There was a time in the not-too-distant past when my hometown was best known for headquartering Buick and building GM-branded cars and trucks instead of for toxic drinking water. Spotting this pretty Skylark downtown a couple of years ago took my mind to a time when the auto industry in Flint, Michigan was the engine, literally and figuratively, that drove a booming economy in the Vehicle City. Not as an entreaty, but out of sincere gratitude – I thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, wishes and resources that have been directed toward the people of Flint.
As photographed by the author in downtown Flint, Michigan, on Saturday, August 16, 2014.
*VERY* pretty and the back drop is *perfect* .
A sad thing , poisoning the children .
-Nate
I like the use of black and white on the modern picture. It allows one to look at the picture both as a modern day throwback to a better time of just as a typical picture from the period.
My 2014 Buick Verano was still made in Lake Orion Michigan but I bet the next generation coming in 2017 will be from elsewhere. I don’t imagine Verano’s prices will drop from the savings of third world construction, but then again I also bet the next generation will not outsell the current generation. What goes around comes around.
Always liked the look of this generation Skylark. And being a convertible is just icing on the cake.
Sad story and even sadder outcome. I doubt those responsible will get what they deserve, which seems to be the norm these days.
Nice picture.
The best proof that Flint meant Quality came from Billy Durant himself. After GM kicked him out the second time, he started a new car company for revenge. His Buick-fighter model was called the Flint. Customers knew what he meant.
I was thinking about Durant’s “Flint” marque while reading this post! To a Buick fan (me) Flint, MI means “Buick”! Some of the Electra 225s I’ve had were screwed together at Linden,NJ But to this day every time Flint is mentioned Buick always comes to mind. The city will recover, Americans are a resilient lot!
My heart goes out to the people of Flint. This town gave a lot to America, and it is tragic to see how it has fallen, with this last blow being the most devastating of all. I sincerely hope that somehow Flint can rebound from this horrible mess–I don’t know how things can ever be made right for the thousands and thousands of people affected, but I hope they do know that lots of people do care, and are very enraged.
Thanks to Flint for the many, many wonderful Buicks that multiple generations of my family owned with pride.
Beautiful photo, especially in B&W. I was more of an Olds fan as a kid, never really “felt” that Sweepspear side styling on the 60s era model Buicks. I also wonder why they bothered with the tiny little wheelskirts…hardly seems worth the effort.
I wonder what color that car is…for some reason I picture it as a pale yellow.
White or cream would be my guess…
CincyDavid and RetroStangRick, you’re both right. It was that creamy, pale yellow like the color of French vanilla ice cream. It was a very nice hue that complemented this car’s smooth lines.
Great picture, Joe. The picture makes me look closer at this car – Buick’s stylists did a really nice job making a nice looking convertible out of that fastback coupe body.
I have never been to Flint. But I have always associated it with Buick. In the early 90s, a relative was selling a 67 LeSabre convertible through a classic car auction, and I got to drive the car through the auction ring. The old guy was quite proud of the fact that he drove to Flint to take delivery of the car when it was new.
It is sad to see so many of these old industrial cities fall on hard times. Flint has been suffering more than most of them lately.
Great shot of an attractive car.
Intriguing building also
I’ve never been a fan of Modern architecture, But this buiding does have a Mid Century (no pun intended…) charm that suits the car. For a split second I thought it was a period GM promo shot!
Thanks, and Flint seems to have an unusually high concentration of mid-Century styled buildings, as there was a huge building boom around that time when Chevies and Buicks were flying off the assembly lines and the money was really flowing.
Those lamenting what has happened to Flint and to production of Buicks (as well as Oldsmobiles in Lansing) should not hesitate to consider the corrosive influence of the UAW union on the once strong and proud Michigan auto industry.
I remember when Lansing felt very much like a company town; the local police cars were Oldsmobiles. I imagine the Flint police used Buicks. Is that correct Joseph?
By the time I travel around in Flint and Lansing, there are no longer suitable Buick or Oldsmobile cars for patrol. But they have a greater tendency to use GM police cars still, like Impala and Tahoe these days.
Oakland County police in Pontiac, where many factories used to build GM trucks/buses, they are the rare police force mainly made up by W-Body Impala with few Tahoes.
That tradition isn’t completely dead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a non-GM city vehicle in Wentzville, MO, although the latest additions to the fleet are made by members (unfortunately soon to be unemployed) of a union other than the UAW…..
Interesting that they chose to copy the Ford demonstrator markings, though!
Constellation, by the time I was in grade school in the early 80’s, I’m pretty sure the police cars at that time were Chevy Caprices and Impalas. But I have read that (and seen pictures of) ’77 Buick LeSabre police cruisers in Flint.
In the 1980’s Pittsburgh Police used a lot of GM H bodies, Mostly Pontiac Bonnevilles, However some “brass” were using H body Buick LeSabres, There were however, rumors of a few C body Park Avenues in use! (I’m guessing that would have been the brightest brass!)
An H-body Bonneville police cruiser? Wow. That’s one I never would have imagined! Can’t even picture what one of those would look like in full markings with a light bar…
I think some appear on several epsodes of “Cops” taped here in the early 1990s. While the city used mainly MoPars in the 1960s and ’70s, The Pittsburgh Police using Chevrolets goes back into the 1930s, Perhaps a lack of a “Full Size” FWD Chevrolet at the time was why all of the “H” bodies (yes some 88s were used to) They switched to the “W” derived Impala after 2000. Suburbs largely stuck to RWD GM “B”s and FoMoCo Panthers.
