Here’s your chance to own the last of the big American RWD open-top barges, all for a mere 50 cents per pound. Nineteen seventy-five was the final year for all of GM’s big, rear-wheel drive ragtops; the front-wheel drive Eldorado got a one-year reprieve. Yes, convertibles did reappear in the ’80s, but mostly as shadows of their former selves. This is the real deal, the long-extinct Convertibulus Americanii Giganticus.
But no, this one isn’t the Jayne Mansfield of cars, even though it’s bigger than that one was. Perhaps the Pamela Anderson of cars? Or maybe….hey, I need a bit of inspiration and help naming this big momma. “LeSabre Custom” just ain’t enough to do it justice. So help me out here.
I like white vinyl upholstery almost as much as Tom Klockau does, but this isn’t getting me nearly as excited as the ’64 Spyder’s white buckets. This car’s dingy cabin, like all GM interiors of the day, couldn’t approach the quality of what GM offered just 10 years earlier.
Let’s just say there’s not much dash in this dash. You’ll have to look elsewhere for that.
Under the hood, for instance. That’s the big-boy 455 in there. Now that will bring back that good old-time feeling, at least until you pull up to the pump. Interested? Give Bob a call. This car was sitting out there off Hwy 58 just last Sunday. Of course, it did rain a bit on Monday morning; I wonder Bob remembered to raise the top; if not, I doubt it was the first time.
Looks like Bob is liquidating his fleet of vintage GM iron. Is the ‘Camino also a ’75? Maybe Bob struck it rich that year–bought the Buick for the wifey, and the ElCamino for himself. Or maybe he owned lots of Exxon stock; who else was buying 455 Buicks one year after the energy crisis?
Buick sure got a lot more mileage out of those wheels than from the 455. For how many decades were they available? They always made every Buick look a bit classier, and this one needs all the help it can get.
There it is, eager to hit the open road. You know you want it. Better hurry though, because convertible season won’t last much longer. Driving this around in the dreary winter rain won’t be any fun at all. Maybe that’s why it’s for sale: Bob just couldn’t face the thought of having to put the top up again.
I’ll take it though I prefer the rectangular head lights of the Limited or Electra this will have to do. I actually like the looks of these better than the 71-3 version.
as was pointed out in the writeup, these came out the year of the gas crisis. my mother was going to buy the caprice convertible variant of this buick but my father tricked her into a fiat spider to save gas! man i sure miss these beasts…
The Anna Nicole Smith of cars?
Good one!
I get excited every time I see something like this. And then something reminds me of the shortcomings common to cars from this era. What did it for me for this car is the from-above photo showing the tight back-seat legroom. Seriously, my compact Toyota has more legroom than that.
Who cares about the back seat leg room? As the owner/driver of a car I sure don’t since I’m sitting in the front.
I carry three people in my car all the time. Somebody’s gotta sit back there!
But if it’s not you who cares? Plus 3 across in the front is fine especially with the 60/40 seat. The 50/50 isn’t fun for the guy in the middle if the passenger won’t line it up with the driver or you’ve got the cheap model with the power driver an manual passenger, and the driver wants the seat bottom and back angle different than the one position for that on the manual seat.
Its bigger than it looks, trust me.
That rear seat cushion is really deep. It’s no limo, but there is plenty of room back there for all but the very tall.
The interior is the same treatment as my mother’s 74 Luxury LeMans – only the seats were white, the rest of the interior was another color. Ours was maroon, this one is blue. A bottle of 409 and a rag and those seats will whiten right up, with a little elbow grease. Ask me how I know.
It is interesting to consider until I remember the complete lack of structural rigidity. For me, the stout drivetrains just don’t completely make up for the pliable structure. Also there is that cracking dash, so popular in that era. But the wheels almost make me reconsider.
When I was in high school, the school librarian owned one of these – either a 74 or 75 silver blue with a white convertible top and interior. These wheels, too. It was a really sharp car, and quite a contrast with the principal’s late 60s green Rambler sedan. I am not loving the baby blue of this one quite so much.
I don’t see any cracks in this dash, and there weren’t any in my 75 Limited when I sent it on it’s way to China last month. The full size Buicks did not seem to suffer from the oh so common dash cracking of the era. I agree that the light blue is not the best color these look much better in darker colors, but you gotta have those white seats.
But it seems that there were a good number of these made in this baby blue, usually when I see one for sale, its this color, a friend of mine bought one and flipped(for profit/not upsidedown) a month or 2 later, and it was also this baby blue on white combo, but with a 350.
The color looks very close to Jennifer Blue, a ’75 Cadillac color. I could live with that color. And yes, those white seats look great!
The Sophia Loren of convertibles? I do like the way this one looks..
I don’t quite think so. But funny that you mention that, since I have a great picture of Mansfield and Loren together.
Sofia just can’t enough of those knockers, eh?
who can blame here?
No one’s mentioned Anna Nicole Smith yet. 😉
Oops–by the time I posted this, someone had indeed mentioned Anna Nicole. My bad.
“It’s dingy, and the interiors in these GM cars never was near the same quality as they had been ten years earlier.”
I’m sure the crew down at Pablo’s Upholstery Shop (yeah that’s its real name and its 30 min from here) could outfit that sucker in marine grade vinyl and you’ll never have to worry about durability again.
What I really want is the top up to check out what condition it is in.
Pablo’s muchachos could probably hook you up w/ a nice white top to match the upholstery.
I think that bumper and assorted hardware weighs almost as much as our 1981 Plymouth Reliant!
