I admit that I have a soft spot for the 1987 Buick Grand National. I know that the GNX was a more potent package, but there is something about the Black paint and those distinctive chrome wheels that sits right with me. This Grand National is something pretty special. It has a genuine 7,450 miles showing on its odometer. There are examples out there with lower numbers on the clock, but there are a lot more with higher figures. It is located in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and has been listed for sale here on eBay. The BIN has been set at $48,000, but the option is there to make an offer.

My biggest frustration with this car is the quality of the photos that the owner supplies. They don’t give us much of an overview of the vehicle, but they do paint a positive picture. The owner claims that the paint is original and that the Buick has never suffered any accident damage. The panels look straight, especially for a car that is now 33-years-old. The paint holds a wonderful shine, and rust doesn’t seem to be an issue. The owner does supply some photos of the Grand National’s underside, and it looks spotlessly clean. The glass is in good condition, and there are no signs of any deterioration with any of the exterior plastic. I believe that the chrome wheels add the perfect finishing touch to these cars, and the ones on this car show no evidence of deterioration or damage. Making this even more impressive is the fact that those wheels are wrapped in their original tires.

From an aging perspective, the ’87 Grand National had two weak points. The first of these was the exterior plastic, which could crumble if exposed to UV rays for long periods. The second was the Gray interior trim material. The Buick was one of a range of cars from this period where the cloth could become dirty, stained, and worn very easily. It only took a small amount of neglect to have a Grand National interior looking tired and shabby. That hasn’t been the fate of this car. The interior is unmolested, and the upholstery is in excellent condition. The dash and plastic items look perfect, while the carpet is just as impressive. It doesn’t just present well, but it is also nicely equipped. It features air conditioning, power windows, a power driver’s seat, power locks, cruise, a power antenna, and an AM/FM radio and cassette player.

No engine photos! The 3.8-liter turbocharged V6 is this car’s party piece, and the owner includes no photos. With the claimed mileage, I would expect the engine bay to present perfectly. My one concern is that whilst the owner makes the mileage claim, he doesn’t indicate whether he holds evidence to back this. That V6 engine is an interesting one because while Buick claimed that it produced an official 245hp, the truth is believed to be somewhat different. There have been some examples that have been independently tested that produced figures nudging up near 290hp. This probably is no surprise, because all of the ingredients are there for that sort of figure to be plausible. A turbocharger, an intercooler, and fuel injection are all going to combine to produce impressive results if they are engineered correctly. In the Grand National, they were. Whatever the truth is on those numbers, those willing horses find their way to the rear wheels via a THM200-4R automatic transmission. Power steering and power front disc brakes are all part of the package. If this Buick is in good health, then it should be a barn-stormer. This was a car that started to show America the path out of The Malaise Era. The official ¼ mile ET was quoted as 14.7 seconds, but plenty of contemporary road tests had no trouble demolishing this figure. Car and Driver magazine even managed to coax a sub-14-second time out of a Grand National, which smashed the best that Chevrolet could extract from the iconic Corvette at that time.

We see our share of ’87 Grand Nationals here at Barn Finds. That means that we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. This one is a beauty, but it is not the lowest mileage example that we’ve ever seen. It seems that there are quite a few well-preserved examples out there with less than 10,000 miles on the clock. However, for each one of those, we see at least 10 examples that have led a hard life. This one is not a cheap car, but its price isn’t unprecedented. Values did experience a speed bump about a year ago, but they have been bouncing back in recent months. If this was an auction rather than a BIN proposition, then it is possible that the price might nudge close to $50,000. Ninety-four people are watching the listing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them slipped in a cheeky offer that could land this classic in their lap. Of course, you might want to beat them to the punch.