I’m not guessing at the title; I followed her (slooowly) for a couple of blocks, until she pulled into the parking lot, and waited while she slooowly shuffled off to wherever it was in downtown Junction City she was going. I suspect this pristine Skyhawk probably doesn’t get out of town very often.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen one in Eugene; for some reason, there are several Firenzas and J2000s/Sunbirds, but no Skyhawks. And of course, this would have to be a sedan; I literally can’t remember when I last saw one of the vaunted J-car fastback hatches.
Is this the best-preserved J-car interior in the world? It’s like new, and with that fine velour that came with the Limited. I wish I’d checked the odometer–surely, it can’t show more than 50,000 miles. By the way, I’m guessing at the MY of this car, so I’m sure one of your sleuths will either confirm or deny my stab at it.
I’ll bet that luggage rack has never been put to use.
This car, although a wee bit dusty, is utterly pristine. And a few years from now, when she passes it on to her favorite granddaughter, I’ll see it in Eugene, just like the pristine Firenza I caught there–except it won’t stay pristine for all too long. Maybe someone needs to open a J-Car museum.
There is an older lady (maybe her sister?) in this area who has a late model Skyhawk notchback coupe that I see one in a blue moon driving a white colored car with the retractable headlamps. It too is pristine (but cars die here of mechanical failure before environmental failure) and the next time I see it I will try and grab a picture. Hers has the fairly rare aluminum spoke wheels but is not a T-Type.
The featured car appears to be equipped with the relatively rare (for the Skyhawk) Lear Siegler seat option and looks to be well equipped all around except for the base model wheels. 1984 sounds about right giving the various styling cues, the trim around the headlights, fender emblem, base wheels, etc. The Lear Siegler seat option was replaced by an in-house design sometime in the mid late 1980s.
OMG that must be rare we had J body Camiras and they are nearly all gone thankfully.
Wow, thats like brand new. I like the not-centered parking too.
It’s pre ’86. No third brake light. They facelifted it for MY ’87.
Is that a chalkboard (or dry erase) eraser in the front console? Retired teacher?
Likely used for fog on the windows.
Wouldn’t be a bit surprised if an enthusiast snagged this one, assuming it came up for sale. Differing variants of this platform have been showing up at car shows in our area for a few years now. Seems to be the younger generation grabbing them; they’re affordable, familiar enough to them being front drive, very distinctive in appearance, and most importantly affordable to buy, insure, and run. Wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see them become the new “entry level” classics over the next few years. I’d also say they are a very comfortable car as well, speaking as one who owned a 1984 Olds Omega in the early ’90s, and more recently used a 1982 Skylark as my winter beater a few years back…
My first brand new car. I got it in January, 1984 (a gift from a very nice uncle) and he took it away 60 days later (a unsufferable jerk).
But, mine was the two door Buick Skyhawk custom, tan with brown interior, luggage rack and really cool Skyhawk wheels with raised white letter tires. And I have no photos of it at all.
There are very, very few photos of the Skyhawk on the internet. Most are the t-type or the 4 door. And I have not found a photo of my dash – which was different and alot nicer.
I loved the car. 27MPG city/highway didn’t matter. Very peppy (for the day). Very sporty. I thought it was a great car. Of course, I was coming from a very beaten down 1970 Impala that was abandoned.
I really liked the car.
What was the reason for the gift and the sudden rejection? Not that I am getting too personal but since you said.
Perhaps it looked something like this below. Metallic tans and colors like that were popular in the early mid 80s.
I would have to check the catalog, but (and it wouldn’t surprise me) Buick might have offered a Designer’s Accent Paint option on the Skyhawk back then I have seen a few two tone cars and some of the colors were very nice.
Mine was just a flat tan exterior color – nothing special on the paint. I really liked the two tone burgundy / grey models they used in advertising.
My father had recently passed away and I was starting college and my uncle bought it for me. He set it up on payments “to build my credit” – which it didn’t.
