We all recognize by now that some listings for vintage cars shoot themselves right in the proverbial foot due to lack of information, bad photos, or both. In the case of this 1984 Buick Grand National, the pictures aren’t the worst we’ve seen but there’s literally four words in the listing description: 1984 Buick Grand National. Now, to some extent, this is a car that doesn’t need much in the way of an introduction, but with close to 160,000 miles on the clock, a few words about maintenance history might be nice. The good news is the photos tell us enough to make this Grand National, listed here on craigslist in New Hampshire, worth checking out.
The seller is asking $16,000 for the Grand National, which seems a touch high for a car that has average cosmetics. It could just need a good detailing, but the paint looks dull in places. The trim that goes between the bumper and the body is oftentimes in rough shape with pieces missing, but this Grand National’s trim remains intact – but miscolored. The original taillights with the black stripe through the middle are present and accounted for, along with factory badges. The wheels are the OEM rollers and appear to be straight and true; no word on the health of the tires.
The 1984 Grand National may have been down on power compared to later cars, but they did get a nifty feature that ended up being one-year only: the two-tone Lear-Siegler seats you see here. These featured leather and cloth surfaces, and are highly prized today. Owners of later Grand Nationals love to find these for swapping into their cars, but the seats are difficult to source in any sort of condition, and command a premium when they are discovered intact or at least restorable. The buckets in this car show signs of typical wear-and-tear, but I usually associate the wrinkled piping with pervasive dampness.
The 3.8L V6 was good for 200 b.h.p. in 1984, with power getting to the ground via a standard Turbo-Hydramatic 200R4 automatic transmission. Though the Grand National would become more powerful in subsequent generations, this era still produced a healthy 300 lb-ft of torque that ensured drivers could surprise most any C4 Corvette owner they came upon. The seller doesn’t do himself any favors with the lack of information in the listing, but hopefully an in-person inspection will help validate the $16K asking price that this seller has set.
Not worth $16K. Another case of a seller with Barrett-Jacksonitis.
So this car has done more miles than all other GNs combined?
It’s in good shape for the miles. The cloth on the seats has been replaced but it’s not the right color. I can imagine that finding the right cloth would be quite the task these days.
The leather Lear-Siegler buckets in the 1984 Grand National were darker in color than the all cloth seats in the later cars. My mother had an ’84 with the L-S interior and it was different than my ’87 GN.
I believe the colors on the leather Lear-Siegler buckets are correct. My mother had an ’84 with those seats and they were definitely different than those in my ’87 GN.
Wow, Craig’s List must charge by the letter now. based on the description of this car.
Located in Pelham, NH