That's because the average US numbnuts perceives that the size of the vehicle directly corresponds to the size of their "package", particularly in the case of these trucks that have sewer pipes for exhausts.
I was REALLY hoping the day would come when I saw the Buick Electra get reviewed on this channel. Cool story if you are willing to read it. I was 6 years old in 1975. My Grandmother was an immigrant who came from Greece in 1951. Amazing woman. She and my Grandfather took me to the Buick dealership in Fort Wayne Indiana to get their old Buick serviced. We walked into the showroom and I swear on her grave the exact same car featured in this video...very first one featured in the video, red with a white landau roof (but a 4 door) was slowly spinning around on the showroom floor. She said in very broken English, "Oh my God, Louie (my grandfather), look at that beautiful car. I will never forget how shiny and MASSIVE it was. He said, "no, we are not getting that car." She said, "Louie, if you don't buy me that car I will never cook for you again" (food to die for). Within 2 hours, we drove that Electra off the showroom floor and into history. It was a beast. She gave it to me when I turned 16 and I could pile at a minimum, 10 people in it. I miss her that that land yacht to this day.
My Dad warned my older brother and me not to push the gas pedal while we were waiting in the car ( he knew we would jump behind the wheel and pretend ) , saying that the car MIGHT blow up when he started it. Well of course we did as we would overact our “driving” and then sit on edge when he got back , never fessing up to him. 😂😂😂 Miss you Mom and Dad, you put up with a lot of nonsense ❤️
My mom had a 75 or 76, I can’t exactly remember, I was a kid. It was a beautiful car, 2 door, navy blue, white landau top, white leather interior. Just so luxurious!
Black really catches my eye when it has a lot of chrome. I dream a little of pinnacle years of Chrysler Imperial 1965/66 as a collector car in black and chrome. It looks a little sinister like an official high power person’s old time communist USSR Kremlin government car. Google images of those Imperials in black to see. Pretty choice. They even had an option of a stretched rear seat area, one seat behind the driver (or chauffeur) was facing backwards, and a pop up executive work table. Rear AC was an option. Quite the car for 1965/66 !!
@@Skunked68 my neighbour in Newfoundland back in the day had the four door imperial- black on black too - that was used to carry the queen and Prince Philip around when she came to visit. Stunning, memorable car.
These were the ultimate highway cruisers of the day. There is no way to describe the ride of this car to someone who has never been in a full-size luxury car from this era because there have never been cars built since that rode like this big Buick. It was quiet. The seats rivaled many people's couches at home. It was a magnificent automobile.
My Grandad bought a brand-new 1975 Limited in baby blue with the blue cut corduroy interior. It’s hard to convey how radical those quad rectangular headlights seemed when they hit the streets for the first time on ‘75 model year vehicles.
In 1975, my stepfather bought a 74 Buick Limited. Sky blue with matching crushed velour interior. It was the biggest car I've seen before or since. He let me drive it once. I picked up a carload of friends and we cruised around our country town for a couple hours playing with all the power equipment. It was like riding in an ocean liner
My parents traded their '68 225 for a silver '76 Limited 4-door w/ burgundy cloth interior that used to tow our Terry travel trailer. Definitely liked the '76 front more than the '75. They moved the turn signals /parking lights from the bumper to directly under the headlights. There are three things I remember well. 1-- the digital clock stopped working after about a year. 2 - The glove box would never fully close so the bulb stayed lit...we eventually removed it. 3 - when I started driving it in 1986 I had some yuppy in a BMW 320i challenge me to a stop light drag. I beat him soundly but the 455 felt more sluggish than usual. Turns out I had the parking brake engaged. Ooops.
