I had learned one particular habit as a young kid growing up between my two brothers in the early 1980s that I still find hard to control, even almost forty years later. Left to my own devices, I tend to “inhale” my food. Our family wasn’t poor and we had plenty to eat, but often, the rationale was that whoever “cleaned” their plate(s) first would earn access to a second helping. My two brothers still also eat very quickly, and today, they are both, let’s say, of a healthy, American heft. As for me, I pay the price for my fitness with more exercise and regimented eating than I care to disclose here, but we all have our priorities, and I treat my body much like I would my own hypothetical classic car. I’ll be “on the dyno” (doing cardio) soon enough.
Brunch at the Holiday Club. seen in the background of the above photo, which was devoured shortly after the pictures of our featured car were taken.
In the unlikely event that two or all three of us would finish our plates first, and if there were limited “seconds” to go around, my older brother would sometimes beat us other two in the race toward claiming what was left. When my younger brother and I would ask our elder just why he alone was exclusively and automatically entitled to the remnants, he would simply and flatly state, “I have seniority,” right before chomping a big bite out of the last piece of pizza or pork chop. (Mom and Dad let all of this happen, likely in preparing us all for the “real world”, though sometimes they’d intervene.)
Granted, there is almost a decade between the oldest and youngest Dennis brothers, and bigger kids obviously need more food, but encounters like these seemed then, to me, among the biggest injustices within the borders of Genesee County, Michigan. “Seniority” – how I grew to loathe that word. By the time my older brother was out of the house and it was just us two other guys around, my younger brother wasn’t having any of it when I would attempt such shenanigans when it came to leveraging my older “age” (three whole years) for some advantage. (My little bro never backed down, even then, and he’s a effective attorney and client advocate today.)
1982 Buick Regal Sedan & Coupe.
Around this same time in the early ’80s, I was thoroughly confused when the heretofore 1981 Buick Century four-door reappeared with minor exterior changes as the ’82 Regal. In my mind, the Regal had always seemed like an upper(-esque) scale car, and very little seemed to have been done to differentiate the ’82 Regal sedan from the ’81 Century. Adding to my confusion, the handsome, new ’82 Century (probably my favorite-looking of the FWD A-Body quartet) looked light-years more modern and attractive than the old-school G-Body sedan, and appeared (at least in sedan form) no less luxurious.
1981 Buick Century Sedan.
I just didn’t understand. How did the older, stale sedan with which we were all already familiar get the “better” name than the newer, modern, (presumably) more efficient car? Then, I paid closer attention to the coupe versions of both cars, and it all sort of started to make sense. Aesthetically, the new A-Body Century sedan was to the G-Body Regal sedan what the slick Regal coupe was to the ungainly two-door Century – and this was at a time when coupes were still selling in decent volume. This might also help explain the following sales numbers for ’82: For the Regal, 136,200 coupes and 74,400 sedans; and for the Century, 19,700 two-doors versus 83,300 four-doors. (For ’82, the Regal line also contained Buick’s midsize wagon, which sold an additional 14,700 units.)
1982 Buick Century Sedan.
Pricing was also baffling, I’ve come to learn. Initially, the base prices of various models of the new Century were higher than those of the corresponding Regals, by about 2-3% across the board. This was reversed for ’83, with the Regal, again, being (marginally) the more expensive car. The Regal sedan’s “seniority” over the Century ran out after ’84, with the older car’s discontinuation for ’85, while its Oldsmobile Cutlass four-door cousin continued in production through ’87. Even without factoring in the Regal-exclusive wagon, combined sales of the two- and four-door ’82 Regal bested those of the all-new Century by a ratio of almost 2:1.
The base price shell-game was also happening over at Pontiac, with the new ’82 6000 carrying an entry-level price tag higher than that of the newly-midsized “Bonneville G”, with the latter name having been previously attached to Pontiac’s largest sedan offering. There was similar news from Lansing in Cutlass Ciera / Supreme / Supreme Brougham / Calais-land, and it was the same story at Chevrolet with the Malibu Classic and new Celebrity.