I hit a giant pothole and blew the front right tire on the car. I ordered a new tire from Firestone to match the others (raised white letters). He found out and threw a fit. He said I was lying as every Firestone had them in stock and he just came unglued on me. I am his age now and I couldn’t imagine acting the way he acted towards me. I remember holding the phone away from me as he was screaming. Then I got mad and so we got in a argument and he had some employees of his drive down and take the car back to his house. They drove it over 100 miles from college to his house on the bicycle spare. It was a front tire on a front wheel drive car. I can’t imagine this being good for it. One of the reasons he got so mad as I wasn’t driving the car because I was waiting for the replacement tire. (IIRC, it was going to take a week to get the tire, but it was a long time ago).
Now, with 20 years hind sight, I think the honest reason he took it away was that he was very showy and loved making the really grand gesture of buying me a car as everyone in the family was extremely impressed. But, then when he started having to make the monthly payments of $200 – which no one saw – he was like – geeze this is expensive and decided he would rather not. He made over $250,000 a year in 1984, so he had quite a bit of money.
Well guess what, his Firestone didn’t have it in stock. In fact, none in the greater Houston area had the tire in stock. So to save face, he put 4 new matching outline letter tires on the car and told my entire extended family that I was a liar and an ingrate and that he was taking the car back and selling it. So he threw away 3 expensive RWL tires that had less than 5,000 miles on them.
So as you can see – he had a massive ego and was borderline crazy and I was a dumb 18 year old kid who got mad too easily when being screamed at. Not a good combination.
The sad thing is it caused hard feelings in my extended family and basically broke the family up into two factions that never really did get back together.
You know, I didn’t ask him to buy me a car. My mom told me not to let him buy me one but I thought she was nuts. I was an 18 year old dumb kid driving a beater (that went straight to the junkyard) and I was being offered a new car. I just couldn’t see any downside.
We reconciled 20 years later when his son committed suicide.
Golly, I hate that I even bothered to ask, I am sorry if you felt the need to say all of that. If someone offered me an otherwise free car at 18 like that I would have taken it, provided it did not come with undue strings. Even taken away you would get whatever time you got basically for nothing. At $250K I am surprised he did not just write a check for it given that a Skylark could not have been more than about $7 or 8K in those years. I guess I got lucky, my wife is an only child and I met my mother in law first then the daughter so I escaped a lot of family drama. Being the oldest and a car guy from a family of car guys I guess I was safe. Sometimes I think my life is boring (to outsiders) but in hindsight its better to boring and drama less than crazy and committable. I hate to even ask how your uncle lives today…
Oh, no big deal to me. I just felt like telling the story. My uncle passed away about 2 years ago from cancer.
He was unusual in that he had an inverse relationship between money and manners. When he got richer, he got to be a real jerk. And as he got poorer, he would be nice again. Most people I know are nicer when things are easier on them.
He was up and down all his life. He went from broke to rich to broke I think 3 times in his life. At the top of his life, he was worth about $6 million. And as you could have guessed, he died completely broke owing almost everyone who knew him.
Very entertaining guy – from a distance. I should have listened to my mom.
The good news is it didn’t cost him a cent. He sold it to his publicly traded company for $10,000. So he made a profit of $700 which covered the tires and insurance and interest for the 60 days.
John, I really appreciated your story. I come to CC in part because I love cars, but also to hear about how about what they have meant to people and how they have been a part of the lives we live. No doubt that was a painful experience that was representative of a wider array of dysfunction that was hard for you to process at the time. Thanks a lot for sharing it.
Thanks, no problem at all.
I wonder if I would could do a time travelling brain transplant if I would have the political skills today to soothe my uncle and keep the car. Maybe have a big showy event each time he made a payment:>
But, my uncle got in a huff and quit his high paying job about two years later and he hadn’t saved a nickel so the car wouldn’t have been paid off even by then.
