I recently signed on to attend a gathering this fall with some of my former high school classmates, which will take place back in Flint, Michigan. This will mark my third trip back to the Vehicle City this year, following a couple of weekends in June and July. It will also be the first time in many years that I will be face-to-face with some of the individuals with whom I used to share the halls of our former, long-closed high school. When I had first heard this upcoming event was going to take place, I wasn’t invested. This was on the heels of a great summer and with other trips planned for between now and the end of the year. Maybe it was the cool temperatures and shorter daylight hours that sparked nostalgia for fall semester and the cozy memories of holing up in my bedroom across from the laundry room in my parents’ old split-level house. The thought of being among my friends and peers again eventually became irresistible, so it’s on. I’m going.
I’ve never been cool. I’ve been loved, had friends, liked the way I look, been proud of my accomplishments, etc., but I’ve never been one of the cool people, at least in my own head. I’ve been around cool. I’ve been adjacent to cool. I’ve had cool friends and acquaintances and been included in cool activities alongside cool folks, sometimes with a cool invitation in my hot, little hands. There’s an episode of The Simpsons where the titular family is returning from vacation in the family station wagon, debating what makes one cool. Matriarch Marge Simpson, with her frustration mounting as she fails to understand, asks if not caring about being cool is what makes one cool, to which Bart and Lisa respond, in unison, “No.” I care less about being cool in middle age more than in any part of my life after maybe age 8, but I recognize this does not make me cool. Nor am I fishing for someone to reassure me that through my essays, they can tell I’m a cool person. I’m cool with me. Nothing else really matters.
“Skylark treats you both very special.”
I’m a lot of great things, including frank, earnest, and brutally honest, including with myself. I’m loyal, caring, hardworking, self-disciplined, and I listen to my conscience. These things do not a cool person make, though they may be part of the makings of a good person. There’s no question as to whether I’d rather be seen as good or cool. If you can’t tell the answer to that already, I’ll add that some of my various attempts at being “cool” throughout my adulthood had led to some questionable choices and misdirected priorities.
You know what a “cool” weekend looks like for me in 2022? It may include some social interaction, a cultural event, or a little retail / resale shopping, in addition to banging out one of these essays. It will, without question, include me sitting on the couch under a blanket in front of my television, and eating dry cereal and trail mix as I watch some of my favorite shows or movies. I’ve had some fun nights out throughout my adulthood, but this current modus operandi has produced far more contentment than some of the late nights and early mornings I remember (or don’t fully remember) having spent at the bar or disco.
This ’72 Skylark Custom was one of this summer’s finds. I had to reread an article I had written about a different example back in the beginning of 2017 to make sure I wasn’t repeating myself in this essay, which would have been a distinct possibility, given my six-year plus tenure as a contributor here at Curbside Classic. I was good to proceed with my original idea, but there are some interesting thoughts expressed in the comments of that earlier essay related to what I’m about to say… or rather, ask. When it was a new car, was this ’72 Skylark coupe considered cool? I was born in the middle of that decade, and though I had started to play a game called “Count the Chevette” from the back seat of my family’s ’77 Plymouth Volaré before the ’80s arrived, a car like this Skylark predates any concurrent recollection I might have had. By contrast, I fondly remember the downsized 1978 – ’80 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supremes and Calaises when they were new-ish, as they were my favorite cars for a while. Those were definitely cool and driven by cool people.
By the time I was in high school starting in the late ’80s, the two-door versions of this generation of Skylark, whether a hardtop or pillared coupe, along with its other GM A-body siblings, were cool beyond measure. Even in awful, beater condition, many kids my age, self included, didn’t see rust-perforated body panels and clouds of smoke. We saw a diamond in the rough that a little elbow grease and time in the shop could turn into the envy of “The Cruise”, a stretch of Industrial Avenue next to an empty GM factory complex in Flint’s north side where drag racing would take place every Friday night. Being at The Cruise was electrifying, and even just thinking about it now as I type this makes the hairs on my arms stand up. The sounds of the revving motors, the smell of exhaust, the nighttime illumination from car lights, rock and R&B music thumping from car stereos, the camaraderie of being among others like me… Those nights were some of my happiest teenage memories, even if I was only a spectator, and I’ll always cherish them. Always.
