Ah, the Buick “Boattail” Rivieras. I was a 16-year-old car styling nerd when these were introduced in 1971 and I thought they looked terrific. These new Rivieras made a statement. They were unique, bold, and couldn’t be mistaken for anything else on the road. The 3rd generation 1971-73 Riviera was a pet project of sorts for GM’s Design Chief, Bill Mitchell, who had replaced the legendary Harley Earl in 1959. Mitchell was very fond of 30s-era boattail cars, especially the Auburn Boattail Speedster, and had introduced this styling treatment somewhat on the sleek 1963 Corvette. With Riviera sales (and styling) slipping in the late 60s, Mitchell tried to revive the styling magic and mojo of the first generation Riviera. The result didn’t increase sales (1973 saw the highest sales at 34,080 units) and the radical styling for a personal luxury coupe was off-putting to some of its target audience members. People either loved the styling or hated it, there wasn’t a lot of middle ground. Here’s a 1973 Riviera that is highly original, is in great shape, and makes for an impressive survivor. A shout out to our pal, T.J., for sending us another interesting car to feature here on Barn Finds.
The original owner must’ve loved brown. The factory color is Code P, Burnt Coral, which was one of three exclusive colors for the 1973 Riviera. This Buick has obviously been garage-kept that past 52 years because the original factory paint looks very shiny and presentable. The body is straight, there’s no rust, and the chrome, rubber trim, glass, lenses, and badging look very good. Although Mitchell was strongly opposed to offering a vinyl roof to his sleek design, he was overruled and I read where 80 percent of the ’71-’73 Rivieras were ordered with vinyl roofs. The year 1973 also saw the big, bulky 5 mph impact front bumper added which hurt the car’s sleek styling, and the rear boattail point was actually reduced, smoothed out, and had a rubber strip added. Talk about an expensive one-year-only styling cost!
The brown theme continues inside this Riviera with a nicely preserved luxury cabin in saddle, one of four color options available with the Burnt Coral exterior. The front and rear seats look comfortable and in good shape with no splits or tears visible. Since Rivieras were personal luxury cars, this one has a number of goodies including power windows, tilt steering wheel, AC, remote driver’s mirror, and speed alert. I also read that the last year of the boattail Rivieras are known for their smoother and quieter ride thanks to improved sound deadening and body mounts. I’m sure this Buick just floats down the road.
Under that extremely long Burnt Coral hood is the Riviera’s original 455-cubic-inch V8 that generated 250 horsepower. Only 41,000 original miles are on the clock and the 455 is mated to the smooth shifting, durable Turbo Hydra-matic 400 automatic transmission. The seller (only the Riviera’s third owner) has put on a new carburetor, wheels, and tires, but claims the car is 98 percent original. This particular survivor calls Valley City, Ohio home and is currently listed for sale here on Facebook Marketplace for $22,000 or best offer. So, what are your thoughts on these unique-styled “Boattail” Rivieras?
Love the Riv. Great write up Ron. Really enjoyable.
This beautiful one needs white wall tires mounted on Buick Road Wheels; the ad needs some side profile shots! GLWTS!! :-)
What a beauty!
Absolutely beautiful. Great color too. That rear photo really shows off the beautiful boat tail lines.Great write up Ron.
This is beautiful Buick – that new aluminum intake looks great and an interesting (& welcome to some) update on a car like this.
How nice to see that this Riviera was well cared for going on half a century.
Definitely a unique style with acres of beautiful sheet metal!
Not too many unique style cars anymore–love the boat tail call back to the ’63 Corvette!
I was 13 when the first Riviera appeared… they always made a real statement… and were designed for men to differentiate themselves from other men…. cool guys dove them. This ended in the late 80’s with the front wheel drive series…
“This ended in the late 80’s with the front wheel drive series…”
Yes–too bad.
Loved those also Arfeeto.. but they were no boat tail.
Lone year for rear license plate in the middle of the bumper. I abhor vinyl tops & interiors. In dire need of a set of Buick’s spectacular road wheels. Motoring down the road, these are dangerous cars! The ride is so plush that you may fall asleep behind the wheel. I bought a widow’s ’73 & until then I don’t recall ever owning a quieter, more luxurious ride. A unique option was Buick’s “on demand” wipers. Actually it was the precursor to GM’s intermittent wipers. The system was activated by pushing a button in the end of a column-shifted car. It may have been available only on column-shifted cars.
I’m drooling.
Great comments on a swell Buick!
Beautiful car! Too thirsty for me; thank you.
Another spotless car til you get to the engine bay. When will sellers realize that a couple of hours turns into a couple of thousand dollars
When I buy a classic car, as a resident of northeast Ohio, lack of rust is the primary consideration and the color is something I’ll adapt to. Brown (or variations of) is not my favorite. My 1966 Corvair Monza is Aztec bronze; my 1966 Ford Galaxie 500 7 Litre is emberglo; always figured if I found a boattail I liked, it would be this color. As luck would have it, my ’73 Rivi is white, with no vinyl top, and came from the same little Alabama town as my Ford.
I do like this brown, very understated, and would follow recommendations others have made, minus the whitewalls. Only ever owned one car with whitewalls. This car has the front fender light monitors, possibly rear window defogger (fan), and I can’t tell if the switch above the clock is for the Max-Trac anti-skid system, or a power antenna. Cars going to rural areas where the wire embedded in the windshield didn’t provide adequate reception could be ordered with a fender mount antenna. And Utesman, you are correct, believe Buick referred to them as “pulse wipers”. Added them to my car, actually used a different wiper motor. Smog pump has been removed.
The 1938 Buick Y-job also had a boat tail rear deck:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Y-Job
So many detest brown cars but I an amazed in reading so many comments that praise this stunning color.
This Riviera reminds me of the 1963 Tempest 326/3-speed manual sport coupe that I had in my HS Senior year (1965) and in college. It was a similar stunning Cordovan Brown Metallic. Those tiny gold-colored flecks just glistened in the Texas sun!