The very first foreign car I found and wrote up when I moved to Tokyo in January 2020 (remember those care-free pre-Covid times?) was a similar Buick. However, I was never satisfied with that post, chiefly because the photos were pretty poor. It took a while, but I finally happened upon a fine-looking and fully accessible Buick Regal Estate Wagon. So here’s a second look at this unlikely American guest star of the Japanese wagon scene.
Wagons are big in Japan. They were even bigger in the ‘90s, before all manner of luxury minivans and SUVs really started to gain traction, but they haven’t died out yet. You can still get them from most of the domestic makers, as well as imported models from the likes of Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Peugeot or Volvo. Back in the early ‘90s, you could add quite a lot of names to that list, including US-made GM and Ford products.
Buick Regal brochure excerpts, 1993
I’m not sure when Yanase, Japan’s premier foreign car dealer, started importing the Buick Century sedan and wagon. It seems it took a little while and a bit of investment for the operation to bear fruit. First, the cars needed a few changes to be sold legally in Japan, such as amber turn signals for the taillights.
One blatant stumbling block was the model’s name, which was strictly reserved for Toyota on the JDM. So the Buick Century became the Regal, amusingly transcribed, pronounced and Google-translated as “Legal” on many Japanese-language documents.
As I stated, the exact moment of introduction of the Buick “Legal” range on the JDM is not known to me, but the year 1990 is a decent enough guesstimate. Back then, the yen was still strong and the wagon, which was always the most popular car of the range, cost quite a bit, i.e. ¥4.38m. By 1995, thanks to devaluation (due to the economy tanking) and the importer’s efforts in selling more units, the price had gone down by over ¥1m and was now equivalent to a higher trim Crown wagon. All Buick Regals imported were fully-optioned and all came with the V6 (3.3 litres, then 3.1 from 1993) – none of that Iron Duke ruffian for GM’s distinguished Japanese clientele.
During that time, i.e. the early ‘90s, the Buick wagon really took off (well, as much as a decade-old American design can take off in Japan). I read somewhere that Yanase were struggling to meet demand, so certain parallel imports were allowed. I don’t know how this kind of gray import could be arranged under the Japanese system, but I gather it’s all about who you are and who you know.
Our feature car could well be one of those rumoured gray market Buicks. There are a lot of signs: the Yanase sticker is absent, as is the GM emblem seen on legal Regals and, quite obviously, the amber turn signals are absent here. These look to me like the standard Buick Century rear lights, though I will of course defer to the experts (Mr Stern, if you would be so kind?…) The Yanase sticker could have been peeled off I suppose, though judging from the number I’ve seen on older imports (e.g. Mercedes-Benzes), that is unlikely.
That’s not all. The tailpipe is quite different from the official Regals, which have a specific straight design. Our feature car’s exhaust is angled to the left side, just like US models. None of the cars I’ve seen up to this one have this exhaust, or these taillights. The missing GM emblem is also quite telling, though that particular item’s whereabouts may have varied according to the model year.
For comparison, here’s another picture taken from the 1993 Japanese brochure. Not as clear as one would like, but the salient points (taillamps, GM emblem, exhaust) are pretty visible.
And here are two Regal wagon rear ends I photographed earlier this year. The blue Regal, which I think is a 1995 model year (revamped interior, compared to the yellow Regal) shows the Yanase sticker and the GM emblems quite clearly. The latter seem to have moved on the red Regal, which might identify it as a ’96.
So, do we have a pure US-bred Buick here? No, it’s far from being that simple, of course. Our yellow Buick wagon has 14-inch alloys and a rear wiper – neither of these two options were commonly seen on North American models, but they were included on all Japanese ones. Again, previous sightings and brochure shots bear this out. And of course, there are no “Century” scripts on this car – it’s all Regal and above board, almost as if respecting Toyota’s precious trademark rights was more important than enforcing turn signal laws.
However, though some turn signal laws were apparently bypassed, additional repeaters were grafted onto the front fenders. There may be many other details I’m not picking up, but that and the Regal scripts, at a minimum, means this car must have been imported here new and made to look as close to the Yanase cars as possible, with the alloys and the rear wiper. Question mark as regards that rather extreme radio antenna – that might be specific to this particular car.
