Filed under: Time Warp, Coupes, Etc., Buick
Future Classics: 1988-91 Buick Reatta
I remember the one time I rode in a Buick Reatta. It was bright red and had a beige leather interior. Its notchy silhouette flashed up to the curb on alloy rims. There were three of us, and only two places. Being the smallest, I was nominated to slide around the parcel shelf behind the seats. The car was definitely flashy, but more like "real estate agent" flashy than "kick your ass" flashy. The GNX was covering the whoopin's for Buick at the time. The digital dash was a thing to behold for a techy-geek in the late '80s. The floorshift dropped into "D" and the 3800's balance-shaft muted growl provided a soundtrack for the firm shove we all felt. And... that was about it. The 4-speed transaxle couldn't handle too much grunt, so the 3800's torquey stepoff was about all the excitement the Reatta would muster. The cars were quite fully-optioned, as well, adding to a 3,500-pound curb weight. 0-60 times were almost 10 seconds. That's a long time to listen to the 3800.
More after the jump
Ed. note - we're thinking of making Future Classics a regular, weekly feature. What are some cars you'd like to see here that are generally underappreciated gems from the past? Leave your suggestions in the comments.
No matter the letdown underhood (though it was entirely adequate for everyday driving, and remains so), we headed for the twistiest, roller-coasteriest road around. It may not have had the cojones to match its traditional "Buick Coupe" lines, but that sucker could stick! I'd never imagined what it'd feel like to be inside a clothes dryer, but after that ride in the Reatta, I knew anyway. With only 20,000 or so built from its 1988-1991 run, the Reatta garnered the response "a Buick what?" even when new. They've since been scattered into further obscurity by the sands of time. Of course, I did see two just today. Their relative rarity and lack of go-fast cred equals a car that's cheap to own and run while sharing common running gear with other GM rides. What that means for you is that maintenance will be inexpensive, while actually making your Reatta fast will be easy, relatively speaking.
The Reatta was begun while Buick was still actively cultivating an image of performance capability. The Regal Turbo and Grand National were carrying the torch of the musclecar out of the dark days of the late 1970s. GNs were being dipped in Darth-Vader black and whipped into a frenzy by a turbocharger nestled underhood while V8s were still climing back from their low point of power ratings. A Turbo Buick is a wonderful thing, and the GN and GNX had some serious attitude. For those that wished to fly along incognito, there were less-conspicuous Turbo Regals as well. These A/G body cars were all well and good, but the Reatta was intended as a halo car, kind of like what the Solstice is currently doing over at Pontiac. The same 231 cubic-inch V6 with a Garrett turbine was slated to provide motive force in the Reatta.
The Reatta shared GMs V platform with the Cadillac Allante, itself a halo car. The V was essentially a shortened version of the E platform underneath the Buick Riviera, Oldsmobile Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado. The V and E platforms also share lots of DNA with the Cadillac-specific K platform and the more widely used G platform. We could go on and on like the Old Testament, K begat E, which begat V, brother to G. K and G live on, known as the DTS and Lucerne, as well as some very recently departed Pontiacs, Buicks and Oldsmobiles. What should be obvious by now is that the GM toybin is wide open to the Reatta owner.
Right from the get-go, the Reatta was concieved as a fully-equipped personal-luxury coupe. Suspension was all-independent, brakes were 4-wheel discs with anti-lock, the interior featured the touchscreen controller from the Riviera (how's that for forward think?), and construction featured a lot of hand work. Each Reatta came with a logbook carrying the signatures of the individual assembly supervisors. Absent was the AiResearch huffer on the V6. What happened to Buick during the Reatta's development years was that the brand's management thought a focus-shift was in order. Instead of creating a coupe with the moves to rival the C4 Corvette, Buick brass wanted to move the brand on from musclecars to a more conservative approach. Going conservative wimpy in an attempt to focus on the older buyer demographics represents a seriously squandered opportunity. No use in being bitter now. Lets just say that the FWD platform wasn't really capable of putting down buckets of power, and finding an automatic transaxle that wouldn't end up as detritus was equally a challenge. At least they didn't mess up the handling.
A quick squiz at eBay shows that the Reatta is currently trading in the sub to mid-1,000 dollar range, though realistically you'll spend more. That's not that bad for a nicely styled coupe that offers you a lot of exclusivity. If you want even more exclusivity, there was a convertible made, but they're quite rare. Not only that, the coupe is better looking and we're sure body rigidity took a big hit without the roof. We'd love to get one of these in our hot little hands and start cruising boneyards looking for swap parts. Supercharged 3800s are plentiful, and for something even more special, platform-mate Allante managed to get the Northstar for its last year. Hmmm.
PHOTO GALLERY:
VIDEOS:
Walk around
'80s Automotive Touch-Screen Technology
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
JayP 6:17PM (12/27/2006)
I agree- new weekly feature...
Suggestions: Anything with a Quad4 or any 'performance' car from the 80's and early 90's.
Oh- and any hot-hatches. I can't get enough hot hatches.
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Mike 6:21PM (12/27/2006)
The one that I used to own, 1987-1992 Mazda 929
180hp, RWD, luxury sedan, available with a manual.
God I miss mine, and info on them is REALLY hard to come by.
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Stphane Dumas 6:41PM (12/27/2006)
the magazine Collectible Automobile had a good article about the Reatta in the February 2006 issue explaining how the Reatta was conceived.
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SleighBoy 7:13PM (12/27/2006)
Suggestion: Pontiac 6000 STE AWD
Yes, a transverse-born AWD Pontiac circa 1988.