I remember in the late 80s and early 90s that few people wanted this generation of large GM cars and that the value of them plummeted to a couple of hundred dollars. One older gentleman in the town near where I lived had a really nice silver with red vinyl top and matching cloth interior 76 Olds 98 4 door hardtop which he had since new but he bought a 2 year old late 80s Crown Victoria with low mileage. He could not get anything on trade in and few people wanted to buy it even though it had little rust and the paint and interior was still nice and it was still mechanically good. He ended up scrapping it at a junkyard. The salvage yard had a number of this generation of GM full size along with the larger Fords and paid him at most a couple of hundred dollars for his Olds. Today that car would be sought after because it was in really nice shape with original paint. My mother had a 72 Sedan Deville that was in nice shape and sold it for $500 in 1984 despite it having only 70k miles. She bought a new 84 5th Avenue loaded with leather seats. The downsized full sized cars were widely accepted and few wanted the larger full sized cars of the 70s. Many dealers did not want these full size GMs even as trade ins. Mechanically they were very good but the mpgs were usually single digits and the larger size made them unpopular. I am glad that they are now getting more respect and attention.
The green coupe has typical rear bumper rub strip issues. The rubber rub strip is bonded to a metal band that has bumper mounting studs welded to it. The metal band rusts and the rub strip becomes wavy from the rust build up underneath. My 75 Park Avenue had this problem. I took the bumper off the car and took it all apart. Fortunately the reinforcing bumper was not rusted out as it often is. I removed the metal band from the rubber strip. Not an easy task. I cleaned the back of the rubber strip from rust. I put the bumber back together using regular bumper bolts. I had to remove some rubber from the back of the rub strip in the bumper bolt area to accomodate the rounded bolt heads. I used RTV to glue the rubber back on the bumper. It looks perfect. I have taken it to many Buick shows and it is always the only one there without wavy rubber. People ask me why and I never give away what I did. Another issue with the rear bumper was the chrome plate that spaces the area under the gas door. It is pot metal and they pitted badly because it was flat and the water didn't run off. They also get scratched from gas nozzles. Mine was pitted and scratched. The local Buick dealer had one new old stock which years before they had removed from a car due to a defect. They gave it to me. It was susposed to have a chrome defect but I cleaned it with chrome cleaner and never saw a defect. It makes all the difference in appearance. The rear bumper has a filler between the bumper and body along the back under the tailights. This is also a material that disappears with age. My car has it and it is in great condition. I spray it with silicone when I wax the car once a year. I believe on the green coupe in the video it is missing. No one makes a replacement but it wouldn't be hard to make it out of metal or even fiberglass. These cars have EGR valves and they are very hard to get adjusted so the motor will idle smoothly. Basically they should not work at idle but they tend to bounce if the idle is set to specs and anything but a completely factory style exhaust system is used. You need the same size exhaust pipes, converter, muffler and resonator. You need perfectly sealing exhaust valves and no vacuum leaks. If you set the idle lower it may fix the problem with the EGR but it still doesn't idle perfect. I got tired of it and plugged the EGR vacuum line to fix it. It looks normal but it is plugged. I used 93 octane gas and it never knocks. My 78 Eldorado has the same EGR system but it has a one way vacuum valve in the EGR vacuum line. It idles fine. How that tiny valve accomplishes that is a mystery. Remove the valve and it idles poorly. My Park Avenue will cruise 80 mph all day in perfect comfort but it gets 8 mpg at 80. 11 mpg is normal. Thanks for another great video.
I bought a brand new 75 coupe when I was just 19 years old. I saw it at the dealership up on a ramp and well I just had to have it. Gorgeous car, dark blue with white landau top. The interior in mine was white vinyl ribbed seats with blue dash and carpet. I had to work two jobs to pay for it but it was worth it. I knew it was near my only chance to have a brand new real full size car before they downsized in 77, I'd love to have one again but most I see do have those bumper fillers missing or rotted
I remember my Gramps having an early 60's LeSabre with that speed alert needle. I asked him what it was and he nailed it up to high speed to demo. Thanks, Gramps.
The '74-'76 Electra's were attractive cars, I think Buick did a much better job incorporating those hideous 5 mph bumpers than most others of that era. I thought the little backup/running lights in the back bumper was a nice touch.