It just wasn’t meant to work out, me and that car. I regret the drama, but it was cool to see what owning a new car was like. Excluding this car, my first 6 cars went to the junkyard after me so I got a lot of experience driving the beaters. Of course, the sales tax on my last car was more than the cost of those 6 combined.
I sympathize, John. I still vividly remember the Saturday afternoon in spring ’92 that my grandfather took me to Saturn of Omaha, and asked me which car I’d choose if I had the opportunity.
Knowing that he had the means to buy me a car that day, and that he was quite familiar with the mechanical travails of my Turismo, I picked out a lightly-optioned, teal green SC. He merely nodded, and we kicked around the lot for a few more minutes before leaving.
The following Monday, my grandfather met me as I walked in the door, and told me to look in the garage.
There was the teal green SC.
My aunt’s new car.
LMAO! That is a great story! Funny, I had the car exactly 60 days. The shocking thing was I put almost 5,000 miles on it. It was just so exciting to have a car you could absolutely rely on. With A/C! and a Stereo!
Thanks John. I just read your story as well. That must have been incredibly frustrating to experience back then, and heartrending to recall now.
Your description of your uncle’s behavior reminds me a lot of my grandfather in my tale, though probably due to different circumstances. My grandpa spent most of the 1970s and early 1980s drinking, to the point that he lost his very profitable VW franchise (Sayers Volkswagen; every now and then I’ll see an old Beetle with his dealer badge on it, even down here in NM) and eventually got shot in a bar fight. That convinced him to finally put away the bottle.
Once he was sober, he was largely an extremely caring and conscientious man, but he also maintained a quick temper that could arise from the slightest provocation or perceived slight. And, his thought processes went occasionally awry. It honestly did not occur to him that I might have considered the car was for me, and my grandmother (always the family mediator) chastised me for even thinking of that possibility.
My grandpa succumbed to Alzheimer’s in November 2005, but I think this example was one of the first times our family realized that his past alcoholism may have resulted in some form of brain damage. Hard to say, but it does make for an interesting story.
John, thanks for relating your story – I enjoyed reading it! My grandparents bought me a new car when I graduated from high school, but fortunately, in my case, there were no such pyrotechnics. I’ve still got the car and it’ll be turning 20 next month.
It was such a culture shock going from a ragged 1970 Impala to a brand new 1984 Skyhawk.
One was 4,000 pounds, 80″ wide, 216″ inch long two door with a 350 cubic inch engine and wallowed all over the road, especially with the completely shot front end. And a A/M radio and no a/c in Texas.
Then you get in a 2,300 pound 65″ wide 171″ long two door with a 110 cubic inch engine that could turn on a dime and actually stayed in one lane. With 3X better gas mileage (unleaded, too!) and air conditioning and am/fm/cassette! I mean I lost 15″ in width!
It was like going from a pre-WW2 car to a 2012.
One thing about beaters, though, I learned a lot about cars. I can diagnose instantly most car problems today. And I certainly know how to change a flat. Most kids today drive new or new-ish cars and have no idea what a fan belt is. Flats mean call the towing service.
Actually, you kind of hit the nail on the head with that statement. I started in the car business in the mid 70s when the domestic make was at its most stereotypically biggest. Huge, plush, etc. and retired (from the main job) in 2011 in modern times. While there have been many factors as to why the domestic makes lost a lot of market share (and I am limited my comments specifically to this point), I have always believe that the #1 reason was due to product differentiation and size being a primary factor. Emissions certainly had a detrimental effect on car performance but cars could have remained large and still have been emissions choked as we have seen. The biggest killer was CAFE, which forced automakers to meet certain fuel economy standards. I am not going to use this comment to argue for or against CAFE, but just to offer an opinion on its effect. Until recently, import makes never offered anything that would be considered a ‘big car.’ Yes by the late 60s, the imports had managed to penetrate into the smaller car market by a decent margin, but the domestics were always about big cars. So really, there was not competition domestic vs. import in many product sectors. Unless you were poor, lived in a dense urban area, or were just otherwise disaffected, most Americans wanted big cars. And they got them until CAFE forced the domestics to downsize their cars to meet the economy standards. The first wave of downsizings were successful as evidenced by the 77 B-bodies and the like. However as time went on, the domestic cars kept getting smaller and smaller to the point that there really was no difference been domestics and imports in many product categories. That coupled with the Japanese (and Europeans to a lesser extent) figuring out how to style a car that did not look odd or quirky cars began to look the same. Not just same internally (like the J cars for example) but the same overall. Today, you look at every car on the market and there is no such thing as an American philosophy, Japanese philosophy, or even a European philosophy. Every make has particular styling cues, etc. but cars are no longer primarily differentiated based on size or design. That change had disproportionately affected the domestics because Americans historically had been conditioned to expect fairly large stylish and attractive cars from the domestic makes. When that went away other factors began to drive buying behavior and as the generations shifted newer younger people latched onto other factors.