I suppose the thing I most associate with this generation of Regal sedan is an episode of near-asphyxiation in the back seat of one, at the mercy of a flatulent driver and rear windows that wouldn’t (by unforgivable GM design) roll down, which was something I didn’t realize at the time. I thought the rear window controls were in the front of the cabin, and being around age eleven or twelve, I was reluctant to ask the driver to crack the windows back there, because it was he who was funking up the inside of the car. (You remember what it was like to speak to an adult when you were a kid!)
The Famous Zehnder’s Restaurant. Frankenmuth, Michigan. Friday, August 16, 2013.
I don’t know about my younger brother, the future-lawyer (who was also a rear-seat passenger on that trip), but I thought I was going to die. The thirty-or-so minute drive from Frankenmuth, Michigan back home to Flint with those dear family friends (may they both rest in peace) seemed interminable, but as you can see (and read), I did live to tell about it.
Perhaps it was “seconds” at dinner that night partaken of by our driver, our dearly departed family friend, that had helped lead to those dire consequences for us other passengers that night. I will say, though, that it was nice that the American car-buying public was treated to a second-helping of the G-Body (née A-Body) RWD Buick midsize sedan once the initial “Aeroback” styling had been amended much to many people’s liking. It was a shame about those rear windows, though.
Lakeview, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
If you’d like to be reminded of what the two-door A-body Century of the mid-’80s looks like, click here.
I always thought the rear window inoperative stance was because the “bean counters” made the decisions in the GM world of the 1980s.
This article reminded me of my mother’s 1983 Olds Ninety Eight Regency Brougham sedan whose rear side windows rolled down only about half way.
If you look closely at the rear passenger window here, you’ll see what I mean:
“I always thought the rear window inoperative stance was because the “bean counters” made the decisions”
I recall reading at the time that it was to maximize elbow room by allowing inner door panels to intrude on areas that would have otherwise been used by window hardware. But I am sure that accounting raised no objections.
A year or two ago I was researching and reading 1970s issues of Ward’s Auto Reports when I came across a short article saying that Ford was planning to eliminate window controls on certain models’ rear windows. Yes, Ford… not GM. As far as I recall, the reason was for cost savings.
I assume that GM beat them to it, the idea was poorly received, and Ford decided not to head down that path after all.
Based on that, I suspect that with these GM sedans, cost savings was the real reason, “elbow room” was somewhat of a feigned rationale.
I believe the early Chrysler K cars had rear windows that didn’t roll down as well
I forgot about that — the first-year K-cars had fixed rear windows, and then Chrysler added roll-down windows for 1982.
Why even have a rear quarter glass then. Might as well gave it a a single piece if there would be no practical reason to separate it
GM allowed that little bit to open.
GM’s mid-size strategy was such a mess in the ’80s. The new FWD A bodies were supposed to replace the G bodies (Regal) but didn’t, because the Gs were still selling too well, so instead they sold them both side by side. The N bodies in 1985 were supposed to be downsized versions of the G – Buick’s was called the Somerset Regal for its first year – but weren’t because the G was still selling, so they sold all three. Finally the W or GM10 series replaced the G, though Olds kept the G Cutlass around one last year because it still outsold everything but the Ciera, and Buick built the Regal until December. It took THREE attempts to replace the G bodies and GM was still reluctantly letting the G go.
Also meant to add that the ’86 H bodies (LeSabre, etc.) were also not much different in size either, and of course the C body (Electra) was now the same size as the H, so circa 1986 the A, G, H, and C bodies were all virtually the same size.
Joe, us firstborn children have always taken the seniority route as options for overcoming novice parents are so few. Also, don’t forget when those pesky younger siblings showed up, we elder children got the shaft as all attention was diverted to the new, unwelcome one. 🙂
It has been ages since I’ve seen one of the G-body Buick sedans. Wow, do they look great! They’ve always blended into the background but for whatever reason they really have some appeal. These would make a great old car for somebody on a budget – reasonably fuel efficient and parts are cheap and plentiful. Whoever owns this one is a lucky person.
