It’s often been claimed, both on this website and elsewhere, that the late ‘80s / early ‘90s, otherwise known as the Roger Smith era, General Motors was at the bottom the absolute pit of Deadly Sin-riddled despair. And those were very troubled times, for sure: just remember the C4 Corvette, the Allanté, the Pontiac/Daewoo Le Mans, the Reatta… But let’s try and be fair: it wasn’t all doom and gloom at old GM. In fact, there was one wide, toothy chrome grin over at Buick that perked things up a bit.
It’s a bit surprising that CC has not given the 1st generation (1991-96) Park Avenue its fifteen minutes of fame yet. There have been a couple of posts about it, but never a long-form CC. Perhaps these are still common as dirt throughout the North American continent – somehow I doubt that, but maybe because they once were pretty widespread, like the Pontiac Grand Am we saw recently, the notion of writing one up has seemingly never occurred to our (majority) US-based CContributors. Familiarity breeds contempt and all that. That’s OK, given enough time, yours truly will find the appropriate model sitting pretty somewhere in Tokyo, waiting to be photographed from nearly all angles.
All except the rear, so here’s a factory PR pic of a US-spec model, in base (i.e. not Ultra) trim. In the ‘70s and ‘80, “Park Avenue” was just a trim level for the Electra. With the demise of that nameplate after MY 1990, the Park Avenue took over. The quantum leap, style-wise, was pretty incredible: gone was the squarish cookie-cutter formal C-pillar shape. Instead, the new Buick was all curves. It was quite a bit longer, too, though the outgoing Electra’s 110.8-inch wheelbase remained the same, so passengers weren’t better off.
The Park Avenue was the highest status variant of the C-Body, but that meant little to anyone outside of GM fans and car journos. The C-Body was also used by Pontiac for their Bonneville (top left) and the Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight (bottom left) and Ninety-Eight (bottom right), and Buick themselves put devised a cheaper option in the LeSabre (top right). The Bonneville and LeSabre aren’t bad-looking, but those Oldses are peculiar. At least, GM had shown more effort to differentiate these cars than they had with their predecessors.
Behind that bulbous bling-bedecked baleen-esque beak, things remained pretty similar to the Electra as well. That was a good thing: the 3.8 litre V6 is known to be a fine engine – not necessarily a given for every GM product of the time. But at least it got a few vitamin injections to handle the extra overhangs (or is that hangovers?).
That was especially the case with the Ultra version, which was the higher trim level and the one whose V6 could be equipped with a supercharger. Contemporary Japanese sources claim 225hp for this car, though I understand that the very last MY for these cars, i.e. 1996, saw the introduction of a revised version of the 3800 that provided the supercharged Ultra with 240hp. I’m not sure these were exported here though.
For yes, this Buick was definitely bought here new. Those rear lights do not lie. But as a matter of fact, the Park Avenue was sold in a bunch of places, including Europe. And it did rather well there.
The big Buick was one of the more popular Detroiters around continental Europe, back in the ‘90s. I vividly recall seeing those taillights fairly regularly in places like France, Switzerland and Benelux – not the UK, but then I don’t think GM ever bothered with a RHD version, so that explains that. But it was rare enough to see true-blue new American metal in those days and in those times to be noteworthy.
On the other hand, this is the first and only one I’ve caught here as of yet – compared to the boatloads of “Regal” wagons and Cadillac Fleetwoods that are to be seen about the place, that is notable. Perhaps the hefty ¥6m price tag (for the Ultra) had something to do with it: that was Toyota Century territory. Buick probably didn’t have the cred, brand-wise.
Peeking inside, we find a fairly typical “GM Big Car” dash of the period – nothing amazing, but at least they gave the old horizontal speedo the heave-ho. Uncommonly for a Japanese market car, this Buick has leather upholstery. Lovely deep red colour, too!
Gotta say, that rear seat looks pretty inviting – much more so than the contemporary Roadmaster. I’m given to understand that the Park Avenue Ultra was supposed to be the top of the Buick line, even if the Roadie was V8-powered and even bulkier (on the outside). I’m not having any luck finding the MSRP of the early ‘90s Buick range, but I’m sure someone will set the record straight in the comments section.
After a very good introductory year (111k sold), the Park Avenue settled at about 60k units per year for 1992-96. A total of 410,000 units were made – most will have stayed in their country of birth, but a few got funny taillights and made it out. How many exactly? No idea. But some.
