Back in April of 2017, I wrote about this pair of like new Buick Grand Nationals that were discovered in the original owner’s garage. At that time, the pair had been listed for sale on Facebook with an asking price of $200k. Reader William had spotted the pair and let his friend Shawn know about them. Soon a deal was struck and Shawn became the new owner of sequential VIN Grand Nationals. We didn’t hear anything more after featuring the story, but guess what just showed up on eBay? The very same pair of Buicks and bidding has already hit $144k! You can take a look at them here on eBay in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
If you haven’t read the original story or need a quick refresher, here’s the short version. The original owner apparently decided they needed not one, but two Buick Grand Nationals in identical specs. They were even built at the same time and have sequential VIN numbers. They were driven sparingly, one has seen 834 miles and the other has covered just 592 miles, and then left in the garage for 30 years. After struggling to work a deal out for the pair, Shawn was finally able to make something work with the original owner. We never did find out how much he paid for the pair, but chances are it was an impressive amount of money.
And here we are not quite a year later. Both cars have been fully detailed, but have otherwise been left as found. William claims that they both run like new, but they will need a little work if you want them to be perfect. The tires are still the factory originals, the headliners are sagging and the bumper fillers need to be replaced. They felt it was best to preserve their originality though, as they could be the only completely original GNs left.
I’m not sure if it’s because they are Grand Nationals, if it’s their mileage, the fact that it’s a pair of identical cars or the combination of all three things, but this pair has gotten an insane amount of coverage since we featured them. They really are cool cars and I’d love to have an all original Grand National but even if I could afford this pair, it would be hard to justify buying both. The fact that they are sequentially numbered and have been together since being built means they probably should stay together, but it makes buying, transporting and housing them far more expensive. It will definitely be interesting to watch this auction play out. Perhaps they will break the original owner’s original $200k asking price! So, would you like to have them parked in your garage? And if so, would you preserve them or would you fix any issues so you could actually drive them?
buy em’ both fix up and drive the hell out of the 800 mile one, and preserve the 500 mile one. be interesting down the line to see a comparison between two cars that started out dead on identical, when one was a run-hard driver,and the other a show piece.
C’mon, These are ’87’s, Not ’57’s!!!!!!!! Put ’em back in the barn for another 30 or 40 years!
Oh god Richard you are one of those snobs? According to my calendar 1987 was over 30 years ago. 1957 cars were worthless in the 1970s.
Ditto, Gavin…the one you don’t drive should be worth what you paid for both somewhere in the future…and the one you do drive pays dividends in pure fun…
yawn
Yawn, really ???????
friends Mom bought one new in 87 with insurance $ from husbands death … spent that summer of 87 at shore with them, you couldn’t stop anywhere without people asking about it or following you , never mind all the Vettes, Mustang & Camaro’s that wanted to race her. I only remember her racing once with us & blowing the doors off a tricked out Mustang over a long bridge..muscle car bug bit me that day..
these low mile GN do pop up a lot ..crazy high % these must have been bought solely for garage queen purposes..
If you are going to pay a King’s ransom for these cars, you can’t drive them. Mileage is probably some of the lowest, and oh, they’re a matching pair. To drive one, go get a 20-30K mile car for a whole lot less and roast the tires off it!
Didn’t B-J sell a GX for $95k?
I thought I saw a Grand National go over $120k this year. So..there’s that.
Sell one next year, and one the year after and go buy something you like more.
Cool cars but dozens of the hundreds built were probably put away like this, except one at a time. A unique story, but not unique cars among the GNX ranks.
200 k For that no way
Better enjoy now….the way EPA is going? Fuel will be hard to find in 30-40 years.
The body style goes back to 83 I think. Always a nice car to look at in any rendition but never understood the real attraction to the GN , but then again never been one either. Guess I preferred v8 models and all that could be done with that
Call Richard Rawlings, “Gas Monkey” he’ll buy em
Lol I’m sure he would buy them for pennies on the dollar, then cut them up for his stupid, fake show.
