Ah, another donated vehicle special! This is one of my favorite accounts on eBay, which features a wide variety of junkers, classics, and everything in between that California residents kick over to the donation pile. What you see here today is a 1989 Buick Electra Estate Wagon that is in excellent condition for a car in any situation, but especially one that was cast off to the donation pile. Bidders seem to agree that this is a find, as bids for this Electra are currently at $5,200 and climbing here on eBay.
You really owe it to yourself to see what else this seller has up for grabs this week as it’s one of the better selections I’ve seen lately. A 1933 Pontiac, a 1974 MGB, and a Volvo S60R round out the list of potential project vehicles that await you with no reserve. Now, here’s the thing: some of these cars, charming as they may be, are big projects, and it’s not surprising that they were donated. This Buick, on the other hand, has all the trappings of being a long-term, family-owned vehicle where the caretakers simply decided to take the tax write-off versus dealing with tire kickers on craigslist.
The interior is in gorgeous condition, and is a reminder that many of these estate wagons, when spec’d out at the upper end of the option range, were quite luxurious. The acres of leather seating surfaces are in excellent condition throughout the cabin, and even the fake woodgrain trim looks downright luxurious. It also is draped liberally over the door panels and the dashboard, and surrounds the factory radio controls. The listed mileage is 66,578 and it’s entirely believable given how nice the interior still is.
Now, when you read these listings, almost every car has some mechanical fault that prevents it from being driven or otherwise tested. Not this car: the seller notes it fires up and drives without issue and that even the air conditioning is still cold. When you see the backseat, you almost know instantly that it has barely been used, and that this Buick was likely bought by some grandparents who saw the kids a few times a year but otherwise didn’t use the extra seating for anything more than the groceries. This is a find, and a car worth buying at any number below $10,000.
This looks really nice. There sure seems to be a lot of these surfacing of late. Must relate to the type of folks who owned them. Nothing not to like other than the performance of the 307 V8. That being said by a relative flat lander.
The Buicks just seem to look the best. Beautiful Electra wagon.
The big Buick Estate wagons were the closest one could get to a Cadillac if one wanted/needed a wagon. Very, very nice wagons indeed!
More are coming into the market because the long time owners are reaching an age where the stop driving, consolidate to one or worse. A few years ago my mom stopped driving and sold her 28k mile 1984 Honda Accord. My dad drives his 2011 Ford Fusion about 2,000 miles a year. Most of his immediate neighbors have been in their houses 40-50 years, they are starting to die off. There are several areas in his town that have seen the same thing happen, you can tell when those neighborhoods go through that transition when the majority of the houses get new drought resistant landscaping, horizontal privacy fences, the color palette changes and a high end imported SUV or EV is parked in the driveway. Figure you’ve got another five maybe 10 years before cars like this have cycled into the market. The upcoming batches won’t be nearly as desirable.
Steve R
I’d take the diesel version, just for the fuel economy.
Last one of those was 1985.
You wouldn’t want one. Back in the days I bought few of them and did gas conversion. The original diesels were known for bad head gaskets.
This series of GM B-body wagons are amongst the best cars of that era, and I’ll challenge anyone to disagree. In fact, they are amongst the best GM cars of all time. Maybe not the most exciting or flashiest cars, but they were quality vehicles and just plain worked, and worked really well. They were the right cars, at the right time.
Sweet Buick wagon. I had one that was an estate but not an Electra. In good condition, I wish I could afford that big boat but alas, no.
What sets this one apart are the rims, twilight sentinel, cornering lights, and electronic climate control. Probably had power mirrors, too. Must be loaded up.
I had a ’81 Regency 98 in the early 90s. ’73 455ci transplant engine, wire caps. One day I was poking around a yard and came across a set of these rims. Decent looking for Mn. so I picked ’em up, ordered a set of Olds center caps, and had them mounted whitewalls in.
Car looked a little more sporty that way. Dark green with a green padded roof.
