I saw this Buick Colonnade out of the corner of my eye, and immediately made a U-turn to take a set of pictures. We’ve had a run on Buicks lately, but that’s not intentional- The universe provides us cars as it will, and we take their pictures. This time the universe gave us a really clean example. Even more exciting, it’s the relatively rare four door model instead of the typical ’70’s GM mid-sized coupe.
I’m not super clear on the correct name for this Buick- In the ’75 brochure, the intermediates are all under the “Century” header, and the upscale models are referred to as “Century Regal.” However, the only nameplate on the vehicle is Regal, and I’ve never heard an owner talking about their Century Regal. To keep things simple, I’m just going to call it a Regal.
As a side note, model year 1975 marked the return of the Buick V-6 to Buick intermediates. Checking the records, about 75% of the production used a V-8 (and some sources say all Regals did), making it likely this car packs a 2 bbl or 4 bbl Buick 350.
Buick built this car during my freshman year in high school, and at the time I wouldn’t have given it a second look. Taking a close look today, I’m shocked that GM allowed that huge gap between the base of the B-pillar and the door skins. I understand the pillar is fixed in place, while the doors need to move, but surely that was a better solution than the lateral chasm the builders settled on- It looks like the B-pillar has broken free of the body and is just hovering there.
GM made actual changes to the Colonnades from year to year, allowing us to nail down the year and model even without that big “Regal” badge in the grille. While the ’73, ’74, and ’75 Regals all used round headlamps and similar grilles, this squarer front fascia is unique to 1975. The Regal four door then switched to square headlights in ’76, so this is clearly a ’75.
This chart represents a big picture overview- GM used additional model names for the Colonnades including SS, 442, GS, GTO, and Malibu Classic
To see how this four door fit into the hierarchy, let’s review the Colonnade model line. To start with, Chevy and Pontiac used a straightforward approach. The four doors and fastback two doors shared a common name, while the formal coupe had an entirely different name along with unique sheet metal.
Buick and Oldsmobile took a different approach. Oldsmobile hung Cutlass on all cars, but added additional identifiers as you moved up in trim level. The base coupe came as a base or “S” version, while the formal coupe came in Supreme or Salon varieties.
Buick sort of split the difference- They called base cars the Century, and upper trim levels the Regal. However, the formal coupe used both Regal or Century, the only formal roofed coupe using a base model name.
Both Olds and Buick used similar front clips for the standard and formal models, but the higher end cars had slightly more length (all in the clip).
While the driver side of this Regal looks pretty good, the rear shows a bit of age. In typical GM fashion, the Los Angeles UV and ozone have busted up the bumper fill panel. Somewhere along the line, the trunk has also picked up a solid whack, which reshaped the lid and messed up the fit.
The interior looks very good. I believe that fine looking wood trim and pull strap on the door panels also identify this as a Regal, rather than just a base Century.
If you haven’t noticed, back in 1975, interiors were offered in bright and unusual colors. I’m not a huge fan of avocado, but it’s a nice change from black. I’m sure we’ll hear some love for it in the comments.
In 1976, Buick updated the sheet metal on their coupes, and squared off the body lines. The lower volume sedans would carry this (curvier? bolder?) sheet metal through 1977. I mention this because all ’73-’75 models used unique door and fender sheet metal from brand to brand, but the ’77 and ’78 Cutlass and Century/Regal coupes shared the same doors and fenders (loosing that big sweeping character line), an early cost cutting measure and another step towards badge engineering.
Sadly, the passenger’s side is as rough as the rear view. Still, for a 44 year old car, the overall condition is good. However, there’s several weaknesses pulling down it’s desirability and value.
1) It’s a Buick Regal.
2) It’s a four door sedan.
3) It has almost no options (notice the lack of a vinyl top or passenger’s door rear view mirror).
Of course, it could be worse- it’s a sedan, but not a Century V-6!