Crazy Prices for Crazy Buyers!
Never thought I’d see the day when two 87′ GN’s are worth this kind of money!
Just don’t see them being worth that much regardless of what they are .
For that price ill get two badass vettes including a new zr1 forget that smfh
Always appreciated the body style in any rendition. They go back to 83 . A built v8 suits me fine in this. Never latched on to the significance of the GN .
The hobby has been hijacked from the working man.
For that money I’d be working towards a Ford GT, not a pair of GM cars that people will confuse with a Monte Carlo. Even real estate would be a better bet.
i think the attention is because boys like twins.
This thread is a hoot, I got to ride in one several times back in the day and they are flipping fast, but not worth that much folks, buy a Tesla if you want break neck speed, personally watched one go into space yesterday ! Touche
I really dislike how every car that has been left to rot in a garage is hyped up these days. If I were in the market for a GN, I would much rather buy a well maintained & cared for car that has been driven.
As far as the e-bay add “Barn find of a lifetime” claim – not even close, for instance an original ’67 427 Cobra and 275 GTB Ferrari were recently “found” and are an entirely different order of magnitude, never mind the Bullitt Mustang. IMHO.
Woosh mobiles what I called ’em back then, tough competition for 5.0 mustangs and iroc Camaros. Despite all their capability, I’m not gonna sugar coat this either, these were absolutely the worst sounding high performance cars ever built in the USA. These were cars that were seen, not heard, cruising up and down main Street. That black paint and those cool looking rims were so important for the image of this car, making them stand out and be noticed because it was never gonna happen thru the tailpipes.
What I don’t like about this deal is that these cars were looked at as potential investments right off the bat as far as I’m concerned and never used or enjoyed for what they are. Two whoosh mobiles denied the chance to mix it up and will probably will never see much pavement ever again.😎
Its nice to know the “more money than brains” crowd is still alive.
I bought a GN a few months back from a guy that was in on the deal. He said the original asking price was to get attention and eliminate tire kickers. According to him they finally both sold for less than $50k. Sad to see them go for such a ridiculous price now. I paid a lot less for mine with 23k miles and still got the original tires. At least I can drive it without worrying about hurting the value much.
That leads to a question…what is the break even point between driving them to enjoy them but not putting on too many miles to hurt the value?
Good question – I don’t think there is a clear answer to that one. I have a high dollar car and have put about 500 – 1000 miles per year, mostly a sunny day driver. There is no shortage of people advising that “these cars are meant to be driven” and we should “drive them until the wheels come off” but it seems those same people are obsessed with value, especially around Barrett-Jackson time when they fill online forums with updates & commentary on the dollars certain collector cars fetch at the block. I’ve always found this disingenuous.
That’s kind of my thinking as well. I have a 63 stingray in great shape that had 80k miles when purchased and have only added a few thousand miles over the last 8 years or so. Although it’s more miles than I prefer there’s only so many left to chose from from and I have loved every minute behind the wheel!
To make these “trailer queens” would be blasphemous. They are, after all, machines that are made to be driven. Certainly not as your daily driver, but a couple of thousand miles a year would be great. I’m slowly putting some miles on my ’85 Mercury Grand Marquis LS. I got it last year, as a GIFT, with 8,023 miles. I was reticent to drive it, but the giver told me to DRIVE the car, and enjoy it. I put on a little over 1K miles on it since last July, and has been a joy to drive. And best of all, I don’t regret putting on some miles. These Buick’s are wonderful driving cars, with great performance, and it would be a shame just to use them as show cars.
The problem is the value of these cars are based on the low miles, born together and have stayed together. You obviously are either investing in these to keep like they are and hopefully make money or you have enough money and don’t care and will drive them like they were meant. They probably need to be in a collection somewhere on display.
No Patina!
WOW! Ended: Feb 11, 2018 , 4:50PM
Winning bid:US $205,699.00
[ 227 bids ]