WOW. I was literally on the verge of tears ’til that last line. Thanks a lot, jeez!
The reason I got a Buick Skyhawk was my uncle’s gopher just left a salesman’s job at a Buick Dealership so he got a pretty good deal.
It was a 1984 Buick Skyhawk Custom 2 door with RWL tires, nice Skyhawk mags, AM/FM/Cassette A/C auto and he paid $9300 including ttl.
What I really wanted (in my uncles price range) was a Mazda B2600 4×4 King Cab (as they were cheaper than Datsun/Nissan at the time). But I knew better than to ask.
I can say my luggage rack was never used. I couldn’t even figure out how to use it at 18 with only one real side you could tie off on.
They were for show. I remember going through a drive-through body-shop (sounds weird, doesn’t it?) in my aunt’s brand-new Park Avenue having one installed. It was basically like a spoiler on 90s cars. Just for show.
Never got that tee-shirt, but I made a rare-for-me wise decision as a ‘yute.
I was pushing 19 when my mother was willing to buy me a lightly used Buick. My middle brother’s In-laws were getting divorced after 20 years of philandering on the FIL’s part and the MIL needed money fast. She wanted to sell her late-60s car (this was 1971 or ’72) and my mother was willing to buy it for me.
However:
Both of my older brothers got a “shared” free car in ’65–a 1960 Saab from an aunt, and my middle brother had his nose seriously out of joint when my oldest brother took the Saab to college and managed to bash it up, including a rollover into dirt. The ’60’s engine got transplanted into a 59 (easy to kill that 2-stroke) and sold to some hippies (this was 1966 or so). Hard feelings between brothers? Yep.
I had a good indication that getting the Buick for free was going to cause a world of strain with my out-of-joint brother and elected to buy a POS ’64 MGB. It got me through college, I paid for it out of my own pocket, and family strain was avoided. Best car buying decisions I made, given the circumstances. I still get along with my middle brother. We don’t talk to (or about) the oldest brother…
You were much wiser than me. I was talking to my brother one day and remarked how wise our mother was. About 10 times she said not to do something that ended up costing me. He then pointed out that she always said not to do whatever I was asking. And he was right – she just said no to everything.
Lord knows I made enough screwups, but every once in a while, I get (or got) something right. Too bad the MG was a POS–wouldn’t have passed inspection at LeMons–but it was fun and semi-reliable when that’s all I needed.
Our oldest brother cut himself off from the family. His loss…
I really enjoyed your story as it is nice not to feel alone. I bought my parents 86 Park Avenue in 1989 as they traded up to a new car-paid for it on the family installment plan and they were upset in 1993 when I traded in “their” car for a new one..even after I paid off my loan. Your mother was a wise woman..and to this day I will not mix family & business.
Buick and cotton tops go hand in hand. Come up behind one and you will be guaranteed to go 45 mph in a 55 mph zone and then 45 mph when you hit town and the speed limit becomes 30 mph. Guaranteed.
That being said, I always thought there was something neat and tidy about the design of the early J cars. Very Teutonic. Liked it enough to buy a black Z24.
