Lots of these Buick Grand Nationals and other similar presentations from the 1980s pass us by every year. They’re not dime-a-dozen, but more like a car that’s still new enough not to have been buried under hay bales in a barn. Garage Finds, let’s call most of these. If you want this one, you need to come up with a bid over the $20K currently offered in a two-bid shootout. But be careful, as there’s no reserve named, so if you hit the button, you might just own the car. That would happen sometime late in the day Wednesday, when the auction, here on ebay, ends. You will then be on your way to Sanford, Florida to pick up your new car.
Could you drive it home? Assuming you’re in one of the 48 contiguous states, I suppose you could, because lots of people have driven this car lots of places, to the tune of 142,000 miles. You’re not doing to hurt it putting a few more ticks on the clock, unless the service life of the 3.8-liter engine is coming towards its retirement days. Barn Finders, how many miles have you seen on one of these 6-cylinder, turbo-charged mills? The current owner, who has had the car for four years, drives it to work from time to time, indicating that it still pulls hard and shifts hard.
The car is mostly original, but it needs a headliner. It is also indicated as a twenty-year-old repaint, with chips and blemishes. Of course—it’s been enjoyed! And you’ll be able to continue to love on it without worrying about every pebble that flies up and dings off the front end as you drive it to cruise night. It also needs an AC recharge, but on the upside, some service items and smaller componentry, like the shocks, the tires, and the alternator, have been replaced. It also comes with an assortment of trim bits and pieces, mostly for the interior. The one oddity is that the center gauge console seems to have been replaced, but the old one, with its 132,000-mile odo reading, goes with the car. Wonder what happened there?
With this car, what you’ll be part of is a group rather larger than you might imagine. Muscle Car Facts indicates that about 20,000 GN’s were built in 1987, the most plentiful year for the model. The more valuable GNX came out in a sub-600 model run over four years. But still, a quick search around shows that these Grand Nationals start in the mid-30s and go up over $100 thousand bucks. This one has the disadvantage of its much-driven status, unless what you want is a driver. In that case, and with a visual inspection confirming that it’s a decent, never-wrecked car, this one might end up in bargain territory. Where are you willing to push this bid?
Hi-miler that likely surprised a lot of people on the road Love these coupes. ↪️
That 132,000 is just scratching the surface of what these engines will do. I put over 300k on one.
Muscle of my youth, i was 21 when it was born. Always had a soft spot for G.M’s last hurra for the g bodies. With high millage some mods are to be expected good and bad. Didn’t these come out with a sort of electric power assist for the brakes, i see vacuum assist. And an odd breather for the crankcase vent. As per the guage cluster. If the motor was cared for it has a few more milles to go but i wouldn’t beat on it to much.
I sold my 87 T for $13,500 in 2013 and it resold for $18,500 in 2020. Kinda wished I would’ve kept it now especially with all the mods I did to it.
The lede image looks like an ATF/DEA surveillance photo.
“Here is a shot of Mr. Fiddler’s distinctive automobile on-site at Bumfuggler Park within three hours of the alleged transaction.”
My brother went through 2 GN’s & 1 T- Type, all exceeded 200k, his 87 was sold for a good price with 235k on it.
Brian K.,
The oddity that you commented on about the gauge cluster and what happened there.
The factory gauges in these cars had the infamous 85 mph sweeping speedo and these cars could pull that off on the 2-3 shift and bury that. So, many people chose to go aftermarket for a larger group of numbers in the 150-160 mph range. I believe that Poston used to have a gauge cluster swap with the sweeping 150 mph setup that made it look stock. One of these owners just installed all round aftermarket gauges in this one. My brother owned one that someone had modded and installed the factory-looking 150 mph sweeping one in it and itd eat most of that up with the chip, larger downpipe, etc. These cars will surprise a lot of people with how quick and docile they are.
That cluster looks to be a GNX knock off. They were available from a couple of different sources. Somewhere along the line someone had the good sense to replace the “Powermaster” with a vacuum booster. Hopefully they also added an auxiliary vacuum pump.
I don’t know how to drive an automatic, so I’m out.
Mine has 258,000km on it. It also retains the Powermaster booster still. I guess regular people think that an engineer made a mistake with this and a vacuum booster is all it needs. AND I drive it hard still! Bone stock and I would not let it go for less than $50 USD!