Stepping inside, I reckon most everything in here would look identical in a circa 1993 US-market Century. Who’d have thought these infamous GM mouse fur interiors could make it to the 2020s pretty much intact?
We had the Pontiac 6000 version of this car – a white 1986 S/E wagon with a floor shifter that hauled the T87 family on many a European jaunt in the early ‘90s. We went to the UK with it, crossed the Alps a few times – including to Innsbruck, Aosta and Bavaria… We even took that thing on the Autobahn. I sat in that rear seat (or the rearmost one behind it) a lot. Never was it ever as pristine as what we have here. Cause and effect? For sure. But it also makes one wonder who bought these deluxe wagons in Japan back then. My father picked a family hauler because he had four kids. This Buick doesn’t seem to have had too many dirty, sticky and clumsy mini-humans fouling its lush carpets with their muddy shoes or picking the plastiwood off its doors.
And speaking of woodgrain, the Japanese were justifiably impressed by the Buick’s generous appliqué. You have to hand it to GM: “moderation” was not in their vocabulary. Even the door handles came decorated in the stuff. That’s how you know they cared.
It’s difficult to ascertain how many of these Buicks ended up in Japan (Regally speaking). Hundreds certainly, thousands perhaps. Much more than that is unlikely, but that’s a complete blind guess. Japanese sources claim that the traditional-looking Di-Noc-clad Buick Regal Estate trounced the jelly bean Ford Taurus Wagon in popularity. It similarly overshadowed the Buick sedans – not only its “Regal” sister model, but also the Park Avenue, which GM gamely tried to peddle here. This apparent demand seems to have been high enough to justify an additional trickle of cars coming in through channels other than the official importer. Who and how this was done is still nebulous, but I think we can say this definitely happened. So much for the famously rigid Japanese regulatory environment.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1994 Buick Regal Estate Wagon – Wait, What?, by T87
Curbside Classic: 1994 Buick Century Wagon – Fighting A Losing Battle, by Tom Klockau
CC Outtake: c. 1995 Buick Century Wagon – A Century Ago…, by Joseph Dennis
Ballotside Outtake: Buick Century Wagon, by Tom Klockau
Curbside Classics: 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Cruiser & 1996 Buick Century Wagon – Separated By Ten Years And A Few Hundred Yards, by Brendan Saur
COAL – 1988 Buick Century – My First Wagon, by TJ1977
Did you peek inside to see if the speedo was calibrated in MPH or km/h?
I can’t read the speedo in the picture, but the US model Delco stereo is in the dash and would be a problem there. On the AM band, the frequency steps are different, so it’d have to be a coincidence when 9 and 10 kHz steps overlapped. On the FM band, only the very lowest part overlapped with the upper part of the Japanese band. I understand they’ve since expanded, but it’s bound to not tune a lot, including many of the older established stations. Fender turn signals or not, that difference alone would compromise enjoying the car.
Like wise, i the JDM cassette, CD player comb radios had to be fitted with a band expander to get stations . That was the nineties. I had a Eunous Roadster ,Miata to you, with a British Replacement unity.
My guess it was left behind from a departing GI when they finished their tour. Got a good local offer?.
That sure looks like a Hawaii registration/inspection sticker on the rear bumper. Maybe this car came over with a serviceman and stayed?
Definitely on old Hawai’i sticker. Must have been imported as a used car.
I noticed the door-mounted seat belts in this model. I don’t know if they were fitted to the official JDM version. Another thing is the headlamps: have they been modified to cast to the left instead of right?
The red taillamps are definitely Buick. Sometimes, the black trim in the middle fades out over the time. Oldsmobile has one-piece lens with silver logo in the middle. Pontiac is same as Oldsmobile but has several black embossed lines covereing the lens. Chevrolet uses three-section lens with brightwork trim dividing the sections. This is the basis for the export taillamp.
I wonder why the model name has to be applied to the side instead of tailgate.