Firstborns Of The World, UNITE!! (c:
“You were born older, George.”
Yeah Joe, sorry but the whining of younger siblings like you is just not all that convincing. We older kids paid for those extra helpings by the more active discipline of parents who had not yet been worn down and outnumbered. We eldest children were double-teamed for our first few years. 🙂
Yeah, my parents apologized to me, the oldest, for having to be the “prototype/test bed” for their parenting policies.
Hahaha!! This made me laugh. 🙂
I do not envy the firstborn position that much. Even though the first gets many privileges and the lion’s share of Mom’s and Dad’s attention, they also have a lot of added responsibility and expectations.
My younger brother could do no wrong, it seems, a lot of the time. I’ll say that being in the middle was a (thankfully) very low-key place to be at times.
I’ll also agree that it’s easier to appreciate these G-Bodies in 2019, only because they’re now so rare.
Truth be told, I think a person has some natural challenges regardless of where in line they were born. It’s seems like nature’s way of leveling the playing field.
My wife is the youngest and her brothers act as if her IQ is stunted due to that. Being the oldest I’m expected to do all the unsavory tasks. A friend of mine is the middle child (sound familiar?) but he is sandwiched between two sisters. He’s the biggest peace-maker, diplomat, and negotiator I’ve met.
Of course, each position has its own perks, too.
Too bad the name “Aeroback” wasn’t an honest description.
In fairness, by the ’80s most cars had full-time AC and flo-thru ventilation, which made openable windows less crucial than before.
That is unless the car isn’t equipped with air conditioning or the air conditioning broke down.
The latter happened to our friend’s Oldsmobile Cutlass Aeroback one intensely hot summer day in Dallas, Texas. He was too cheap to fix the air conditioning system, which ironically only needed one can of R12 for $7 to recharge the system.
So you borrowed his car and fixed it for him? 🙂
My Mom was car shopping in the summer of 1982 and G-Bodys were #1 on her list; the Cutlass was the front runner and the Regal was a close second, but the sedan was never a consideration.
Long story short, the Oldsmobile dealer had plenty of Cieras on the lot but the only Cutlass Supremes they had were diesels. Uh, no thanks. My Dad and my older brother took one look at the cheap-looking FWD Ciera and said no way. We took home a Delta 88 coupe instead.
Even my 9-year-old self knew that the Ciera, compared to the Cutlass, was junk. The Cutlass looked cool and there weren’t any Cieras taking the banks at NASCAR. 37 years later, the collector market agrees. Seen a Ciera at a car show lately?
Anyway, it does seem that the Buick sedans sold the least, at least the later ones. I always liked G-Bodys and paid attention to them on the road; I remember seeing a lot of the earlier Centurys but not many Regals, even though one of my high school girlfriend’s Dad had one in two tone beige and gold.
I was also the youngest of 3 boys, so I was used to being abused in the back seat. So, if my parents had one (and plenty of friend’s parent’s did have those cars,) the non-opening windows would have been a non-issue to me as I was more concerned about staying alive back there.
Not a Ciera, but I did see a well kept A-body Century at the 2018 Malaise Daze Car Show.
LT Dan, I had almost completely forgotten about the diesel-powered Cieras! I’d say that of the four FWD A-Bodies of this generation, the Cutlass Ciera seemed to have been offered in the most permutations / combinations of powertrain, trim level, etc. Even though roofline of the 2-door was given a proper “coupe” treatment for ’86 – which I always thought was cool.
Great opening, and one I can relate to as I read this on my own, personal “dyno” (a/k/a the elliptical). 😀
Having graduated college and entered the real world in the late ’70s, I recall all these cars well. GM did indeed have some corporate ADD going on. A strong impression, however is that the quality of the G-bodies was far higher than that of the FWD “successors.” More solid-feeling, quieter, etc.