The second generation Park Avenue (1997-2005) got a lot more bloated and, in my view, lost the first generation’s dignified swoopiness, but then those were not widely exported either, as far as I know. These Buicks were a bit too expensive for Japan, but somehow managed to find an audience in Europe. Its Oldsmobile-branded stablemate, the Ninety-Eight, made the GM Deadly Sins list due to its highly questionable looks. But as far as I’m concerned, this Buick is without sin. Hope it won’t start throwing stones to the rest of us because of that.
Related posts:
CC Capsule: 1991 Buick Park Avenue – A Heritage Of Class, by Joseph Dennis
COAL: 1993 Buick Park Avenue – In the Wrong Neighborhood, by Danny F. Cabrera
Curbside Classic: 1997 Buick Park Avenue – Better The Second Time Around?, by Brendan Saur
Classic CARmentary: 1998 Buick Park Avenue Ultra, by Adam Dixon
I remember seeing them the first time during a USA road trip. And being impressed with the elegant looks.
This car might be the best balance of American style and detail execution. Earlier American cars can have some really horrible assembly concepts (things jammed next to one another, horribly situated panel gaps). Later ones are simpler but blander: tidily done but losing the US style. The chief stylist was Bill Porter, I believe. He did some super work here. This is an American car that can fit into the EU setting but still remain true to its USican roots.
Totally agree. A real breath of fresh air. A GM car which didn’t need apologies for the styling.
Buick seemed to be on a roll in the mid 90s. I remember stopping in at a Buick dealer after hours and looking at one of these parked out front not long after they came out. After several years of clunky-looking FWD V6 Buicks, I found these to be absolutely stunning.
This is one car I would have said yes to if the right one had plunked itself in my path. And I agree that the following generation lost the magic.
My dad special-ordered a ’95 Park Avenue as his last car, and what a beauty it was inside and out. I drove it and rode in it frequently so I know these well. I didn’t know until after he sold it that they were sold in Europe, and didn’t know until now they were sold in Japan. The Japanese version looks like the European one. The different taillights (with amber turn signals and less width to make room for wider number plates) are the most obvious difference from US-spec cars (the Ultra had different taillights than the base model shown here even in the US). But another notable difference, and a big improvement on the export models, were larger outside mirrors. My dad was always complaining about how small they were, but they were heated and power-controlled and I assumed nobody made larger heated mirrors that would fit this car. I wouldn’t have guessed GM themselves did and I could have ordered a Euro-spec part.
This car has leather because it was standard equipment in the Ultra; the base PA had soft velour cloth, with leather optional. My folks both despised leather and bought the base model largely because it had the nice velour (in the same dark red as the subject car). Our ’95 was the first year to get the upgraded Series II 3800 engine, but the supercharged version used in the Ultra had to wait until 1996 to get the Series II upgrades, which did indeed boost its power to 240hp, and also helped fuel economy, smoothness/quietness, and durability. I believe GM discontinued the Series I at that point, so if any ’96 Ultras were exported to Japan they had the 240hp engine.
Base Park Avenues did still use horizontal speedometers, but optional (and IIRC standard in the Ultra) was a truly complete gauge package with half-moon speedometer and tach, and smaller dials for fuel, temperature, and even oil pressure and volts. The last four all were backed up with warning lights to make sure you notice low fuel or voltage or high temp or oil pressure. Also included with the full instrumentation was a neat horizontal strip of warning lights across the top of the dash, set back quite aways from the main face of the panel, with an assortment of indicators and warning lights. Very complete and easy to read. The ergonomics in this car were superb, with the audio controls high up on the dash, big full-length armrests on the doors with controls for lights and seating as well as windows and mirrors, and a big center armrest that moved with the driver’s seat. They really sweat the details on just about everything in this car. Where were the Park Avenue designers when all the other crud emanating from GM in the ’90s was being drawn up?
GM considered the LeSabre, 88, and Bonneville to be H bodies rather than C bodies, but they were still very closely related. The C had a different roofline and an extra 5 inches or so of rear overhang and thus a larger cargo hold.
Yes, Buick had the goods as far as H-Bodies go (see my comment, below). I, too, find the mirrors awfully small on my Olds 88, but they do give you the emotional support to fit in smaller spaces. The Olds has a tach but no oil pressure gauge, and the dash vents are placed lower than on the Buicks–too low– your arms block a/c air on a hot day. The base 200hp engine has to be understood to get the most you can out of it: torque is flat, but hp needs revs. Going up a hill, you either hold it just below the shift point or kick it down, or it lugs in the higher gear. Next time around, I would go for high-end Buick.