I could see a new, ’72 Chevelle having inherent cool-factor just by, well, being a Chevelle. Any Olds Cutlass from that era was part of a model line that was only increasing in popularity. And even if Pontiac had made a hard pivot in the early ’70s from their well-earned performance image of the preceding decade to one of luxury and convenience, the looks of a ’72 LeMans weren’t that far removed from the firebreathing GTO Judge from just a few years prior. The Buick, though. I’m asking if it was considered cool when new because I’d actually like to know, from individuals who were there and remember them as new cars. This is not a passive-aggressive diss on the Skylark cloaked in Generation X-style irony. Do any of you of a certain age remember discussing with your friends in homeroom, “Hey, have you seen the new Skylark 350? I have got to have that one day. Let’s go check one out at the lot next weekend.” And yes, I’m aware of the Gran Sport, which I respect. It just never seemed to have the same kind of name recognition, in my mind.
To borrow a bit from my earlier essay, the Custom hardtop coupe was the second-most popular ’72 Skylark configuration sold that year, with about 34,300 produced. The combined total of the standard/350 hardtop coupes was higher, at 84,900. Only about 225,300 total Skylarks were sold that year. By comparison, there were 393,700 Chevelles sold for ’72, of which 207,600 were V-8 powered Malibu hardtop coupes. Numbers often don’t tell the whole story, but in this case and to my point, I think they do: the ’72 Chevelle was cool, is cool, and shall always be cool. To infinity.
You might have already been asking what this car and my upcoming gathering with my classmates might have to do with each other. It’s simple. I may not have been a jock, skater, partier, mechanic, star actor or musician, popular, or any of the other things that defined the guys I thought of as “cool” back then, but like this ’72 Skylark, I feel that I’ve aged really well and through simple perseverance, consistency, and the grace of God, I’ve ended up in a much better position in life and with higher stock than might have been expected of me back when I was “new” (to being a teenager). Buicks are supposed to be quiet, right? The muted yellow finish of this example is far more sedate than the factory Sunburst Yellow that was offered for ’72, but I think it fits the character of this car even better. In the meantime, when I get to see my fellow alumni later this month, any pressure to impress anybody will be completely off. To simply be present, to enjoy everyone’s company, and to partake in the festivities will be infinitely cool.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, July 10, 2022.
The 1972 Buick Skylark brochure pages were as sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
A nice car! Perhaps not as cool as an early 1970s Chevy or Pontiac but just level below. For those of us born in the 1960s and grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, these were the cars we remember growing up with. They were also the affordable cars for those in high school in the early 1980s and were not “weighed down” by the emissions of the 1973 and later cars. A nice example. Also had kind of a 1970s “personnel luxury” flair which was also popular in the 1970s, Still not a Monte Carlo or Grand Prix but 2 door GM A-Body cars will always be popular with those brought up in that era. I also liked the late 1970s downsized Olds Cutlass Supremes. The 1973 to 1977 GM Colonnade Intermediates seemed to big. The 1972 and before and 1978 and later RWD cars seemed “just right”. The Buick has a “cool with sense of luxury” touch. A Nice Car! It is “cool” but in a subdued way! Thanks for the CC!
Thank you so much. I do remember thinking that the Colonnades seemed too big, but this was because the first A-bodies I remembered as new cars (by the time I was old enough to pay attention to and recognize them) were the downsized cars, like the Cutlasses of 1978 – ’80. I did, in time, develop an affinity for the Colonnades.
I was 16 in 1972. My family had a 1971 Skylark 350, but four doors; so it definitely wasn’t cool. The silver fern color (sort of a light grey green) didn’t help. It did go, though, when I mashed the accelerator after I got my license that year. I didn’t do it often, but it was a guilty pleasure when I did.
As for Skylarks in general – they were a step below the chevelles and pontiac lemans. Usually, kids would take a two door skylark and add crager chrome mag wheels and pinstripes, and call it good. A lot of times that was the most their parents would allow. It gave one enough cred to hang with the gearheads but didn’t allow bragging rights. It also was cool enough to attract the girls, which was the most important thing.
The GS – now, that was definitely cool.