I think GM did a great job on their first downsizing efforts, the 1977 full size and 1978 mid size cars. They seemed to really fret over the quality and solidity, and the products were definite improvements over their predecessors. By comparison the subsequent FWD lines were rushed. Quality took a back seat for some time and consumers could easily “feel” it. Had this not happened, I suspect the G’s would have retired earlier.
I’ll rep for the 1979 E body personal luxury coupes too. They so very well captured the essence of the previous renditions but in a new, trimmer size and style, with engineering to match. Very much unlike the next year’s downsized personal-luxury efforts from Ford, Lincoln, and Chrysler.
The downsizing era played havoc with every American manufacturer and all kinds of illogical overlaps happened. Things like a Fairmont turning into an LTD or a Volare turning into a Chrysler Fifth Avenue were the kinds of things that made my head hurt back then.
I had forgotten that the G body Cutlass outlasted the Buick version. Both the Olds and Buick versions of this car were really popular in the midwest, as you well know. These were much better received than the earlier “aeroback” versions of the nameplates, and were also preferred to the new FWD A bodies by older, more traditional buyers.
Just think, if GM had not been swimming in money in the 80s, this car could have wound up as a Park Avenue.
Just think, if GM had not been swimming in money in the 80s, this car could have wound up as a Park Avenue.
Or if the oil crisis and continually increasing fuel price had gone on through the 1980s. Thankfully, it ended in January 1986 with oil price crash to $10 per barrel and 25 cents per gallon. What a summer of 1986!
What was the engineering reason that GM went to no-open/half opening rear windows in the 80’s? Looking at the Ad above for the 82 Century sedan, it’s clear that there wasn’t any place for the glass to go inside those short doors. However, on the 83 Olds 98 that Michael posted it would seem that the rear windows -could- have easily been made to go all the way down. I know that GM claimed that the reason was safety, but that always seemed like some spin-doctor’s Hail-Mary (“We did it for the children!”) justification after having been caught leaving the rebar out of a concrete building.
As I recall, at the time those half windows just came across as pathetically cheap on GM’s part. Following on the heels (or in the midst, actually) of the Citation fiasco, there was a feeling that GM was trying to save a nickel on every six cents they spent building a car. Surely, on an completely clean sheet design car, GM could have found a way to make them open fully, like “every” other maker did. Oh, and the rest of the interior didn’t argue against the nickel-pincher feeling.
For me this “feature” alone could be argued as a deadly sin, since (in my opinion) it reinforced the impression that GM didn’t care any more and that their cars were getting worse at the same time the Japanese were getting better.
As a Sidenote, I am posting comments too quickly the first time I hit ‘post’ again. Since I see my Icon, I think I’m logged in (?)
Partially opening windows in the rear doors of big cars was a constant irritant going back into the 60s. Growing up in the era before air conditioning, it quickly became apparent which category a sedan fell into – one where the back windows went all the way down and one where they didn’t.
My memory is getting dim here, but I recall that partial-lowering was more common than full lowering, unless we were talking 4 door hardtops.
As a Sidenote, I am posting comments too quickly the first time I hit ‘post’ again. Since I see my Icon, I think I’m logged in (?)
Happened to me a lot until I found something neat and simple. Just click on <— Back to go back to the previous page then click on Post Comment again. It works every time and doesn’t delete the message you type.
When I was in college in the late 80s a friend had an early 80s Regal sedan that he got from his grandmother. Despite the car’s relative youth and low mileage it was garbage – I believe it had the 3.8 V6 and it never ran right and broke down periodically. Not at all acceptable for a 5 or 6 year old car with only 40 or 50k miles…
I really liked the G-body cars, especially in coupe form. My ’84 looked like this one.
This one’s a beauty. There’s no denying that Buick got the styling of the Regal right for this generation. Here was one bodystyle that could do “sport” or “brougham” with near-equal effectiveness.
I am a very fast eater, and I’m the third of five kids. And I come from a high-metabolism family, so the food disappeared very fast indeed. In high school, I used to eat five meals a day (seriously). And I have vivid memories of my brother and I putting away (with help from our younger brother) the better part of a bucket of KFC. We would just inhale the pieces.
