(first posted 3/26/2012) First things first: I like these cars. The downsized 1986 Riviera was a little too downsized, and its resemblance to the N-body Somerset/Skylark made matters worse. While I didn’t care much for the 1986-88 Rivieras, I really liked the ’89s. Considering all the ’89-’93 Rivieras I remember seeing when new, it seems that new car shoppers did, too.
The Riviera was introduced in 1963 as the first personal-luxury Buick. It was classic Bill Mitchell styling, and was characterized as an American Jaguar by many when new. The beautiful styling and luxurious yet sporty interiors were a great combination and many well-to-do buyers took home a Riviera.
For the remainder of the Sixties, the Rivieras always announced themselves with smooth lines and good taste, and the GS option turned the Riviera into a banker’s hot rod.
The 1971s were redesigned, featuring the love it or hate it boat tail design. Though not nearly as restrained or elegant as the 1963-65 Rivieras (many would call it unrestrained), it still said Bill Mitchell in a big way, especially that Corvette Sting Ray-inspired roof and backlight.
For 1974, the polarizing boattail and swoopy roofline were gone. A conventional roof with de rigueur opera windows was grafted onto the 1971-73 body, and a subdued bustleback was added to the rear deck.
The downsized 1977 Rivieras were all new and had even more in common with the B/C-body LeSabre/Electra, clean lines notwithstanding. The little-changed ’78s were the last rear wheel drive Rivieras.
The other E-body coupes had switched to front wheel drive in 1966, and while the Riviera had much in common with the Eldorado and Toronado, they remained rear wheel drive. In 1979 the redesigned Riviera finally joined their corporate cousins, adding fwd to a handsome new exterior.
Throughout the Seventies, the Riviera remained a big, impressive car with a V8 (or an available 3.8L turbo V6 in ’79), plush interiors and styling that, while not always to everyone’s taste, said “I am a luxury car.” That changed with the 1986 models.
The 1986 Riviera was the most-changed Riviera ever, and a much of it was a downgrade from Rivieras of the past. Although it had worthwhile improvements such as a transverse engine, better space utilization and front wheel drive, most folks could not get past the styling, and wondered why the top-of-the-line Buick now could no longer be had with a V8. It was twenty inches shorter than the 1985 model. I think the styling was all right up to the B pillar, but the tiny sail panel and chopped-off rear deck did not say luxury car, Buick, or Riviera.
The primary reason the ’86 Rivieras turned out the way they did is a result of the second gas crisis of 1979. A lot of people were worried that it was going to happen over and over, and that gas prices were going to go up to $2 per gallon ($6.27 adjusted). As a result, GM ordered all their new designs to be drastically downsized, and the ’86 Riviera and its Eldorado and Toronado siblings were the result of extreme fuel efficiency. Of course, that gas price spike didn’t occur, and GM was stuck with luxury vehicles that didn’t look it.
If that wasn’t enough, the new for ’85 Somerset coupe looked an awful lot like the Riviera, despite its much lower price tag. Sales tanked accordingly, to the tune of 22,138 ’86s, 15,223 ’87s and a mere 8625 in 1988. Despite a smooth 3800 V6, 4-speed Turbo Hydramatic and very nice driving dynamics, something had to be done about the styling, or the Riviera was done for.
Fortunately, the 1989 Riviera was much more appealing car. While the 108″ wheelbase was unchanged, the rear deck was extended by 11″ and the C-pillar was wider, much more in step with a Buick-like appearance. Sales of the ’89 model were much improved, with 21,189 sold.
Not much was new for 1990, but the Riviera got a new instrument panel, which it shared with the two-seater Reatta. A driver’s side airbag was also new. I think the new design really worked, and it’s what the Riviera should have looked like in ’86. Despite the attractive new styling, Buick had been hurt by the 1986 Riviera, as the design turned off lots of buyers. Hopefully some of them came back and bought an ’89-’93 Riv, but many most likely looked elsewhere.
One interesting feature of the ’86-’89 Rivieras was the first touch-screen computer in an automobile. It included air conditioning and sound system settings, as well as a trip computer and diagnostic functions. While very cutting-edge for the 1980s, it was a very complicated system. When it worked, it worked great, but if anything went awry, fixing it was a very expensive proposition. The redesigned ’89s had this feature for just one year, and then it went away.
Rivieras received only minor changes through the end of this generation. Only 4555 were built in 1993, the last year, though they were only built through December 1992. A lot of people thought this was the end of the Riviera, but Buick had one more trick up its sleeve, and an all-new version would debut for 1995 with an available supercharged 3800 V6.