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thxcolm 7:16PM (12/27/2006)
Perhaps a Subaru SVX. The styling on the side windows is so future forward. It was a flop at the time I believe, but then aren't most of the cars that are "future classics" a flop?
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BOB 7:19PM (12/27/2006)
I go for the future classics idea.
I might put the Reatta into the category of
"understyled, misdirected, capital draining, semi-laughable attempts by GM to add brand image"
In that garage, you can park the Alante, the Aurora, the GTO-oh.
Next door, park the mainstream models they ruined such as the Olds Cutlass (former #1 seller), most Cadillacs from 1980-2000, almost everything else they made from 1980-2000, recent Impala, many more. This one would take up a lot of land.
Toyota ought to send retired GM executives a new Lexus each.
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ernie 7:51PM (12/27/2006)
What the heck was going on in that touch screen video? Quality was pretty bad, couldn't tell at all what was going on. Seems like you entered some kind of "service mode" and then randomly hit buttons. No explanation at all, which would have been nice. Would have loved to see what the screen could actually do, other than the easter egg I think that one screen was ...
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Brian W. 8:16PM (12/27/2006)
This would be an awesome weekly feature!
I nominate the 1991-1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR-4, the grandfather of the evo.
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AutoFan 8:32PM (12/27/2006)
Brian beat me to my suggestion (I'm the proud owner of one, btw). But roughly along the same lines I'd say the '88-ish Mazda 323 GTX qualifies.
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Edsel 8:33PM (12/27/2006)
What's model years are you framing as "Future Classics", Dan?
Some of us old codgers may still consider stuff from the 1960's as modern and contemporary but kids today would consider them medieval ox carts.
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Jeff 8:40PM (12/27/2006)
"classic" cars as we know it are a thing of the past. All the "tech" in modern car's makes older modern cars not practical to maintain. It's like buying a lexus or mercedes from the 95-97 and you spend almost the price a new one just to keep it running. It's not like owning a 71 mustang. Imagine owning a mercedes CLS 25 years from now? That being said if I had to choose any future classic based on design it WOULD be the CLS, yea, I just contridicted myself, so what.
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jamey 8:47PM (12/27/2006)
good weekly feature
or bi weekly to last a little longer
gotta have the fiero and alfa romeo 164
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LoneWolf 8:57PM (12/27/2006)
The `96 Impala SS (wait, this IS a classic...)
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oliver 8:59PM (12/27/2006)
i think one car that could certainly be a future classic is the mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 this car was competing against the supra, 300ZX,and the NSX, plus it was very technologically ahead at the time with something similar to the HICAS system from nissan and the ability for the rear wing to alter its angle at high speeds
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bepsf 9:29PM (12/27/2006)
Mercur XR4Ti -
That was one hot car: better built, better looking and roomier than the Mustang SVO, yet just as fast.
Audi 4000S Quattro -
Not as powerful as the Ur-Quattro, but far more practical.
the late 70's/early 80's Audi 5000S/5000 Turbo -
The first production car w/ a 5-cylinder engine.
1st Generation Acura Legend Sedan & Coupe
The beginning of the Japanese Luxury Marques.
Lincoln Mark VII LSC -
Mark VII was the first car sold in the US to have flush halogen headlamps and anti-lock brakes, and the LSC was the popular performance model with a 225 hp 5.0 V8.
1975-79 Cadillac Seville -
The first "European-sized" American Luxury Car- it was smaller, ligher, more expensive and more popular than any other Cadillac of its time.
1972-1979 Mercedes-Benz (W116) S-Class
The first production cars available with airbags and 4 wheel ABS, including the 1978-79 450SEL 6.9 - and the first production Turbodiesel, the 300SD.
1971-89 Mercedes-Benz (R107) SL
Including the 350/450/380/560SL - This was THE Mercedes-Benz convertible for 18 years - the longest production run for a single Mercedes bodystyle ever.
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Chris Huggins 9:32PM (12/27/2006)
How about the '86 Toyota Cressida? With 160hp, rear wheel drive and that sweet sweet digital display it made for a lot of fun driving around town when I was in highschool...
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Carl 9:36PM (12/27/2006)
You must rock the Eagle Premier... my folks had one and despite the troublesome ZF 4HP18 mated to the PRV 3.0L V6, it was a tragically underappreciated piece of automotive history. The Premier led to a lot of the development of the LH and even the LX series Chrysler products of today.
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GEO 10:03PM (12/27/2006)
FUTURE CLASSIC: 1967-68 Mercury Cougar - The orginal body. By '69 it has already lost it's design integrity, but that original car was somthing special: Matching vertical bar front and rear grilles, hidden headlamps, sequential turn signals. While it was based upon the Mustang platform, this was a far more substantial and prestigeous ride. Not too many were sold, however, so it will be quite valuable when it is inevitably discovered by collectors.
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Krenzy 10:04PM (12/27/2006)
Suggestion: 1989-1990 Pontiac Turbo Grand Prix. I own one currently, owned another in the past. Great cars, limited production, the engine was built by McLaren and the body by ASC...Truely a modern toast to the hot-rodded hearts. I would be more than willing to supply pictures and information if needed.
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Eric 10:06PM (12/27/2006)
Saab 9000 CDE - Pre 9-5, Saab made an attempt at the "true" luxury sedan segment. This slightly upscale version of the 9000 ditched the hatch in favor of a real trunk.
Also-The old 900 verts will def. be a classic
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