Every car has a story, and often times the story is etched into the body. Here on the passenger’s side, there’s a series of nicks on the front door, and a different series on the rear door. Speaking as an amateur automotive archaeologist, I believe those marks tell us this car was typically parked on the left side of a garage. Furthermore, over the past 44 years the doors of two different vehicles have left their unique imprints. What I can’t explain is why the door ding trim is missing/beat to hell.
To close out, I’ll show this close up of the left rear fender and discuss a few points on GM quality. As has been said many times, GM assembly and material quality started to slide through the seventies, which this image mostly reinforces. I’ve already mentioned the dissolving fill panels, and I’ll note the failure to center the Regal badge over the marker light. On the other hand, the chrome trim around the marker light has held up very nicely, a small victory for GM.
Still, automotive archaeology is an inexact science, and I’m sure I’ve missed a few observations- feel free to use the comments box to weigh in with your own thoughts. D/S
Kojak
… and nothing even came close.
I mean Sopranos, Breaking Bad, stuff like that. This is all made up. Kojak was reality.
My first thought. Of course, Kojak’s car came with a 455
At least there are no visible lolly pop wrappers.
Never understood why some people try to preserve detaching trim strips with band-aids and scotch tape. And it’s never just a temporary fix, they always drive like that for years. If it’s falling off, either repair it properly or just remove it already.
I like unpretentious, everyday cars like this. It was a good car in its day and it was good enough to survive against the odds. At car shows, I walk right past the restored muscle cars and linger around cars like this Buick, once so common and now so seldom seen.
I can attest to the GM stick on side trim strips being terrible. About JC Whitney quality. Most of them fell off or were hanging half off after a few years. Another one of those little crappy quality issues that put GM on the path of losing dominance over the market.
Oh, I know. They fell off my Monte Carlo too. But I simply left them off and cleaned up the residue for a nice clean look. I would never try to preserve them with tape.
This car appears to be just an appliance- even available with avocado interior. The B pillar gap is odd, something I’ve never really noticed. I believe only the colonnade Buick 4dr had the rear door handles lower than the front. I like the colonnade 4 door’s six window greenhouse, it gives it a modern look, if it were not for the taillight placement I would be a big fan of the wagons too.
“I believe only the colonnade Buick 4dr had the rear door handles lower than the front.”
On the Buick, there’s the sharp character line terminating in the center of the door, but there’s also a second, subtle character line running at an angle down to the tail lights. The designers must have moved the handle to avoid mounting it on this curved surface.
I hadn’t noticed the placement of the rear door handles until you mentioned it here. Wow. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the taillamp placement on the wagons and El Caminos.
Almost no options? for a 1975 family car, p/w & p/l were pretty heady stuff. Plus, I’m going out on a limb to wager there is a/c, probably a Delco AM/FM radio, tilt and maybe even…(quivering)… cruise control! Almost nothing came with a passenger side mirror back then and the seats are cloth, not vinyl. The interior looks like a time capsule. This sucker is loaded!. I will concede the lack of vinyl top is strange, but probably one of the things that saved the car. And how about that color combo?! light bronze with olive interior. Yikes! even for the mid 70’s, why? I’ve got to admit. It is one ugly undesirable car. I’m glad it is still around and being used though. Thank you for sharing it. One of my favorite cars from the 70″s was a 76 or 77 regal coupe my dad brought home as a demo one day. Red…not maroon… Red with red bucket seat interior, T-tops, chrome Buick Rally wheels on white lettered tires. Gorgeous car!
“for a 1975 family car, p/w & p/l were pretty heady stuff. Plus, I’m going out on a limb to wager there is a/c, probably a Delco AM/FM radio, tilt and maybe even…(quivering)… cruise control!”
Your statement highlights a generational difference- Since I didn’t start buying new cars until everything was put into trim packages, nothing on your list stands out as unique, especially on a top of the line Regal.
Agree Jeff.
I was looking at 1980’s Lesabre B-Bodies and even in the 1980’s it was hard to find one with power windows. This car was ordered by someone that really wanted all of the creature comforts without going full on Brougham.
Buick also wanted to up-charge everybody that wanted power windows into a Park Ave or Electra but that’s another story.