My former employer was a Buick man through and through. In 1976 he was like a lot of big car drivers, the end of the big car was upon us. He was either going to buy a 1976 Cadillac Coupe de Ville or a 1976 Buick Electra Limited 2 door. He settled for the Buick and I doubt that a prettier Electra was ever built. It was Independence Red (maroon) with a matching interior and a white Landau top. It had the regular Landau top, not the over the top Landau top that the vehicle in the beginning of this video sports, then it had Buick’s chrome plated wheels. The car never was even driven in the rain for the 13 years he owned it. Thanks for the memories.
This Buick is just a beautiful car. I wish I had it and so many other big lead sleds from the 60s and 70s. Majority of them felt like you were riding on a cloud. Smooth steering, and meat locker grade air conditioning. It could be 100 degrees outside and you would see cold smoke coming out of the vents. At idle sitting at a traffic light. Good grief I miss those big beauties.
I had this car as a '76 and the same color combo. The white radiator shroud was just the natural color of the plastic.
3 месяца назад
My much older brother, who is no longer with us, had a 1973, blue-on-blue, hardtop-coupe, with that same interior, and the 455 into a TH-400. Loved cruising with him in that yacht, with the 8-Track cranked. Thank you for this trip down memory lane, Adam.
Regarding that blue engine paint, my dad ended up with cans and cans of that paint. His best friend’s dad had a Buick/Olds dealership. We painted all of his tools that color. I mean,ALL OF THEM. I still have C-Clamps, Garden Tools, wrenches, you name it, in that color. They still held up.
My friends dad had one like this, drove down with them from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas and back. GREAT ride! Smooth, killer AC. One could lay down sideways on the back seat. GOOD TIMES.
My favorite model we could afford for around $2000 when I was based in MO/ Arkansas back at the beginning of the 1990´s…😢 Thanks a lot for making a video on the model.👍🏻 Writing from a lost suburban city south of Paris, France…😖😔
I have a 1974 Electra Limited that has the original fender extensions; 34,000 miles. They are cracked, but repairable. I have one where the repair is nearly completed, and Adam is right when he says the fit is abysmal for the reproductions!
All the trouble these squishy extensions are having makes me wonder how today's cars will fare in 50 years when their plastic bumper covers have aged. Will they be driving around with their guts exposed, or have they improved the longevity of the plastic?
Had a large female relative that loved her 1975 Electra 225, she fit better in it than the later Buick Century with the V6 DIESEL! They had a business and they bought a GMC 3/4 ton DIESEL Van and liked the fuel economy so they bought a Buick DIESEL. However, it was not anything you could call reliable!!! The thing that ended that car was a fractured torque converter flex plate! She then bought a mid 1980's Lincoln Town Car and drove it for years putting so many miles on the 302 she had a rebuilt engine installed!
My cousin used to have his Dad's 75 all the time and we cruised all over the place. It was white with black vinyl roof and a maroon velour gut.. the only thing it lacked was the horsepower. 👎 Nothing like the 1971 Electra his Dad had previously.. the 71 was a beast compared to the 75 but had the floral type seats and green interior like you show in the video. The whole car was that forest green that GM was famous for. Either way they were both great cars but nothing like my Buddy at work who had a 67 225 that was sleek comfy and practically a hot rod for what it was. Buick was always my favorite 💯👍
@@DanEBoyd That car was a joke. I junked it after 3 months and got a 1979 Buick Skylark for $2500 that lasted until 2001. It was a nice 2 door coupe with a V8 engine that was fun to drive and very reliable. Had to junk it because frame rusted out due to much winter driving in upstate NY.
I used to own a 75 Electra custom sedan, and I can tell you that it was a nice car, but replacing the water and fuel pumps was a nightmare. It seems that every bolt snapped on the water pump, and as for the fuel pump, well, the new one gave me a hard time being put in. It took me 2 hours to get it to seat it in on the cam properly. Of course, what made it even more of a pain was that I had to put it in, in my driveway without having jack stands lying on my back, not a good time at all
I've never said this, but thank you, Adam, for not falling into the music, joke-telling, worthless type youtube videos. I like your direct and simple approach. As Joe Friday might say, "just the facts, ma'am".
Agree, I've always liked the dash on these Buicks compared to others of that era. Most dashes back then were downright boring - take a look at the '75 Cadillac dash as a prime example - no imagination went into that!
