Sharp is a good way of describing the third-generation Riviera with its famous boat-tail rear and its slanted, canted, sharp front end. Pedestrian-friendly they aren’t, but hey, get the hell out of the way! I’m kidding, don’t hit pedestrians… This 1972 Buick Riviera can be found in Andover, Minnesota, it’s listed here on eBay, and they’re asking $18,500 or you can make an offer.
Having a 1959 hit record under the name of Jerry Paul, future Nissan designer and head of their first US-based design studio, Gerald Paul “Jerry” Hirshfeld, brought together all of the ideas that were given to him in order to create the Riviera. Starting at GM in 1964, he was a designer working for Bill Mitchell’s design studio. Meant to be on a smaller A-body or G-body platform, things changed at the last minute and Mr. Hirshfeld and his team created the 1971 Riviera based on Buick’s full-sized E-body car and there was hardly a more eye-popping GM car of the time. The E-body cars were mostly front-wheel-drive other than earlier generations of the Buick Riviera.
The biggest design move on the third-gen Riv is, of course, the famous boat-tail rear which has to rank up there as one of the most unusual designs of all time, at least for an American car. Almost having first-generation Plymouth Barracuda rear glass and probably being as hard to find a replacement for, these cars are stunning in person. Hagerty is at $9,300 for a #4 fair condition car and a whopping $21,300 for a #3 good condition car.
The interior vinyl needs a little work, upholstery-wise, but that shouldn’t be a huge issue, it’s only money, right? (crickets) The back seat looks great and this one is listed as having 22,615 miles on it, which I’m assuming is 122,615. This is a Minnesota car – or at least it’s located there, we don’t know its history – and the underside does show a lot of heavy surface rust in a few areas. The transmission is a Turbo-Hydramatic 400 with column shift.
The engine is Buick’s 455 cubic-inch V8 which by 1972 had 250 horsepower in this model, the Riviera GS had twenty more ponies. There’s a right-side exhaust manifold leak but otherwise, this one runs great. It has a new fuel pump and carb and sounds like it’s ready to go. Have any of you owned a boat-tail Riviera?
The only way this one could be cooler (IMO), is to have the buckets and console option! Repair the seats, gas it up and cruise! GLWTA!! :-)
Love these boats. My mom had one and loved it. Hers was a GS. Black over Blue.
This may be the last unorthodox design to come out of General Motors. (If you don’t count the ugly Pontiac Aztek!) It STILL turns heads.
These can be stunning in the right color. Unfortunately, this isn’t one, and neither is my white ’73.
Moparman: Certain interior colors (like my oxblood {maroon}) weren’t available with the console. Can’ remember if this baby sh*t brown is one of those prohibited combinations.
I had a 73 bucket seats and floor console.Coco brown with the lt brown vinyl top.Bought it in 74 with just over 10000 miles on it. Had a cop pull along side me on the Fl turnpke. Wife driving and cop waving us to go faster as the line up behind at 75 was growing so she did and had the speedometer beeping at 105 as we kicked it in. Great car on the road, and yes over 20+mpg.
My understanding of this design, ’71-72-73″, was that the original specs called for the smaller body on a shorter wheelbase, similar to the ’63-66 Corvette coupe. When brought to the fabled GM Round table, Chevrolet went ballistic and said “NO——- way!” “Build it bigger or the hell you will build that car and cut into our Vette market place”. One can only imagine the greater acceptance in the auto world if it had been built in the original smaller size. I think of this every time I drive my “73 with only 64xxx miles…….
That interior shot: Look at the curvature variation and angles of the dash from left to right. Glad I was never experimenting with hallucinogenics in one of these boatails.
The dash in my parents 71 Grand Prix was curved pretty well also. It came down into the console and looked like a airplane cockpit to me at 8 years old. It was nice, done right by a good designer, not like what they hire today.
My buddy had a sunroof top 72, brown exterior, tan interior and top,spokes, beautiful car, came barreling down a service rd in NY, fall of 77, bottomed it out on a street that was to be paved, raised manhole , caught the frame, broke the motor mounts, bent the frame, dashboard cracked, broken transmission,motor hit the hood, bad accident
22.000 miles? Lol. Engine is running badly, seems overheating problem, exhaust manifold cracked…222.000 seems realistic to me. Ok, unsold . 18.500 ist by 10K too much… for that car.
I agree that it is a little costly for the condition, but not 10 grand worth lol.
I had a beige 1971 with the matching top & brown interior, along with a copper (burnt coral) 1973 with a beige top & interior. The ’73 was my Mom’s car while I was growing up, I bought it from a neighbor who bought it from her.
I love these cars, and I would give this one a happy home too. That interior ain’t that bad, just get the front seat redone & it would be acceptable for me. But at $18,000? I gotta pass on that.
Wonderful write up on this fantastic Buick, I don’t mean to nit – pick but, The designer’s name is actually Gerald P. Hirshberg 1939 – 2019.
Thank you,
Regards.