This gorgeous light sapphire blue metallic 1991 Buick Park Avenue is a claimed low-mileage, California survivor that still rides like a dream and sports a mint interior. Despite these cars seemingly being everywhere a few years ago, they’ve become harder to find in very good to excellent condition, with most being run into the ground years ago. This one is a satisfying change of pace, showing that at least some owners cherished their cushy rides and dependable powertrains. Find it here on eBay with bidding surprisingly low at the moment, clocking in at just over $3K with the reserve unmet. It’s located in sunny Palm Springs, California.
The paint really took me by surprise, as it takes on a few different shades as you approach it from each angle. The Park Avenue is a car I most commonly saw in gold or white when they were on the roads in force, the colors of choice for the retiree set. To see one that is both a color that is surprisingly modern and one that doesn’t look like a beater on its way to becoming a rodent hotel in a junkyard certainly makes you look twice, and then you notice that the black trim is still lustrous and the shiny bits look as good as they did the day this Buick rolled out of the dealership. The power antenna likely even still retracts correctly!
The interior shows virtually no signs of wear, a strong indication that the sub-60,000 miles is genuine. The owner likely did short-distance drives, never letting their posterior make a permanent indentation in the thick upholstery. The wood trim is almost certainly fake but still looks quite handsome, and the steering wheel is offensively boring – but also in tidy condition. The seller notes that all interior features still work, from the A/C to the power seats to the one-touch driver’s window switch. The Park Avenue has had two owners from new, making it even more impressive that both caretakers took great strides to keep it in such fine shape.
Of course, there was such a thing as pride in ownership when the target audience for these cars was buying them new. I’m sure many of our readers would agree with me that their grandparents placed great value in such things as a reliable automobile, never once taking for granted what it meant to have your own transportation. The engine bay looks spotless and reflects the years of dealer-performed maintenance that the seller has verified via the service records that accompany the Park Avenue, giving the next owner even more peace of mind that this survivor-quality Buick will provide dutiful service for years to come.
It was grandpa’s snot nosed kids that started calling cars like this disposable, because they don’t recognize value in something.
Greatest grouchy old man comment ever! And I’m not suggesting you’re old or grouchy but that was great! Lol
why would someone put this in a barn!
My daily driver is a ’04 Park Ave. It’s the most comfortable car I’ve ever owned, just a little under-powered. Same thing with mine, a 60ish lady owned it and always had it serviced at the dealer. I am also 60ish, and I don’t see this as a classic car at all, if the transmission or motor pops, it’s going straight to the boneyard. I think 3K is a little high for a car so old.
I don’t think this is a classic car ,just a nice used car ,and there’s nothing wrong with that.🚗🇺🇸
There’s not too many 29 year old “daily driver” cars out there in this condition, with the low miles. This car checks a lot of boxes for me. 1st and foremost, no leather!!! That velour interior in my opinion is far superior, (in comfort anyhow), 2nd is the drive train, absolutely bulletproof, providing it had proper maintenance. Might not be a bahnstormer, but power is adequate, plus you’ll pull damn near 30 mpg on the highway with this. If the reserve is under $4k, I’d say someone’s going to get a nice ride/deal! Is it a classic? 🤔
I’m with you on the cloth seats. I don’t understand this obsession with leather.
These are actually reasonably quick with the supercharged V6 that came out for 1992 in the Ultra. Unfortunately this does not have that engine.
It has the 3800 V-6, it just needs the supercharger that came with the Park Ultra. I owned one of those (white) and it had all the power needed (and then some) in traffic or out on the interstate.
If I recall correctly, you could also get the supercharged setup in the Bonneville also, I don’t think that Olds offered it in either one of the 88/98s
First year for this body style. Parts are still around but getting harder to find in the junkyard. By ’94 they had better radio options, steering wheel controls, dual airbags and improved hp. The Supercharged ’95 (225hp) or ’96 (240hp) Ultra would be the pinnacle of this vintage.
I had one of these in perfect condition with low miles. The car appeared perfect, but all of the power “options” (it was loaded) started to fail. I spend over $5K one year fixing things and then dumped it for $2500 and was glad it was gone. The current owner still loves it. But beware if you are going to buy it.