Up until August of 2011, I used to own an 88 Z24 convertible. About all that it shared with the rest of the J car line was two front fenders, headlights, trunk lid, and taillights. The rest of the car was unique to the Z24 including the bumpers, hood, grille, trim, interior dash, and seats. The engine was a special H.O. motor that I believe was available in the wagons but mostly only found in the just the Z cars. The digital dashboard was something different. MSRP including destination and tax was $17,145 a far cry from the base 2 door VL that was advertised at $6995. Once I got done with it with upgraded everything you had to convince people that it was a Cavalier. A lot of people thought it was a 3 series BMW convertible or a Mustang.
It could very well be a 1984 model, but seeing how I think the 1985 models were carryovers, it’s hard to say.
This car is in really good condition! Probably no surprise here, but I’d drive it.
Despite my reputation as Supreme Brougham, a small, efficient, nicely packaged car with a modicum of comfort and convenience features that doesn’t scream for attention really appeals to me. Yes, this is just a Cavalier in preppy 80’s clothes, but it’s just enough different that it works for me. Kind of how my Alero appeals to me.
I was thinking 84 too, but I cant spot the tell tale “Cars of the 1984 Olympiad” sticker that EVERY 84 Buick seemed to have on the quarter glass.
The nose of the Skyhawk (behind Buick emblem) was very soft plastic. I remember being a little kid and pressing on that spot. It would flex in a few inches, then POP back into correct shape. Drove Grandma crazy!
She had a metallic copper Skyhawk Custom sedan with a tan interior.
That is in beautiful shape. Looking closely at the AM/FM (no cassette)radio, I think that is the style where you pull the preset buttons out to set the presets (just like with the older mechanical preset radios). I also noticed the owner turned the bass all the way down and left the treble flat!
A few minutes spent looking at early 80s Delco radios on Google Images (what can I say, I love automotive minutiae like this!) seems to support your observation. I wasn’t aware that GM ever offered a radio head of this generation without the ubiquitous “Set” button.
Yes, the earlier versions of the goold ole Delco 2000 had pull out pre-set buttons.
The 2700-series ETRs (Electronically-Tuned-Radios), which had the smaller (classic car radio) center section with the separate knobs on each side did have the pull-to-set feature, as did all of the manually-tuned radios (which were all assembled at Plant 1 in Kokomo, IN from the 1930s to 1985 or 86 when production was moved to Mexico).
But the radio specimen in this car is a 2000-series (referring to the approximate number of cubic centimeters within its housing) ETR, on which the ‘set’ button was used.
The neatest feature of the ETRs was that you could press in on the volume knob, with the keys out of the ignition, and the display would momentarily illuminate the time. Not many people were aware of this feature. Also, (while we are talking useless radio trivia) the presets were factory-set to local Kokomo-area radio stations so the radios could be easily tested at the plant!
I worked at Delco Electronics for two years during the 1980s when this car was made, so I am compelled to promulgate my own relevant automotive trivia!
Could you double up on the presets like on the later radios? Where you could press 2 of the pre-set buttons at the same time for an extra 5th and 6th preset?
Oh my yes, I had totally forgotten about this ‘secret’ feature (I knew there was something else that I had omitted – my memory is fading since I no longer drive a car with the 2000 ETR in it). And with four preset buttons, you could get an additional three saved.
After additional googling, It appears that Delco did make an 2000-series ETR that you probably did have to pull out on the presets to set – I found a picture on the ‘3rdgen’ F-body site – the preset buttons are bookmarked by ‘seek’ and ‘scan’ buttons and are extended from the faceplate (so they can be pulled on), with no apparent ‘set’ button. I don’t ever recall even seeing this version (shows how much I know . . . .).
I believe it was 1985. You could identify the US built models by their center tape control as opposed to the more familiar three button unit. Around that time GM merged Delco with Hughes and started to spin off the end result as a subsidiary.