I found this Riviera the same day as the ’72 MGB GT. As soon as I parked I noticed it, as it was the nicest ’89-’93 Riviera I had seen in years. It looked showroom-new. I also really liked the turbine-spoke aluminum wheels, as 90% of these Rivieras seemed to have the wire wheel covers. As I was taking the photos, the owner came out of the store. He was a super nice guy and loves his Riviera. Friends of his bought it brand-new at McEleney Buick-Cadillac in 1989 – it cost $27,000. He always told them he wanted to buy the car when they were ready to sell it. When the husband passed away, it was seldom driven and usually sat in the garage. When the lady bought a new Lucerne, he called her up and said, “How about selling me the Riviera?” He said to tell him how much and he’d write her a check.
When he bought it it had 89,000 miles on it; today it has 120,000. He hit a deer with it a while back and was afraid the insurance company was going to total it, but it was fixed better than new. Parts are hard to find for these cars, but he found the alloy wheels and replaced the chrome grille and some other exterior trim with NOS parts. He’s taken excellent care of it and it shows.
The 1986 was hurt by its economy car styling, but the 1989 redesign saved it, and may have contributed to Buick’s moving forward with the last generation 1995-99 Riviera. I can only wonder how much more Rivieras would have sold if the ’89 model had come out in ’86. We’ll never know.
I’ll take one of those, with alloys, sans touch screen and vinyl roof.
One appealing constant for Buicks in the ’60s-’70s was that many had factory Magnum 500s with whitewalls. The deep, sculpted and polished rim makes an expensive-looking contrast with the mostly-black hub. It strikes the right note; it says this is not a muscle car, but not a frilly boat anchor, either.
I realize the FWD fake wire cover is becoming for me like Zackman’s fixed quarter windows! It just says “I give up” on a nice car, and “I am delusional” on a cheap one.
Wow, this is a beautifully kept example! It would look nice in my garage…
I remember when the ’89’s came out my dad and I both agreed, saying “that’s more like it”, even though it still was no 1985 Riviera. That will remain an all-time favorite.
These were the best styled of that severe downsizing but I still prefer the previous generation when Oldsmobile was mimicking the coffin nosed Cord, Buick was all “million dollar grin” and the Eldoroado would have been perfection with better engines.
That candy-apple red color was splendid on those cars. White looked mighty fine as well. I saw a few of these around our neighborhood back then and I just kinda scratched my head and wondered: Why? Why would anyone fall for this, but I was never a luxury car fan, even though we owned a very beautiful 1984 Chrysler E-Class, but I still hated GM at the time and remained solidly in Chrysler’s camp for over another 15 years.
However—the Buick Reatta ingnited a small spark in me that grew with the Roadmaster sedan, later the Aurora and the last-gen Riviera…the rest is history.
Thanks for the good write-up. Considering what they had to work with, these were a big improvement over the 86’s.
You skipped over two generations – the 1977-78 B-body based model, which IMO was duil as can be, and the 1979-85, which really was a bullseye. Great looking car, sold very well, only to be replaced by the sad 1986. Maybe you want to insert a bit about each of those as well as a picture?
We covered the 77-78 here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1977-78-buick-riviera-a-short-life-in-hard-times/
We haven’t gotten to the 79-85 version yet.
Yes, I enjoyed the CC on the 77-78. I just thought that since the rest of the line’s models were here, the inclusion of the other two would make a more complete picture.
I see they’re added now – thanks, Tom.
I’m surprised that I so rarely see the ’79-’85 versions — in fact, while I’ve seen various Eldorados of that vintage and even a Toronado, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Riv of that generation on the street in Los Angeles. I suppose this was not exactly their market (by that time, well-to-do Angelenos were too enamored of zee Germans), but it still strikes me as odd, particularly since I’ve seen everything from a Zimmer Quicksilver to a Citroën 2CV6 (on the freeway, even).
Curious, as I seem to remember the ’79 – ’85 Rivieras as fairly common in CA back in the day.
I have a gem of one that I shot on the street here; guess I’ll have to get on it one of these days.
What’s particularly odd is that I’ve seen more ’86-’88 Rivieras around here — someone in my area has or had a white ’86 Riviera T-Type.
There’s a somewhat battered white Eldorado of the ’79-’85 generation parked not 300 yards from here and someone at my gym has a black one that looks quite nice on the outside but has an engine that’s either a diesel, very sick or perhaps both.