I recall earlier 88s and 98s of this generation offered a full set of gauges (incl. oil pressure and voltmeter), but they were removed when the dash was redesigned to accommodate a passenger airbag. Buick also added a passenger airbag around that time, but kept the same basic dashboard design, moving the glovebox down by your knees and putting the airbag above it where the glovebox used to be.
The Series II naturally-aspirated V6 put out 205hp (at least in ’95-96) and the motor was just loaded with low-end torque, with calls for more power from your right foot being answered immediately with a V8-like shove in your back, at any speed. The 4-speed trans would quickly and unobtrusively downshift if necessary. I don’t recall it ever lugging or otherwise making me fret about shift points or whatnot. It was a great drivetrain, and made me reconsider what I’d read about 24 valve overhead cam engines like the one in the Acura Legend and RL being innately superior. GM proved when done right, pushrods and one valve per cylinder work just fine.
Make that two valves, one for each direction I meant.
Displacement counts for a lot — the 3800 was 600 cc up on the Legend and 800 cc up on the Maxima. Without forced induction, better breathing can make up for that on power, but not on torque.
A well-programmed transmission like the 4T60-E obviously is a big help either way.
I’m wondering what part of the country you lived in when driving a Series II. The power is matched for Nebraska, not New York. Granted, my car is 25 years old, but under 50K miles. I live in Rockland County, NY, famously hilly where the Hudson River flows through, and the 88’s revs are often out of sync with conditions unless you naturally have a lead foot. Yes, it has the power when you stomp on it, but it WILL lug on hills when driven lightly, unless you kick or shift it down. It’s programmed to want to be at about 1500-1750 rpm — in the 75-85 hp range — possibly to meet CAFE standards.
Wouldn’t a Deville mirror have fit?
I remember magazines or actual people complaining about that at the time.
It may have; the body contours were different so it might need some mods. Interchange guides are much easier to find in 2022 than they were in 1995 when the web was in its infancy.
Not at all, unfortunately. The pre-94 Cadillacs still had free-standing chrome 70s style square mirrors, while the 94 Deville redesign replaced them with Mercedes-style fully attached painted housings faired into the window cutout, similar to the other K bodies as they were redesigned in the early 90s and the Allante. The 90s redesign C and H bodies all had fixed freestanding mirrors with a really aero-looking teardrop shape. The Olds and Buick versions were rounded and tiny, way too small for such large cars. Similar mismatch-sized mirrors were used on the later square and then aero B Bodies. The Park Avenue export mirrors seem to my eye to simply be the larger, squarer Bonneville mirrors. So there’s your parts commonality and junkyard swapping candidate. Unsure about electrical plug commonality though, as power mirrors were still not standard on the Eighty Eight in 92, yet Park Ave Ultras and Ninety Eight Touring Sedans had power, heat, and electrochromatic auto-dimming even on the outside, with most versions having power, non-heated, non-dimming. The Bonneville probably had optional power and heated power but likely not auto dimming, since it was positioned as the sport sedan of the architecture and not the luxo boat.
I forgot all about the auto-dimming; I wonder if the Euro/Japan export Park Avenues used the Bonneville mirrors and just did without the auto dimming. It had the auto-dimming inside mirror too of course (with compass – why were these two features seemingly always packaged together?). The inside auto-dimming was too aggressive and the rear view was usually too dark. It could be turned off, but even then it seemed darker than a standard mirror. The compass was useful in the pre-satnav era.
Because the company who make most of them are very pushy that way.
Wow, really? Pretty much every one of those electrochromic self-dimming mirrors I have found inadequate; they leave me wishing for the old-fashioned type.
Gentex. I have one of their generic ones in my late-90s Toyota. I agree with you Dan. It never dims correctly, I wish I didn’t have it. The built-in outside temp is minimally useful, that and the compass feature having been supplanted by smartphones.
They wanted to be sure they were moving in the right “direction”.
This made me chuckle at how wildly GM swing from tiny mirrors on almost everything, including the above cars, the Aurora and Riviera, and even the fully attached Cadillac mirror design on the K bodies were tiny compared to the car body.
Then, jump forward to the next generation of GM cars and view the absolutely hilariously oversized stuff on the second gen Aurora, the 2000 Bonneville, the 2004 Grand Prix, and the like.