When I got my first car in 1960 I got a 25 year old car, 1935 Chevrolet standard 4 door sedan. In those days a twenty five year old car was junk by most standards. Now jump to 2020 and a car built in 1995 is still a used car but many are still very nice cars. For instance I bought a 1996 Ford Taurus new and drove it over 200,000 miles by 2017 and never had any serious problems other than tires, batteries and serpentine belts. I did replace the the 4 wheel disc brakes pads after 120,000 miles. I sold the car when I moved in 2017 and everything still worked.
God bless America
I could use this right now! Mom’s ’01
LeSabre Custom is in need of some repairs and this would indeed fill the bill.
A nice survivor like this one would be great for Mom as she wouldn’t have to
learn the driving characteristics of another car. Too bad this won’t be around when we’d have the cash to buy
it. Just fly in, drive home, and call it done!
It just doesn’t get any better than that.
These are wonderful cars. In the early 2000s, I had a connection with a car donation charity. I would wait for the trucks to bring in the donations. It was me and a few Dominican guys from the Bronx who only wanted Japanese cars. I bought every one of these and their Oldsmobile brethren. Most were donated by the urban professional children of folks who passed away or were too old to drive. The kids had no interest since they weren’t BMWs. All had under 150,000 miles, the lowest one i remember had 6,000. I put them on Ebay and they always ended up going to Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, I would drive them out and fly back. I made money, met lots of nice folks and saw the country.
You’re right about ’em being bulletproof.
Mom’s LeSabre has 225K miles showing
and still runs great! Only thing it really needs is some tranny work to make things right again. Buicks built on this
platform were solid reliable performers
that were very comfortable as well. I’m
now in the market for another one for Mom to use while we get the tranny service done. After that, she’d still have
a nice driver to boot. The kids might think
that Buicks are boring, but I’d rather be bored with a Buick than being constantly
engaged in repairing an import.
The one I had was a 94 olds 88 royale, acquired it with 122k, sold it with 245k, and the last time I saw that car, it had 330k! The nicest thing was, for a full size sedan, I religiously got 29 mpg on the open road!
I got a 99 for my wife. It was a trade in with GM’s Peel-O-Matic paint but otherwise excellent and I got it very cheap. One of my favorite cars! Huge, Comfy, good power and MPG. Best feature is how amazingly well it protected her when she fell asleep on the freeway and rolled it 3 times… she had a sore shoulder.
Tom, what a coincidence, I also had the Peel-O-Matic option on mine too!
Just “fliped” a 1999 They are still everyday drivers in “retirement” FL
Yep! We still see a lot of them here. When we got Mom’s, we suddenly saw a
jillion of them on the roads. Shoot, we still see cars like this one pop up on buy
here pay here lots where they often go
for $10K or higher. These prices are
reasonable considering many Floridians
are priced out of the new car market
where a new Chevy Spark will set you back a mind-numbing $650 a month here
in Winter Haven. When faced with that
problem, most folks here will put $2K to
$3K down, and gladly pay $350-$500 a
month for a car like this Buick. It may
sound crazy, but that’s how we do it
here in Sunny Florida.
I love Buick’s and these are no exception. I prefer a Riveria from this vintage, but I would certainly make room in the garage for one of these. I don’t feel like these are just a used car, in my state they qualify as an antique. GLWTS
I’m with Bob S. Leather seats are garbage. GM used cheap leather. Unless you kept it out of the sun and lathered up with dressing it cracked. Other than that and cheap fake wood, I would buy this and save thousands of cost of a new POS GM car. The 3800 is hands down the most reliable engine GM ever built. The 3.6 that replaced it is total garbage. I owned three GM cars with the 3800. 259,000 miles on one of them. Never burned oil. Never broke down. Change oil, coolant and furl filter often is the key. My 88 Toronado Trofeo with this engibe and 440 auto trans gave me 27 mpg all day long. Oh how I miss those days. Today a water pump goes bad and it’s $1,700 v