Remember the Hannibal Car Show I wrote about? Well, after the show, Jason gave me the nickel tour of Hannibal. As we were driving along, I spotted something interesting–this Buick in classic triple-white.
It is a 1975 or 1976 Buick Electra 225 four-door hardtop. An excellent find. I was all set to jump out of the car with the camera, but as we were in a rather shady part of town, these two shots are all I got. Nice car, if a bit time-worn. New filler panels and a set of factory wheel covers would have gotten it pretty presentable! I love these things.
The old man had a beige 74 from the late 70’s to the late 80’s. A dead grandpa car that he bought from a friend with very low miles. It was one of the cars I learned to drive on. My mother’s 82 Chevy Caprice was a sports car in comparison. lt steered, braked, handled, and was generally more solid than the Buick. There really was a big difference between these and the 77 and newer B/C bodies.
I was a good car that took a lot of concentration to drive smoothly, at least for a new driver. The big block V8 was glorious in it’s low RPM torque. It worked just fine with the 3 speed automatic. I have no idea about fuel economy.
He replaced it with another dead grandpa(his old man’s) car, an 85 Park Avenue that he felt was inferior to the Electra. I really don’t think he’s liked any cars since that Buick. His general opinion used to be that the cars of the 60’s were the highpoint of design and function. I’m going to see him in a couple of weeks, I’ll ask the question again. He started buying cars in the 50’s, it’ll be interesting to hear what he says.
I agree with your old man. I highly preferred my 75 Limited coupe to my 78 Electra coupe.
This is one of those cars I MIGHT have admired when new, but never wanted to own. I grew up in a very rural area where a Chevy Malibu took up nearly all of it’s lane of traffic. ANYTHING bigger/wider was no fun to drive.
And yet, maybe now, if a VERY good example came along I might be tempted. However, it would have to be at a near giveaway price.
Just love these triple cars.
“Grille like a truck”…..my hooptie!!
With the fender fillers rotted away you can appreciate the intricacy of that rear bumper. Very cool.
The bumpers on these babies really allowed you to understand the mechanism behind them. You know, just looking at them, that they work on the same principal as European train cars with their two hydraulic pistons sticking out front.
In addition to the hydraulic pistons there was a whole bunch of re-enforcement to the ends of the frame where these would attach too, usually fully boxing the frame and bracing, remember that these were made to bump another 5000lb car and not have any damage, meaning that there is little that could scratch them today.
nitpick- the 5mph bumper regulation didn’t say that the car couldn’t experience any damage, it was that the car should be able to tolerate a 5 mph collision without damaging the lights.
I tested those battering rams out about a year ago on my 77 Chevelle.
I bumped a Pacifica at about 5-10mph, didn’t do any damage to my car, and really just scratched up the bumper on the Chrysler- probably wouldn’t have done squat to the Chrysler either if it hadn’t already had a mangled back end from a previous wreck.
About a week after that happened, the bumper shock’s seals failed and it started leaking oil. That puzzled me because there was oil leaking under the bumper and I couldn’t remember why it would leak oil there!
I have always thought of myself as more of a Buick fan than Oldsmobile but there are years I swing between the two in which I like best, the Electra or the Ninety-Eight. The 75 and 76 where model years I preferred the Ninety-Eight.
This was an actual grandpa car in my family – my maternal grandfather had a maroon ’74 coupe (same tail as these) that he later traded for his final car, a ’77 Riviera. Previously there were a ’71 Electra coupe (white with black top, for some reason) and a silver ’66 Riviera, my favorite then and now.
I’ver grown to like the equivalent Ninety-Eights better over time. There’s a ’75 or ’76 four-door featured in the movie Slums of Beverly Hills (driven by Alan Arkin).
I remember watching that movie on cable once just because of the 98, Alan Arkin played an Oldsmobile salesman in 1975 and the 98 was his demo, there was a scene where he was sitting in the showroom and it was pretty well done, there was a Colonnade Cutlass and a Toronado.
I wonder if the quarter extensions are being chromed?
Makes me miss my 75, broke my heart that it got rear ended. If it hadn’t been I’d still have it today.
It is unusual that the filler panels are gone on this one, usually it is only the Cadillac that have that problem. When I sent my 75 to the crusher the fillers were still soft and pliable even if they were deformed from the crash. It is strange that the lesser cars got the better material, at least that is how it turned out over time.
