In the early eighties, if you wanted a personal luxury car, your local Buick dealer was the place to go.  While the brand offered a few different coupes that could be outfitted for style and luxury, the top-of-the-line car was the Riviera.  This 1983 Buick Riviera T-Type for sale on Craigslist in Oxford, Massachusetts is not only the epitome of 1980s luxury.  This snazzy Buick also hides a turbocharged Buick V-6 under the hood.  With just 87,500 miles on the odometer, this stately Riviera is also loaded with options and has been well-kept for the past 41 years.  Would you be willing to pay the $10,500 asking price for a luxurious ride that can move a bit?  Thanks to Rocco B. for this very nice turbo Buick find!

The Buick Riviera started life as a response to Ford’s Thunderbird.  When the Thunderbird added a back seat, sales skyrocketed.  Buick wanted a piece of that action, so they came up with a handsome personal luxury vehicle of their own and named it after the French Riviera to give the car some higher-end ambiance.  While always seen as a stablemate to the Oldsmobile Toronado and the Cadillac Eldorado, Buick went its own way regarding the chassis.  While the Toronado and Eldorado were front-wheel drive, Buick stubbornly held on to rear wheel drive until the arrival of the sixth generation Riviera in 1979.  This car would be the first production front wheel drive car in Buick’s history.  It would also join its stablemates in sharing the same platform.

Back then, the divisions had a lot more autonomy to keep the cars in their lineup uniquely identifiable as their product.  Riviera buyers were given several different engine choices over the production run of the sixth-generation car.  Among these powerplants was an Oldsmobile sourced 350 cubic inch V-8 which later shrank to 307 cubic inches.  Oldsmobile also provided a diesel engine converted from one of their 350 cubic inch gas engines.  These diesel engines developed few fans and were problematic.  A 231 cubic inch Buick V-6 became standard in 1980, and a turbocharged version became an option in that year as well.  Rivieras equipped with the turbocharged engine became known as S-Types in 1980, but the name quickly changed to the T-Type in 1981.  Before long, T-Type was the badging affixed to all performance-oriented Buicks.  Buick went all-in on its performance image in the 1980s, with turbocharged Buick V-6 engines powering Indy cars in the Stock Block category and a turbocharged Riviera convertible paced the 1983 Indy 500.  That special convertible had a special twin-turbocharged V-6 under the hood that put out 410 horsepower.

The 1983 Buick Riviera T-Type you see in the ad is one of the 1,331 T-Types built that year out of a total production of 50,234.  As you can see from the pictures, this rare Riviera has obviously been well taken care of and presents well.  The seller tells us that it has been the recent recipient of a new water pump and the accompanying belts and hoses.  This Riviera is also equipped with a sunroof, leather interior, AM/FM cassette stereo, and the usual luxury bits and pieces that came standard on a car of this caliber.

With just 87,757 miles shown on the odometer above, this Buick has few flaws.  One mentioned by the seller is the power antenna.  It seems that the mast is broken, but the seller does not specify if it is broken off, or if the cable that pushes the antenna up has snapped.  Unfortunately, the seller did not provide any pictures of the turbocharged V-6 that makes this Riviera so interesting.  We are told that it “runs and drives good.”

Overall, this is a nice example of a seldom-seen anymore car with a few very desirable options.  Turbo Rivieras are not the tire-melting terrors that Buick Regal T-Type and Grand Nationals would become.  However, they are nice vehicles if you enjoy driving around in the height of early 1980s GM luxury.  Hopefully, this nice Buick finds a home with someone who will enjoy it and display it occasionally with the hood up.

Did you ever own a Riviera or any Buick T-Type?  If so, what was the experience like?  Please share your memories in the comments.