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Buick will go sedan-free by killing the Regal after 2020

Pour one out for the Buick Regal. Citing a growing lack of demand, the firm announced it will deep-six its last remaining sedan and its only station wagon after the 2020 model year. Buick spokesman Stuart Fowle told Motor Authority that buyers clearly prefer crossovers and SUVs; so far, nearly 90 percent of the company's 2019 sales have come from high-riding models. In other words, the company's decision to send the Regal to the pantheon of automotive history is business, not personal. "Buick continues to be ahead of the consumer shift towards SUVs," Fowle explained. Autoblog confirmed the decision applies to the sedan, which is available in a sporty GS configuration (pictured) that we praised as "the coolest car Buick has made in years," and the TourX wagon, which attracted Buick's wealthiest buyers and sold far better than the company expected. Its retirement underlines the colossal difficulty of selling a wagon that's not a Subaru Outback in America. View 46 Photos Buick didn't loudly announce its exit from the passenger car market, but it's beating Ford to the punch. The last Cascada rolled off the assembly line earlier in 2019, and the bigger Lacrosse is one of six cars whose retirement was announced by General Motors in 2018. Neither will be replaced, and the odds of seeing another Regal are extremely low. The company's message is clear: Buyers want crossovers and SUVs, so that's what they'll get. As a bonus, axing the Regal will finally allow Buick to end its reliance on former sister company Opel, which General Motors sold to Paris-based Peugeot in 2017. It developed the Regal, and manufactures it in a factory located next to Opel headquarters in Russelsheim, Germany. The Regal will live on elsewhere in the world. Buick will continue to sell it in the Chinese market because motorists there still buy sedans, and Opel/Vauxhall will keep offering its version of the car (called the Insignia) across Europe. The model recently received minor updates inside and out to remain fresh, but it competes in a segment that's free-falling and its days are likely numbered.

Junkyard Gem: 1978 Buick Skylark Sedan

Around the time that OPEC shut off the oil taps, The General realized that it was time to sell more small cars from GM divisions not previously known for such machines. The logical candidate for this project was the Chevrolet Nova, a rear-wheel-drive compact that shared much of its chassis design with the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. The Nova-based Pontiac Ventura came out in the 1971 model year, and the Buick and Oldsmobile Divisions began producing their own badge-engineered Nova siblings for 1973 (Cadillac was late to the party, but eventually created the Nova-based Seville for 1976). At first, the Buickized Nova got Apollo badges, but the better-known Skylark name was applied to these cars for the 1975 through 1979 model years. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those Nova-based Skylarks, found in a Denver self-serve yard. From the 1964 through 1972 model years, the Skylark lived on the A-Body chassis and was sibling to the Chevrolet Chevelle/Malibu, Pontiac LeMans/Tempest/GTO, and Oldsmobile Cutlass/442. After the 1975-1979 rear-wheel-drive X-Body phase, the Skylark name then went onto the unrelated front-wheel-dive X-Body chassis developed for the Chevrolet Citation. It's a Nova, sure, but Buick made sure that it had a bit more swank than its Chevy counterpart. Checked seat fabric with big square buttons! The base engine in the '78 Skylark was the 3.8-liter Buick V6, rated at 110 horsepower. GM had invested in a new crankshaft design for this engine the year before, so it no longer had the "odd-fire" cut-down V8 crankshaft that shook the fillings out of so many drivers' teeth in earlier years. An assortment of low-compression V8s from Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Buick were available as optional equipment as well, eventually leading to the "Chevymobile" lawsuits of a few years later. The base transmission in this car was a three-speed manual (I'm not sure if you could still get a three-on-the-tree column-shift manual Skylark in 1978, but a three-on-the-floor manual was available for sure). The very last three-on-the-tree car Americans could buy was the '79 Nova and its Olds Omega/Pontiac Phoenix siblings, while the final three-on-the-floor cars were the '81 Malibu and siblings. This car has the optional three-speed automatic.

Junkyard Gem: 1962 Buick Electra 225 4-Door Sedan

Buick built its first Electras as 1959 models, with Electra production continuing unabated through 1990 (after which the Park Avenue trim level took over as the model name, much as the Malibu trim level designation had shoved aside the Chevelle model name in 1978). Some of the handsomest Electras were the second-generation models, built for the 1961-1964 model years, and today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars. I'd always assumed that the Buick Electra took its name from the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon in Greek mythology, because the people who named cars back then were forced to read Euripides and Sophocles as undergrads. In fact, the car was named after Electra Waggoner Bowman Biggs, a Texas heiress and sculptor who married the brother-in-law of Harlow Curtice, who ran the Buick Division before being promoted to president of General Motors in 1953. How did she feel when the last Electra rolled off the assembly line in 1990? The junkyard is full of history, if you know where to look. The 1959-1960 Electra had enormous tailfins, angled something like the ones seen on the same-year Chevrolet Impalas. This Electra generation ditched the fins but kept much of the general Space Age spirit of its predecessor. The Electra lived on the same platform as the Cadillac DeVille and Oldsmobile 98 from start to finish, and it was the most expensive Buick available in 1962. The MSRP of this one was $4,051, or about $41,462 in 2023 dollars. The engine in this one was present when it arrived at U-Pull-&-Pay, but a junkyard shopper grabbed it within a couple of days of arrival. It would have been a 401-cubic-inch (6.5-liter) "Nailhead" V8, rated at 325 horsepower and a whopping 445 pound-feet of torque (keep in mind that these are gross, not net, power numbers). The Nailhead's small valves meant that it wasn't much good for high-rpm use, but its big torque was perfect for moving two-ton land yachts. The final Nailheads were installed in 1966 Buicks. Every production Electra ever built came with an automatic transmission, and the 1959-1963 models received the extremely smooth and alarmingly inefficient Dynaflow (known as the Dual-Path Turbine Drive for 1962). Originally developed for use in the 1943 M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, the Dynaflow was considered a two-speed automatic but drove more like a CVT with two selectable drive ranges.