It’s funny – yours is one of several mentions of the four-door versions of these cars, and of them being not cool. This reminded me of my friend Eric who had a four-door Skylark of this generation when we were upper classmen in high school. It’s incredible how the presence of those two extra doors completely reversed the cool-factor of his Skylark into looking like something his grandfather had passed down to him. Which, in fact, might have been the case.
The definition of “cool” varies by one’s age and vantage point. You’ve nailed the definition of cool in one’s teen and early adult years…from that vantage point.
From the vantage point of being thirty years further down the path of life, “cool”, to me, is exhibiting comfort in one’s one skin. Not caring what others think. Doing what makes you happy.
So from the standpoint of someone at my point in life, this Buick is cool. It is comfortable in its own skin, not trying to appeal to the masses (Chevelle) or trying to rise above the rest in some talent (LeMans) or assuming a pretense of coolness (Cutlass). This Buick is happy with itself, which to me is the ultimate in cool.
But don’t get me wrong. If this Buick were a four-door, the cool factor would be diminished. While not one to disparage such door endowment, the four-door A-bodies all had a touch of dowdy to them.
The dowdiest I can remember is a four-door Buick, but closer to being a ’68 model. It was the one where the tail lights were within the bumper and the bumper extended out further than did the lights, seeming to almost occlude them. The white example in my mind belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Margaret Cotton. Nobody knew his name, she was the more alpha in the relationship, thus the reference. Their four-door Buick Skylark was the definition of not-cool.
Thanks for the great read, Joe. I suspect the length of this comment will fall into the not-cool category, but I’m fine with that!!!
Jason, to the contrary, I was going to mention that your first three paragraphs nail the idea perfectly – which was way cool. At some point, casual displays of intelligence, inner confidence, and good sense end up being things that make me think of a person as cool.
And I know I’ve written about the 1968 and ’69 Skylarks and Specials here before, and while I generally like them, they were an acquired taste. That pinched rear styling is simply not the best look. And the mention of the alpha Mrs. Cotton made me laugh, perhaps out of self-recognition from a family situation I was all too familiar with.
Thank you Joseph. Thanks for writing about the early 70s Skylark, as I was just the other day thinking about a possible article around this very model, but would never have found as good a way to talk about it as you have.
I think that the Skylark of this generation was very cool. That has a lot to do with the fact that this car featured prominently as a rental car on several very memorable family vacations in the early 70s. One was I believe my first trip to California and another my first trip to Atlanta. Both were places that the family flew to (thereby making them first airplane trips for 10ish year old me) and Dad had specifically arranged for a SKYLARK! at the car rental counter. I have no idea why, but that’s what we drove around in for a week each time…and there was just something so special about these cars to me. Perhaps because they were neither the crusty/smelly (by that point) Plymouth wagon or the tiny Simca. Also, they were RENTAL CARS! … something that seemed quite exotic to me at the time. In other words, they were cool. Cool to me. (4 door sedans, 1970 and 1972)
Which brings me to my reaction to your central point about being cool. I’m with Marge. I’m firmly convinced that no one who thinks they’re cool really is…and the only way to be cool is to not know it.
Another terrific article.
Jeff, I disagree and hope you write yours up soon. Not to make this about the “Mutual Appreciation Society”, but I love your takes on the cars you write up, the history behind them, and your personal context.
If I’m not mistaken, all of these Buick midsizers were V8-powered, and probably still from the time when each GM division had their own specific engines. Maybe your Dad liked the smooth delivery of the Buick V8 in an overall package that was just the right size for his family.
And thank you!
This brings back a rush of nostalgia. My mother was shopping for a new car in 1972 and stopped in at a Buick dealer. I don’t remember her getting serious there – I cannot even recall why. It was mid-summer, so 1972 model selection may have been thin, or that she preferred the Oldsmobile for some reason.
I recall poring over the brochures. I remember the Buick as coming across as conservative. I liked that about it, but then I was also the polar opposite of cool. I don’t remember conservative being cool at all in 1972. Well, other than Richard Nixon winning in a landslide later that year. But again, that was everyones’ parents voting for him, not any of the cool people.
