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.
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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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chuck goolsbee 12:19AM (12/28/2006)
top-of-my-head nominations:
Mk1 VW GTI
Any Celica Supra, but especially the early ones.
C4 vettes (laugh now, but their day WILL come)
first year (83 IIRC) Honda CRX, black on black
944s (yeah the P-snobs all sneer at them, but that is because they are P-snobs. fsck'em I say.)
80s and 90s Benz and VW Diesels. Look at the prices they pull on eBay and the like! When bioblends become the norm, these cars will be like some sort of uber-futuristic prophets! ;)
All these stupid failed American retromobiles, Prowlers, T-birds, that uber-ugly Chevy pickup-thing, etc (Except NOT PT Cruisers... too many of those)... oh wait, that is just like a Reatta!
--chuck
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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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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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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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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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jOHN 2:08AM (12/28/2006)
I like the idea of having future clasics as a regular article.
I'd like to suggest the Toyota Cressida. Full luxury sudan with a sports car's engine and suspension (Supra!)
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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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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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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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That One Person 10:31PM (12/27/2006)
I believe the Reatta did the 0-60 run in the mid 8 second range. Because I remember reading times of a 95 Buick Regal GS doing 0-60 in 8.3 seconds. And I have a 94 Regal Custom and I know it takes well under 10 seconds to get to 60 and it has the same engine as the Reatta and the GS.
Anyways, I would like to see SHOs, Allantes and some Starions...
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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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Ralph 11:40PM (12/27/2006)
The Taurus SHO with the Yamaha V-6
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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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AutoFan 10:27PM (12/27/2006)
Oh, and the Reatta would have to improve just to suck.
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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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zebadeah 8:26PM (12/29/2006)
You know what?... in the late 80's early 90's gm did some out with some cars that were a little bit b4 their time... my parents bought a brand new pontiac grand prix turbo... rumor is they only came out with 1500 of them a year for 2 years... i wonder if that would classify as a future clasic... with all the features it had like heads up display, abs, 16 way adjustable seats and enough power (back then) to put some sports sedans costing way more to shame
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