with dopey, useless instrument panels. Wispy soft suspensions, heavy cheap steel wheels and under-achieving 14 inch tires all conspired to strip the car of the sharp – handling potential baked into every chassis.
At the time, the writing was on the wall, as more tasteful, sleek, good-handling cars were the future. Buick made an attempt to address this market through the delightful T-type series. Unfortunately, these were not volume models, rarely stocked and sold at a premium price, relative to the competition.
My dad and I bought a Pontiac Bonneville SE, a better car in virtually every way than these Buicks, and cost $1500 less.
GM obviously intended Buick and Pontiac to appeal to different market segments. Unfortunately, Buick was given the past and Pontiac got the future.
These days, I’d welcome one of these Buicks in my personal fleet as a cool comfortable retro – collectible. But at the time, they had little appeal for me.
But plush, broughamy cushmobiles were just what most LeSabre buyers wanted. If I recall correctly, the LeSabre handily outsold the Bonneville since the 1986-1987 downsizing. I owned a ’94 LeSabre for a number of years that was left to me by my mom. Yes, it was softly sprung and didn’t like being pushed too hard in corners (though it did stick), but it was a fine and comfortable cruiser. Also, mine had an optional six-gauge instrument panel.
My dad’s ’95 Park Avenue had that same great interior (also in red, though with the rare velour rather than leather). Truly terrific ergonomics IMO, with everything easy to read and easy to reach (compare the radio placement with that of most ’90s cars at the bottom of the center stack). Looked great too.
Official Drivers ed is an idea that never caught on here, mine was done by a neighbour using his work vehicle a 66 Austin Gipsy, very unofficial and done on farm tracks and the twisting gravel backroads where he gained his income as a rural meter reader for the local power supplier, power sliding (drifting) that Gipsy around on gravel was great fun, he also allowed me to drive his personal car a 58 Humber 80 (rebadged Hillman Minx) on real roads, with traffic 3 years later at 15 I gained my full licence in a Morris Minor.
I’ve always liked these, but from what I’ve heard, and our own experience with a low mile and very babied 1990 Olds 98 that we had briefly, the transmission was a major weak point. on GM H-bodies. Ours was in mint condition and only 60k original miles when we gave it to our daughter upon her move to Iowa City, but before it hit 70k the trans started to slip. They nursed it for a year then donated it, a shame as it was a really nice car to drive.
My driver’s ed cars were Dodge Calibers and one worn out Chrysler Sebring. I liked that one the best. The Caliber was a very odd car. The seat was uncomfortable and the controls were hard to get used to and in odd places. The school has switched to a fleet of Chevy Traverse last I saw.
Pioneer_fox, I’ve never driven a Dodge Caliber, but I think I’m still waiting for a positive account of someone’s experience with one! A Chevy Traverse would seem like a really large vehicle to the teenage me. Thank goodness for all the safety equipment cars have these days.
I don’t believe I’ve ever ridden in one of these Buicks – they weren’t very popular here in SoCal and none of my friends had one. I had a friend who drove the Olds equivalent that he inherited from his father (he joked that in contrast to the ad slogan of the time, it literally was his father’s Oldsmobile) and was a perfectly decent car though quite a contrast to his previous 280ZX.
My Drivers Ed took place in the summer of 1965 in a small town Midwestern high school. Local dealers supplied two cars, a new burgundy Impala four door hardtop with A/C and a car that I’m sure JPC would approve of: a new white Plymouth Fury III four door sedan without A/C. IIRC the Impala had the 283 and I’m guessing the Fury III had the 318. I was assigned to the Plymouth. It was a hot, humid summer and we all envied the kids who got to drive and ride comfortably in the more stylish and air-conditioned Impala.
Thus I did learn to parallel park in a full-sized car but when I took my actual test I drove my mother’s Falcon. The DMV guy seemed to be won over from the beginning because I could drive stick, I easily parallel parked the Falcon, and went home a happy kid of 16 with brand new license.
I like these a lot, for all the reasons listed. I drove them a couple of times in my yoot. My neighbor had one and it was a great car for him..
My driver’s ed car was an ’87 Grand Am. I had little experience with anything else so I liked it enough. One of my student partners was an attractive blonde, and the other was some guy whose name and face I forget. It was fun being 15 and pretending it was just her and I in the car cruising to terrible 1987 pop music. I still like Expose for this sentimental reason.
Loved this. I think your statement, “I had little experience with anything else so I liked it enough” may sum up most of our feelings about the cars in which we learned to drive, though I do remember the ’87 Grand Am being a desirable car at that time.
And yes – I have no shame about having Expose (and other ’80s acts) in my MP3 player in 2018.
Yes there is zero shame in rocking a little Expose when the mood strikes. Of course you also need some LisaLisa and the Cult Jam to follow it up with and if you’re really bold, perhaps some Taylor Dayne too 🙂 If we do another CC Meetup I think everyone’s favorite period music guilty pleasure needs to be on the menu as well.