Another feature (but one that involves a little work but not really difficult for the semi mechanically inclined):
http://geometroforum.com/topic/4595715/1/
Adding an AUX jack to the radio. If you do not want to mar the face you can simple install it to the side of the radio plug in the cord and run the cord wire out this way you can hide the cord. Makes playing iPod or other portable media well. I did this on my 93 Century wagon as aftermarket radios are not accepted well into the dash because of limited clearance for wiring due to the vent tubing of the center outlet.
Now this… this I like. As I’ve parroted elsewhere, my first car was a J-body, an ’84 Cavalier, and I’ve been fascinated with its divisional brethren ever since – none more than than the Skyhawk, with that cool shovel-nose front clip.
Comparing the interior to the Cavalier – so many gauges! So much plast- er, chrome trim! Such puffy seats!
I sincerely hope the owner of this car, and other aging owners of these fine specimens, have the savvy to put them on eBay when they quit driving instead of sending them to the crusher. I’d be willing to pay 2 or 3 x its market value (ha!) to own one again for a spell.
Count me among those who would love to find a well-preserved J-car of this generation just for the hell of it, and as a connection to my youth. (And speaking of all those gauges, gotta love how the space that would normally contain a tachometer is occupied by nothing more than the Buick tri-shield, framed by useless hash marks!)
Given all the flack GM received for badge engineering its cars throughout the 80s, it’s pretty wild to consider how many trim differences GM offered between the J-cars. If memory serves, for example, around this time GM offered no less than three different dashboards for the Js.
In addition to this arrangement (that I think was standard on Skyhawks and Firenzas) there was also the “rectangle” dash on Cavaliers, Sunbirds and Cimarrons, as well as a “sporty” dashboard for certain two-door Cavaliers (and others?) with the lights and wiper controls framing the gauges. There were also brand-specific touches on the same basic layouts; the Cimarron dash offered additional detailing over the same basic layout in the Cavy.
Looking back with the wisdom of 20/20 hindsight that money probably should have been spent on basic engineering improvements, instead of brand differentiation, but I digress…
The “sporty” Cavalier dash didn’t show up until 84 I think, it had the wiper and light controls in pods around the instruments, you saw on the Type-10 Cavaliers.
I’m the total opposite of an old lady but I would daily drive this thing! My best and only personal memories with a J-car was my uncle’s ’83-’84 Firenza hatch. He had that and an ’80 Accord hatch (which I loved as well), what an interesting garage I thought! This was in the late 90’s. Sadly his taste in cars has gone bland since then, now he has an ’07 Corolla and ’00 Civic sedan.
A friend of my mother’s has one of these, loaded, in burgundy. She is, true to form, an old lady. Very old — like 90 or 91. And somewhat senile. Probably neither she nor her Skyhawk should be on the road anymore, but they both are.
The PRNDL in the subject car just rises out of the tranny hump like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
These used to be everywhere and now they are all but one. Since so many years (decades) have elapsed, I’d love to take a ride in one of these and see if it drives like I remember it. Frankly, I can only imagine it driving like crap. Cheap thin steering wheel, nse heavy, rough ride, lumpy sets, lots of rattles and thrashy engine.
See, that’s what I remember. Wonder if my memory is right…
I had an ’84 Skyhawk wagon. There were some good things about the car. The dash reminded me a bit of some contemporary BMW’s – especially if you got the version with full gauges. The driving position was good and the wagon swallowed up a lot of stuff. It handled pretty well except for the torque steer.
That being said, the car seemed to be determined to make me hate it. The block cracked at 23K miles. The craziest thing about that was the dealer in Philly (now out of business) did not diagnose it correctly at first. They did a complete bottom end rebuild on the bad block. Yeah, you read that right. They griped about putting it through as a warranty claim because they said the only way I could get that much internal engine damage was by never changing the oil. When I came back less than 2 months later with more problems, they finally figured out coolant was getting into the oil.