Dad had a 76 225. I learned how to drive cars with that as a teenager. I was very intimidated as I could not see where the hood ended. The AC had enough capacity to make the car uncomfortably cold really fast. I miss that land yacht. Tin worm ate it up.
My mother bought a new one in 75. I got my license soon after. I made that 455 moan up to 100 or so. lol. Then came the gas crunch and Mom got a more modest Impala 305.
My mother drove a 1976 Electra Limited Park Avenue for many many years, the Park Avenue was actually still a hardtop with no B pillar. Stunning car, it replaced her 1967 Electra 225.
I graduated high school in 75. One of the things that annoyed me about these large GM coupes in 75-76 was that the backseat passengers had no access to a roll down window, probably due to the impending roll over regs you mentioned. OK when new, I guess. But if the AC acted up it was hard to move air around back there, and it was a large space. Looks so cool, though.
My mother had a Cadillac the size of the Buick you talk about here. I drove it once, it was smooth but not used to it I felt like I was floating all over the place. The only Buick I ever owned was a 1986 T-Type.
My dad had 3 Electra 225's - a '66, a '69, and a '72. All were beautiful cars, especially his '69 Limited with the 430 cid engine. The best GM's of that era by far!
In 1975, it was 233.4”, slightly more than the 1976 that had a revised front bumper design. And it didn’t include the optional bumper guards which were optional and made it a bit longer.
Sinbad had a great routine during his peak in the 90s about how the deuce and a quarter could withstand anything but if a newer car hit a rabbit, it would fall apart.
Dad had a 73 4 door, the same maroon color as the picture. That was a sweet car. It was used when he got it, but it looked like new. I ended up getting a 76 2 door. Both cars had the 455, which was a very good engine. I cannot remember the last time I actually saw one of these boats on the road. It's been that long.
That's one reason I like the 74 Delta 88. It was just before the cat converter and high energy ignition so the Rocket 350 didn't have a lot of power robbing controls, making it easier to work on also. Just change your plugs, points, and condenser along with your PCV valve and air filter and you're good to go!
Adam, thank you for another fine cameo video! My long-time owned 1973 Centurion convertible was a trim 224 inches in overall length and of course, pre-catalytic converter.
My mother bought a used 77 with the Bleak 350. Loved driving that comfortable boat 🚢. She would do zero to 90mph in about 2 miles. Couldn't ever hit 91mph, but I could run 90, on a straight road, with 2" of packed snow, and I felt as confident as if she was on rails!! I always prayed that a Moose or Elk wouldn't try to cross the road at that same time. It would take a quarter mile to come to a stop? The next spring mom was going down a Montana mountain, dude on a larger Yamaha came into her lane head on. Surprising to me after seeing the pictures, but it totaled her 225, and his bike 🏍, but the greatest part was that the guy on the bike only had his boot come off his foot and was dazed for about 15 minutes!!!!
My grandfather had one, a coupe like this in seafoam green. He traded it for a ‘77 -was so p@@sd when he found out GM was dropping Olds engines into their Buicks.
Parents had a loaded ‘76 Estate Wagon including the faux leather interior. It was canary and woodgrain. They used it to pull a sizable airstream for 4 years and then handed down to me. The electrical system was a mess. Dad hated this car and was ultimately sad he traded his 71 vista cruiser for it with the 350.
We bought a 76 Electra Limited 4 door new. the break in was a trip from Pittsburgh to Yellowstone National Park. It was a great car, best long trip car I was ever in. I want another one. BTW, I was 7yo on that trip, I could lay in the rear window and sleep...
Adam, this brings to mind a topic I think would be great for you to do a video on: GM’s first airbag program. It was these cars that were among the first ever cars available with airbags, yet the general public still considers Mercedes Benz the airbag pioneers. Please make a video discussing how GM developed these first airbag-equipped cars, how they worked, and why GM stopped offering them until the late 1980s. Thanks!
A local body shop used to specialize in putting metal fillers between the fenders and bumpers on these types of cars. They were welded to the fenders which got rid of the join line. Not cheap, but not $3000, and looked great.