My driver training car was a 1973 Olds Delta 88 Royale coupe. Red with a white half top. Noiseless. Killer AC. Learning to parallel park in one of these meant you were qualified to park anything smaller than a freighter.
You guys had a lot more fun with your driver’s ed cars.
Ours was a 1980 Dodge diplomat. Chrysler green, slant six and no options what so ever.
It was as boring to drive as its colour.
I saw the twin to the pictured car just yesterday at lunch in a parking lot and walked around it reminiscing what a fine shape it was and how one could do worse than driving one. I still have good memories of my ’88 LeSabre T-Type coupe but like the regular sedans as well, that hood and the front end in general stand out as very attractive. And yes, I also worship at the altar of 3800, what an engine!
As far as Driver’s Ed goes, I somehow missed signing up at school, so I took a course offered by the school district (LAUSD) over the TV(!) – this is what you did before the internet, kids. Every morning at 9am over the summer for about a month I watched a half hour of car and driving stuff on one of the public access channels high up the dial. The featured car was a Fiat 128 of all things (I’d never seen an actual one in the US at that time) and I was bemused when they went over the choke procedure to start it, not really a big issue in LA. The only time I have EVER used a choke in a car that I can recall is when I was looking at first generation Mazda RX-7’s, they used them through 1985 IIRC.
Then for actual driving we went private and I was in lessons using two white Corollas, one RWD and one FWD, not that I learned anything about the differences, it’s just they had a fleet of various generation Corollas…Our high school had a couple of K-cars for the in-school program.
Drivers’ Ed *over the TV*! Jim, that’s a new one for me – and if I remember from our in-person CC meetup back in 2016, we’re not that far apart in age.
I seem to recall that another Drivers’ Ed option in my area was the training offered by Sears. I remember seeing a lot of those “Sears Drivers’ Training” signs affixed to the tops of cars throughout the year, but mostly in summer.
“we’re not that far apart in age” – You are far too kind!
We had the Sears ones too, I now recall the large billboard like signs but can’t for the life of me remember what they drove.
My daughter is going through her mandated “non-parental portion” of her driver’s education. So far she’s been in a Cruze and a Malibu that she can recall. Both were fine but too low for her tastes, not a sedan fan unless it’s much more bougie… The same driving school for some reason also has a Camaro that I once noticed quite sideways on a freeway offramp on a snowy day, I have no idea what they were thinking…
“I have no idea what they were thinking…”
“We must impress on another generation that all RWD cars are horrible in snow.” 🙂
I can’t believe driver ed occured when I was all of 15-1/2 years old now. So young! They no longer offer it in public high schools in my area, but did back then. It was structured in 8-day cycles, with the first day (for my group) being on the road, three days in a classroom (our textbook was called Drive Right), and four days in another classroom with simulators. Do they still use simulators? These featured the cockpit of a ’75 or ’76 Caprice, with a extra bank of warning lights atop the dash that would light if you didn’t correctly follow the film you were watching. There were about 20 simulators each pointed at the screen; they looked a bit like the sit-down driving games at a video arcade.
We had three 1981 Pontiacs to drive, a light green metallic Grand Prix (the first car I ever drove, and the same color as my own first car, a 1981 J2000 LE), along with a light brown woodgrain LeMans wagon and a Catalina in the same color as the Grand Prix. I did most of the driving in the GP, and liked how the massive instrument panel made me feel like I was driving a real car.
An ’89 LeSabre seems like a good car with which to learn to drive. I can’t think of any modern car that’s as easy to see out of.
Very well-written and reflective piece as always, Joseph.
Interesting communicators and Flint, huh. Must be something in the water.
🙂 Justy Baum, thank you so much.
Oof, too soon, Justy…
By the time I was a high schooler in the late 1990s in rural mid-Michigan, the earliest examples of these H-body LeSabres were 10 years old. There were a ton of them still in service, but not that many of them had made it to the high school parking lot-a compliment if there was one in my small town. As it happened, though, a buddy’s dad bought one to add to their family’s fleet.
It was kinda fun, as my cousin regularly drove my uncle’s 1988 Delta 88 Royal Brougham. My buddy sometimes drove the 1989 LeSabre, and I had a 1989 Bonneville; I definitely got butt-time in all three. The Bonneville was definitely the sportier of the lot and handled noticeably better than the others. The Olds was stately inside, very comfortable but felt very rich. The Buick, as I recall, actually rode the softest of the three, and the interior was very nice, but didn’t seem as rich inside as the Olds.
Honestly, though, I loved all three then, and I delight when I see an H-Body of that vintage now. They all rusted, but the Bonnevilles seemed to rust the fastest of them. The Buicks seem to have survived the best out of the lot-not sure if that’s because of sales volume originally or if something in the Buick families made them take better care, or if there was a bit better build quality to the Buicks.
As for driver’s ed, when I did it in early 1997, our car was a 1990 Pontiac Sunbird, with an automatic. The most amusing part of that was the road trip-our instructor insisted that we had to have exposure to freeway driving before the end of the class, but the nearest freeway was well over an hour’s drive. No matter-we scheduled, three at a time, to pile into the Sunbird with the instructor and take half a day to get our freeway driving in.
