After spending what must have been a long period in garage storage, this 1960 Buick Electra 4-door hardtop is ready for a new owner. It’s located in Hermitage, Pennsylvania and is listed for sale here on eBay. While the buy it now price of $8,500 looked a little steep to me at first, some detective work has me wondering if the car is pretty special — and I also (finally) found out what the heck Cordaveen is! Read on to learn more and start your New Year out with some truly obscure trivia!
The seller doesn’t give us a lot of information, but it does look like they have cleaned up the car a bit since rescuing it from long-term storage in a garage. The factory wheel covers appear in this picture only, leading me to believe this is the car as it exists now ready for sale. Just look at the size of this beast! Dimensions below are courtesy of Hemmings:
WHEELBASE 126.3 inches
OVERALL LENGTH 221.2 inches
OVERALL WIDTH 80 inches
OVERALL HEIGHT 57.4 inches
FRONT TRACK 62.2 inches
REAR TRACK 60 inches
CURB WEIGHT 4,544 pounds
The car is so big the seller had a difficult time taking pictures that show the entire car! So we’ll make do with these partial pictures. In this shot note the “hardtop” roofline with the unusual wraparound rear window. There’s also only relatively minor visible rust-through right in front of the rear wheel, although some closeups of the vulnerable rocker panels and quarter panels would be appreciated.
This side looks pretty good, too, and I’m also encouraged that all the trim appears to be present.
In this excerpt from the 1960 Buick full-line brochure, you can spot the differences between the available four-door rooflines. The subject car’s style is the one at the top, called a four-door hardtop. I think the wrap-around rear window adds a lot to the visual length of the car even though the wheelbase is the same for both models. For 1960 the Electra was a moderate restyle of the new-for-1959 models, and the major sales thrust was the “Turbine Drive” automatic transmission offered exclusively by Buick.
Here, I believe, is a picture of the elusive Cordaveen upholstery! (along with fabric) It took me almost half an hour of internet searching to find out that Cordaveen was merely Buick’s name for their vinyl upholstery material. I even found posts like this one from potential Buick historians asking the same question without getting an answer. So now you know…the rest of the (Buick Cordaveen) story — with apologies to Paul Harvey!
There’s not a tremendous amount of information that we can glean from the VIN. This site tells us that the car was a 1960 Electra manufactured in Flint, Michigan and that it was the 95,030 car to be made that year (presumably at that plant). Some further research from here tells us that this is one of only 14,488 Model 4739 Electra Four-Door Hardtop Sedans produced in 1960. So today it’s certainly a car you won’t see often. Some work is still needed as the seller has only fixed the brakes and fitted tires, a radiator, and a battery. Although we are told the car has a 401 Wildcat engine and is showing just over 41,000 miles, we’re not told if the engine runs or not. I think for it to sell at anything close to that price it would need to at least start, move and stop. What do you think about this Cordaveen-equipped Electra?
Brad’s Cruising Vessel – Dude!
Fred W has excellent taste in movies. How can one forget the Phoebe Cates scene? Answer? I never will.
Happy New Year!
Yes, for that much, it should oughta run.
A great family car if you have a wife and 10 kids. Looks like it would cost a small fortune to register if the DMV goes by weight.
my first car was a 60 Buick lesabre 4 dr plain jane with am radio heater power steering and brakes ….. no other options this thing was an absolute tank weighing in at just under 5000 lbs Love the designs of the Buicks from mid 50 ‘s through mid 60 s the years I grew up and fell in love with cars
445 not a 455
Buick had the 455-what had and what is a 445? I,ve never heard of it and I,m 69.
445 was not cubic inches. In Buicks they put torque rating on the air cleaner. Therefore the 445 was lb ft torque, engine displacement was 401 cubic inches. In 64 they upgraded to 425 cubic inches with 465 ft lb torque. 455 did not arrive until I believe 1968.
God bless America
“it’s a true 455 wildcat motor…” Well, in 1960 the Buick “Wildcat” motor displaced 401 Cubic Inches. And yes, Buick quoted Torque on their motors; which was 445 foot pounds. Petty? Maybe. But it makes you wonder if the owner does not know the car they are expounding. Jus Sayin
A neighbor, upon returning from a tour of duty with her Husband in Germany, traded in their little Fiat for this new ’60 Electra 225 with Factory AC for Florida. Thankfully, their garage was extra deep, with the Electra on the left, and two Corvairs butt to butt. [He owned GM stock] She drove it for 7 years. It was HUGE! Everyone know why Buick called this a 225? Because they measured a whopping 225 inches long!
I had a ‘62 Electra 225, with the 445 torque designation on the air cleaner lid. It was a great car. Except for a heater core repair, it was trouble-free. Wish I still owned that baby. I paid $335 and a college algebra book for it in 1986. Every so often I check Hemmings and Craigslist, because my wife and I definitely want another one. Don’t think I can get a nice one for $335, though.
haha,thank you Sunshine.
My Grandpa had a Red Promo dealership model car of this. I believe it said 1960 on the bottom.
The only 1/25 scale dealer promos depicting 1960 GM sedans were an SMP Corvair and Tempest, Johan Oldsmobile and a Product Miniatures Chevrolet. My red one has “Fire Chief” embossed in the doors.
