Beginning in 1959, the Electra was Buick’s top-of-the-line automobile for more than three decades. It replaced the Roadmaster, which would make a return in the 1990s. The Electra would share its C-body platform with the likes of the Oldsmobile 98 and Cadillac De Ville. These land yachts were redesigned by GM’s Bill Mitchell in 1965, so the 1970 models, like this convertible,e were the last of that generation. Located in Kamloops (cool name), British Columbia, this big drop-top is available here on craigslist for $34,500 OBO (USD or CDN?).
Big, luxury cars were in demand in 1970, and Buick sold 150,000 of the two varieties of Electra 225 (regular and Custom). The rarest, perhaps, was the Custom convertible at just over 6,000 units. This year would be the last for open-air Electras. New for 1970 was what was under the hood – a 455 cubic inch V8, which replaced the previous 43,0 and it was rated at 370 hp. That was plenty of engine for these heavy machines, es but would be powerhouses when installed in the smaller Skylark-based GS models.
We’re told this Bamboo Cream beauty originated in California, but we don’t know when it made the trek north. The body and paint look great in the so-so photos the seller provides. So perhaps a full or partial restoration was done at some point, int as the car now has 119,000 miles. This is a well-optioned vehicle, including a factory 8-track tape deck (do you still have a few of those? I do, but with nothing to play them on).
We don’t see a great deal of the interior, but we wonder about the upholstery under the steering wheel. It looks off compared to the rest. The seller describes this Buick as “rolling architecture,” which is a great caricature of cars from that era and before. Today’s new cars all look alike, and most of them are cookie-cutter SUVs. Thanks for the cool tip, “Curvette”.
If any vehicle begs for a foghorn/boathorn, this is the one.
…or a foghorn/leghorn…
I say, I say boy, nothin like an old deuce and a quarter!
I worked in an auto parts store. A younger clerk called me from another store to ask, “What is a deuce and a quarter and what is a main gasket?” LOL
Well, it’s a Buick 225 and he needs a valve cover gasket set. The older guys laughed about that for a long time.
Is a main seal a crank seal?
Maybe, but the customer asked for a “main gasket”. The valve cover set is what he wanted.
Y’all need a Coast Guard certification to be Captain of this beauty
This car really needs whitewalls.
That was going to be my comment. How can these guys afford these wonderful classic boats and yet, not afford to put 3″ whitewalls on them. So many pass through the Barn with blackwall tires. I know first hand Whitewall tires are expensive these days, almost a custom order, but anything from 1985 and before deserves white strip tires.
We had this car, in white with a black top and black interior, circa 1985-1995, the end of the Malaise era, so with that in mind, this car was (particularly in that era) FAST. My dad specifically told me “You’ll be doing 90, and won’t know it, so be careful.” He was absolutely right. I was on M14 out of Ann Arbor, and I got pulled over. Turns out the officer was pretty cool, because that’s just what I told him, and he said “I believe it…”
Love the old 225s. My dad had two of them (4 door) with 455s, and I learned to drive in them. Beasts. Buick forever.
One, this car is brown, and two, there’s about $14k worth of helium in the price.
Like a million other relics in this hobby, this one is not a “collector car” or “investment-grade”, or whatever term they want to use to try to convince us that there’s some other fool in 5 years who’ll pay even more.
It’s a really nice novelty car. Buy it cheap, drive it, sell it. Don’t overthink this.
Nine year old me thought these were just a sexy looking beast. I still think that.
Price is way too high (even in CAD) for a car that needs a lot of tinkering and love (new tires/ interior/ wheels/ under the hood etc.). These cars dont bring high money, except for perfect and low milage vehicles. This is not one of them and I can see here $12-15K max.
That has to be the longest quarter panel ever made…
neat duce for sure and they are not seen on the road much as well. this needs a lot of TLC especially the engine bay. if has not had timing chain you better do it with those miles. a set of Buick rally wheels with w/w tires would look much better. need to lose those fence post tailpipes as well. you should not see it hanging out the back. these are notorious for frame rot in the rear. i had a duce convert break in 1/2 due to rot. source out seat material from SMS for that factory look. 34k is stiff. as it sits needing what it does i would say 13-18k. his ask $ is for a mint car which this is not.
Looking closer, this car is probably a pretty face paint job. The interior driver seat is hidden, maybe for a good reason. The engine could have used at least a power wash. That indicates that nothing has ever been done there outside or the most routine of maintenance. And the spoke caps are just Velveeta cheese on a car like this.
Less than $10k for this fun run car.
Nothing like lipstick on a…
Dan, yep.
This is a hipster’s Par-T-Wagon is there ever was one.
I’d buy it if I had the space for it and it was $5K or less though.
These are great looking, swoopy cars.
We had a customer bring in one just like this that was a few years old and wanted it to be worked on for “wind noise”. I told the customer NO WAY would we get involved in that situation simply because they is no way a convertible can be cured of wind noise. Customer complained to the dealer and the dealer complained to me until I explained to him that the customer had a convertible and he understood.
Other than wind noise they were really nice rides and that motor has a lot of power.
I’ve had 2 of these 1970 225 converts over the years. Both were bought as parts cars, since both were smashed in the back end. One (still sitting in my storage building) was VERY badly smashed. The other one got hit parked on the street. You might have been able to fix it, but it was so rusty, it wasn’t worth it. And that was 30+ years ago when it was just a used car. That one was still driveable, so I did just that for a summer. Fun car, and it was actually bamboo cream, unlike the car here, which is probably paint code 55 (cornet gold). And the front seat here is NOT correctly upholstered. They did not have alternating shades. Bluesman is correct – too much helium here. Way too much for what needs correcting/sprucing up. You’d be sorely disappointed to find out how far you are away from 400 points at a BCA National with this one after you spent that much.
My friend used to drive us around in his dad’s 73 Electra 225 on weekends. Cool car that would spin tires till 30 mph.
It got stolen and recovered at a gas station in Virginia.
The crook put diesel in the tank and ruined it.
Yeah, I could see myself riding in
one of these. A nice young lady
driving it while I tell her stories about my time on the road as the
upgraded stereo plays Classic Country on Syrius XM. Angel, are you up for the job? Almost bought a hardtop model from an
elderly customer on the paper 🗞️
route my wife and I ran 35 years
ago. The lady was selling the car
for $2,500 in 1990 or ’91. But since my wife had to drive it, she
gave me resounding “No” and I had to settle for the rough ride of
our ’80 Citation. Oh my achin back! That Citation had no suspension whatsoever. It was as though you were riding around
on 4 basketballs instead of 4 tires! There were times after a long drive (From say, Winter Haven to Orlando) my back would
lock up and I’d quite literally have
to unfold myself and have someone help me straighten up
after getting out of the car! I don’t have that problem today thanks to our K5 sedan. Oh, it rides just fine. But it’s not a Buick. Okay, I’ll say it– yes I’d
really rather have a Buick even if
I have to settle for a nice low mile
’01-’05 LeSabre sedan. My MIL had one and it was awesome. Went over 250K miles before the
timing chain let go and we sold it for scrap after being told that it would cost over $5K to fix the
timing chain here in Florida. But I digress. This car is really nice and I’d love to have it. And maybe if I did, I might meet a nice
lady or two and cruise it up to
Old Town and back home again.Sure would be nice to hold her hand ✋ on that long drive home!