I never noticed at the time that the Buick seemed to share the Chevelle’s roof line, while the Cutlass Supreme got its own (as did the regular 2 door Cutlass). Today I would call this car more cool than the Cutlass Supreme because it was not appealing to the masses, but was just aiming at it’s own little niche. Actually, I don’t think I ever knew anyone with one of these cars. An aunt owned the 4 door hardtop of a 68-69 Skylark, but that was a whole different thing than the 70-72. Which I had never really thought about – the Skylark tried really hard to be cool in 1968 and failed bigly – it is like it woke up on the first Monday morning of 1970 and took the pledge to stop partying and trying to be cool. Which made the car more cool.
JP, you bring up a particularly interesting observation about the rooflines of various A-body coupes. I agree that the Chevelle’s and the Skylark’s rooflines are very similar – I wonder if they actually are shared, which I wouldn’t doubt.
I will say that even as my tastes in clothes have generally toned down from, say, ten years ago, the conservative lines and style of the Skylark definitely speaks to me at this stage of my life. Maybe that was their original appeal and target demographic when new
Cool enough for me. Just match the wheels please.i doubt the scoops feeds a correct twin snorkel air cleaner…but its cool.
The simpsons reference makes me recall one of the best interchanges I ever heard. My wife to be and I are watching a Letterman compilation in 96. Don’t remember the exact context, But it might be something like this guy’s friend sent a letter to Letterman saying his friend was the coolest guy ever or some such. So Dave is talking to this guy (he “cool” friend) outside the studio, maybe leaning on car fenders. At 1 point Dave asks him “are you nervous?” The guy replies “yeah” . To which Dave responds “you dont look nervous” . The guy takes a second and says “That’s because I’m cool.”
Sounds about right to me! Sounds like the delivery of Letterman’s guest’s response was right on time.
I’m with Marge Simpson about the definition of cool – a truly cool person doesn’t really care how they are perceived by others. Buicks have often been cool in that sense, at least compared to sister GM divisions: comfortable in their own skin.
Cadillacs are in-your-face blingy and flashy, Pontiacs, at least in the 1960s, were often over-the-top macho beasts, and Chevies were too ubiquitous to be cool, and, to my eyes anyway, each successive restyle of the 1968-1972 B body made the Chevelle uglier. Oldsmobile, well, I’ve always felt Olds was the try-hard division that often missed the mark, at least up until they finally got the formula for the Cutlass down from the mid-Sixties until the early Eighties; in 1972, that was still a relatively new development.
Also, the 1968-69 Skylark, with its sweep-spear and bulbous flanks, was really ugly, and most definitely not cool. The 1970-72 restyle brought in some sharper creases and a much-needed butt lift to great effect. Still, the magic only extended to two-door models, whether sedan, hardtop or convertible. That three-quarter view of the blue sedan in the brochure picture above illustrates why the 4-door A-bodies of this generation were so ungainly.
I agree that the 1968 – ’69 Buick A-body look wasn’t the best, but yeah – the crisp new styling that arrived for 1970 fixed it. I also thought the styling tweaks that arrived for ’71 with the larger taillamps and reconfigured front grille (largely carried over for ’72) made the Skylark (two-door) a genuinely good-looking car. Regardless of whether or not it was cool when new.
No. These were bought by middle aged folks who were tired of big cars, or had a second car (station wagon) or whose kids had grown up, like the parents of one of my brother’s friends, who bought a new one in 1970, or ’71. It sure was creamy smooth though.
As to cars like the Chevelle being cool; no, a typical Malibu coupe with a vinyl top and a base V8 was decidedly not cool. It was the choice of folks who just followed the herd, as they had done a few years earlier with the Mustang. Following the herd is never cool.
Sure, if it were a GS, it might have some cool factor. But a really cool car in 1972 needed to be much more out of the mainstream.
I was waiting for this – always appreciate your takes, Paul. I’m thinking about modern vehicles and whether current popularity diminishes their cool-factor in my mind. I was ready to present a counterpoint to your idea that “out of the mainstream” is necessary for a car / vehicle / anything to be cool, but the more I think about it, I’ve often selected adversely against things that were popular just because I didn’t want to make the same choice as everybody else.
I think an exception might be with the Ford Mustang. I don’t care how many other people like them – I will probably always be ready to rock with a Mustang.
“As to cars like the Chevelle being cool; no, a typical Malibu coupe with a vinyl top and a base V8 was decidedly not cool.”