Either the leather is badly worn on that steering wheel, or someone had very dirty hands for a long time. The seats look great, though.
The steering wheel is toast.
I don’t think that’s a wrapped wheel. Looks like a regular cushion grip rim that has been man handled to the point of losing its texture. Probably a layer of dirt for patina, too.
I drive a similar vintage LeSabre. The steering wheels were molded in a dark color and painted. The paint on mine has worn through to the dark plastic underneath also. Vinyl rim is still in good shape with texture remaining. Just needs a respray in a matching plastic paint.
O, wow…! It’s embarrassing for a Gen-X’er like me to admit, but it had never occurred to me that Buick still built these SUVs in 1989. I thought 1984 was the last of them, as Buick was forced to ditch all its full-size frame cars for the gussied-up Celebrity platform starting in ’85. The only two framed full-sizers I knew of that were retained after that dreadful downsize were Chevrolet’s Caprice and Cadillac’s Brougham (dubbed “Fleetwood Brougham” before 1985). So, learning a few more things about “my” decade.
Although the overall exterior design doesn’t match up to the car-based SUVs of 15 years prior, the condition of this example is really amazing. Here’s hoping the eventual new owner takes as much care of it as its prior owners did.
It’s not an SUV or an XUV or any of that crap. It is a station wagon, plain and simple.
“as Buick was forced to ditch all its full-size frame cars for the gussied-up Celebrity platform starting in ’85.”
Tony C, you’re clearly a self-declared expert on cars upon which you’re woefully ill-informed. As you’ve been told, a traditional station wagon is not a utility vehicle. Secondly, the GM C/H-body cars to which you refer share nothing with the A-body cars like the Celebrity, other than a few C-body powertrains that were retrofitted into the Oldsmobile Ciera and Buick Century, wheels, radios, paints, and lug nuts, the two platforms share virtually nothing. Critical components of both platforms like the front and rear suspensions and the body structures themselves have nothing in common.
I had an 81 Olds Custom Cruiser Fully Sized Station Wagon it was Fully Equipped, Fully Loaded, Fully Powered. Boy i that ride like you won’t believe. No sooner had I brought that ride i had about 3 offers to by it that was back in the early 90’s. I will always be a Fully Equipped, Fully Loaded, Fully Powered Beach Wagon/Station. From the 1930’s to the early 1990’s Fords and GMs, for Chrysler 1940’s to 1977.
If I had the money and the room and space for it i would buy it myself. Again that’s when all of the Big 3 were at and in their very best hey day.
Not only for their Station Wagons but also their Fully Sized Luxuriously
Luxurious Luxury Land Cruisers, Land Liners and Land Yachts. The way I would like to have them. The same way I would like to have the Station Wagon with Big Block 4BBL V8’s. Ralph Nader doesn’t speak for me when it comes for my Rides back then. I’v always been a big and large car man even even hot rods and muscle cars as well.
Last night i watched a 2 part episode of Mission Impossible and the rides that they used in that episode when i saw them I knew exactly what they were make, model and year. Again that’s when the Big 3 were at their best and finest. I don’t know what they call themselves making today but I still pick an Antique, Classic and Vintage ride any day or time.
These so called medium and small suv’s they can keep them. I’ll take the Big Overgrown Beach Wagons/Station Wagons like the Chevy Suburban and GMC Sierra Classic Suburban of the past to the present and the same with Ford Excursions, Ford Expedition EL and Lincoln Navigator L
Series.
Buy it an enjoy,
Or buy it, yank the 307 Olds, scrape up an enter 94-96 Roadmaster or Caprice LT1 350 drive train and turn this into a kind of sleeper. No-one will ever expect one of these boxes of hiding something with get-up and go under the hood.
I don’t know I’m suspicious of wagons, rusty patina trucks that don’t stall and hubcapped cars.