Uh…no thanks, but sure is nice to look at, patina and all – it needs a set of tires…
As for the dash, it doesn’t even bear the GM “Mark of Excellence” by not being cracked.
I do remember a smattering of ’75 “B” ragtops in my Bay Area youth in the day, although what I usually saw were Caprices, Bonnevilles and Olds 88 rags. Buddy of mine who’s Mom had a ’74 Caprice Ragtop white/white was a fun cruiser. We’d go top down into the city (San Francisco) in December . . . . bound up with down jackets, wooly caps and the heater on full blast. Yeah, I know . . . . idiot kids.
Said vehicle usually made fireworks runs into Chinatown with it’s large “B” body trunk.
I wonder if the two white/white ’74 and ’75 Chevy Caprice ragtops are still sitting on the showroom floor of the (closed in 2009) Good Chevrolet on Park Street in Alameda . . . ???
No 🙁 It’s now a “Buy Here, Pay Here” dealership/body shop charging waaay too much for 20 year old LeSabres and Regals…..
Whatever happened to Jay Brown’s Spartan Dodge in San Jose? I miss the “price chopper” and Jay sponsoring all-night movies on channel 44…
Of course, that was 40 years ago. Hmmm…’nuff said.
Provided the engine was in decent running condition, the car is a steal. A cheap paint job, maybe a do it yourself, will make this car a decent affordable classic. New tires and some elbow grease should do it.
I’m glad I’m 3,000 miles away. I’d be tempted to buy it.
Unfortunately the “scissors tops” on these cars are very persnickety & difficult to work on. Parts are available for them but they are very expensive. Figure at least $2K to get one replaced if there are no major mechanical issues. Many upholstery shops won’t touch one of these & a lot of the ones that do will only put a plastic window back in. I’m on my second ’73 Delta 88 convertible am not looking forward to having the top redone on it.
I’ll bet the top on this Buick is screwed up in some fashion. For $2,200, it would be worth buying & keeping it in a garage with the top as-is & driving it on nice days. If the 455 isn’t burned up on the lower end, it looks to be a very good buy for the right person.
Other than the ’73 Eldo, the ’75 Buick is my least favorite ’71-6 convertible though. The blocky plain front end styling clashes with the otherwise smooth lines of this bodystyle.
Those Buick wheels seem to always have rust issues due to the small ridge that collects water on the outer rim but they do look nice. Supposedly some ’77 – ’79 Buick wagons actually had a seven-inch version of these wheels but my years of searching have yet to turn up any.
I know, I would try to talk him down a little more, get quick paint job and clean it up and flip it.
A year after the Gas Crisis, people calmed down about gas prices and there were no more gas lines. But, the recession kicked into high gear hurting car sales for the new model year.
But, what also hurt sales was higher sticker prices, and unleaded gas requirements for ’75 cars. But, by 1976, people “got used to” the prices and cars sold better.
Gas didn’t get ‘cheaper’ though, was still 55-65 cents a gallon in summer ’75, from 25-40 cents two summers before. Then, for 1979, the dreaded “Dollar a gallon” panic came!!
Between this and the ’64 Dart, my daily visit to CC is made. I’m a convertible guy and always have been, no matter the make or condition.
I’m wondering if the top on this one will go up on command. Those motors are fickle things.
Editing: All that before I saw the A-R fliptop. I’m loving this.
The Shelly Winters of convertibles.
So far, the power top on my ’72 Delta 88 works just fine. The fabric is trashed, but the mechanical operation is peachy.
Classic Industries in Huntington Beach, Ca. sells everything to bring a 71-76 B-body ragtop back to life. New tops, cables, bows, motors, everything.
I loooooove these cars! But why??? I honestly don’t know. I just do.
Everytime I see one of these I have to remind myself of a test drive I took years ago of a gorgeous ’73 Centurion convertible (very similar although it had the Buick 350). It was an underpowered, shuddering mess of a car. It was also frighteningly large.
Still…I’d love to have one. 😉
One of the highlights of my automotive life was the 2 years I owned a 75 Buick convertible in the early 90’s. It was red with the red interior/white seats. It had the 455 engine and parade boots, like this one does. Parade boots are not too common, from my observation. I would also bet this blue one has top issues, especially for that price. Looks to have some rust peaking out in spots. Still, I’ve always had a weak spot for these. My order of favorites in 75-76 GM droptops: Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Chevy, Olds.
I haven’t owned a convertible since then, mainly due to the wake up call that car gave me to the realities of actually owning one. The top was in pretty good condition, but it still would drip a little water into the well behind the rear seat in a heavy rain and when you drove on the highway with the top and windows up, the middle of the top gets pulled up, which would make a gap in the center between the windshield and the top, letting in rain and bugs (design flaw, not a defect I think). Then after you drove for a while like that, the top would be all stretched out when you stopped it would look like a deflated balloon! Towards the end of my time with the car, the top started a small hole where the scissors pinch it when lowered. I was not looking forward to replacing that top.
I see the scissor top as kind of similar to the clamshell on the wagons from the same era. Ambitious but too much sacrifice for the gain achieved. There is no intrusion into the rear seat by the top mechanism, and it’s a nice looking top when raised, But movement up and down is not very smooth or reliable, and as stated before, it likes to pinch the top in such a way as to harm the vinyl.
All that said, I would still be tempted to buy it if I lived near there!
I saw this recently at the pick-a-part junk yard hidden amongst all the 80’s/90’s heaps. Sad…
ok, the picture didn’t attach. Not sure why. sorry
Where are you located I’m interested in this car
It’s about that 75 convertible blue