Maybe, I’m in CA, and there is one up my street, That is 1980ish, driven by an elderly couple to Ralphs, CVS… It looks like they’ve owned it since new, it matches their beige-yellowish house. Too Bad About The Missing Plastic extentions out to the bumper, which have long fallen off, giving the car a squared off look.
If I ever can learn To Take Pictures and Then Upload Them I’ll let you know.
Thanks. Especially for covering all the models. I Love The Niche Models we see so little of today.
The 79-85 Rivs were everywhere in my area at one time. There were 3 Rivs and 1 Eldo in our High School lot around 90-91. They all had “thumpin” systems and reeked of Coconut air freshener too.. Ugh.
Yes, I was also going to say that the extremely successful 1979-85 should be shown here to complete the story, and the 1977-78 too, although that was a very minor footnote to the story. Also, the Riviera did go to front wheel drive in 1979, so they didn’t quite make it through the ’70s with the RWD/V8 configuration. The 1979 was a very successful solution to the downsizing challenge. That it was so popular was one of the reasons the shrunken 1986 had such a drastic reception. As for me, I would actually rather have one of the 1986-88s (rather than the 89-93), just for the weirdness factor and compact size!
Right, I knew the ’79 was fwd but it didn’t register as I was writing the post; text amended. I’ve also updated the post with pics/info on the ’77 and ’79. Enjoy!
I didn’t think the ’77-’78 versions were as dull as dishwater. They had good engines, very good handling, 4-wheel disc brakes and sumptuous interiors. Their main failing, as a stopgap between the ’76 models and the totally new front-drive ’79s, was that they just looked too much like the lesser Lesabre coupes. Once again, not enough differentiation, but you can kinda understand GM’s reluctance to put much effort into a car that was only going to last 2 model years anyways.
The real mistake with the release of the 1986 Rivieras was the fact that the similarly styled N-bodies were released the year before. Usually, the higher line cars set the style agenda and then the smaller/cheaper/lesser cars, styled in the same idiom, are released after.
To my eye, the only issue with the styling of the 1986 Riviera (and the preceding N-bodies) is the fact that the C-pillar ends slightly ahead of the centerline of the rear wheel, in combination with the fairly steep angle of the back light, it makes for a “chopped off” tail section. The rest of the car looked pretty good.
By the time of the 1989 refresh, they had only lengthened the amount of C-pillar (or shortened the window) and reshaped it a bit. That along with the lengthened quarter-panels made the car look much longer than it really was. The same tricks were applied to the Olds Toronado of the same period, IMO, the effect was much more dramatic on that car. The Toro looked like a completely different car.
Kind of like my comment about the 2000 refresh of the Ford Taurus, if we hadn’t experienced the 1996 Taurus, the newer car wouldn’t have looked as good. A similar issue here, and similar results. The earlier car’s styling drove away customers, and few returned once the styling was corrected.
Here’s a quick chop. The original 1986 on top, my chop of the 86 with the wheelbase shortened by a few inches to put the centerline of the rear wheel roughly in line with the terminus of the C-pillar.
(Yes, it’s a slow day at the office.)
Er, no. Still doesn’t look right to me.
But it’s getting there. Looks less like a 2+2 pickup now.
just for giggles
I actually like the wheel placement for some reason, even more so on the ’86-’91 Seville which looked even further out there.
Even after the refresh, these never really did much for me. GM styling in those years kept trying to use its traditional styling cues on much smaller proportions, and none of them really worked well. Is this car formal? Is it sleek and swoopy? It tries to do both, but does neither very well at all. To me, the combination is just poorly conceived and poorly executed.
But still, I can enjoy almost any car that has been cared for and preserved so well. It may not be my favorite flavor, but it is great that it has been displayed for others who will enjoy it. A good find.
Over and over again I see the 1986 RIviera/Somerset used as an example of cars looking too similar to each other. Doesn’t seem entirely fair to me — especially when profile shots in the same color are used. After all, even today I have to really look carefully to see whether I’m looking at a 5 series or 3 series, or (even worse) a C-class or E-class. Also, I must point out that the Riviera was quite a bit wider than the Somerset, as well as longer (the photo is blown up to match lengths so you can’t tell.) I see the point but just defending the “underdog” Riviera that is so hated. (I made my own photo comparison to show you — no retouching involved)
I see your point, but I think there’s a difference here. I don’t recall the Somerset being exactly loved for its styling, and the Riviera didn’t do much to improve upon it. I think they both looked cheap. Another difference is that the Somerset was a mainstream car, and the Riviera was an upscale car with a pretty high price. Even though there’s a difference in price between the C and E, both are seen as upscale, luxury cars.