The 75 Electra was the best of all! The way it drove and handled with the standard radial tires was stellar for a car of that size. My dads 75 was in glacier blue, and they did change the cloth interior mid year and eliminated the floral pattern, we had just a plain pattern. The dash was different than the 74 transition year. Last year for the metal grill also, 76 was plastic. The shroud just kept things neater under the hood. which I believe came out in 73.
My grandparents had one of these, same model-year. It was a four-door, if you put all the windows down, it was pretty much a convertible. But it had this incredible white leather interior... and it was soft and cool in the summer; it always smelled so good inside. And it had these really pretty embossed wooden accents around the door handles. I feel like all the wooden accents were real wood; if not, it was a very good limitation. I have yet been in a luxury car which had such incredibly soft, sumptuous leather. It's was really something.
Words alone can not describe how much I ADORE that interior. So wild and wacky and tacky, but it just screams interior design of the 70s! I know they're really not best of breed compared to the earlier cars, but the 75-76 full size cars from GM are just neat, and really represent the last gasp of completely over the top size and style. As nice as the Electra is, though, I'd go for a LeSabre which didn't have the same flexible extensions out back. It also had the cooler "hardtop" roof on the coupes, which still had a (albeit small) roll down rear window. Also, I really like the idea of the speed alert, great for cars without cruise control.
The fan shroud and integrated bottles were very likely easier to install and perhaps cheaper overall. All these years later it looks in pretty good shape. Good job Buick!
Thanks for this one, Adam ! I had a 1971 Buick Electra 225 Limited, and the horsepower was more than adequate.. 1971 was the first year for the new GM 'C body', which included the top level Oldsmobile NInety Eight, the Buick Electra, and all Cadillacs (save Eldorado) for 1971. There's some lack of clarity as to whether or not the Pontiac Grand Ville was a C body.
I've read that the Grand Ville was just a B-body sitting on a long wheelbase. GM used rectangular wheel openings up front so they could move the front wheels forward or backward without changing much sheet metal. I believe that was the same trick they used on the pre-1973 Grand Prix. PS: Volvo did something similar with the 164, but that being a unibody, they probably had to change more of the front structure. Nonetheless, the doors were identical and for 1975, with the introduction of the V6, they went to a single wheelbase for their 6 and 4 cylinder models.
We had Buicks in our family. My Dad had a 72 Estate wagon then traded for a 74 Electra 225 Custom then traded for a 76 Electra 225 Limited. Loved every one of those big GM cars.
I have had 3 Buick Electra 225 4 door hardtops. My first car was a 1976 in triple red with a white vinyl top, my 3rd car was a 1972 in black with a green interior everywhere except for the seats were a creme cloth, but not in a fleur-de-lis design, but just a plain design. 3rd Electra 225 was a 1974 parts car I bought from a junkyard in Iowa that some kids had cut with a sawzall above the windshield and at the bottom of the B and C pillars to make into a 4 door hardtop convertible. I also had a 1974 Riviera and it and the 1974 Electra 225 both had green dashes identical in color to the black 1975 2 door hardtop Electra 225 Custom in your video and the same steering wheel except for the emblem in the center of the Riviera's steering wheel of course. I really liked the dash of the 1974 and 1976 Electra 225/LeSabre/Riviera. My dad had a 1976 4 door sedan LeSabre Custom that had a 350 and was blue everywhere inside and outside except for the full white vinyl top. My 1974 Riviera was green everywhere except for the white vinyl seats and white vinyl full top.
My dad had a 73 Continental, the neighbors across the street from us had a 74 coupe DeVille and a 72 Marquis. We also had a neighbor at the very end of the street who was a TWA pilot who had a white 75 coupe DeVille. Finally, the last of our neighborhood land yachts was when another neighbor down the street bought a gold 75 Electra. Our neighborhood land yacht trend was permanently broken when another neighbor down the street traded in his 66 Bonneville wagon for a 76 450SEL
Here I thought your French accent was impressive Adam. I had no idea your duck call was even better! ;) I kid - I really appreciate how your videos reflect your personality but it never overshadows the cars or the review (cough... Clarkson... cough). Another fascinating, well done video!