The car ran well on the second engine. Then it was summertime. The A/C drain clogged up and water puddled on the floors. Well, more than puddled; on a vacation trip to South Carolina we had about 2 or 3 inches sloshing around by the end of the day. For the rest of the time I had that car, those drains needed to be cleaned every few weeks.
That was not the scariest thing the A/C did, though. No, that was when I was merrily motoring along one day and there was a LOUD explosion from under the hood followed by billowing smoke. Fortunately I was able to pull into a parking lot whereupon I shut the car off, opened the door and RAN, expecting it to become a SkyHigh SkyHawk any moment. The smoke dissipated. Nothing else blew up. Turns out an A/C hose is routed about a quarter inch from the exhaust manifold on these cars. You can figure out the rest of what happened.
@MadHungarian (Al Hrabosky?) – thank you for finally solving a 30 year old mystery or me. I’ve written here before about my sisters brown ’77 Skyhawk (the Poopmobile) that my dad bought for her new and was a bucket of bolts fom the get-go. Although it was a completely different car (RWD H-car with the 231 V6), it shared your clogged AC drain issue. There was always a pool of water, sometimes several inches deep, in the passenger footwell.
When my sister accelerated, the water went o the backseat; put on the brakes and it all came rushing back up front.
Thanks for that, Old GM!
Stanley — no relation to Mr. Hrabosky. My knuckleball, were I to attempt one, would be even scarier than his. Best not to stand anywhere near the plate if I try it. In fact, best not to be in the ballpark. But I am more Hungarian than anything else, and most people who know me would not dispute the Mad part seriously, especially when it comes to matters pertaining to cars.
In recent years I’ve really come to like the 80’s era J-cars. I think the dash on this has more detail and interest than the later ones. I also like the blacked out window frames and rally wheels, would love to have seen all the variants way back when, back when they weren’t so hard to find.
When you see one in person, if you’re an enthusiast, they stand out quite a bit among modern cars to make you want to take a closer look. Someone around here had an ’87 Z-24 that they didn’t think much of and used as a driver that I would’ve been tempted to buy if I had the spare change around. I don’t know what they are like behind the wheel but it seems like everyone has a positive review about them. I often thought it would be cool to have a collection going from full size BCD bodies down to these cars from the 80s. Wouldn’t cost a whole lot to do so. If you put a shiny new coat of paint on that I can’t see any reason why it couldn’t be something of a modern classic. It’s too interesting and old to make a beater at this point IMO.
Wow – that car is a rare find! It was even rare back in the eighties! Skyhawks did not sell as well as their Chevy and Pontiac cousins. And to top it off I’m sure there weren’t many Limiteds built too. I find it strange that it looks like a very well equipped car yet it has the base wheels – maybe she special ordered it that way back in 84-85? Those buckets still look great! My wife had an 86 Cavalier that she LOVED! It was a light blue bare bones automatic, 2-dr coupe. That car was durable and very reliable! It drove great, too! It was well built, no rattles, and no frills….I think GM had it right by the mid-eighties with the J-car!
Ahhhhhhhh, my 80s GM-car thirst has been quenched.
I wonder why the Buicks didn’t sell as well. I bet they were a little more costly, but I thought they looked the best.
I have a theory that the Skyhawk was just under that theshold of “small” that Buick buyers weren’t going to go under, the next rung up the ladder, the X-car Skylark was the 2nd best seller,after the Citation, all through their 5 year run, I think it even outsold the Citation for 1985, and it dusted the Phoenix and Omega.
In reverse, Pontiac did really well the with their J-car, but nothing with the Phoenix, and Oldmobile had no luck with either one.
Maybe Buick should have called the Skyhawk “Buick’s Little Skylark”!
I’ll bet if it was more Skylarky it would have sold more, the lack of a column shift probably hurt too.