I think in your quick history of Riviera you missed the 1979-85 generation. This was also FWD, based on the Toronado platform, so FWD Rivs were not new for 1986. The ’79 Riv regained some of the style that had been lost in the too-boxy 1977-78 iteration. I certainly agree that the 1986 redesign looked pedestrian compared to its predecessors.
My own fondness for the Riv ends with the 74-76 era cars. My great uncle (Grandad’s brother) had one of these. He always maintained it meticulously and it was always garage-kept. There some unhappy people when he suddenly traded it for a Chevy Celebrity. I’m sure several family members would’ve offered to buy the Riv from him, had they known he was shopping for another car.
I’ve updated the post with the 1977 and 1979 Rivieras. I was trying to find a good picture of a ’79 online but came up short, so I scanned in pics from my own ’79 Riviera brochure.
A friend of ours had an ’85 Riviera that he bought new. He loved it and drove it until it was stolen out of the parking lot at his business in Chicago. He replaced it with an ’88-’90 Park Avenue, then had several Volvos and an Eddie Bauer Explorer. They moved to Georgia about five years ago and now he’s got a Suburban.
I’d skip the 74-76, they have done ‘something’ to the rear end at least, but the front just looks generic GM from those years. Add in the bloat and I can’t imagine they would be as nice to drive as the 60’s Rivs.
I always though it was odd that Buick downsized the Riviera first in 1977, while Oldsmobile and Cadillac kept the Toronado and Eldorado essentially unchanged for another 2 years.
I agree, the 1989 Riviera was what the 86 shoud have been, it wouldn’t have been so shocking to Buick customers, I have a book about the Eldorado’s history from 1953-1995 that shows some the 1986 Eldorado styling studies, there were some that were way sportier that what eventually came out, one of them had hidden headlights and front end treatment very similar to the Cadillac Voyage show car that came out in 87-88 with more of a 79-85 Eldorado angle to the rear talilights, much sportier that the very upright rear ends that the E-car ended up with, but Cadillac management though it ws too sporty for for an Eldorado and the more conservative proposals were chosen,
The downsized E-car that I think wore its unfortunate styling best from the 1986-1989 period was the Toronado, it seemed to be the sportiest of the 3 with its hidden headlights and full width strip tailights.
Another issue that I think was a fatal flaw with the E-cars was that both the Riviera and the Eldorado lost the column shift and bench front seat option, only the Toronado still offered a traditional gear selector on the column like many customer of these cars wanted, the column shift was important enough that when the Eldorado was redesigned in 1992 and when the Riviera was redesigned in 1995, both sprouted shifters from their columns again.
Interesting info! I would love to see those ’86 Eldorado styling proposals, if you have a scan or a link.
As for Buick’s decision to do a slightly modified LeSabre as a Riviera in ’77, I can think of two reasons: 1st, the outgoing Riviera was rear wheel drive and so was the new ’77 LeSabre. To use the new downsized B-body platform for Toronado and Eldorado would have meant reverting from FWD, which was not a possibility. 2nd, I think the outgoing Riviera was a slower seller than the Toronado and especially Eldorado. I think both those gained sales (don’t know numbers but guessing) in ’77 and ’78 from customers who didn’t want the new “downsize” and who didn’t want to leave GM for Lincoln/Mercury or Chrysler, either. The point being, if sales were really dismal for the ’74-’76 Riviera (and I think they were), they had nothing to lose by trying out a stopgap downsize model for 2 years until the ’79 FWD model was ready.
I think Buick HAD to do a new Riviera based on the new B body in 1977 because the old one was based on the old 71-76 RWD B body, just like the rest of the full size GMs. The Eldo and Toro were on a different (FWD) platform (not sure of the body code). The three all switched to the new FWD platform in 1979.
Well, they were all E-bodies since 1966 when the Toronado came out, but Buick insisted on keeping their own frame and RWD layout, The 77-78 Eldo./Toro-ados are odd because they kept all the tooling for things like the dash from the 1976 full size cars after the cars they shared parts with were downsized in 1977, which Buick could have done too with the Riviera, but the boatail-less bobtail 74-76 Rivieras were slow sellers so I imagine that they wanted to change them either way, the 79 Rivieras were already most done styling wise when the 77’s came out.
