Even though the following year’s Electra shed more than 11 inches and over 800 pounds of fat, things were still operating on the bigger-is-better mindset for ’76, with the car having attained the prize for the longest Buick ever produced the previous year at an impressive over 233 inches from bumper to bumper. If you’re a fan of the Buick family and have been in the market for a well-preserved land-yacht style Electra 225, this 1976 model for sale here on eBay just might be the ticket. The car is located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with the seller’s buy-it-now price set at $12,500.
We’d like to thank Barn Finds reader Larry D. for running across this one and sending it our way! So ’76 was the last hurrah for the seventies monster-sized Electra 225 cars, and by that time it had received a more modern front end while still retaining some of the elegant touches from its earlier fourth-generation counterparts, such as the old-school push-button style door handles. Based on just appearance alone, the ’75 and ’76 models may be my favorites from that series, as I really like the small window on the side that was added behind the rear doors.
The owner of this Buick says they don’t come much cleaner than this one, and goes on to say that the Mount Vernon Cream colored paint is in excellent shape and looks like it just drove off the dealer’s showroom floor. That’s a pretty bold proclamation, but looking around at all the photos it really is hard to find much to fault about the car’s exterior appearance. He goes on to call the vinyl top’s condition pristine, and it does appear to present that way, although there’s no word on whether or not the car has ever had a respray or a vinyl roof replacement.
1976 was also the last year the 455 was standard equipment, and that’s what came in all the fourth-generation 225s unless you were one of the unfortunate buyers who purchased one of these cars during the General Motors strike, in which case you may have gotten a 350 and a price rebate. No thanks- I’ll pay the full price and take the 455. This car’s claimed mileage is 109,600, with no mention of whether or not the engine or transmission has ever had an overhaul. Sunny days and trips to car shows are the only times the car is driven at present.
Things inside are just a little riper with wear than outside, although overall it still looks really good in there. Both the front and back seats have survived exceedingly well to have crossed the 100k mark, and the instrument panel still looks pretty good too although there are some cracks in the dashboard itself. What are your thoughts on this 1976 Buick Electra 225? The seller also is entertaining offers, so if this is the luxury car of your dreams, what’s a reasonable price to pay for what you’re getting here?
Electra.
Nice looking but BIG. Got “couldn’t find” again on first hit on this car.
It is Electra, with a C, for the car, however, the author is also correct, as the Greek spelling, is with a K, meaning the shining goddess of something, I never got that mythology crap anyway.
Charlie Martin. In the 70s, I worked for an asphalt company, and the boss, had 2 cars, a Buick like this, to impress his customers, and an Opel 1900 wagon, to check on the progress of the days work. He liked Buicks.
The handwriting was on the wall for these big cars, they had just about reached their limit, and “downsize” was right around the corner. Just as well, we had no business in cars like this, when the buzz word was Toyota. With all the cars that went down, Buick buried them all. They were a step below a Caddy, and good enough for most. With a car like this, you wouldn’t gain much by going with a Caddy except for the name, maybe.The 4 “double nickel” was still a carryover from the “more is better” days, but a 350 would do just fine, pops isn’t going racing anyway, although the kids sure tried. Cars from the days when America was the KING, and cars like this proved it, while the poor French are running around in 2CVs,,,
Whoops, thanks guys for the spell check- my other position is in the record business and I got the car and record label mixed up!
https://tinyurl.com/yp7mxacc
I owned this almost this exact model. Only difference is the seat upholstery. Mine was all vinyl. Same color, same body style. Got 13 MPG in all driving modes, (lead foot, legal louie). Loved that car. Had 180,000 on it when the engine lost oil pressure. Found out after I gave the car to a friend that the oil pickup screen had come apart and a piece got caught up in the cam drive gear and broke the distributor drive. Long story but, I would love to have another but, alas, finances are way down. I can still dream.
Building this car three years after the first oil crisis says a lot about the Big Three and none of it is good.
It takes years to get a car to get to the point when it can get produced ;they couldn’t just draw something up and start building it. in a couple of years.
The 455ci made the car 👍Great piece.
Deuce ana quatah wid 460 air.
Definitely screams American made! My parents had a 1972 225 that was so big inside my brother and I could barely hear what Mom & Dad were saying up front. And Dad kept it sparkling clean.
The model year 1975 Electra models were the same size. The model years 1975 and 1976 four door sedan Electra 225 and Electra Limited were the biggest HARDTOP sedans that GM ever built.
Tanks for the memories.
Can you say, “Leg room?” Dad had a ’74 that was burgundy with white vinyl seats. Beautiful car. Took my driving test in that car – it was a lot of fun trying to parallel park it! Kinda like parallel parking a train! 455-4 was a beast. When you’d whomp down on it, you’d better have room to go. Great car, lots of memories.
Beautiful Car!
A HS friend of mine had one of these boats….he use to pick me up to go to school in it. We had a pretty long driveway he had to back out of, making sure not to the hit the driveway brick light columns that sat on either side at the end of driveway. And you could slide into them or at least come close in the ice/snow conditions of winter. Don’t believe he ever did.
Almost seems like yesterday !
The best of the best were the 1975/1976 four-door Electra Limited models with the optional Park Avenue package. Leather 40/40 seats with a centre console were optional for 1975 when you ordered the Park Avenue DeLuxe option package. Here’s an advertisement for the 1976 Electra Limited Park Avenue: https://i.ibb.co/C9rM2xP/1976-PA-advertisement.jpg
Beautiful car! I’ve always loved the look of a 4 door with no B pillar, and this one looks especially good… Bet it would be a great cross country ride getting this one home!
Had one just like this – at first glance thought it might be my old car but its not. Great car.
We had an identical twin to this one back in the day except ours was a ’75 and the cloth interior had a pattern to it. It was great for long trips and had a huge trunk for a lot of luggage. The ride was wonderful in that car. I took my driver’s license test in it and did a perfect parallel parking job in it. I yell at the TV every time I see a self parking car feature now. Lazy lazy lazy!! Ha ha ha!!
I would have gotten the plate “CARMEN”,but the one on there
is still clever.
I had a ’72 LeSabre 4 door with a 455,& it’s hard for me to
look at this.Not what I would consider a good case for evolving.
Half of the Electras out there are named Carmen, it’s better to be original……
There is a film (One for the money) with a model year 1976 Electra 225 4-door sedan in it, that car is named Big Blue. https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_482992-Buick-Electra-225-4CV39-1976.html
There is a burgundy two door version of this beauty on BAT now. It is currently at $15,000. Yes, GM was stupid, along with the other Big 3 continuing to build monsters three years after the Arab oil embargo of Nov. 1973, which I was affected by personally as I was laid off from my job pumping gas. We never learned then and we still haven’t. That is why import cars rule the world now. Sad.
The tag is perfect. I drove a ’74 Electra coupe for several years. It had every available option, including the padded landau roof. It was one of the quietest, best riding cars I ever had, but mechanically, it was so bad. I carried several spare parts in the trunk for when they went out prematurely. I ended up using them all within a year’s time. Just when I thought there was nothing else that could break, the transmission failed with under 60K miles. I did get my only speeding ticket in that car while showing off the 455 to my best friend.
Mom ordered a fully loaded 1971 Electra 4-door from the factory. It was like driving the Living Room sofa. It has loads of room for 6 full-size adults, a smooth ride, fender skirts, and a Humongous Trunk! That big 455 CID motor would haul anything in incredible comfort. At about 100,000 miles, the timing chain parted and it needed a fix, but otherwise, a troublefree car. Grandparents had a 1964 10-window Electra 225, another Great Ride!