I wish I could afford to buy this Buick: MY kind of vehicle! I drive a 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis 4-door sedan with just shy of 370,000 miles. It still presents well, despite all of the winters it has sloshed through, and it runs smoothly. I have maintained it to the hilt, but it has “issues” now that I probably will not be able to address. The 5.0 under the hood still burns no oil, and it runs smoothly and quietly — but it probably has about 2/3 of its rated 150 horses at this point — it’s tired. The transmission slips once-in-a-while before it warms up thoroughly. Electronic door-locks are a regular headache, and the the driver’s side door doesn’t always open from the outside, necessitating my climbing in from the passenger’s side — a bit too acrobatic at my age. And I’ve often wished that it were a wagon, for some of the things I’ve had to transport. When GM in 1977 and Ford in 1979 downsized their bloat-mobiles, they came up with classic-looking cars which stayed virtually unchanged for more than a decade — they looked lovely and seemed to last forever when well cared-for. I disliked the early 1990s re-styles. The Buick was the nicest of the GMs, and the Mercury was the nicest of the Fords. The air-conditioning was forever cold, and these were comfort-mobiles in every sense. One channel on my cassette-player is intermittent now, though the radio works on both channels. It was people my age who bought and owned these cars. My great-grandchildren think it’s neat. And they’d probably love this Buick also. I am blessed to be able to live pretty much as I always have — while most people my age are either in the ground, in fragile health, or are lost deep in dementia. But SOME of us persist. I am a firm believer in the idea of, “As long as you can, DO” — regardless of the calender. At least half of my records are 78s which I bought new — so that sort-of tells you something. 78s persisted until 1959 (though, after mid-1957, you had to special-order the 78 or they automatically gave you the 45). The 33-microgroove L.P. appeared in 1948, and the 45 came in 1949. I have records of all three types, and the popular music I enjoy most dates from the mid-1940s to the mid-to-late 1950s — then it mostly became too frantic for me. Most of my L.P.s are classical, and many of them 1958-1962 stereo. But I have lots of 1949-1957 monophonic ones also. Since I live alone now, and my preferred music is not played on the radio, listening to records virtually nobody else cares to remember forms my recreation. I am Autistic, so I don’t have much of a social life and would not know how to go about establishing one. Greetings to everyone!
It’s remarkable to have almost 400,000 miles on your Mercury!
Maintenance, maintenance.
To your old records, I have about 30 8-track tapes and a player hooked into my downstairs stereo.
And I have about 30 LP record albums, including a 45 rpm. You’ll recall having the plastic disk insert in order to play them on the narrow stem record players.
And I probably have about 200-300 cassettes.
Good luck keeping the Mercury on the road!
Smokey’s comment about if it was a diesel: I bought a 1981 Cadillac with the diesel engine. This was a great car when diesel was selling for less than gasoline and I was on the highway all the time with it. Then tragedy, company promoted me and now I was in bumper to bumper traffic for two hours everyday. This is when the engine shakes and the belts loosen up and it heats up. I would drive from Houston up to Lubbock and still have a 1/4 of diesel fuel.
I’m with you. I had an 81 Cadillac with the 5.7 diesel. 285,000 highway miles without a problem. I only spent money on tires, brakes, and oil changes. 120 miles a day and only one fill up a week. Only reason I sold it was I was issued a company car.
Jeff, don’t tell everyone about my honey hole. I have picked up a few from this place and have been very happy. BUT I guess that is what Barn Finds is all about.
This would make a great family car in all ways with one change. Someone will gripe about this but, put an LS in it. The only bad point is the 307 engine is not fuel efficient and lacks power. Updating the powertrain will give a considerable fuel economy boost and improve it’s trailering ability, bringing it into the modern day.