Sky hawks sold decently at the beginning, about the time this featured car was made, but fell off starting in 1987. The Skyhawks were assembled in Kansas City along with the Olds Firenza. The Firenza was the worst seller of the J’s partly because Olds did not promote it and partly because the Calais was popular and satisfied most small car demand. The plant was too old and costly to be modernized so GM decided to close Leeds. The Firenza was dropped completely. The Cadillac Cimarron was produced in Janesville Wis which was also dropped after 1988. Sky hawk production replaced Cimarron production in Janesville for 1989. With the risen popularity of the new for 1988 C/K trucks, GM decided to convert Janesville to truck production.
I think the Cimarron was made at South Gate in Los Angeles too, or also?
For just the 1982 MY. SouthGate used to build B cars then they picked up a couple of J cars thinking sales would pop like what happened with the Citation but Lordstown was able to handle the entire Cavalier production so they just closed the plant in the spring of 1982. Janesville was originally a Chevrolet plant making full size cars until 1981 then switching to trucks making a mix of light duty and medium duty until the early 1990s. They had a small line for the Js which were made only on one shift (I believe at night) which was discontinued in 1989. Janesville ran full C/K through the end in 2010.
I had a brand new 1985 Pontiac Sunbird (which I’ve probably mentioned here before, on other J-car posts). I still remember from the window sticker that it was made in Lordstown, Ohio. I figured all the Js were made there, but maybe not.
I looked at a Skyhawk when shopping in 1985. It was my favorite of the J-cars. But it cost just enough more that it made the most sense to buy the Sunbird (a base model with auto, air, and cloth seats). It was a classy-looking little coupe in dark blue with a matching interior. I drove it through college and traded it after 5 years on a Honda Civic. The Sunbird was OK, and reasonably reliable (although I only put 50K on it and it lost an A/C system out of warranty and threw a timing belt at around 40K), but the Civic was a whole other level. It felt like a real car while the J-car felt like you were settling. That was GM’s way then — the J-car was a placeholder for the bigger, more expensive, more profitable cars they really wanted you to buy.
I haven’t seen these one of these in several years – but they used to be all over the place in Eastern PA. One thing I always remembered was that the letters on the back were glued on, and would fall off. There were a lot of “uics” on the road into the late 90’s.
That car is in really nice condition, isn’t it? It does remind me of the car that my carpool driver would sometimes borrow from her mother when her own car was down. It had this really tweedy-looking upholstery, not mohair like the feature car. I remember that the paths of electrons in the dash circuitry would sometimes cross with interesting results, such as the radio changing stations spontaneously, and the speedometer reading going to 0 mph and back to normal, the latter transition sometimes accelerated by the driver or passenger pounding on the dash.
I’d suspect that if I lived in Junction City I’d keep it within the town limits too, and bum a ride or keep something reliable for jaunts to Eugene or Salem.
I loved these in coupe form when I was in high school, and it still brings back memories, since I haven’t seen one pretty much since high school. My buddy had an uncle who had a Skyhawk, one of the sporty top-of-the-line coupes with the raised white lettering on the tires. He would take pity on Bill’s rusted out Omni O24 and let him use it a couple of days per month since he had a bunch of other cars. To two 16 year old boys he was the best uncle ever. He even was nice after we broadsided a telephone pole in a snowstorm and totaled out his Skyhawk. He replaced it with a new Lumina Z34, but for some reason after that the only vehicle he let us borrow was his old F150 with a stick.
A while ago we had a discussion about early J-bodies (or N-bodies), I wrote about a friend of mine who bought a 1984 Skylark as his first car. The car in the pix is just like his with the exception of the interior, his was gray/slate as opposed to the blue.
I remember that I liked the interior of his car better than some of my other friend’s Cavaliers, it seemed more international and “grown-up”. My buddy kept his car for 10 years in and around Pittsburgh, PA, until it became too expensive to get it to pass PA’s inspection. It wasn’t a bad little car, but it did have it’s problems, with the infamous morning sickness power steering and the lock up back brakes.
I passed on a nice 88 T-Type Skyhawk because a mechanic buddy of mine was convinced all of the J’s were junk. I ended up getting a Yugo for commuter duty, but I wonder how I would have liked the little turbo Buick…