Finding your identity is a journey all of us go on, to some extent, and throughout the 1980s and 90s, many GM brands struggled to find the right mix of products and brand to appeal to customers. However, there were flashes of brilliance when you hoped the division in question would simply stick with something that appeared to be working, such as the blacked-out image associated with the Buick Lesabre T-Type. Following on the heels of the bad-ass Buick GNX and Grand National, Buick seemed to be moving towards a performance-car identity – why didn’t it stick? Check out this rare 1989 Buick Lesabre T-Type listed here on Facebook Marketplace for$7,800.
Now, it’s understandable to look at a car like this somewhat quizzically. After all, Buick was the brand that was known to your grandparents and their friends as a reliable family-friendly company. The GNX and Grand National were abrupt changes from regularly scheduled programming, and the immediate success of the model likely convinced a few product planners at Buick that it meant the public wanted a performance image. However, the reality was likely that most customers still wanted the brand of Buick they knew and loved, and the enthusiast market would continue to buy from whichever company made the most compelling performance model.
That’s the funny thing about enthusiasts: we’re somewhat hard to count on. Now, I’m not talking about Corvette lovers or Camaro fans; those guys are reliable buyers of whatever the next generation model is. But someone who thinks about buying a GNX simply because the performance is outstanding and the limited nature of the model likely means it’s a good investment – well, they’re going to chase that high at whichever showroom is offering the most compelling model that year. The T-Type Lesabre was really a cosmetic package more than anything else, with blacked-out trim, sticky tires, some nice wheels, and a Gran Touring suspension. Compelling, but not overly so.
The problem for Buick was that if you were courting a Buick loyalist, they wouldn’t be interested; a GNX buyer was clearly interested in a higher horsepower machine; and even if you hoped the revised styling would tempt a European car buyer, they had plenty of choices at that point in history on the entry-level side, from the BMW 3-Series to the Mercedes-Benz 190E. Still, they are sharp cars even today, and their rarity will make them a point of conversation at any car meet you attend. While not hugely valuable or sought-out, it’s near impossible to find a good one, which makes this car even more intriguing. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Mitchell G. for the find.
Buick forgot to add the hair dryer ↩️🏁
A turbo V6 and a 4T60 transaxle would not have been very cooperative powertrain “partners”.
Dunno. I find this car VERY compelling and don’t specifically NEED a GNX.
Same seller has had several other Buicks available in recent months.
I always thought these are attractive cars. I remember driving one in about 1989 and let me tell you what….. Coming from a ’77 Delta 88 with an Olds 260 under the hood…. That Buick FLEW!!! I’d be very proud to have this in my garage. Beautiful inside and out.
I’ve always liked these Buicks. Somehow the relatively minor performance upgrades plus revised trim including the wheels and blacked-out treatment worked. It kind of gives off a “I’m cool” vibe without being over-the-top.
Good analysis Jeff. The internal squabbles within GM must have been epic. Why did they green-light sporty Buicks, that wasn’t their core market. The discussion must have been the balance of doing this and perhaps landing more customers for Buick (a higher-priced marque), versus cannibalizing sales from performance Chevrolets and Pontiacs.
Seems like the T-type era was just before GM settled on a more firmly differentiated market-positioning strategy for their marques… and got it exactly backwards for Olds and Buick, IMO.
“Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile” just reinforced existing perceptions (negating a frame evokes that frame) of Olds as a mildly aspirational marque for staid, mature adults, and along with “Old” right there in the name made for an uphill battle to convince anyone it had youth or trendy appeal.
Meanwhile, Buick had some residual perception as a “doctor’s car”, at a time when actual doctors and other affluent, well-educated professionals were increasingly preferring imports, upscale European marques in particular.
Thus, Olds should have targeted the market that Buick did, for moderately upscale traditional American comfortable luxury and better trim/equipment specs, allowing Buick to combine that upscale/luxury aspect of Olds with the trendy/performance attributes of Pontiac, as they eventually became anyway once Olds and Pontiac got the axe.
I agree. I started working at a Jeep Subaru Pontiac dealership in the early 1990’s a 20 year old and remember how fast the 4 door Pontiac SSEi older and newer body styles and how much power they had for there time of the front wheel drive 4 doors.
Four doors and a wider choice of colors would’ve helped this car’s sales a lot. It requires the same compromises as a Regal GNX for nowhere near the performance.
nplnt, the idea was to make a sporty car that DIDN’T have 4 doors. No one complained when the Regal T-type came to being, and NO ONE complained when the car only came in black, especially the GN-X version. This look is the best for it – with the black trim, very few colors would work with it. Yes, it would have been nice if they had slapped the turbo engine in it, but I’m sure the bean counters at GM at the time had control over the matter. At this point in GM’s history, the choices for performance cars were really limited (Camaro, Corvette, Fiero, Mustang, and those “cars” from Mopar), and they were only interested in high volume, not niche cars. And why would anyone want a 4-door version of this? I think the market would have been even smaller, and since 2-door cars were starting to dwindle, other than imports and a few compact and intermediate cars from the domestic and foreign manufacturers, this made it special.
Actually, Tim, Buick allowed far more “diversity” than you’re giving them credit for. The Regal T-Type came in almost any regular Buick color available (only the Grand National and GNX were all black), as did the LeSabre T-Type. The LeSabre T-Type was also available as a sedan — this one just coincidentally happens to be a black coupe.
As was already typical of European cars, four door American cars with performance aspirations were becoming more common in the mid-to-late 80s (for example, Pontiac never built even one two door 6000 STE or Bonneville SSE).
1 of 5,389 `89s built, their final years.
Electra T Types were built through `90, but only as 4 doors.
`85 was the only year a 2 door Electra T Type was offered.
I ordered a number of these LeSabre T Types `87-`89 at our dealership in Chicago.
A T-Package was also available on LeSabre Customs and Limiteds, but lacked the console shift and bucket seats.
It did offer the gauge package and the touring suspension was included, but the price difference was nominal.
Only available in 4 colors all 3 years, and `87s lacked the rear spoiler.
Only the `89s had a 100mph speedometer and thicker leather wrapped steering wheel.
`87-`88 had the rubber grip T Type steering wheel shared by other models.
Some `88s had fiberglass front fenders I recall, but not limited to T Types.
I had an `89 Custom 4 door and a silver `89 T Type.
Always thought these at least looked the part of a worthy successor to the Grand National, too bad about the FWD and relatively puny engine. I’d reckon swapping in a later supercharged 3800 would be fairly straightforward and give it the “go” to match the “show”.
Cool find! I always thought these gave off a Mercedes 500 SEC vibe…I know that’s a stretch. This would make a great 3 season reliable driver to enjoy and care for. There is a silver 89 T-Type for sale in Muncie, Indiana for $5,800. Amazing what black walls, sportier rims and some chrome deletion can do. GM got a lot of mileage out of the 3800…they would do well to reinstate that engine with some selective engineering upgrades.
Another great find Mitchell G.!
https://dailyturismo.com/v6-classic-1989-buick-lesabre-t-type/
Already sold. Love these 2-door C/H bodies. Buyer should put the intake back to the stock panel filter with the air intake sucking cooler air from behind the front header. That glorified lawn mower filter is doing a great job of ingesting hot engine compartment air.
no fun to work on with the way the hood opens. always dreaded it when 1 came in the shop
Unless you are doing rear plugs! I never had any service access issues in my ’91 LeSabre.
Add says its sold wonder if we will see it pop up on bring a trailer or cars and bids for double the price in a month or so