Agree that this particular Regal is well-equipped by the standards of that time.
Given that the original purchaser splurged for power windows and door locks (a big deal on an intermediate sedan during the 1970s), it’s surprising that the car was not also ordered with a divided bench seat.
Yeah this car is pretty well loaded up with lots of options visible in the pictures and I’m sure several we can’t see.
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Buick/1975_Buick/1975_Buick_Brochure/1975%20Buick-61.html
I actually had to google how these looked from the back as a refresher on how the fill missing fill panels looks originally. It’s weird they had a seam separating them from the intact upper pieces, you’d think they’d just use taillights that wrap around the sides, which could in effect replace the separate side markers as well. That’s exactly how it looks with them missing, I thought the taillight lenses were broken.
I kind of have a love/hate with the Buick Collonades, they had arguably the best body styling with the deeply sculpted body sweep, possibly the greatest use of that classic Buick hallmark since the 40s, but I never cared for any front end design they had, the headlights are too close to the edges, the marker lights are clunky and seemingly placed at random, and the grille too small and boxy for the real estate. I mean this was still better than the stacked headlight facelift, but not by much. Say what you will about GM interior quality in this era, Collonades had really nice looking driver centric dashboards.
Is it just me or does the 4th picture look like the 350z across the street is actually a 1:12 scale model placed on the wall in front of the Buick?
That fill panel was itself a filler for the previous ’73 bumper design, which was much better integrated into the fender (see attached). I remember as a kid being fascinated by how cars were put together and how things changed from year-to-year. The integration of 5 MPH bumpers, and the ways in which panels were re-jigged or oddly filled in to accommodate them brought about a lot of odd and quirky “design elements”. Considering the collonades debuted in ’73, you’d think the rear bumper requirements coming in ’74 would have resulted in these solutions being “baked in” from the start, but apparently not.
Not that it makes much difference, but the Colonnades were originally supposed to debut for the 1972 model year. They were delayed for a year by the UAW strike against GM in the fall of 1970.
The Ford intermediates were all-new for 1972, and the front of the Torino still had to be completely restyled for 1973 to accommodate the 5-mph bumper. The rear was then restyled for 1974.
So neither GM nor Ford appeared to be thinking too far ahead when they styled their early 1970s intermediates – at least when it came to meeting the looming bumper standards.
Keep in mind the flexible fill panels were part of the 5 mph bumper system. The bumper was required to withstand a 5 mph impact with no or little damage, so that was a cosmetic solution to fill the gap between the bumper and the body. When the bumper was pushed in the fillers would flex and return to their original shape instead of sustaining damage. At least as long as the were still flexible. Today we have plastic bumper covers that cover the complete front and rear and perform the same job as the fillers did back in the day. Plastic technology has come a long ways.
Power windows and locks were in the minority for that time period. It does have air conditioning, but that was common for California.
If you can believe the rear license frame, the owner/driver is a ‘Super Mom’.
Nice survivor and a good write up.
What I never could quite understand with these flexible fill panels is why so many mid 70s Firebirds, Camaros, Corvettes, Grand Ams, Chevelle Lagunas to have their full plastic bumper/noses pretty much intact despite examples of the cars themselves clearly being in a dilapidated state?
In the case of this Buick it’s clearly taken a bit of a beating in the behind a few times, but I see them so many times, especially on Cadillacs, where they’re broken or missing on cars that are totally cherry in condition. Did they use a different kind of plastic?
Yes they seemed to have used a different formulation on the flexible filler panels for the Cadillacs than the other brands. Not sure what the difference was but only the Cadillacs pretty much all desinegrated by the time they were a dozen or so years old. My 75 Buick Limited were in great condition in the early 00’s and that thing had sat out side since 85.
Full-size Oldsmobiles from that era (including the Toronado) generally have the cracked, broken or completely missing filler panels, too.
That GS is sharp
“Is it just me or does the 4th picture look like the 350z across the street is actually a 1:12 scale model placed on the wall in front of the Buick?”