Hachee is right, though — the boat-tails shared a great deal of their body structure with the 1971-vintage B-body at the insistence of Lee Mays, then Buick general manager. Mays couldn’t stand the boat-tail design, and while it was too late to kill it outright, he wasn’t willing to spend any more money on tooling it than he absolutely had to, so it ended up sharing glass and a lot of pieces with the LeSabre/Centurion. (That’s part of the reason it came out looking rather odd, aside from being bigger than intended.) Because of that, I would assume that when the B-bodies were retooled for ’77, it didn’t make economic sense to keep the existing tools for two more years just for the Riv, which hadn’t sold more than 25,000 units a year since the boattail was eliminated.
This is a great example of what goes wrong in an organization like the old GM. Part of the org chart creates a product, another part hates it, so the product is hobbled, spoiled, and inevitably fails.
Compare with Apple (everyone else is these days). They’re certainly not infallible, but they either get the product out there in its best possible form, or they don’t do it at all.
I drove an ’89 for four years and 110,000 miles when I was in my twenties. My parents’ insurance agent owned a ’91 and I really liked it a lot, so when I found a reasonably priced one for sale ($7700 for a 95,000 mile example in 1994) I grabbed it. Kind of an unusual rosewood color with a vinyl top and wire wheels.
What a terrific car. Drove it up to 205K and the only trouble it gave me was an alternator and that blasted GCC (the screen failed twice; it was $400+core to get it rebuilt) Insanely comfortable, always started and ran perfectly, never rusted, all the other interior electrics worked fine. For some reason I never could get really good brakes in the thing though, probably because I was young and cheap. Between that, the GCC failing for the second time and just having done a lot of time in the car I got tired of it and traded it in. I should never have gotten rid of it. It was more than a decade before I had a car nearly that nice again.
Even still I don’t think I’d want an ’89 now. Those GCCs haven’t gotten any easier or cheaper to fix, and I’m not sure the Teves anti-lock brakes are repairable if they fail today. Now, if I could find the garage space for a ’92 or ’93………
What an awful car it looks like they infated a TR7 and it didnt work out evenly but the result was kept anyway Im sure we got this thing or a relative once before that awkward shape and ill thought out roof line look familiar almost a DS.
I had an ’82 Riviera and was very sad the day I first saw the ’86ers. Yecch. Sorry. The ’89 Riv was not enough of a fix. The ’95-’99 was a nice car.
Have to wonder if big coupes will ever come back into style.
We could wonder what if the Riviera and the Toronado was redesigned for 1992 as well?
I wish the same thing. What’s old is new again. 😉
The 95 cars are what made me take notice of Buick again. I found myself on the verge of pulling the trigger on a supercharged 96+ model a couple of times.
The 1995-99 Rivieras look great. When I first saw pictures of it (on the cover of AutoWeek) I thought it was amazing. I liked the Aurora, but loved the Riv!
I felt the same way. The first time I saw a 95(ish) Riv on the road I did a double take like you’d see in a car commercial. That’s a Buick?
I was into the Aurora but I never understood why it was dumbed down for it’s second generation(it looked like a bloated Saturn to me). The G1 Aurora and 95+ Rivs still look somewhat fresh today.
My aunt also had the older Riv and didn’t like the ’86. “Look what they did to it,” she said.
Child car seats and seatbelts have doomed the coupe.
Beautiful car.
I remember the owner of the local BPG dealer had a medium blue with white landau top and whilte leather interior demo he drove for a while. I can remember him loaning it to my parents and the neibors when their cars where in for something (the 89 6000 STE was a fun car, but it had alot of trips back to the dealer for 12 way power seat bladders and antilock brake issues the first year my parents owned it.)
always loved the 89+ Riv’s..Silverarrow is on my bucket list.
It looks like the 89 started off with a fibreglass/vinyl cap over the existing roof, before they changed the roof panel stamping for later years, or was it done ‘properly’ for 89?
It is interesting to see how these things can get through the whole design process, clinics etc and then land with such a thud – surely there must have been people saying ‘no’ somewhere!
Iy looks like a childs design for a car no concept of balance or perspective any one with 20/20 eyesight woukld have said NOOOOOO ita an eyesore at best and having hired a Buick in LA my BOL described it as the worst car hed ever driven incapable of cornering above walking speed.
That CRT touchscreen was actually available in the previous generation Riviera as well, optional on some late ’85 models. I think it’s pretty neat, but I never had to live with one either!
