A 1969 Buick LeSabre made me miss Physics class! How’s that for an opening? It’s a true story, and more on that later. Anyway, these were everywhere-cars at one time, 162K LeSabres were assembled in 1969 alone, helping to propel Buick to a fifth-place finish in the domestic production race that year. This two-door hardtop example is as clean as they come and declares only 79K miles of use. Marion, Ohio, is where you’ll find this hardtop, which is truly worthy of the question, “Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick?” and it’s available here on eBay for a current bid of $5,020 with the reserve not yet met. BIN is an option for $12,500.

The LeSabre came in standard and Custom trim levels in ’69, while body styles included two-door hardtops and convertibles (available only as a Custom model), as well as four-door sedans and hardtops. This standard LeSabre is one of 16K two-door hardtops to depart Flint 56 years ago. Where it has been all this time is not disclosed, but boy, it looks great! The finish appears to be Trumpet Gold, and though it looks like a respray, he seller claims, “This is original paint, there are scratches, dings, and imperfections in the paint.” And it’s not just the paint, the chrome and trim are in matching condition. Rounding things out are Buick’s ubiquitous road wheels, always a nice touch.

Two engines were available for LeSabre, both 350 CI V8s generating either 230 or 280 gross HP – which one graces this Buick’s engine compartment is not stated. Additionally, nothing is said about this car’s running or driving characteristics. Assuming the mileage reading is accurate, no authentication is provided; this hardtop should still have many Sunday cruises left to enjoy. A Turbo-Hydramatic three-speed automatic transmission handles gear-related chores.

The interior’s condition reflects that of the exterior; the black vinyl upholstery shows like new. The provided images aren’t that revealing, but they’re good enough to display a very sound carpet, door panels, and dash pad. Of note, this LeSabre is not A/C equipped.

So, my experience with a similar car, one that was owned by the mother of a high school classmate, involved idly cruising around, mostly at the wrong time and usually in the wrong places. My classmate friend, let’s call him Charlie, drove his mother’s Cameo Cream ’69 LeSabre two-door hardtop like a madman. Charlie’s mother liked to make and bottle preserves, so the Buick always had a collection of glass jars in a box in the trunk. Well, one or two hot-footin’ trips with Charlie reduced the jars to shards – that big Buick would get up and go! One day in either late winter or early spring, four or five of us got into Charlie’s mother’s Buick, left campus, and headed to the nearest private all-girls high school. We weren’t supposed to be there, but hey, why not? We knew many of the girls, and they knew us, so you never know who you might run into. Well, we managed to slide off a long, narrow concrete driveway right into a patch of snow. This girl’s school, with its small enrollment, was in an old mansion, and the campus was mostly shaded by huge, very old hardwood trees. The lack of direct ground warming sun allowed snow to linger much longer than it normally would have. Well, the big yellow LeSabre was like a beached whale; we weren’t going anywhere. Lots of tire spinning just dug us in further, and we collectively couldn’t push the 4,100 lb. coupe forward or backward. Oddly, the headmistress was informed as to what had happened, and instead of delivering a tongue lashing, threats, etc., she got the groundskeeper to come around with a tractor and a chain and pull the LeSabre back onto the concrete drive. In reality, she probably wanted us reprobates off her campus as quickly as possible, and thus the helping hand. Well, we flew back to our campus at breakneck speed, more glass jars in the trunk getting blown to smithereens, and made it to Physics class just as it was ending. The Physics instructor was a quiet, unassuming Jesuit priest, and he calmly asked why we missed class. One of us volunteered that we got stuck in the snow, but skipped the whole girls’ school business; we figured the headmistress would call our headmaster, and that cat would be out of the bag soon enough. The priest calmly walked to the classroom window, looked outside, and said, “That’s odd, I don’t see any snow.” Well, it was like pulling teeth, but he finally got to the bottom of the entire matter – there was only so much obfuscation we could muck up on the fly. And the kindly priest knew we were on the cusp of spring, and senioritis had started to set in. Fortunately, there were no repercussions, at least none that I can recall; Physics was hardly my strong suit anyway, and just getting a passing grade was all I was shooting for. Every time I see a ’69 Buick LeSabre two-door hardtop, I think of Charlie’s mother’s car, the sound of smashing glass, and how the heck we managed to get stuck in such a small, obscure patch of snow – when things can go wrong, they often do.

I like this car, and not because I want to relive some purile, sophomoric high jinx. No, this LeSabre reminds me of what Buick once was and is no more. My thought is this Buick is easily going to find a new home – it’s just too nice to languish. What do you think, Buick LeSabre, anyone?