Eastern Massachusetts may not be as CC rich as Eugene, Oregon, but every now and then one comes across a good household of Curbside Classics. This early-1980s Buick Regal and Mercedes-Benz 300D make for an interesting mix.
CC Outtake: A Local CC House
– Posted on January 5, 2016
I like the Buick
Oldsmobile wheels on the Buick
Did Buick not have a version of those color-keyed steel wheels? Olds and Chevy did.
They look good on this Regal. Great-looking overall, actually. Regal sedans have to be one of the least common G-body variants, though they lasted a year longer in production than did the Malibu.
It is telling that the Buick has a license plate, the MB has not.
If you long for a Benz Diesel, here is one. Remember it needs vacuum to shi*t.
http://ames.craigslist.org/cto/5341080225.html
Sounds like he has a personal problem.
Actually, the seller is a really nice guy. But that typo is just too funny.
If the engine is good that’s a decent price even if it’s seriously rusty .
W-123’s can have dangerous rust issues .
The vacuum pump is a super simple fix .
-Nate
In northern Michigan, few daily driving W123s have black coating on the lower bottom of the car, a typical last resort for body rust.
That coating is factory and helps prevent chips from rocks and pebbles .
Sadly , once the rust has begun , it also traps and encapsulates the rust , water , salt and so on making it advance faster .
-Nate
At $600.00 obo and running, I’m really surprised the W123 has been on the market for a month. Too bad (or maybe not) it’s so far away.
He started higher in price.
Oddly enough, a quick AutoCheck reveals that the Buick’s plate is registered to the Benz.
It looks like the Benz took a hit in the rear–it looks driveable, but maybe not. Based on the bundt wheels and the long badge, it’s a later turbodiesel, so we can hope it retains enough value to win its plates back. “You’re still a fine looking Buick, but you’ll have to get your own registration, now…”
Just saw that Buick for sale on Craigslist here, those Olds wheels jumped right out at me.
I like the Century, but boy those tires look tiny!
The Buick looks so classy in that dark color! I love those Olds wheels, but I would swap them out for some more appropriate Buick wheels.
The wheels on the Buick are the same as what was on my ’83 Cutlass Supreme.
Also, the color of the Buick is very close, if not the same as my Cutlass. This may account for the wheels matching the color of the car. Did GM share colors among divisions???
I think GM is very likely to share colors among certain divisions, like Olds and Buick, and during the reforming of the period, Buick and Olds would be merged into Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac division, and very likely they would share the colors.
GM brands have shared paint colors for decades. Just had different names.
A Lime Green was used in 1971 across the brands, for one example.
Some were unique, like for Cadillacs or Corvettes/F bodies
I’ll take the Regal, I usually see the sedans in base form and the coupes in Limited form making this sedan even more desirable! Plus it lacks the aforementioned bowel related tranny problems! (or is it the other way around?) Gotta give her Buick wheels though.
I think that different divisions might have used different names, but shared lots of colors. A neighbor had a Cutlass Supreme coupe on that dark grayish green with lighter top and interior…it was pretty.
My mother’s 82 Cutlass Supreme had the SuperStock wheels(I think that’s what they were called) and wore 195-74r14 tires…tiny little things. I think the W123 had a similar size tire, although probably 70 aspect ratio. Even big S-Class cars had relatively small tires in the 70s and 80s.
My dad refused to buy tires from first-tier brand names…still does. That Cutlass had Dayton Quadra radials on it as soon as the factory Uniroyals wore out. He bought Daytons for decades, now he puts Cooper tires on his cars…I guess the tire store he goes to changed “store brand”.
And BTW, those Super Stock wheels rattled to beat the band…between all of the little trim pieces and the center caps that weren’t on very tight, they made quite a racket. And I thought the wire wheel covers could be noisy…
I like the Regal and Cutlass sedans. You really did not see many of the Regal sedans out and about when they made them
Here is a pic of my 1985 Cutlass
Sharp Regal–they do look good in dark colors. It does make an interesting counterpoint for the 300D, but perhaps the owner is just a lover of early 80’s sedans?
Where I live in the Washington, DC area, the Buick Regal of that era is a car that used to be seen every day but has since disappeared, while the Mercedes 300D is a car that used to be seen infrequently but now is seen everywhere all the time. Their survival rates likely have been polar opposites.
I like the Buick.
The Buick looks so stately. Would look even better with a proper set of Buick style chrome wheels. Sadly by this point 1982-84 the only gas engines were Buick V6’s in the Regal line of 110 Hp 231 and 125 Hp 252 upgrade. For that reason I would want the Olds version with a 307 or the Bonneville G-body with a 305 Chebby V8
There’s an easy (if not cheap) solution: build a 231 turbo a la Grand National. GN sedan, anyone? Rather than the all-black demeanor of the coupe, the sedan version could retain all its usual trim and badging–but with black paint/vinyl of course.
Those Regal sedans were very popular here in R.I. I used to see a lot of them back in the day – especially when compared to the hideous aero-backs, these were a good seller.
I’ve seen a light blue 80-81 century sedan around here, but have yet to get a picture of it.