Are we there yet? We can imagine kids in a chorus of impatience – anxious for their arrival at the next fun destination – park, campground, grandma’s place. Replay those days in style with this 1985 Buick LeSabre Estate wagon here on craigslist, at an asking price of $5000. Located in Sewell, New Jersey, this wagon has 140,000 miles on the clock and a trailer hitch! Hmm, maybe if you find another vintage car nearby, you can transport both. On the other hand, while the wagon looks promising, especially underhood, the listing supplies no information about its running condition. Paint fade is evident on the wagon’s top surfaces, the vinyl woodgrain graphic has seen better days, and the bumper filler panel is cracked. But the price on this piece of history is tempting; we’ll investigate this tip from Mitchell G further to uncover its charms.
The seller indicates that his Buick has been garage kept but a garage can only keep a car so nice. Sure doesn’t look like 140k miles in here. Someone put forth a real effort to bring the engine bay cosmetics up to what’s just shy of show-worthy. Despite its 5.0 liter Oldsmobile V8 rated at 140 hp and a four-speed automatic transmission packed onto a downsized B-body platform, the wagon was not a sparkling performer. But who cares! It’s so clean! The LeSabre was second in the luxury line after the Elektra, but well above the Century and the Skyhawk. Power steering and power brakes were standard, and a huge variety of features were available at extra cost, from power windows to a sunroof to the wire wheel covers seen on this example. The options list even included a limited slip axle.
The interior is in admirable condition, belying its age and miles. That woodgrain can crack and the plastic can warp; the dash can split and fade… here all we see is slight discoloration on the passenger door cap, and it’s hard to know if that’s just the light. The cargo area shows more wear but nothing a good cleaning wouldn’t cure.
In the late 1970s, Buick followed Ford’s lead and introduced a “dual action” tailgate with a power rear window, supplied as standard equipment on all wagons. This Buick’s rear is a bit tidier than its front, but overall, its few cosmetic issues are tolerable. Comparables are scarce at the moment; research shows prices of very nice 1980s Estate wagons range from about $7k to $9k. Judging from the underhood view, this one is worth a call to gather a few more facts than the listing provides.
I learned from Scotty G. that this is a Buick Lesabre Estate. Saying wagon is just redundant.
Ok Miriam Webster. I just looked at several definitions of estate and don’t see a cross-reference to “wagon”. I therefore rule, on behalf of the court of public opinion, that you are wrong with implied redundancy. My conclusion is that ” Estate” was bastardized, back in the day, by the Big 3 auto marketing guys to convey an aire or sophistication and justification to charge several grand more for a Buick wagon versus a Chevy wagon, etc, etc, metal and a hahrumpf!
Aires on high! Yes, marketing was always the watchword with American carmakers. It’s astonishing how they contorted language to impress the customer.
“LeSabre Estate Wagon” was Buick’s full model name for this car – there was also an even plusher Electra Estate Wagon – and what the fender badge read for certain years. The difference between LeSabre and Electra in the wagons was strictly one of trim, unlike sedans and coupes that had a more formal roofline and longer wheelbase.
Chevrolet used “Estate” to denote a wagon with the woodgrain side paneling package, consistently after the model name – Caprice Estate down to Cavalier Estate, although the latter’s rare as chicken dentures even in years where the paint-sided Cavalier wagon sold well.
Yes. I went by this.
https://xr793.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/1985-Buick-Station-Wagons-CN.pdf
With the anemic engine, what could they have possibly towed? I wonder what condition the front seats are in since they’re covered. These were comfortable but not well made, unless a collector likes it, I don’t see it selling easily.
I was thinking a Fiat. Maybe?
They probably flipped the air cleaner lid over when towing. You know, for more power. Haha
Love the LeSabre model. Coupes especially.
For those that loved to cross States, or Country, with room, and comfort
this was the way to go. Largely unrecognized in 1985 as being hip…
but gas prices weren’t that bad and it was easy to put many hundreds of
miles a day on the Great American Southwest Tour…so, so good….
and so much better than an anemic MiniVan.
Your comment about Buick’s dual action tail gate appearing in the late 70s was a decade off. GM’s dual action tailgate appeared in 1969, a couple of years after Ford. Of course it was on hiatus from 71-76 during the clamshell years.
Chuck Dickinson:
It sounds like you don’t know your Buicks:
the model year 1971 SportWagon still used the dual tail gate.
Same goes for the model year 1972 SportWagon.
So, there was no “hiatus from 71-76”, it was 1973 to 1976.
And since you mentioned 1969 as the first year: you were not strictly talking about the full-size wagons, because there was no full-size Buick wagon for that year.