Fortunately, I was influenced strongly by the health food movement in the early 70s already. After I left home, and was a poor starving non-student, I cooked a lot of brown rice, lentils and vegetables. My staple diet. I was a vegetarian for years in 70s and into the early-mid 80s. Eventually we brought meat back in our diet, but in moderation.
Paul, reading this made me seriously want some KFC. Maybe I’ll find some this weekend.
Ahhh! Frankenmuth. When I was dating Mrs DougD we went to her grandparents’ place in mid Michigan, and decided to detour through Frankenmuth because she remembered it as being quaint.
It was so horrifyingly cheesy we didn’t even stop the car… Fromage!!
My Dad was a slow eater, and when he started dating my Mom he was rather appalled at the fast eating (family of 8), arguments, and a fistfight on the floor between two of her brothers. Par for the course in that family. 🙂
Doug, Frankenmuth, cheesy?, yes, but you and your family missed the delightful, not cheesy, Chicken dinners at Zehnder’s. Pity for you, so close, but, yet, so far away.
Those dinners were always a draw for us coming back from the UP or Mackinac on the way home. As a Dad, I seemingly always gave in to my kids’ request to visit Zehnder’s and the endless, all-you-can-eat fried chicken. We had many fond memories there. Cheesy Frankenmuth, agree, but very forgivable.
Joe obviously knows of what that attraction is.
I love Frankenmuth! Especially Zehnder’s, the Bavarian Inn, and just the whole downtown area. It was a place my family used to take extended family members sometimes, and it was always a treat.
I’ve been back twice as an adult – in August of 2013, during the week of the Back To The Bricks car festival week in Flint, and then about a year later for “Eighties Fest” (though I didn’t get to see much of the town for the latter).
The parents of my late best friend in Dallas, Texas had a 1981 Buick Century in metallic green. It was one of the nicest cars I’ve ridden for long rides to Argyle where his childhood friend and her family lived at a ranch. Unfortunately, his mother wasn’t a world class driver and kept hitting the curbs or parking bumps all the time. The alignment shop was too happy to see the green Century coming in too often.
On our way back to Dallas from Argyle, my friend grossly underestimated Buick’s penchant for tail-happy if travelled too fast on the long curve. We ended up losing control of the car, jumping over the curbs and crashing into a small tree. Without tree to stop the runaway Buick, we would have caused more damage to other vehicles in the car park.
Thankfully, General Motors didn’t spare any expense on the battle ram bumpers. The only damage was bent numberplate and split rubber trim. Unfortunately, the alignment was out of the world. We agreed to brush the whole incident under the proverbial rug.
When his father drove it, he intensely scolded his wife for hitting the curbs too often without realising it was my friend who disrupted the alignment…
That looks like a happy meal Joseph! Too bad there aren’t some fresh flowers in the vase.
Johannes, the Holiday Club used to have the best brunches, and they got the tater tots just right (crispy on the outside). It’s too bad they stopped doing that.
This spot was one of the first ones I went to when I first moved to Chicago, and it’s also where I had my 30th birthday party over a decade ago. I was just there with a friend a couple of weeks ago for 80s Night. She and I tore it up on the dance floor. 🙂
(And the vase is actually a glass of water. 🙂 )
Ford and GM knew what they were doing. Those new FWD vehicles weren’t ready to handle the pomp and luxury of the old RWD vehicles. Broughamification of the mid-size line was a good move. Those mid-sized sedans like this one, and the Ford Granada/Mercury Cougar were good reliable cars. They rode like the big dogs, but were easier to handle, easier on gas and just as nice.
I saw a superb 86 Cutlass sedan at a filling station last month, and it was sweet. It had all the bells and whistles of the full sized Oldsmobile, but without the bulk. It was an attractive car, especially if you were wanting to downsize from a full sizer, to something else, but still wanted plush luxury, crushed velour and the look of rolling bordellos.