IMO, jpcavanaugh hit the nail on the head in regards to GM styling when it came to their premium offerings in this FWD transitory period. Too much mid-70s in a late-80s package… the shape and the size were a step in a much different direction, the style and the trim were desperately trying to appeal to “Brougham” sensibilities. Not a very cohesive vision, and the end result is painfully generic. The 1989 restyle is much better, but still… imagine paying $27k for one of these back then? When you think about what price bracket these were in, it’s amazing they sold any.
The shame of it all is, these were really very good cars underneath. Nothing earth shattering, just a dependable, comfortable ride with a solid engine and decent chassis… on the used market, they were completely raped by depreciation and many people got to enjoy them at a much more realistic price. Even now, you can still sometimes find low-mileage Rivieras in excellent condition for well under $3k. That would make a superb and practical daily driver car for years to come if properly maintained… imagine that? Just what Buick had in mind! We sold our flagship coupe for a small fortune to a few old farts with golf bags just so you could buy it at an estate sale 25 years later to park at your local train station or office park without worry!
I think they made something like 100 CRT 85 Rivieras, I dunno if they were available to the general public or if they were only prototypes, I remember them doing a segement on the CRT GCC on Motorweek, where they showed it in a 1985 Riviera.
Found a Pop Mech article about the CRT test cars with a picture of the dash.
http://books.google.com/books?id=rgAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=1985+Buick+Riviera+with+touch+screen&source=bl&ots=5gc7lcwnvD&sig=j6xfNF90xLUc73d5KA2kC_z8CuE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dRFxT6eHPMOJtwfJ1LjADw&ved=0CEYQ6AEwAzgU#v=onepage&q&f=false
Wow, and here I always thought the last car with a vacuum tube had to be in the early 1960s.
Tom,
One thing that puzzled me in the article is how a transverse engine would be an improvement in these cars, at least from an end-user perspective. The ’79-’85 cars, like the Toronado and FWD Eldorados, used the Unitized Power Package concept, which was certainly space efficient and did a good job of quelling torque steer — not an area where transverse engines tend to shine. I imagine once GM had mass-production, off-the-shelf FWD transaxles in the parts bin, transverse engines were cheaper than the UPP, but I don’t know about better. (I think the UPP would have been superior if there’d still been a V8, but of course…)
Aaron, I seriously doubt a UPP drivetrain would have fit. The UPP positioned the engine substantially higher than a conventional rwd engine, as well as the transverse transaxle arrangement. The UPP engined cars had none too low of hood lines, and it took special low-rise intake manifolds and super-flat aircleaners to clear the hoods.
Of course, the communality with the other GM transaxles would have alone been a very compelling reason.
I’ve never heard that the UPP actually positioned the engine significantly higher in the chassis than its RWD equivalent — it’s certainly not any lower, of course, but that wasn’t really the point. I know the Toronado’s sloping hood created problems with manifolding, of course, but that wasn’t uncommon with big six- and eight-cylinder engines in general, especially since there was a tendency with RWD cars to have the back of the engine tipped a bit lower than the front to reduce the height of the driveshaft. Of course, I’ve never compared the installed height of, say, a ’66 Toronado and a ’66 Starfire. (I’m thinking it would make most sense to measure the height either to the crank centerline or to the top of the heads without the manifold and air cleaner, given that the Toro pieces were different.)
Certainly, commonality was a big part of it. The UPP made more sense when GM didn’t have a lot of FWD hardware on hand, because it could share a lot of components and tooling with the existing Turbo Hydramatics, but once they had common transaxles, it undoubtedly made more economic sense to consolidate.
Look at this graphic for the UPP. The “transmission” is very low, compared to where the input shaft would be from the engine.
I’ve noticed this reality from day one, and remember reading about the measures Olds and Cadillac had to make to get their V8s to fit: “depressed” intake manifolds, and special drop-down aircleaners.
The otherwise similar but rwd Riviera’s engine sat well lower, and didn’t need any of those measures.
Here’s another view of the UPP
And a picture of the ’67 Riviera engine bay. Note how its manifold and air cleaner are not squashed at all.
It may not be very evident from the photos, but it is when you see them in person. And it explains (in part, perhaps) why the 79-84 E-bodies had relatively high hoods.
I just happened to have acquired a copy of the Nov. 1965 issue of Car Life, which contains their Toronado engineering analysis, and it does indeed confirm that the engine was raised 1.5 inches to provide clearance for the driveshaft beneath the sump. I stand corrected.