+1
That interior is in amazing shape. I do wonder if it was until recently still with its original owner who probably had seat covers. Then passed down to a grandchild who removed the covers.
My thoughts also.
I test drove a 1975 Buick Special colonnade coupe, brand new, at the local Buick store at the end of the model year. It was a V6. They were offering a terrific deal on it – probably because nobody would buy the V6 version. It was a real dog!
The V6 engine in that 1975 Buick was basically the same engine that Buick introduced in 1962, sold to Kaiser Jeep, and then bought back. It was simply the 1961 90-degree aluminum-block V8 cast in iron and with two cylinders chopped-off. It was a rough-running beast that rocked back-and-forth on its engine mounts. It was several years before they redesigned it and turned it into the much-improved 3800 engine.
End to the story:
A week or two after the test drive, several ’76 colonnade coupes appeared in the dealer lot, so I ordered one with a 350 V8. The styling was much nicer, the power was better and that car gave me great service. I put on 192,000 miles before a truck cracked into it. Why did I buy a Buick? Because I was coming off a ’73 Fiat….
I had a ride in one with the V6. Gutless and such an odd ever-present vibration, exactly as you’d imagine a V8 with two dead cylinders would feel.
The whole body is curved, gracious and fluid but then the designer done the front grille with a set square.
My biggest beef with the Colonnades is the frameless windows. After a year or two they would rattle due to the weak tracks and shrinking/deteriorating weather stripping.
I would have loved to have seen this one in person. I remember that copper color that came out in 1975 on GM cars. A buddy’s dad bought a used 75 Custom Cruiser in that shade. That color faded terribly, into the kind of muddy metallic tan seen here.
It would not surprise me that the interior was some kind of tan which has faded. The greens they were using then were definite green, though fairly light. GM interiors had issues with fading in those years. In any case, it is in amazingly good condition inside.
I agree with some others, the Buick sedans were the best looking through all of the years. I am partial to the 74-75 Pontiac, but don’t care for the other years.
Here is the green
That brocade upholstery is beautiful!
And it’s probably a low-trim-level choice, judging by the lack of woodgrain on the dash!
I agree that looks like the tan that has faded to green.
Ah yes, you can tell the fading. Each panel is a little different shade than the others. A GM hallmark.
Bob
I was a senior in high school when the Colonnades came out, and I still remember Road & Track being quite favorable towards the Pontiac GrandAm and Olds Cutlass Salon 4 doors. But I think the Buick looked the best, and in general I still find the Colonnade 4 doors to have lasted well, at least aesthetically.
I mention this because all ’73-’75 models used unique door and fender sheet metal from brand to brand, but the ’77 and ’78 Cutlass and Century/Regal coupes shared the same doors and fenders (loosing that big sweeping character line), an early cost cutting measure and another step towards badge engineering.
The new doors on the ’76-’77 Cutlass and Century/Regal coupes were shared, but not the fenders. Oldsmobile wheel openings were squared off a bit, while Buick’s were rounded and tapered toward the rear. The Cutlass coupe rear fenders also incorporated a vertical character line below the B pillar, a styling touch found on several Oldsmobiles in the ’70s and early ’80s.
Still have my Corgi Kojak car from back in the day, in the same color.
Back in the fall of ’75, I was driven to school every other day in my neighbor’s ’75 Century sedan, a plain, light tan car with an interesting backstory. It was supplied by a leasing company owned by the father’s brother. Both were local mobsters, and it subsequently turned out he was equipping his leasing business outside Pittsburgh with cars stolen in Cleveland and Buffalo. He got to spend some time in the Lewisburg, PA federal pen, soon joined by his brother, convicted of torching his wife’s restaurant for the insurance money.
We moved shortly afterwards…
A ’75 Century 2 door with the v6 and some minor modifications/upgrades to the engine and it will be smooth as silk and quite powerful. 20+ mpg is easily attainable, much higher with careful habits. People complaining about lack of power don’t know the potential of those big cylinders :). Same displacement of the 350 but can rev much higher. Suspension upgrade is cheap and easy and these beasts will handle better than most cars on the road.