Paul, I can’t take away from your experience, but I never thought I’d see this combination of words in a sentence.
Decidedly not cool was a 1972 Mercury Monterey sedan in green with no options.
The Chevelle coupe was always a safe choice among the young. Being the lucky recipient of a new one on your 16th birthday, or shopping for a used one was unlikely to ever get you ridiculed.
A plain version may not have been overtly cool, but it got cooler with age. By the time I was in high school in the early ’80s, if you could find one that wasn’t riddled with cancer, you had envy of the school, even if it was a 307 automatic.
I remember the Chevelles in certain form (as others said, two door only) as being cool, and in my book, the Cutlass styling was the most futuristic, in a good way. The 4-4-2 legacy didn’t hurt the Olds either. No offense, but the only Buicks that I associate with coolness are the first two Riviera generations, in a Vegas/Hollywood sense, and the Grand National and GNX. By the way, I’m struggling with the image of you watching television under a blanket. I think some extra comma’s may be needed to define more clearly what’s under the blanket: you, the TV, or both. Somehow the latter is creating a weird image in my mind 😀 . As always, a great Tuesday morning read.
Thanks, Dman. I suppose I could have used an extra comma in that sentence somewhere, but my use of commas and the word “actually” are usually pretty copious, when left to my own devices. I try to limit both. LOL
“Vegas / Hollywood sense” is a good description for the appeal of the first and second Buick Rivieras in my mind. I like that!
What a fantastic essay Joseph! It really resonated with my on so many levels. Your whole outlook on being cool pretty much is spot on with me. Also being middle aged now, I have to say could care less if other’s think I am cool or not. Like you, I have long ago learned being good is far more important than being cool.
We had a ’72 Skylark when I was in high school, it was one of the cars I learned to drive on. Being from an even more northern climate than Flint, cars from the early 70s rarely were seen on the roads after they were 10 years old. Our car was a black 4-door with a 350 engine. I thought it was super cool, because to me anything that predated the 1973 bumpers was cool, plus it did decent burn-outs. Most of my friends just thought it was an old 4-door car and definitely not cool. In fact I remember the first time my best friend saw it and he said “Wow, I had no idea your family had drove that old car everyday.” At that time, the cool cars in high school were Fox body Mustangs or F-Bodies. One guy had a ’84 300 ZX and another an ’81 RX7 that were definitely considered cool. And then there was our School president that had a ’67 Cougar, that most guys, even the non-car guys, thought was cool too.
I agree with Paul’s comment above about the the ’72 Skylark definitely wasn’t a cool car in 1972. I wasn’t car shopping then, but my dad was. He was a young professional just starting out in his career. He and his friends were pretty cool, and were into the local music scene. Most of them drove Chevs, Fords and Plymouths simply because he grew up in a blue collar neighborhood and that’s what they could afford (most of them stayed blue collar unlike my dad). I remember asking him about what he shopped for in ’72 and asked why he didn’t look at the Chevelle. I owned one as a teenager and I though it was a very cool car. He said the Chevelle was not cool to him. It was an also ran by ’72, and he thought the styling was boring and boxy. He said he would have considered one in ’68 or ’69, but not by ’72. He did look at the Camaro and the Monte Carlo at the Chevy dealer, both of which he considered cooler cars than the Chevelle. He wanted a Camaro but it was too small, and so he moved up to the Monte Carlo, skipping the Chevelle, as it was definitely an “in” car during this time. He also looked at the Satellite Sebring Plus at Plymouth, which he though had cool styling but ultimately settled on a Gran Torino Sport fastback, which despite the disdain it receives today, definitely had cool styling for ’72 (at least to my dad and his friends).
All that said, to answer you original question, is this ’72 Skylark cool? Yes, to me it is very cool and I’d gladly give it a new home.
Vince, thank you so much for this. You’ve got me thinking that shiny black paint could make a lot of otherwise-uncool vehicles actually look cool. I’m envisioning a ’72 Buick Skylark four-door in black, like your family’s car, and I don’t see dowdy at all. Granted, it wasn’t a coupe, but I see it more like a mini-Electra. Black adds a no-nonsense factor to many cars.
