Lil4X

I drove Buick company cars for several years (choice limited to lower line Olds, Buick and Pontiac - the Buick Custom was actually the better car). With load levelling airshocks on the rear (and compressor), and HD shocks up front and heavy-duty swaybars (ordered surreptitiously by my friendly dealer) it was a great highway machine for it's day. It was moderatly quick with no real handling vices, given it was a big American sedan. Earlier company cars were Caprice Classic wagons, but that was another company with somewhat deeper pockets for fleet cars (not paychecks).

Back in the day - mid-seventies to mid-eighties - the last of the full-sized sedans made pretty good tourers if you could sneak a few obscure "police" options past the fleet manager. They were dead reliable as opposed to a few Dodges and Fords in the fleet that spent more time in the shop than on the road.

My boss had an Olds 88 that was fully loaded, but was not as quick as my heavier Caprice Classic wagon. He wouldn't let a mechanic lay a wrench on it though - it was giving him an honest 19mpg, where the other full-sized GM 305's in the fleet were getting 13 and 14. We were all blessed with lead feet, but the boss seemed to have that one car in a hundred that actually gets the mileage claimed for it - and more. Gas an oil changes was all it got until he turned it in three years later. Why tinker with success?

mmarshall

Couldn't have said it better, Lil. This idea that Buicks......especially the softer-riding ones.......are only for Grandpa and Grandma is N-O-N-S-E-N-S-E. Whenever I hear people say that I would tell them to go jump in a lake....until I got tired of having to fish them out. I myself drove one at age 19...along with muscle cars. I did hard work in those days and it was nice to have a soft-riding car at the end of a hard day.