Aaron, my thought was it improved the interior space. I test drove an ’89 Eldorado about 12 years ago and it seemed to have good space inside, at least in the front compartment, but since I’ve never driven a ’79-’85 E-body, I don’t know how they compared to the ’86 and up models. The Eldo did have very nice driving dynamics; I liked it a lot.
Love the drivetrain, but I’m indifferent on the rest of the car.
I always thought they should have brought back the boat-tail look for this generation.
That Would be an interesting custom rear end… I Always Loved The Way Those Rivieras looked Coming Or Going.
I Have come very close several times to purchasing one of these in the under $4000 market.
Looks Wise 1989 + has a Definite Edge on any 86-88, EXCEPT PERHAPS T -Type …
I’d Love The Flippable Suede/Leather seating Package, Well working CRT, oy vey…god Help Me…
Black/Silver Two Tone Is Nice, As Are Various other Combinations. In My Opinion This Landau Roof Does add Something on Red Cars, And With White Or light Leather Upholstery.
I Still want One Of These. Or Better Yet… an 89 El Dorado, Or 1991 even, or my Trofeo.
As For This one, My Mother’s last chariot, was a 1984 Riviera sans vinyl Roof, Red Crushed Cloth inter/Med Red like this. When the 86 came out, I was Shocked at The Plain rear End… Was I Missing Something?
The 89 rear always looked cartoon Swanky to me, maybe not what many people were going for. But as a under $5000 car entry— I Want One… well I Did, Now A Prius is Starting tO look good, esp. in mini form
I was with Buick at the time, and the ’89 was an ENORMOUS improvement over the ’86-88 stylistically. It should be remembered that the ’86 was actually widened quite late in its development to help differentiate the E from the N.
I drove quite a few ’86-88’s as company cars (the old adage, if it doesn’t sell, drive it) and can attest that they were quite good road cars aside from the torque steer. The T-Types were my favorites.
As for the dash change in ’90, it was done to accomodate the Reatta convertible- Riviera and Reatta shared dashes and the GCC was unreadable in the convertible with the top down.
I own an 89 Riv that I purchased from a neighbor when the 95 Riv’s came out. The only problem I encountered is the air conditioner went out, not every GM tech can service this system because it’s tyed to the CRT screen, Found an independent AC repair shop,and tech, that knew the car, after 4 yrs. of no AC, and many wasted dollars, it’s fixed. I’m still impressed with the comfort and style,best I’ve ever owned.
My mom had a 1979 Riviera that my dad special ordered from the factory. It was firemist charcoal gray with a silver vinyl top and oyster white/gray leather interior. I was only 12 at the time and I remember the day we picked it up from the dealership. It had a factory moonroof which was very rare in these cars as well as the four wheel disc brake option and firm ride and handling package. My father was into performance so he made sure it had all the beefed up extras – I still have the window sticker at home! He wanted the S-type but my mother didn’t want the bucket seats – so she won. He ordered it with the 350 V-8 instead of the turbo V-6 – I remember the salesman showing us one in the showroom with the turbo. My Mom loved this car. We used to get asked questions about it all the time -especaily the first few years we had it. She doesn’t put much mileage on her cars even to this day. Sadly, in 1985, the Riv only had 29,000 miles on it and it came to its end. A 16 year old in a Dodge Dart ran a stop sign and hit her broadside. She walked away unscathed but the Riv was a mess. The last time I saw the Riv was on the tow truck being taken away. It was a sad day for the Riv but I swear that car saved my Mom’s life.
I’ve owned an 89 Riviera for 13 years and I love it. It used to be a daily driver, but the last 3 years it hasn’t been winter driven(winters in Nova Scotia aren’t kind to cars) and is driven only a few times a summer. Parts have been difficult to come by sometimes, luckily it’s never been something major. I currently drive an 07 Charger and still prefer my Riviera!
GM was so far gone by the ’80s it’s a wonder they had any cash reserves intact. Just looking at those shit inspired ’86 E bodies really pisses me off. How could a corporation that built the beyond belief gorgeous and high quality ’63 Riviera, the ’66 Toronado and ’67 Eldorado succumb to the worst of the worst in less than two decades later in the ’80s. GM is slowly, very slowly, creeping up the innovation, style, quality and design ladder as of the last five years. GM will never come close to Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and the likes, but with great hope they might make it after.