I also liked and agreed with your observation that pre-’74 cars (you mentioned pre-’73) were cool by not having the big bumpers. Some ’73s with the larger front bumpers were okay, but yeah – ’74 did in the looks of many cars in my mind, though I like many of them now, decades removed from when they were common beater cars.
Also and for the record, the ’69 Chevelle is my favorite. I do like the ’70 – ’72 Chevelles, but the ’69s (and ’68s) are first-choice for me.
My first car at 17 was a 70 Skylark 2 hardtop with the 350. Eight years new and about 50,000 miles. I think the color was nutmeg with a biege vinyl interior. Nice memories…I put Keystone Klassic wheels with 60 series white letter tires on it to cool it up and fill the awkward rear wheel wells. In retrospect, with those body lines, it wasn’t cool at all, but I didn’t know at the time.
I could totally see the color scheme of yours – that sounds so Buick. And I think Keystones with white-letter tires would look quite fetching on one of these. As far as I’m concerned, and when I started high school about ten years after you had your Skylark, that would have been the look.
Thansk for saying that…I certainly thought it was fetching. At the time most in my town would put chrome Crager’s on their Chevelles and Lemans, but I thought a Buick should have something “classier” so got the Keystones. Don’t ask me to explain how white letter tires are classier…it was the 70’s.
You must have lived in a firendlier climate than I…my hometown was so cold with salt ridden roads (I left it 35 years ago and I ain’t going back) that my Buick would have never made it another 10 years to your world!
Flint, Michigan had plenty of road salt in winter. I think many people who drove cars from this era by the early ’90s did so with a lot of Bondo and elbow grease.
Flint would be right up there…I was just a couple hours away across the border. Rust was enough of a menace in 78…bondo would be the only thing holding them together in the 90’s. Impressive!
While not a “72, Mike’s Skylark in “Breaking Away” was definitely cool (as was the actor playing Mike, Dennis Quaid).
Tatty, noisy and rude, the car reflected it’s owner’s public persona as a has been high school football star. In contrast, the roof mounted rack carrying his best friend’s bike demonstrated loyalty to his tribe. A perfect vehicle choice for a very cool character.
Dave, I love a movie reference, and while I’ve never seen “Breaking Away”, I feel like I now need to hit the ol’ IMDb to read up.
Breaking Away…the quintessential coming of age movie for my generation’s little slice of time. It really resonated with my pals (the male ones at least) who were 17 that year (1979), graduating high school, wearing those short-short athletic shorts that were the fashion back then (oy!), and obsessively riding our 10-speed racing bikes, dreaming of Italy…or pretty much anywhere where we weren’t.
I haven’t seen it in years, and wonder how well it holds up.
Not cool in ’72 but this Skylark would be cool in ’22.
I own a “cool” car … a ’70 Plymouth Sport Fury GT that I bought in ’80 for 550 dollars … at the time it was a tired used car and wasn’t cool. I’ve been its second owner for going on 42 years.
Its 440 would have no trouble towing our ’74 Airstream Overlander in ’22 … and today, that’s what I would consider “cool.”
Randy, a ’70 Sport Fury GT with those hidden headlights and Fuselage stance sounds way cool. Kudos to you for hanging onto yours!
I’d forgotten the black rubber taillight surrounds on the ’72, and how dorky it made the car look then. Little did we know, soon cars without rubber strips would be the uncool stripos with bare bumper bolts.
The 4 door hardtops are likely the rarest A bodies now, but that doesn’t mean they’re higher priced. I doubt the sedans were deepsixed by shakes, rattles, sagging doors, and failed weatherstripping as often.
Ralph, I had to check my auto encyclopedia before typing this, because I honestly didn’t know if the Sportwagon was still being made by ’72, but it was! With about 12,500 produced for ’71, and about 14,400 made for ’72. I wonder how many of those have survived. I’m really trying to remember the last time I saw one, even at a show.
Adam at Rare Classic Cars sometimes quotes a source (whose name escapes me) that tells him how many cars of a particular model are currently registered in the US. That would be fun to look at, but I’m sure it isn’t free.