I didn't know what "Deuce And A Quarter" meant, but I remember some military trucks were called that. And of course... "Hank the Deuce" was Henry Ford II, who wrestled with Harry Bennet for control over Ford after his father died. Boy oh boy did one of my teachers at Parke Lane Elementary school talk about Harry Bennet; This clown was basically a gangster who owned a house on the island right on West River road, with a secret boat door so that he could get away by high powered speed boat if necessary, and he also built a castle near Flat Rock. Adam, you should do a video about Harry Bennet.....
My dad had a junker 72?ish Electra we lived in rural upstate NY driving to work in the dark one morning he hit a medium sized deer at about 40 mph it threw the deer down the road about 60 - 70 feet. In NY your required to report deer strikes to police the state trooper dispatched [shot] the dying deer. He didn't want to wait for the county to pick it up and he gave it my dad they put it in the trunk it was so messed up the butcher could only save the un-hit side of the deer the hit side was peppered whit shattered bone . The moral of the story is the only damage it did to the car is a nickel sized dent in the crown of the front clip and hair in the grille it was made of steel . That would have totaled today's cars
Thank you Adam. A lot of GM cars got those fender caps other and Cadillac and Buick. The Oldsmobile Ninety Eight 1975=1976 and Toronado 1975-1978 had them too. Things were changing at GM during this time. You see it on this car.
Those people in mid 70s sure had some awesome and difficult choices in the land yacht. Imagine a Chrysler New Yorker 440, Buick Electra 455, Mercury Marquis 460 ... each with endless choices of colors and interior funkiness. Today ... I got nothing. Camry or Accord in what 3 colors and zero style between them.
Hot Rod magazine about 20 years ago did a budget big block article, in which they threw $5500 at each big block, and the Buick 455 came out on top with 550 hp. It blew away the silly fragile Chevy 454, the Ford 460, the Mopar 440, the Olds 455 which really wasn't a big block, and the Pontiac 455 which was very torquey but didn't make the power. (Of course, they didn't include the Porsche M28 DOHC 32 valve big block from the 928......)
I had a 1972 Buick Skylark Custom, with the nose of a `71. That was a 4-door sedan with AC (but not auto climate control) and cloth seats. It had the 350 2bbl. I loved that car. It also had that speed alert option. It was a metallic dark green. In the 70s my uncle had a `75 or `76 Electra Estate Wagon that he bought new. (We had a `75 Chrysler Town and Country that my dad bought new.)
We had a 1973 Electra and I believe that the trim level was "225", "225 Custom" "Limited" and "Park Avenue". the 1975 was by far my favorite of the early 70s Electras. The thing I didn't like about our 73, 455-4 was that it seemed to go through starter solenoids faster than I went through socks. LOL
Great cars, along with the 98, as fine a car as was ever built by GM. Personally liked them better than Caddy because they did not have any pretense toward consideration as the standard bearer of the manufacturer. Provided understated luxury, safety, and fine performance. The Buick seemed to deliver decent economy for that size. I was a 98 guy, owned a 65 and a 73, both great corporate cousins to the Deuce. The halcyon days of US autos.
That dash is in good condition. The edge by the drivers door always seems to crack and split. Very very thin material on these model years. Nice seat cushioning though. I had a 76 limited. Mine had auto climate control which was kind of annoying. This car has manual which I would've preferred. The ACC had a "Mark II programmer" under the dash by the passenger footwell. Lots of sophisticated vacuum switching but seemed pretty reliable. Drove mine to 165,000 miles.
Had a friend in the 80’s who had a blue 1975 Electra car. Wow was that car sweet. It was a comfort to ride in and that thing plowed through the snow like a tank. No one cars like that one anymore. Beautiful car.
I bought a 1976 cadillac fleetwood and it only has 25k on it. The paint was perfect except the rubber inserts. The only thing I could get to replace them was these plastic ones. I had to work them and tweak them to fit. Then I painted them myself and they looked nice, not perfect but you really had to look at them to notice.