Looking at that ’86 Riviera now, it reminds me how weird these seemed to me when they came out. The strange way in which the C-pillar meets the rear wheel opening makes it, I think, the most awkward sedan I’ve ever seen. Was there some practical reason GM designed it this way? Because I can’t believe anyone looked at this and thought it was attractive. It looks like they welded the top half of a VW Polo to the bottom half of an American-mid-sized car. In the wrong place. Yuck.
These cars were conceived with the belief that gasoline would cost $3-a-gallon by 1985 (and that would be in 1980 dollars). If that had happened, these cars may have sold better. GM gambled on higher gas prices, and lost, as gasoline prices began dropping after 1981.
To my eyes, nearly all mid to late 80s GM cars looked like they weren’t so much styled as “this is the best our computers could come up with once we fed them the necessary numbers”.
Why anyone who buy an 86 to 88 Riviera when Ford had it’s complete/total “opposite” in the gorgeous Thunderbird, I can’t imagine. Yet, I’d love to find/own a nice 84-85 Riviera. There’s a turbo T-Type, an 84 I think, on my local Craigslist. The price is decent but the condition is only so-so. They don’t come along that often, anymore.
Never knew the T-type Riv existed in that generation ’til now. Looks pretty great!
The touch screen was a great idea, just too soon. I remember taking several low mileage “mint” Riviera’s in trade because the owners could not use the radio, heat, ac etc. One resourceful owner held out and traded with very high mileage….he demonstrated how to operate the touch screen features on a blank screen….very impressive. The 89-93 was a great car otherwise.
Considering how touchscreen controls are, literally, everywhere today (a quarter century later), it’s yet another case of GM being far ahead of their time with an idea, but failing miserably on execution. Imagine how differently things might have turned out if the touchscreen system in the ’89 Riviera had been engineered better and worked properly. The biggest problem is that, once a brand-new technology is flawed from the beginning, it’s very difficult to convince people it’s been fixed so they rarely stick with it. A real shame that GM couldn’t stay with it and work out the bugs to get it to a workable state way back then.
It’s not unlike the Cadillac V8-6-4, widely considered one of the worst auto engines of all time. Yet, today, engine cylinder deactivation under light-loading is available on several vehicles on which it works fine.
Also a big thank you to GM for almost singlehandedly destroying public acceptance of diesels in non-HD pickups for 30 years.
I’m glad people are eventually using air bags ( especially two stage air bags ) since GM tried it in the ’70s already. GM probably came first in more than half of the common technologies these days but it just pushed customers away for many different reasons.
There are some absolutely gorgeous classic Rivieras,that isn’t one of them. Classic Rivs are pre-1972. After 1971….just another GM car. Some were nice cars,none were classics.
A back seat should have been added to the Reatta and it should have been called a Riviera. The Reatta had sex appeal. What it didn’t have was seating for 4.
The 1970 E bodies were fine cars, with proper V-8 power. A ’79 Riviera with 350 is a darned nice unit, a car worth driving. My uncle had a ’79 6 litre Eldorado and it was a very fine car.
After 1986, these cars were ruined by GM’s massive and continuous mismanagement. I often wonder how an organization can get as dysfunctional as that of GM. Now they seem to sell some okay product, so hooray for progress!
The 1986 Riv was a shock to my then 15 year old eyes when it was revealed on Motor Trend’s front cover in 1985. The 1989 was indeed an improvement but not enough IMO and the 1995 was quite an improvement and the Riviera I would prefer in the 1986-1999 model years. My favorites are the 1984-85 SFI turbo E-body cars with alloy wheels and sport steering wheel with 4 wheel disk brakes. Those are rare and neat cars.
Used to have a 85 Buick Riviera back in 1990 now I got me a 89 Buick Riviera and I love it getting ready for a new paint job original paint job too faded
Just picked up, what I think, is the finest example out there. 14K miles. Navy leather and Suede interior and sunroof. drove it to the coffee shop and a young boy says “nice car mister”. so pretty
Selling our 1993 Pearl White with White leather interior, it has been a great driver and a real head turner , whenever my wife would have parked it at work, there had been a few notes on under the hodden wiper blades and or stuck onto the side window.
I.e persons ❤️ for a Buick Riviera with White leather , Pearl White exterior.
We should have sold it at the time, but now I have it on the kijiji selling it As Is due to front being unobtanum , found one Right side in like solid condition.
Car is located in Mississauga , ON, Canada.
$1250 is a steal
A driver’s side air bag was standard on the 1989 Riviera – not 1990 as indicated in the article.