If you had a 1970 Buick Electra 225 convertible in 1970 you were doing pretty well. You are doing pretty well today if you can afford to own this drop-dead gorgeous drop-top shown here on eBay in beautiful Nine Mile Falls, Washington. The current bid price is $19,300, not an insignificant amount of money for what will surely not be a daily-driver.
The 1970 Buick Electra 225 wasn’t as ostentatious as a 1970 Cadillac convertible would have been, not that a 1970 Cadillac would have been showy anyway. It wasn’t exactly the era for flashy luxury cars, unlike a decade prior to 1970. The Buick may have been made for those folks who had made it almost to the top, either that or they made it to the top but they didn’t want to appear to be showing off.
The third-generation Buick Electra was made for the 1965 to 1970 model years and this example is the nicest one that I have seen in thirty years at least. I could only dream about buying a car online and having it look like this one does when it shows up on the trailer. That has yet to happen despite how great the photos look and the selling price. This car looks like the real deal, though.
This car has a mere 27,419 miles on it and it looks like 27,419 to me, not 127,419. I know that you’ll check it out very, very closely to look for any wear marks or other telltale signs of it having rolled over the six-digit mark. It’s nice to see proper power windows in a luxury car of this era. We had a 1970 Olds 98 and it had manual windows which I always thought was weird for a luxury car. On the other hand, I don’t know for sure but I’m guessing that the seats are vinyl, any thoughts on that? I would have preferred a nice paisley-pattern brocade fabric but that’s just me.
The engine is Buick’s 455 cubic-inch V8 with a whopping 370 hp and 510 ft-lb of torque! It has the same kind of power that our 1970 Olds 98 had and it would “lay rubber” for a ridiculously long time. They say that it starts and runs perfectly and I can’t imagine a better summer cruiser than this Electra 225 convertible.
Wow. Just wow
Nice car
Not the same engine as an Olds. Same displacement; different architecture.
Isn’t this the one you want? Last year of the convertible. The 430 was replaced with the 455 in 1970 (a real performer). No phony claims here, just a nice original car. Take this on the Interstate and put your foot in it. You remember how well these high compression V8’s ran, with those big secondary’s gulping all they can get. Makes we want to hit the open road with the top down, Great find.
Last year for GM’s C-body convertibles, anyway. B-bodies went on to `75, and of course the e-body Eldorado in `76.
This is a great car. Period.
I had both a 69 and 70, such incredible road cars but not quite as nimble as the next gen 71-76 B/C bodies. The 455 was primarily designed to move these cars off the line, so they most likely rank as one of the most responsive luxury cars of the day. Handsome, well built and well optioned this one actually pulls off the ubiquitous “70 Buick” triple brown very well. Somebody is gonna absolutely love this car, even for the money.
Agreed with Rhett. Someone buy this. You won’t be disappointed. I have no room.
Cars like these always fascinated me.
I’d love to know what the thinking was to want a sporty 2 door convertible, but also wanted a large car, with the luxury of a Buick. And lets make it beer bottle brown.
Who does that??
It was the era. Brown, green and gold ruled. This is the car that people aspired to.
And perhaps, in 2070, will car collectors be looking back at 2020 and saying, “what were they thinking? Everything was these bland colors black, white, silver, and fifty shades of gray? Were they afraid of ‘real’ colors?” Nothing wrong with these colors, it is just the era.
Really, 27,000 Twenty Seven Thousand Miles With The Paint Around The Ignition Key And The Weatherstriping In This Condition?
https://i.postimg.cc/rs4ng798/B-S.jpg
I checked out the weatherstripping pretty close myself, and I thought it was holding up reasonably well for its age. Mileage has nothing to do with weatherstripping; that is all age, heat, and neglect. Around the key is messy, but an owner with bad vision, or some other disability, could account for that. I think, with that many pics, it is reasonably easy to see this is a good honest car, with no “hidden” issues. True, pics of that size can still hide a lot of faults however…
Ray,
A “good honest car”, that sounds like what a used car salesman said about a vehicle with three hundred thousand 300k miles.
Have a most awesome evening!
Ray is correct. Weatherstripping could use some Armor All. There’s no tears, or holes, in the rubber.
It would have been nice, to see the undercarriage.
BTW… With only 27,000 miles, why is the steering wheel wrapped?
Gorgeous car.My dad was a Buick man throughout the 70s. He had one of these. I just remember laying in the backseat…staring at the clouds in the sky…listening to his jazz station…
no seatbelt needed.
Puts me in mind of cruising in my Mom’s Cadillac convertible on warm summer evenings. Good memories
No fabric on open cars back then, this is vinyl(basically the same as leather right?…..like the Olds and Buick 455’s are the same)
I think there was a leather option on these, not sure, Oldsmobile did offer leather on the 98 convertible in 69-70 from what I recall.
Brocades and paisleys were on the closed cars.
It will pass everything but a gas station !
SourPwr, That’s funny…. And very true.
Save the driving for the weekend.
Big luxurious boat with a motor big enough to get it around!! Would be a great cruiser on a hot summer night!!!
“WOW” A car guy’s dream !! Rare to find a nice desirable original car like this. Ya gotta pay when they are this nice. I would be interested if it was not for the exchange in Canadian money. Somebody will be a very happy owner.
I have one of these. Had it since high-school. Selling it too..I think
Back then they didn’t have option packages. You could actually order your car with the options YOU wanted, not what the factory put into a package. Hence, you could order your Luxo-barge without power windows. I’m with you on that, pretty odd for such a majestic automobile. To me it’s a contradiction in terms.
My Uncle Steve always drove Roadmasters, then Electras and never had them equipped with power windows. Someone he knew got trapped in a car that went into a lake and the power windows wouldn’t work.
Didn’t Bob Seger have a song about the 225?
Check the front bumper and left hand front height. But that is a nice ride.
Nice car, but a bit above my budget.
God bless America
AWESOME car….tip my hat to the owner.
.but would be hard for me to sell it unless a family emergency of course. AWESOME car
I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer here but it is more believable this car is a 127XXX mile car. The giant front bumper on the drivers side is bent or the car bumped something, the engine compartment and trunk has some kind of funk growing around the moldings, and the front seat has been recovered and if you look carefully at the convertible top cover the seams are tearing. The Buick shows very well but I would love to see the underside. It brings back memories for me, Dad had a 1970 Estate Wagon of this same car and several years later it was my first car. The 455 was a screamer as I was a drag racer at night. Boy the memories…
Land Yacht, land yacht, but a beautiful one! …So hoist up the John B Sails, See where she just might go? Pensacola? Pismo Beach? Lakeshore Drive, or just cruising around Lake Samamish, Washington? I’ll take the middle of the back seat please with a Blonde on one side and a Brunette on my right! Now that’s living!
In your dreams…….
In all of our dreams lol
One can use this as an open top pick up truck !
Remove the trunk lid and voilà, you have a pick ua 2 wheel drive truck
Its the same size!
SOLD for $21,425.
I have one of these. Had it since high-school. Selling it too..I think
I’ve had one. Sure would like to have another one.