I’m surprised the door-mounted belts were even on the US models, since cars with an airbag didn’t legally require them. Although this car was probably from when you needed airbags on both sides to be exempt from the “passive belt” law, though only on the passenger side if there was a driver-side airbag. Late Chrysler AA body cars (Spirit/Acclaim/LeBaron) had motorized belts on the passenger side, standard belts (and an airbag) for the driver. I guess GM didn’t consider it worth its while to revert to a standard belt on the driver side.
My suspicion is that some cars with an airbag weren’t able to fully meet crash standards and thus weren’t passive without those belts. If so GM was leaning heavily on the Supplemental part of SRS.
That’s not it. The regulations didn’t (and don’t) allow for airbags that almost sorta kinda partway worked; they all had to meet the performance requirements.
What’s with the weird straight tailpipe on the JDM versions?
Many countries over the years have had regulations requiring rear-dump exhausts. Here’s a European-spec ’91-’95 Chrysler Voyager; note the tailspout configuration.
Thanks for clearing this up Dan. A strange regulation it seems. Can’t understand how a side exhaust is inferior.
I recall the worst place to be in city traffic was behind a city bus, whose diesel exhaust it seemed was aimed right at the front of your car. Newer buses have the exhaust high up through the roof, infinitely better.
Here’s my theory: the Buick would be driving on the left in Japan (as all road traffic does), so the exhaust would be aimed at the passersby on the sidewalk. In the US, the car is driving on the right and the exhaust is directed to the middle of the road. So short of imposing that GM engineer a completely mirror-image exhaust system, the Japanese imposed a straight exhaust to mitigate the problem somewhat, and at a reasonable cost to GM.
I’m curious what the rationale behind the regulations was, too.
I’ve seen about an equal number of right and left rear exit exhaust here in USA; these are generally bent into a side dumping configuration for pickups, vans, and utility vehicles. It appears that choosing which side the exhaust will be on boils down to whatever is most convenient when packaging whichever powertrain on a given chassis, so it isn’t uncommon to see exhaust exit on one side if equipped with x engine, but coming out the other when equipped with y engine.
One thing that always struck me about these cars was the plentiful glass; particularly at the rear corners. Visibility must be excellent!
The “frenched” radio antenna is standard Century sedan or wagon equipment.
This is the optional power antenna. The non-powered version is the traditional, bolted to the top of the fender style.
Japanese sources claim that the traditional-looking Di-Noc-clad FWD Buick Regal Estate trounced the jelly bean RWD Ford Taurus Wagon in popularity. Rear wheel drive Taurus??? Did I hit a time warp/wormhole????
Damn, someone who reads Regalese! I’ve been caught!
Thanks for the eye, Clyde. Dunno what I was thinking. Corrected.
Peel off a Japanese dealership sticker? good luck with that, the stickers outlast the cars have a look in our wrecking yards the stickers are still readable.
I used to drive a 1984 Century. And occassionally I have a look to see if any are for sale in Europe. There are a few and the amazing thing is that the prices are so high. Unusually so given the dyed-in mediocrity of the car. It´s not terrible – I would call it robust and serviceable. Compared to other low-end American cars of the era, those few Centuries are astonishingly overpriced. Is there a small but voracious Century cult?
There is one of these wagons somewhere close to where I live as I see it about once a month. That one is a sort of tawny gold, though I really like this yellow.
Being a retirement community, there is also a mid 90s Skylark sedan.
Oddly, most retirees in this area have switched to small, Japanese and Korean crossovers, tho I suppose that has to do with their fuel economy and their easy entry and exit.
I was looking at the Legal Regal sedan in the brochure in picture #10, and couldn’t see amber rear turn signals in that full width light bar. Went looking for images that showed a closer view of the rear, and found one that showed amber signals grafted into the top of the rear bumper. They looked suspiciously similar to the front turn signals used on the early W-body Pontiac Grand Prix sedans with the full width light bar, à la Mercury Sable.
I remember the Pontiac version taking an 880 series halogen “fog light” bulb… I think it was an 884, which was rated at the exact same 26.88 watts as the bright element of a standard US brake/turn signal.