Luxurious with some muscular style, the Buick Riviera is a not so common and somewhat underappreciated automobile. This Riviera is a one owner car and has only covered 30,000 miles in its lifetime. Parked since 1980, this Buick is going to need some work to be a road goer once again. Bidding has just begun, and has risen to $1,275, or you can select the buy it now option of $3,500. Check it out here on ebay out of Tallahassee, Florida.
It is unclear why the original owner parked the car, but with only 30,000 miles you wouldn’t think anything catastrophic occurred. Being a Buick it has some displacement and this V8 engine is a whopping 430 cubic inches that produces 360 horsepower and 475 foot pounds of torque. Sadly the current seller cannot complete his dream of restoring this Buick and he only got to see if the engine would turn over and it does. So at the least the engine is not seized. With no real details on this cars history, it is difficult to surmise if this engine will be a healthy runner once more.
It is difficult to tell this is a Low mileage Buick from the exterior, although the interior is in nice condition, but apparently the seller or someone removed the factory carpet. With no rips or wear on the factory upholstery, the thing that may need to happen with the seats is that the foam/padding may need to be replaced in order to “fill out” the factory upholstery. The light colored dash looks nice but there is a wrinkle on the driver side that may have occurred from something resting against it. The door panels looks clean, but the headliner is falling and will need to be replaced.
Strangely the paint is oxidized and lightly discolored where as the chrome looks excellent. Being a native California car, may explain the current paint situation. Although parked for 37 years, rust and corrosion do not appear to be an issue with this Riviera, although the seller mentions there is minimal rust. It would certainly benefit from a paint job but otherwise, the exterior seems nice and appears to need little else. The under body is rock solid, making this Buick seem like a clean and honest project to get into on the cheap. Would you jump on this stylish Riviera?
Great find, great price!
Love that body style and second Jay M’s comment.
Someone click that “Buy it Now” button!
“The door panels looks clean” just don’t look at the bottom sections. But seriously, nice find.
We all know not to believe low mileage claims…don’t we…?
LOL, Agreed it is hard to believe, but that engine bay certainly looks more like a 30K example than a 130K example… Closer inspection required.
looks like at one time it was flooded, the rugs look flood damaged.
^^^ this. The mileage may be correct but I bet it was parked because it got wet inside. Looking at the floors and headliner I’d say there’s probably some mold to deal with on this one
I alway find the mileage on these old cars interesting .1ST off none of these cars had the extra 1st digit so they would go over 100K with ease .
Secondly and more importantly changing odometers in the 50,sand 60s,was beyond a common practice.All higher mileage cars were turned back .Not some ……ALL!
For those of you who were in the BIS in the day Know .
7mpg city/9 highway,,,,Here we go again, I’m convinced people just don’t know what 30K original miles looks like. What happened to the floor? There’s no way.
The key word here is “River”. As in sitting in the bottom of…..
More like 130k miles rather than 30k. I don’t know about anybody else but Rivs are not under appreciated by me.
Common mis nomer .Reverse drills were never how it was done
We had a box at our store to make those demonstrator miles disappear.
I thought I deleted that comment? I think my old man tried that once. Wasn’t there a machine or something. I seem to remember something you put the speedo cable onto. Years ago, one never went by the odometer. One relied on what the car looked and sounded like.
One of the best finds I’ve seen on this website in my 4 short months as a member of Barn Finds Niiiice!
30,000 miles? Dream on!! I used to own an Auto Detail company and this car so reminds me of the flood damaged cars that I used to have to try and save.
looks like the back window leaks by the ripples in the back seat and the floors look soft from the pics all gm cars with the vinal shunk and water got in around the trim and rotted fixed many gms from 65 to 75 poor design for water
I think the back window leaked on virtually every car GM built in that era. A lot of times, water leaking into the trunk, and pooling down in the quarter panel was what rusted them out.
Pretty nice find for a 130K mile car. Solid anyway.
while I think the 30k miles claim is on target, before I read the comments, was questioning why the carpets were removed. while SF IS a nice place to live, it does get it’s fair share of rain. and was thinking they got wet, and moldy Personally I like the car, but, far from perfect
Seriously people. Its a 49yo old car that needs restoration, who gives a s**t about how many miles it has done. And if it was flood damaged at least it was fresh water. It looks pretty damn good for the small amount of money asked.
How do you know it was fresh water? SF is on the seashore.
If it was salt water there would be great big rust holes in it. Salt water has that effect!
Just speaking to the description …
Yeah – she’s been full of water – and it looks like I did the engine “reco” after a six pack of PBR
What a great find regardless of what the actual mileage is! We had this exact car when I was about 10 years old. My mom always love the unique cars: Studebaker Hawk (before I was born); ’68 Riviera; ’71 Eldorado Coupe (the car I drove to high school).
Our Riviera was Dark Brown as well, but had a vinyl top and column shift. I fondly remember family trips in that car. Too bad this is so far away and I don’t have the time or spare cash to restore it.
Good Morning !! This cool automobile is at $2,325.oo 0n the eBay site this early Sunday morning in the eastern time zone !!
I’d look for a 69 if this body style is your fav as will have the 455, locking steering column and better front susp, etc.
No, it won’t. The 455 didn’t come out until 1970.
Wrong. 455 came out in mid year 68. A friend has a 68 wildcat drop top w/455cid v8, all stock w/build sheet to prove it.
Mold can make people extremely sick. The carpets were removed because of moisture, and I’ll bet dollars-to-donuts that the entire interior reeks of mold, and has gazillions of mold spores. Given the wet carpeting one cannot be assured of a solid floor. Furthermore, the price is rock bottom, and suspiciously low for a 30k mile car. Something does not smell right IMHO, and the air breather is just too fresh with black paint, and no dirt. Parts wise the car is looking fairly complete so if it was parted out one would likely fetch more dollars when all was said and done. I like Rivies, but this one is too parched for my liking. Frankly, one might be better off looking for another rivie that does not have these problems.
Bob
Hi Bob, you’re another funny guy, “something doesn’t smell right”. WHOO-WEE, I don’t think all the “new car smell” air fresheners in the world, would help this one. And you’re right, mold is nasty stuff, probably dealt with it all our lives, just never knew what was making us sick.
Hey Howard, I think I learned to be kind of a funny guy from hunting down car parts in crazy junk yards where junk yard dogs, and junk yard owners, have consistently tested my ability to laugh at myself. Frankly, I have seen junk yard owners practically roll on the ground laughing after their dogs frightened the hell out of me and prompted me to jump on top of car roofs to get away from their immanent attacks. I was surrounded by three super mean dogs that forced me to run for my life in one yard. In another yard I thought it was the end of my life when one came at me as I was entering the yard, but just as the dog was almost near enough to chow down on my leg the chain that he was tied to stopped him in his tracks. When I went into the yard office the guys behind the counter were splitting their guts laughing which was kind of funny after the fact. And thinking about it all now makes me smile at the antics I have seen. There is nothing like experience rooting around in junk yards to make one laugh at life, eh. Moreover, I could swear that all the dogs that have chased me throughout my years of life have had the same laughs that the junk yard owners have had. Heck, the last yard I went to I had to jump onto a chain link fence to escape a near death experience from another junk yard dog that ran out of slack in his chain before he could chow down on my leg.
At this juncture in my life I have learned to laugh as I am sure you have too given that we are close in age. Clearly, adversity is a reasonably good teacher IMHO. ;)
Bob
Definately don’t get mismatched mufflers at 30,000 miles nice car but definitely 130,000 at least
No, it won’t. The 455 didn’t come out until 1970.