I found This text on Wikipedia (I had to confirm my often flawed memory.)
“In the late 1980s through the late 1990s, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police had one of the weirdest police fleets in North America, with the utilization of various General Motors vehicles not usually meant to be used for police work (mainly the Oldsmobile Delta 88, Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight, Pontiac Bonneville, Buick Century, Buick LeSabre and Buick Electra), with the K-9 officers relegated to Dodge Ramchargers.”
GM once employed 800,000 people and 80,000 in Flint alone. Those days were not going to last once they discovered outsourcing.
Yeah, when GM (like every other American company) figured out they could get away with using global labor at a fraction of what it costs in the US, the writing was on the wall. It’s unlikely that even the best US union is going to agree to wages that are equivalent to slave labor.
Unfortunately, the ultimate result is burgeoning economies in other parts of the world while the US tanks. Flint was a microcosm of that which occurred much sooner than other industry sectors.
But that’s business for you.
Not to feed the fire, but Toyota and Honda have done quite well at manufacturing automobiles in the US without resorting to “wages that are equivalent to slave labor”.
The people of Flint bear some share of the blame for the parlous state of their city – after all, they’ve been content to elect corrupt and incompetent people to run their municipal government for decades.
But that’s democracy for you.
“Those days were not going to last once they discovered outsourcing.”
I think it’s a little more complicated than that . . .
Yes, far more complicated indeed. Also unfair to pin the entire blame on the UAW. Walter Reuther wasn’t holding a gun to the Big Three’s head when they were signing those labor contracts.
This looks a bit bulbous. The rear fender and rear end treatment make it look a bit wide in the hips. The swoopy sidespear does nothing either. GM’s A bodies were a big hit this year, but the Skylark trailed the sensational LeMans, and the Cutlass came off better as well.
However, the minor restyle for 1970 worked wonders and leapfrogged the Skylark to the head of the A body pack. One of my favorite Buicks.
Nice, much more attractive than the bulbous 4 door sedan, though I liked the wagon a lot.
Grand Funk Railroad – they came from Flint!
I don’t know how else to say it…so thanks, readers, for sharing your positive memories and associations with Flint. As some of you have said (James Slick used the word “resilient”), Flint folks are a tough group who fight for every shred of optimism they / we find. I still can’t make myself believe this water reality, and granted – it’s not staring me in the face, as I live now in Chicago, but it is hugely reaffirming to hear how many folks care what happens to the folks in the place I will always consider “home”. And thank you, Paul Niedermeyer, for allowing me this platform with which to express these thoughts.
I’m 45 minutes from Flint, and I never tire of showing off my Flint-built Buick. In Flint, you’ll see almost as many old Skylarks as you’ll see Chevelles in any other town. It’s great.
I was under the impression that there was something of a consensus that people avoid making overtly political comments on this site.
Am I wrong? If so, should I just wade in when people spout uninformed nonsense, or would that be detrimental to the site?
I believe you are correct, best to avoid it. If/when some of that does appear, best to ignore it – “don’t feed the trolls”. In my experience, it is rare that someone accidentally or unknowingly posts politically polarized opinions, and trying to debate or correct misinformation usually leads to a mess.
I’m not sure if it’s “politcal” to bring up a fact that’s in the news, since there was no “party” accused, Just relaying the state of affairs in a city/state/nation isn’t necessarily political. We often use terms like “depression era” and “cold war era”,”malaise era” without taking “sides” when discussing the circumstances that mold this industry as it helps to tell the history,
You are absolutely right, Tonito. There should not be any overtly political comments made on this site. That should be left for other websites.
Mentioning the Flint water crisis? Not political. But beyond that, when we start talking about particular political figures or national political issues, it ends up becoming a one-way street to exactly the kind of ugly political argument you will find on so many other websites. This is our little pocket of the internet where we keep that crap out. Political discussions invariably end up being between people who will never convince each other to change their minds. Many of you probably would not care for my political opinions, so I don’t share them. Likewise, I don’t want to see anyone else share theirs.
It gets dicey enough discussing differing tastes in cars at times lol
Hahaha you’re absolutely right Matt 🙂
The best part about this site is the lack of actual “fights” Broughamantics and Broughamophobes, FoMoCo,GM and MoPar exists here with all of the Indies, Not to mention Asian, Australian,UK and Europan cars! We all have ones we like,hate,wonder about, or ignore. People here HAVE opinions, but at least it goes beyond typical Coke/Pepsi, Canon/Nikon and Mac/PC type basics you get almost every where else!
perhaps we could just look at this as one of our very talented and well liked cc ers bringing up a terrible mishap in his hometown in a automotive related way and leave it at that?
since you have talked about trips back there joseph, I presume you still have family and friends in flint, and my heart goes out to you, your loved ones and all the people of flint.
nuff said.
Another evocative piece of Dennisdom. Fantastic pic, love mid-century architecture.
Another fantastic photo, and of a car that I’ve always admired. The ’68-’69 Skylarks are polarizing, but I find them stunning. The sweepspear works so well with the skirted fenders and pointed tail. (Admittedly it loses a lot in the 4-door version.)
The water situation in Flint is really nothing short of tragic, and it’s a tragedy that was utterly preventable..