I am on year two of every-day motoring in the Oldsmobile variant, Eighty-Eight, a 1998 version with the Aurora-inspired “twin nostril” makeover, and can report on the driving experience. They handle well for a relatively big US sedan. As long as you set your eyes beyond a coming curve, you can get through it without understeering; the rack and pinion and 4 wheel IRS do their jobs well enough. The surprise is, I always expect the car to play bigger than it does. It will snuggle up to the Dunkin’ window, an ATM or an inside curve with an overhanging guardrail much closer than you believe it could without sideswiping. On the other hand, I never have a problem finding it in a lot; the front end will invariably be hanging a foot forward of the rest of the cars in the line, as It’s more prominent than it feels.
Great car! I grew up riding in a 1994 Royale and had an aunt with a 1998ish LSS n/a, with the ugly older Royale LS wheels instead of the great looking Aurora star design. Another aunt had a 1996 Bonneville SE. Great platform, and the Oldsmobiles had the nicest interior by far. The wood trim strip is actually a printed decal on metal. Everything fit together well, and the knobs on the Olds radio head unit and auto climate head unit were probably the nicest tactilr quality of any 90s GM interior component. the chrome window switches and mirror control (which I think is actually metal), and door lock and interior handles from the Cadillac K body were also really nice. Body integrity wasn’t great, with them needing the usual GM factory strut tower brace and the rear door jamb trim plastic almost always splitting around halfway back due to body flexing. The front fenders are plastic. The paint quality was typical early GM water based primer bad. Dexcool and the plastic upper intake were unkind to the 3800 when it became the Series 2, and the coolant lines running through the belt tensioner assembly are stupid. I think they had rectified the plastic valve cover gaskets used on the later Series 1, though. The last time I drove any 90s H/C was a couple of years ago when a buddy lookred at a very worn out 1998 LSS that had such bad front subframe mounts that the entire assembly moved several inches fore and aft. It felt like it was coming through the floor underway. And a terrible aftermarket sound system wiring job running throughout the car. It was ready for the junkyard, unfortunately.
Mine’s a run of the mill Eighty-Eight, and was the last new car for the gent who originally bought it (I acquired it, as he had, at age 70). He added a power passenger seat for the Missus and the CD/radio, but otherwise went vanilla with blue-gray velour. The dealer I bought it from had replaced the entire front suspension with junkyard parts cleaned and repainted, as it had rusted away, despite a mere 37K miles. And speaking of paint, the Arctic white was completely recoated at some point, and the painters seem to have assigned the taping to the old guy with the failing peepers who hung around the shop.
If you’re into such things, there’s a dealer promo video uploaded to YouTube detailing the 1999 Eighty Eight lineup and its features. Despite being a factory produced effort, it has some inaccuracies and misspellings, but is 30ish minutes of H Body goodness.
These, to me, are the best looking Buicks of the 1990s. When these were introduced, they were a dramatic breath of fresh air from GM. It’s amazing how these could come from the same company that produced the peculiar (that is a fantastic adjective for these) Olds 98s.
Good question about commonality of these currently – they have definitely dwindled in numbers but are still around GM-landia. A coworker has a worn looking one as a commuter car but I’ve never bothered to take pictures of it.
I’m given to understand that the Park Avenue Ultra was supposed to be the top of the Buick line, even if the Roadie was V8-powered and even bulkier (on the outside).
1994 Roadmaster base MSRP: $26,399
1994 Park Avenue Ultra base MSRP: $31,699
I’d have to say so.
I believe in the late 80s to mid90s (post Cimarron), larger Cadillacs were cheaper: BOF Brougham<<Deville<<Seville/Eldo<<Allante.
Same price as a Toyota Century??? Sheer lunacy. I would love to understand what went through the mind of a Japanese buyer who chose the Buick instead.
I imagine there would be social reasons for not buying the Century if you could afford one. Too conservative, too ‘invisible’ for starters. Not to knock the Century in the least, but perhaps that wasn’t the image the Buick buyer wanted to project.
I imagine there would be social reasons
In a word, yes. Where you fit into the social ladder in Japanese society played a very big part in what would and would not be seen as acceptable in ways American society is not constrained. For a business professional to purchase a Century when his boss drives “only” a Celsior or Crown would be looked upon as a huge faux pas, regardless of financial ability of either party. The old adage “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down” and all that. I’m not sure driving this would be much different in that regard, however. This must have been equally brash, just in a different way.
Just curious, but what is that antenna-looking thing on the right front of the bumper?
Corner indicator for parking maneuvers (opposite corner from driver)
Not parking, driving. That’s the side against oncoming traffic.
Always love your articles. For me, it would be so fun finding these in another country.