Flat top hard top. Nice for that for being a 4 door. Narly dude.
beast
What a comfortable ride it would have,but that price. Does,nt run? Looks good from what we sea,but how about the running part and pictures to show underneith? How about a more reasonable price . I really like Buicks too. I miss the 59 look. A friend had one.2 door hart top with electric attenna. I rememeber one wat cleaning the inside out and would hear this buzz–then I saw the attenna go up. I thought it was so cool. I was about 12 at the time
I don’t feel real confident about someone who replaces brake lines but can’t work a garden hose. Hubcaps and a good wash would make this car look 100% better…. and worth $4,500.
And Happy New Year everybody!!
Its a bargain in todays market. Not much to do to make very presentable
A deuce and a quarter and 460 air….nothing beat that to my brothers in the neighborhood.
Rear springs gone.
If it runs good it might be worth $2500.00
What’s going on behind the right rear wheel?
There were two Electra series available in 1960; the Electra and the Electra 225. This one appears to be a non-225 Electra. The 225 designation referred to the overall length of the car.
This is a Texas car with snow tires in the trunk?
When I was stationed at Ft Hood in 1969. We were hitch hikeing back from San Antone (Dec 1969) It was snowing in Austine and got picked up buy the police. Who informed us it was against the law to hitch hike in the city limits of Austine. He didn,t arrest us ,but took us to the city limits and let us out and said for us to remeber the law in Austin. Maybe also some one drove it from a winter are to their.
It snows in Texas. My Dad lived in Amarillo for a few years & I know first hand it snows there.
Texas is a big state, Amarillo is in the panhandle to the North end of the state it even snows in Dallas once in awhile I’ve even heard it said it has snowed in Houston. I even saw it snow in Miami, Florida one time.
God bless America
I was watching an old episode of Perry Mason the other night where everyone was driving 60 Buicks. Even Lt. Tragg drove one. Nice cars, wish I had one in convertible.
God bless America
Looking back it’s amazing to remember a time when cars like this were an ordinary, everyday sight. The streets were full of them.
We were lucky to be there!
Nice Rivi what color is it? I love it.
So that’s what happened to Brad’s car. 😎
Why would it be difficult to photograph a large car? People do it all the time.
Impressive car, one that looks like solid and complete. If the seller had spent a day cleaning and detailing the car, especially the interior, the asking price might seem a little more reasonable. I just don’t understand why a seller doesn’t try to get a car to look as good as they possibly can to greatly improve their chances of getting their asking price. I mean, really; just put a little effort into it and spend just one day cleaning the car. The low mileage claim might be right as I don’t think it would look this good if it had 140k. It would have been nice to have more information in the description, another thing that just requires a little thought and a little effort with your finger tips. A couple of engine pictures would have been nice. Maybe it does run as there has been some work done to it mechanically.
The poor presentation and lack of information of this interesting classic will probably result in less money for the seller. I like the car, I think it has potential, but I would offer a lot less than $8,500.
The only thing I can think of is being just plain lazy.
Oh come on, all automatics are turbine drive. That’s what a torque converter does. It converts the horsepower of the engine into torque to power the automatic tranny. Stay away from today’s CCT or CCV trannys, don’t ask your favorite transmission man abut them. He will disavow you.
Does anyone remember the movie Tom Hanks & Carrie Fisher were in w/little guy from Martin&Rowan. Where they thought they were mad scientists ax murders? I think this was their car in the movie. The strange little neighbors that is. The next owner needs to make this available to the movies. They are always looking. I have 6 1988 cars they want.
The ‘Burbs. Here is a promotional still from the movie. The character on the right is NOT the little guy from Laugh In. Henry Gibson was the neighbor. Couldn’t find any photo of the Buick in a quick search on the IMdb.
Too late. I already own a Nissan Murano with that type of transmission you advised against. I didn’t know how expensive these transmissions are to rebuild until the mechanic mentioned it to me – about a whopping 8 grand. Needless to say, I don’t plan on rebuilding it. When it goes out, the suv goes. Other than that, I have no complaints.
I HATE, HATE, HATE GM’s flattops of ’59 & ’60
I’m with you, they screw up the overall design.
The car that Henry Gibson drove in the ‘Burbs was a Pontiac. I forget what year, it’s been awhile but I’m gonna say ’71 or ’72.
Far from a ’60 Buick
Carrie Fisher drove a Jeep Cherokee
Thanks, Angel. I was waiting for someone to mention the car not even being from the same decade as this Buick. Here is one photo from IMdb that shows a beater 71-73 blue Pontiac sedan with no wheelcovers and smoking badly.
Yep, that’s the Pontiac, Lil Cars. It is SO obvious when you see the car coming from the garage, down the driveway to the curb so “Hans” can put out the garbage. Then he backs the car up the driveway, back into the garage.
And, as you can see, Little_cars, I can’t shut up when it comes to talking about cars.
Happy New Year to ya!
Angel, you’ll be pleased to know that my doppelganger of your old MG Midget was awarded Peoples Choice at our annual British car outing this fall. Happy happy back to you.
Whoo hooo! People’s Choice!
Every time you post something, I see that MG in your avatar and think to myself, I’m really gonna have to talk with him one of these days about buying that car. Once I get my daily driver paid off, of course.