As for me I always thought the Buick Electra’s looked better during the 1971-73 run with 1972 being my top favorite year, I do like the mid 70’s Electra’s and Ninety Eight’s more than the Cadillac’s of the same vintage, I also wonder why there are no filler panels on this car.
I remember when shock absorbing bumpers with their soft filler panels first came out in 1973. In the hot Texas climate where I lived it wasn’t uncommon to see them start cracking after only three or four years if stored outside. The ones that wrapped over fins or upper panels like the big Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs and were exposed to the sun at all angles were particularly bad. They seemed to hold up better in cooler northern climates. They also seemed to hold up better on cars which were repainted early in their lives. Fortunately many of these pieces are reproduced now in both soft plastic and/or fiberglass.
I was looking at the scratches on the plastic cover on my rear bumper, just from tight city street parking, and realized those 5 mph bumpers had a lot going for them. You never would have noticed little love pats from the car parallel parked behind you!
Now we’ve gone back to the opposite with mostly useless painted bumpers.
because we’ve realized that it’s more important the car sacrifice itself to save its occupants. Those battering rams might have shrugged it off if you backed into someone in a parking lot, but they were useless in a collision at any road speed. Put that barge in an offset 40mph collision test and see how long the list of predicted injuries to the test dummy is.
One is not exclusive of the other, I’m just talking about BUMPERS, you could have both today, you’re more likely to bump your car than even get in a collision, and I would take the 40 mph collision offset challenge against a regular car with one of these, a 3 point belted dummy should still fare well in a crash.
The Colonnades for sure are still safe vehicles. They still have rudimentary crumple zones, impact absorbing bumpers and steering columns, 3 point belts for driver and passenger, the lap belts for the other 4 are kind of silly but will at least try and keep you in the car. Padded dashes, side impact protections in the doors, a double roof and stronger pillars to at least try and keep you from getting squished.
How would it do in an offset crash? Depends on the vehicle it would get hit by, It’d do pretty well if you nail it on the bumper, but if you go over the bumper… probably not so well since there minimal strength metal over the frame – to the firewall 6 feet behind the bumper.
No, it would not do well in an offset collision. Many far more advanced modern vehicles today don’t. And modern cars do have bumpers; they’re hidden nicely by that plastic painted bumper COVER.
The point is that a painted bumper COVER is kind of pointless, any use of the bumper and the damage will show immediately.
I would like to see a re-do of that 2009 Malibu vs 1959 Bel-Air crash test using a 1975 Impala vs a 2015 Malibu to see whats what.
I didn’t mean to shout ‘cover’; I simply don’t know how to use italics on this thing 😀
Our monster cars would fold up like cardboard against a new car. The old cars were not designed to disperse energy throughout the car. The doors would buckle, the footwells would come up, the dash would go down. In 1976 my parents were friends with a couple who purchased a new Sedan Deville. They were hit from behind at a stoplight and although the car did not look that bad they had to put the windows down and crawl out. One of the back windows would not work.
Remember these are the same cars whose doors sagged on the showroom floor.
Really? Another older Buick with deteriorated bumper-fillers?
C’mon GM, it’s bad enough the headliners on ALL 70’s-80’s cars hang down like a circus tent… could you’ve at least used a better material for the bumper fillers?
The ones on my 85 Regal are non-existent, except one lone front piece. My friend’s 85 Riviera has none and now this one.
Rejoice, Buick faithful, because Ebay has em for about $220 a set front and back. Also, they are made of polyurethane, so they should hold longer than your Buick. lol
Not only that, but Buick owners are much luckier than Cadillac owners in this department, because the fillers on this Electra can be replaced without disturbing the bumper. All of the mounting screws are accessible from inside the trunk except for the bottom one, which you can get at from underneath. On a 1974-76 Cadillac, the bumper has to come off.
I owned the sister of these cars… a 76 Coupe De Ville, and a 75 Sedan De Ville.
Both with the monstrous 500V8… not really a street scorcher, but big enough to tote that gigantic body.
Sadly, the Coupe was totaled by an 18 wheeler, and the Sedan blew it’s engine TRYING to race a Road Runner.
I miss those twins. lol
I took drivers ed driving one of these 225s lent to the high school by Bill Cook Buick in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
If you could parallel park it you could park anything.
Love these.
Make mine the 4-door, but instead of the red, below, I’ll take Stratomist blue poly (there was one on ebay recently).