Of course, I was 200 pounds in high school, and I wound up with another 200 pounder and the 6′ 4″ star of our basketball team. In a Sunbird. For roughly four hours.
That was a long trip.
Xequar, I loved reading this, especially your freeway story.
I never drove an Eighty-Eight or a Bonneville of this vintage, but I agree with the rest: I think the Bonnevilles all rusted more quickly. I do also think that the general Buick-owning clientele might have been more prone to take better care of their cars.
By the time my kids were of high school age drivers ed was no longer offered. Recall they all needed to go to local driving school to get some sort of a certificate to get their license and/or insurance.
Way back in my driver’s ed days we had a ’67 stripper Bel Air sedan, a ’68 Tempest that at least had power steering and a loaded Plymouth Fury III with A/C. Still recall this one kid whose parents never had a car not even knowing how to start it or what any of the instruments were for. His first stop sent everyone in the car flying.
Before I started driver’s ed, Dad used to take me to the mall on Sundays to teach me how to drive (“Blue Laws” meant it was closed on Sundays, so it was great for practice). That was in his 1979 Mercedes 300D — the last year of the non-TURBOCHARGED ones, with only 77HP. To get that car moving from a stop, the accelerator had to be depressed all the way to the floor, like in a city bus. You would back off it once you got rolling.
Our high school had a Buick Century, in that same blue as the photo.
The first time I got in the driver’s ed car, I put it in D, and pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor, just as Dad had taught me. Everyone’s head snapped back as I left a huge smoky burnout in the high school parking lot.
In a panic, the instructor stomped on his passenger-side brake pedal, which locked the wheels. The car turned sideways and came to rest between two other cars.
I remember I said something like, “And THAT is how you parallel park!”
I got detention.
!!! Mark, this wins the internet for today, as far as I’m concerned. 🙂🤜🤛
+1
Not a fan of the baby LeSabre or any of the downsized gm cars. I think it’s ugly. And would peefer a grand Marquis or a fifth avenue m body. To me the Buick lost its size and character along with its looks and frame and rear wheel drive and beautiful dashboard. The 3.8 was much improved vs the old carbureted 3.8 the big cars sometimes were cursed with. This seemed like a bad deal vs the Caprice or the grand Marquis. The second generation looked so much nicer. Though they should have had functional vent windows and metal intakes and front fenders. I personally think Buick should have kept the b body and used this as the regal line along with the a body century.
My driver’s Ed car was a turd brown 4 cylinder Buick century that was wrecked on the driver’s side and had to be entered on the passenger side. With 6 people in it it would barely move. The girl who wrecked it almost killed us all
We didn’t have drivers ed at my school for some reason but a lot of other schools in Georgia did. So I did my drivers ed through a private company near my parents house. They had a fleet of 1993 Ford Mustang LX hatchbacks. Of course they were all 4 cylinder automatic cars. I had already learned to drive a manual transmission by going with my dad on weekends when he had to work. He’s an electrical engineer and they had a fleet of F-150’s, Rangers, and my favorite, an F-250 diesel and all of them had manuals. I’d spend hours in the big parking lot of the office complex switching between trucks. It was some of the best days of my life. As for this Buick, when they were new, I didn’t give them a second glance, nowadays, I search Craigslist almost every single day for a nice one. Or an Olds version. Funny thing is, I liked the Bonneville when they came out, but I’d take one of the grampa Buick’s or Olds over the Pontiac now. Unless it was an SSE of course.
Maybe John, Pete, Justy or Don can enlighten me but I don’t think driver’s ed in school has ever been a thing here in Australia.
I was taught by an instructor at a local driving school who was lovely but… wow, I honestly can’t remember her name and this was only ten years ago! It was a 2005 or so Mitsubishi Lancer. Pretty forgettable car but nothing terribly wrong with it, although I didn’t love its manual gearshift (stiff and notchy).
Here, it seems most people my age got their manual licence (which permits you to drive both manual and auto). I wonder if that’s still the case…
My driver’s ed (and driving test) car was a refrigerator-white VW Golf Mk1 diesel from the early eighties. Manual transmission, still the norm back then. An automatic was “special order” only (in practice: by the elderly and the very, very nervous). There was no way on earth that a youngster took his/her lessons in an automatic.
The name of the driver’s school was Staal. Dutch for steel; not some made-up name, but the owner’s real last name.
Nicely expressed reflection Joe. Thanks!
When I took my driving test , we lived in one of the less populated counties of Arkansas. My dad and I drove in our 1951 Pontiac from our town of 500 to the county seat of 2000 10 miles away. I did well and impresed the state trooper on the driving skills portion of the test. After we finished, he looked at the list of people applying for licenses One of them was a farmer who had driven all his life with no license at all but decided to get one. The trooper knew the farmer had not read the driving manual, so he asked me to give the farmer his written test while the trooper took the next person out on the driving test. When the trooper returned, I gave him the farmer’s written test results and let him inform the farmer that he would have to study the manual before he could try again.