A lot of us were looking forward to FWD vehicles in that size, but if you recall, those vehicles were light, airy, efficient and had a completely different look and feel from the old RWD mid-sizers.
If we were adults more comfortable with the classic luxury sedan, we’d be tempted to get a smaller, more efficient sized classic luxury sedan.
That’s what theses cars offered.
Yep, the G-bodies drove and felt like classic GM cars, even down to the chromed metal window switches. The A-bodies were plastic fantastic in comparison. And people voted with their wallets and kept buying G-bodies until GM stopped making them.
Wow I have never seen the early 80s century before – I thing I note is the electro luminescent opera light – when is they take that feature out? I don’t recall it in the later centuries
My mother bought a dark blue 1982 Buick Regal Custom 4-door sedan with 3.8L V-6 in 1987.
It was a rather dignified looking and comfortable riding car, soaked up bumps and potholes smoothly, but was gutless and accelerated in a leisurely manner.
Blind intersections always made me nervous as it would cross street rather lazily, even with gas pedal floored and transmission in first gear. Getting up to freeway speeds was was dicey as one had to plan acceleration into lanes carefully. Transmission would quickly upshift into 3rd gear too soon. To pass, downshifting would go momentarily into 2nd gear, then into first gear. Gave me the impression it was a Powerglide.
No doubt the car was geared for economy and as I recall it delivered in the low 20s mpg overall.
The fixed rear door window didn’t bother me as I sometimes had pets and kids ride in the backseat. There was a ventilator window that provided adequate air flow though.
In Los Angeles, the car’s rear taillights and spoked wheelcovers were prone to thefts. Expensive to replace.
Had the car for 16 years and was fairly reliable as GM cars goes. Would have liked it better had it had more power and accelerated more briskly. It was replaced with a 2003 Buick Century 4-door sedan with 3.1L V-6, which was equally comfortable but accelerated far more confidently.
I remember those little flip-out rear windows on my friends’ Cutlass and Pontiac Grand Am four-door sedans from this era. The windows on the Cutlass were power-operated. Those on the Pontiac should have been powered but the factory failed to follow the dealer order sheet. These windows provided decent ventilation with the air off though it sounds as if Joseph’s ride would have challenged their functionality.
They were damn good looking cars for that era. However, I bought a new ‘78 Turbo Regal Sport Coupe and my ownership experience with that car soured me on GM. It was that bad.
The one thing I miss about those cars is that the gas tank filler was under the back license plate which made it so much easier to fill up the tank. If you owned more then one car you tended to forget which side the filler door was on.
In fact I wish the government would step in and mandate that all auto makers put the filler door on the same side of the car.
I’m late to the show, as always, but I still would like to spotlight the 1980 Buick Century Limited 4D sedan that I owned from 1993 to 1997. At the time, I lived in Munich, Germany, and my ride at the time, a 1973 Chevy Impala Custom Coupe, had become too big and too expensive to operate in this Central European environment.
The Chevy’s replacement, the Buick, came with a Pontiac-built 301 CID V8 with 140 horsepower. The much bigger Impala, by comparison, had had the 350 2-barrel with 145 horsepower, so the Buick definitely had an edge on the Chevy in the performance department. Also, the Century was equipped like a luxury car whereas the Chevy had been quite basic, just PS, PB, and AC.
The Limited, on the other hand, also featured power windows, 6-way-power seats, Automatic Climate Control, Cruise Control, tilt steering wheel, remote control rearview mirrors, remote trunklid release etc. A mini-limo, for all intents and purposes. It also had a sunroof by ASR that I could have done without since it never stopped leaking in the rain.
Also a bit of a leaker was the THM200 transmission. It shifted very smoothly and efficiently, though, and never gave me any trouble except that nagging leak that simply could not be fixed.
In 1997, I traded the Century in for a 1987 Thunderbird and never looked back. The Buick was okay but not something that had me swooning.
Here’s a picture of my 1980 Buick Century Limited from 1993: