XP715

I used to be sort of a leadfoot until one night when something happened up in New Hampshire and I was reminded of how expensive it is to drive fast. Sixty8 knows what's up; he was in the passenger's seat :lol: Basically all you need to know is I got boned. Hard. :blink:

I wonder how many years the old buzzard's got left in him before they retrofit his body with Disney animatronics so he can stay on New Year's Rockin' Eve forever...

Cuh-lay

The Ford's got so many because it used to deliver travel trailers all over the country. Funny the ad mentions that; I met a guy from down South that did that and he had a diesel Dodge Ram 3500 from around the same year that he caimed was pushing 350K. Of course, his actually LOOKED like it was pushing 350K; not a single body panel on the thing could even pretend to be straight! That Ford is clean, though.

I'm with GM1 on it being pronounced "buh-ritz," but please take into consideration the fact I've been born in raised in ASSachusetts so I've got a major handicap when it comes to using the English language correctly. Now I'm gunna go awder a black & white frappe down at Brigham's while sumbuddy finds me a nice picture of a '70 GTO Judge so I can tell them how wicked pissah I think it is. Stick a fawk in me; I'm done! :P

Ugh, damn this thread for jarring my horrible childhood memories of a young girl (19-20) who lived on my street that drove a bright yellow one of these things all the way into the late 90's. She used to park it out on the street and I remember dinging a baseball off the hood every now and again. :lol: :lol: I could hardly hold in the laughter when looking at that ugly yellow pile of crap, and she thought it was the greatest thing in the world. She used to fly down the street blasting Aerosmith like she thought it was a friggen Ferrari or something. How could you ever feel cool in one of these POS's when the guy living right next door to you had a '67 Ford Fairlane GT sitting out in his yard under a tree waiting for restoration; now THAT was a cool car. I'm not a Ford guy one single bit, but I liked that thing a lot!

Take a saw and cut it open?!?!? NEVER!! Actually my radio/climate control bezel DOES have a teeny tiny split up in the corner; perhaps if I ever get a new one I'll slice & dice the old one just because I've had the shifter bezel off in my hand and still swear the effing thing is plastic! :P Is that common for wood accents in cars to be more clearcoat than wood or something? I have a friend with a '94 Jaguar XJ6 and they swear that shit's real wood too but to me it doesn't even look close since it feels so plasticy and it's that typical overpriced luxury car dark burl walnut finish. Mine at least LOOKS like real wood. You know what else is weird since we're on the whole wood thing? My car also left the factory with the light wood radio/climate control bezel and dark wood shifter bezel; what the hell?! I have actually seen this on one other Riviera that was on eBayMotors about a year ago though, but still. Who the hell ordered this damn car and what on Earth could they have been drinking when they did it; I want some too! :lol:

This is getting interesting. Any of you in the mood to debate on how to pronounce the word "Biarritz?" :lol:

Thanks a lot dude; I really appreciate it! :)

Basically what I'm asking is if this car is just a weird one that got out the door, which isn't much of a stretch considering it's a General Motors product. Lease cars don't exactly get special ordered as specifically as this one was; they show up. I think it may just be a strange one that I ended up with, whose options got sent down the pipe at the factory in some strange order; Wouldn't be the first time I've owned something by GM out of the ordinary. See that '77 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme in my signature? That car was built so early in the run (9/76) that its VIN number is not completely consistent to either 1976 OR 1977; it's a 1977 VIN number that carries the 1976 body designation for a Cutlass Supreme. Ultra low options (manual door locks, manual windows, AM radio, vinyl headliner, steel wheels with dog dish hubcaps, no frills whatsoever), yet it had a Rocket 350. But as far as the egg goes, we'll see what Ocnblu's able to turn up in terms of facts and figures on the options.

So like, where are you getting this information anyways? First of all I've seen prestige packages offered for these cars that includes the wood dash kit. Second of all, though I can't speak definitively for the radio/climate control bezel, I've had the shifter bezel off and in my hands and it's plastic, sure as shit, not wood, and I'd be willing to bet the same for the other piece. And as far as the wheels go, which is the only thing I'm finding believable, did the company buy the satin silver wheels and blast the paint off and chrome them? Same for the hubcaps and they ordered and applied new hub emblems for all of them? And yes, the seven-spoke chrome wheels offered from 1997-1999 on these cars were derived from the Reatta's wheels, but my style as well as the ones with the offest spokes were not. My style is a variant of a LeSabre/Park Avenue wheel. The question I'm asking is why do the offset spokes in chrome appear as an option in Buick sales literature but mine do not; is it a dealer special that some old man got taken for a ride on? Not likely, since the car started its life out as a lease car in Michigan. I'd like to know how this car was ordered, and I'm also trying to get to the bottom of what the salesmen and parts managers told me about the limited castings and whether it's true or not.

MORE of the luxury RIDE, it's a feeling of PRIDE when you step INSIIII-II-II-II-IIIDE!

Bet you wish that was your STS! :P

Welcome to the forums, Frank. Get us some pictures of your Cutlass Ciera coupe; that's a pretty rare body style that you hardly ever see on the road anymore. A friend of mine's brother used to drive an '86 about a year and a half ago; it was given to him by his grandfather. Had really low miles but was still a shitbox due to the fact that it sat outside uncovered on dirt for a few years before it was bestowed upon him. His had the FWD version of the Oldsmobile superstock wheels on it; I was gonna take them for the '89 Toronado I was driving at the time as they were the same color but damn near every lug was rusted right to the wheel studs, so no dice; what kind does yours have?

That's part of a factory option package known as a "prestige package" that was offered on these cars from '96 to '99 in pretty limited numbers. I own a '96 Riviera myself that's Bright White Diamond Metallic over taupe and I think the dash and interior appointments are just fine without the prestige package (just a faux wood bezel around the radio/climate control unit and the shifter as opposed to the whole dash), not to say that this looks bad. It just looks better on some colors as opposed to others; taupe would probably look the best, or a dark color with the darker wood offered on their burgundy interior. And I'm definitely in agreement with you on the Dark Adriatic interior; yuck! I went and looked at a Light Adriatic Metallic '95 at the beginning of the summer with this interior in it and I'd have to say it's the worst of any colors offered in these cars. But as far as a prestige package car is concerned, I certainly wouldn't turn one down if it was offered at the right price. I think these are wonderful cars and would buy another one in about half a second if my hands weren't full with this one and my '79 Cadillac already. Good luck to you if you end up buying it; it'd be nice to have a fellow last generation Riviera owner on the forums! Here's mine if you feel like checking it out: 1996 Buick Riviera

1970 Buick Skylark Sport Wagon, plus 1970 Buick GS Stage 1 455 equals Buick GSXpress Wagon :lol:

It hurts. It hurts real bad. :(

Man, I like you but where do you get some of this stuff? You talk like an Ovaltine commercial sounds. Somehow I don't see this handsome 1949 Roadmaster Estate Wagon OR any of the acres-large Electra Estates of the 70's and 80's when I look at a Rendezvous; all I see is a first try, a rough draft, a dress rehearsal, call it what you want, for something like a Lexus RX330 or a BMW X5.

We really DO need another Riviera; my '96 has 131,000 on it so far and there will come a day where the old girl will have to be retired from daily service and put on my to-do list of things to restore at some point (I'm NEVER getting rid of it). As far as a replacement goes, I'd like to find the nicest, lowest mileage '97-'99 Light Jadestone Metallic one with all the toys I can, but that too will get worn out and then where will I be? I've considered the '05 Buick Park Avenue Ultra, but still, cars wear out. Why is it so hard for General Motors to build a product that doesn't suck today? Nothing offerred right now excites me one bit. As far as Buick is concerned, I'm trying to be optimistic about the Lucerne, but if after all the years and millions upon millions of dollars of research and development that went into the damn thing the biggest selling point they use is the fact that the car has heated washer fluid, that's pretty sad. Maybe they'll make more commercials where they tell you how neat the shifter knob is. Cold washer fluid's worked fine for all these years, so maybe Buick should instead be concentrating their energy on building something exciting again and not just trying to fill out the lineup by doing dumb shit like slapping a tri-shield on a Pontiac Montana. If somebody's in the market for a minivan, I seriously doubt Buick is the first marque that pops into their head.

I think what Sixty8's trying to say is that it's a shame that the most famous and respected nameplate to ever be bestowed upon any muscle car ended its life for the next thirty years on Pontiac's Chevy Nova counterpart, the Ventura. That's not exactly what I'd call going out on a high note. 1974 also brought us the Buick Apollo GSX, another famous name from a serious muscle car that also ended up on a dolled up Nova. I'm sure all of you guys can think of at least one car given a name it didn't quite deserve...

That's not a town car; that's called a sedanca deville. There's a Barker-bodied 1938 Packard, a Derham-bodied 1954 Chrysler Imperial show car, and a few others floating around too. This body style is much more popular on European cars, especially Rolls-Royce. But yeah, I'm definitely not feeling Pontiac's take on it, not that I wouldn't want it in my garage for its value and the weird factor :lol:

There was a Pontiac Parisienne town car concept made as well? Pictures, anybody?

Wow mustang84, you saw a Chrysler TC by Maserati in person? What's up with all these old duffers and their ridiculously overpriced limited edition bullshit coming out of the woodwork lately? This week I've seen two Cadillac Allantes after not seeing any in damn near forever. Who else has spotted something odd recently?

Ask and you shall receive; check the lounge :)

Here she is, XP48; the one of a kid Cadillac Eldorado Brougham town car made for the 1956 Motorama. I'd seen this thing a long time ago in a book and had almost forgotten about it until I opened up this month's issue of Hemming's Motor News and saw it in the auctions section. I can't believe this thing escaped the crusher at the legendary Warhoops Salvage Yard where Lord knows how many other priceless concepts were squished into a cube. XP48: The 1956 Motorama Cadillac Eldorado Brougham town car I need to see this thing in person before i die.