Having been at the Buick/Cadillac dealer from 1988 to 1995 and again from 2007 to 2011, I’ve sold a good number of these. In fact, many to family members. My parents used to drive Cadillac’s, but then went Buick PA in 1986 and kept driving Buick’s till the end. They had several PA’s and loved them all. My oldest brother and his wife had a 1985 PA and then went to a 1991 Ultra they got from me. I loved that car! It was white/gray on bottom with gray leather. The cool thing about the Ultra was that it had full leather seating and not just the seating surfaces. So even the backs of the front seats were genuine leather and those seats were ultra (pun intended) comfy. In the day, that super-charged V6 was a real runner and would surprise even the performance car guys.
You ask about MSRP’s: This isn’t an exact number, but the PA’s in 1994 were very low 30’s and the Ultra was mid to upper 30’s. Of course, you could run that up, but the ultra was super loaded and didn’t need much.
This example you found looks to be fantastic condition. Great looking car and I think they upgraded the rims from a newer PA at some point. Those weren’t available from the factory at least in the US.
Those seven-spokers just scream Cadillac SLS to me, but they might’ve been used on Buicks, too.
You’re right and right. They come from the 1998-2000 Seville STS, then migrated down to the SLS in 2001 when the STS got 17s through 2004. Then they made a final appearance on the 2005 Lesabre Limited before it was replaced by the Lucerne.
What a lovely car – to me, it has a similar ‘stance’ (if that’s the right word) to a Studebaker Avanti; it looks ‘taut’.
This car was a breath of fresh air (for GM, at least) when it debuted. After the disastrous 1980s, it appeared as though GM just might be getting back on track. Of course, that didn’t turn out to be the case.
Of all the “premium” downsized GM front-wheel-drive sedans, the Park Avenue looked the best. On the next rung down on the GM size/prestige ladder, it was the Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight that looked the best. The Buick LeSabre looked like a truncated Park Avenue, while the Pontiac Bonneville looked overdone.
You said it all for me. This was the best GM car of its time, and one I recommended to some then, given what I knew of their priorities.
Someone else used the word “stunning”, and that was my immediate reaction when I first saw one of these. The early ’90s seemed to hold so much promise in my mind for GM, and new Park Avenue seemed like Exhibit A.
I really liked reading about how these were popular (relatively speaking) in a few European countries.
One of the teachers in high school, in the late “70’s” had a “69 Park Av” as his daily ride. As i recall, was “mossy green”, brownish top”.
I can picture his face, can’t for life of me remember his name..lol
Ah well.
Curiosity got me looking at “69 Buick pics”. While I still don’t remember the “teachers name”, I’ve discovered that , likely, that mossy green car was a “Wildcat”. Looked at “70” model year pics too.
Satisfied myself , that the car I remember seeing was indeed a “69”.
I’d like to know what the owner did to the paint to make it look like a mirror.
The Japanese must make incredible car care products. We see this mirror effect a lot in Tatra’s pics.
My graduation present from college in 2011 was a 1994 Park Ave Ultra. I loved that car, and regretted selling it to a friend when it started giving me electronics issues.
Looks to be wearing Seville STS wheels from the 98-04 generation; I assume they were retrofitted on (and were they maybe donated by a imported-new STS, with the ironically reversed “legal” RHD setup?)
I dunno, they do have the Buick emblem in the middle. Could it be an export-only thing?
GM used the same wheel specs, including the center cap design and sizing across lots of cars. I mentioned above that these wheels were actually on a much later Buick from the factory, the 2005 Lesabre Limited. But the center cap on those was chrome. This car is much older than the wheel design. The center caps are either reproductions or from a different Buick factory wheel design.
Sold in the EU indeed and whereas it of course did not present any threat to the usual, German suspects, it was – well into the 00s – a regular curbside classic here in Austria. Styling helped sales, I always thought it had an air of a Jaguar about it. This one is for sale in Vienna and, with 164,000 miles on the clock and needing some work for the yearly inspection (parts to do come with the car), is a bit steep at €7500 but probably will sale at a lower price.
Oh: a search for Buicks on the below site netted four (4!) X-Body Skylarks. Ones which were assembled with special care by ex-Toyota employees for Europe I suppose:)
https://www.willhaben.at/iad/gebrauchtwagen/d/auto/buick-park-avenue-3-8-v6-617058934
For me, this is about the best mass production car to ever come from America. Full of self esteem and competence in styling and mechanicals, as well built as they were able to. Not a compromised or cheaper alternative to german sedans or a Jag but a just as good one, for people looking for different qualities in a car.
If they’d figured out themselves, how great a product they came up with and stuck to/improved upon the formula, Buick would run with the Big Guys today, and not only in its two home markets.