To John Rukavina: yes, I remember 8-tracks — big 1970s item — though I never partook in that format. My 45 rpm “puck” happens to be spun aluminium — but certainly the plastic ones are familiar to me. I do not have all that many 45s, and here is why. I persisted with 78s throughout the 1950s; in fact, I have 78 rpm copies of records that many people had no idea ever came out as 78s — popular records from 1958 and 1959. Of course, had I been in England or Canada, I could have bought new 78s well into the 1960s. But, by the time that new pop records were available only as 45s, the new music tended to offend my sensibilities — so, I did not buy all that many new single records. I have more than 2,700 78s, about 1,200 33s, and maybe 370 45s. My audiocassettes for the car were recorded at home from my records. To be fair on the 78s, I also have the records my father bought in rhe 1920s and 1930s. He basically dis-owned me — but nobody else in the family wanted his records. So I ended up with them by default. I also have a number of open-reel tapes and a deck on which to play them. Question for ACZ: what’s an LS? These cars had plenty of power for the comfort-cruisers they were intended to be; they never were designed for “hot” driving. They were smooth and took you peacefully down the road: what more could you ask for?
This definitely appears to be a very well cared for example, but the steering wheel and the extremely worn drivers side floor mat hint to a more likely 166K miles.
The best of the GM wagons of this era. I see several comments about the steering wheel. GM used cheap leather on the wheels. Factor in the sun and the oil from the driver’s hands, no not 10W30, the natural oils from your skin, and they fall apart. The car is beautiful. There are interior restoration guys who can paint that wheel. Have seen it done at dealers I worked at. No big deal. Beautiful wagon when Buick actually made cars.
Two companies, Malco & Colorbond make aerosol interior paints which I have used on vinyl, leather, and carpet.
The old aerosals left your carpets feeling like a Brillo pad. These dry nice and soft.
Far cry from when I did upholstery repair with car dealers in the 80s. Had to mix the colors and use a Binks 150 gun run by a small compressor in the back of my vehicle. That ran off deep cycle batteries.
To Phil D.: it’s one thing to know better than Tony C.; however, could we please try to be kinder about it? Instead of charging him with making himself an “expert”, then correcting him harshly; how about a softer approach — something on these lines: “Tony C., I respect your great knowledge on many aspects concerning older vehicles; however, I fear that you are mistaken on some of your information given here…” — Then provide the correct facts. I am Autistic and tend to be direct, even blunt, in my honesty: I had to learn to curb that, and finally got the hang of it by the time that I was about 70 (lots of years ago). We all have weak spots in what we know — might not be about cars, per se — but we have areas of ignorance SOMEwhere in our funds of knowledge (smile). And I confess, as an Autist (Autistic person), my level of information is exceptional on a very few limited things — and my ignorance is wide virtually everywhere else! We Autists are quintessentially imbalanced in what we do and do not know: our “interest” in particular things borders on obsession, and our unawareness of other things can be astounding! What little we DO know sounds like pure genius to others; none-the-less, in many different areas, you will wonder openly how on earth we ever lived past the age of ten and never found those things out! Life ain’t nuthin’ but a funny-funny riddle — to quote John Denver. What I hear folks saying here, perhaps in not so many specific words, is that American automobilia entered a “golden age” shortly after 1950, and sacrificed it at the end of the 1980s. Isn’t that why we’re all here? — because Detroit no longer makes the vehicles we would choose? To AAAZDAD: I agree with you on the 166K. My 1988 Grand Marquis has 370,012 miles (it just turned-over from 369,999), and my velour seats still look nice, are new-like supple, and show no “matting” or other obvious signs of wear. My pedals and floor show less evidence of use than this Buick. My steering-wheel, which had an imitation leather texture of sorts in its [vinyl?], is now worn quite smooth in places where I handle it. But the faux wood-grained plastic all throughout the interior still shines and looks as luxurious and rich as actual wood. Unlike cars of the 1940s, in which many of these details were painted upon steel and subject to wear and fading, mohair and other cloths yellowed and dry-rotted, and plastics were of a primitive variety given to shrinkage and warpage; the interiors of 1980s cars tend to hold up well over many miles and many years.