My parents ordered a Century wagon in Jan. 73, but we’d have been better off starting earlier and getting a ’72 Sportwagon, because the emissions controls sucked, as did the first-year build quality. The heavy duty suspension made the body and frameless windows shudder and squeak. My mother decided an Estate Wagon was just too big and the clamshell too complex.
I wouldn’t say that these cars were cool when they were new. I was in high school in the early 1970’s. There was too much cool competition; all the muscle cars, pony cars, even sports cars like the Cobra, Datsun Z, and 911. Looking back in hindsight, by the 2000’s almost any intermediate two door, V8 equipped hard top, fits the general public’s mental template of a “muscle car.” Therefore most would now see this Buick as “cool.”
Was I cool in h.s? No, but I just did my thing then, and have tried to keep doing it into old age. Funny on how being cool just didn’t seem important the further h.s receded in Life’s rear view mirror. My 50 year reunion is coming up next year, I’ll try to make it.
Jose, I’m glad you’re going to try to make it to your 50-year. I think it’s so great to have the opportunity to do such things in person, especially after all of the isolation and lack of in-person interaction many of us felt in 2020.
I also agree with your assessment at the end of your first paragraph. Very much so.
My cousin in law who lives next door has a GS, not sure what year exactly. My uncle used to work at the plant in Framingham which built these along with Oldmobile and Pontiac intermeditates at the time.
GM Framingham. 🙁
Looks like a mall now…like everything else in Framingham.
I like that there’s a family connection there, with your uncle having worked at the Framingham plant. I think I’d be interested in buying a classic car built at one of Flint’s many plants, but that list is somewhat limited in terms of what I’d actually want. Maybe a ’70 Monte Carlo or a Buick Riviera in certain generations.
Hello Joseph, great essay as usual. I totally look forward to reading them!
I just want to say that I see a lot of 1968/69 Buick Skylark styling in the current Chevy Malibu. It has a very similar “sweep spear” on the sides, as well as the straight line that runs from the back to the beginning of the rear doors. I also wonder why Chevy started using that sweep spear on the Malibu. Maybe Buick should have used it on their boring crossovers and SUVs.
Neither the 68/69 Skylark 4 door, or the current Malibu are “cool cars”….But, last night at my neighborhood WaWa, I saw some very cool looking 20 year old kids get out of a new Malibu which actually looked kind of cool.
NOTE: Wawa is a chain of gas station / convenience stores that we have here in New Jersey. Oh yeah, we get our gas pumped from attendants as it’s illegal for us to pump our own gas!!
Thank you so much! I hadn’t made the connection between the current Malibu and the ’68 / ’69 Skylark and the side-sweep before you mentioned it, but I totally see it.
As far as the new Malibu being cool, I’ll say I’ve seen some in black with an option package (RS?) that didn’t embarrass itself from a looks perspective. I rented a standard Malibu maybe three years ago, and while I wouldn’t call it cool, it was definitely capable and somewhat stylish.
And I know about Wawa. LOL They have those down in SW Florida where I used to spend time. The name always struck me funny.
Since you’re familiar with WaWa’s, I thought you may like to know that
“Wawa” is a Native American word for the Canada Goose.
Also, our WaWa’s here in New Jersey (and all our gas stations for that matter) are the best because we do not have to pump our own gas!!!!
I am a bit older than you, so when I was in high school the previous generation of these was around. One guy a year behind me drove a GS 400, which would have been very cool, except his dad owned the largest Pontiac/Buick dealership in Toronto, which somehow diminished the “coolness” of it.
I only knew one person who owned this series. She was a friend of my mother’s who was a doctor (and my pediatrician). She drove a series of these, all 4 doors as I remember, from the 60s on. She was a very smart and accomplished woman, but she was not particularly cool. I do remember that they all had big V8s as she was always in a hurry.
Thanks for another enjoyable read.
Thanks, Mike. Thinking of your acquaintance with the GS400, maybe part of the diminished cool factor might have been with the fact that despite his dad owning such a large dealership, the GS (no slouch, mind you) was his pick of that entire range of cars. I think of Pontiac being the youth-oriented brand, and Buick being on the opposite end of the spectrum – at least in my perception of that time period.
A little late to the party here.
I was 20 in 1972; it seems almost like yesterday, but now 50 years have gone by?
These Skylark coupes may not have been Steve McQueen cool, but they were certainly Joe Sixpack cool in my opinion. The 1968-69 versions were off-putting to many, with their exaggerated sweepspears, “pointy parabolic” C-pillars, and taillights buried in the rear bumper. I liked them though, both then and now, a guilty pleasure.
GM obviously got the memo and homogenized the styling of all the A-body coupes by 1970; the Buick sweepspears were gone, and 3 of the 4 car lines (all but the Cutlass) had very similar C-pillar shapes, of the type first used on the ’68 LeMans/GTO.
This particular ’72 in pale yellow looks to be in exceedingly fine condition!
When I read your comment about the passage of time, it struck me that while I was writing about my time as a teenager at The Cruise with all of that (illegal) drag racing by that old, empty GM factory, I remembered those nights like they were only a handful of years ago. In my mind’s nose, I can even smell the hair products I was using at the time. From three decades ago.
I really like how purposefully the Buick’s A-body’s styling was squared up for ’70 through ’72. And I would drive this ’72 all day long. The only way I’d have liked it better from a visual standpoint is if it had those Buick Rallye Wheels on it.
My first car was a 72 skylark 2 door. Dark green, vinyl top. Never should have got rid of it. Definitely very cool.
That first car one feels that kind of connection with is always a touchstone. Dark green was a great color for these ’72s.
In my early 20s when these came out. Seems like when new they were popular with young couples, young families, and single women. We bought a ’72 Skylark 4 dr as a family car from the Buick dealer, 5 yrs used and with 39k miles, 350 2bbl. It was a great all-purpose car but in a weird (for a 4 dr) Flame Orange color with white painted roof, it was definitely not cool, but it did serve us well for 3 years until traded for a wagon as the family grew.
Now that you mention it, it makes total sense to me that this car would appeal to smaller, younger families who want something more sensibly sized than a traditional full-sized car. Like one of these Skylarks, versus a more “popular-priced”, lower-end full size Chevrolet.
That Flame Orange is a very vivid, in-your-face hue, and to your point, kind of an atypical option for a four-door, but I like it for having existed. On the coupe (like the one I wrote about back in 2017), I think it looks festive and, yes, cool.
Buicks may have been solid, elegant, classy and fashionable, but cool? Never. They were perfectly fine conservative cars for conservative people. The epitome of upper middle class values and culture. Rivieras were nice, but something not-so-cool, middle aged, divorced men with white belts bought to lure women. Even when Buick entered the muscle car era with the GS 400, it was geared to an older, wealthier demographic. Or something a rich executive might buy as a high school graduation present for his spoiled son. A cool guy that scrimped and saved to buy a new muscle car in the late sixties bought a GTO or SS 396. Now those were cool cars. A Buick Skylark? You’ve got to be kidding. My dowdy, elderly Aunt Mary had one. That alone forever precludes its consideration.
I kind of like that Buick was, and always seems to have been, “The Gap” of GM divisions. I wonder if I had never strayed from my preppy, high school leanings if I would have gravitated toward Buicks or cars like them.
In the Australia of my teen years this would have been cool, simply by virtue of being American. It was huge (in our eyes), it had two doors, it was a V8, ergo it was cool. The colour, that would have been a shame; the fact that it was a Buick – I’m trying to think – depending how much of a car nerd you were, that probably wouldn’t be held against it. Oldsmobile sounded funny; Buick was good.
But what would I know? I was an introverted bookworm/brainiac that nobody ever saw socially, and therefore probably the epitome of uncool. As if I cared. 🙂
I like the idea that the context of a car’s origin would affect its cool-factor, which I completely agree with. It’s why cars like the Ford Capri and Opel Manta, being captive imports, had that cool-factor built right in. (Didn’t hurt that the Capri was especially good-looking for a small car.)
By contrast, and I hate to say it, the Australian-built Capri of the early ’90s was just short of being cool. It had one toe over to cool. It just paled next to the Miata.
Don’t hate to say it just because I’m Australian, I didn’t think they were cool!
I had a 1972 Custom Buick Skylark 2 Dr/ Black Vinyl top., color gold exterior. Put Keystone rims with air shocks in back. I was 19yrs old and my wife loved it. Wish I had kept it. I never got a picture of it. Couldn’t afford a camera back then.