1987 Buick Grand National 3.8 Turbo 81,xxx Miles Original Paint Interior Built on 2040-cars

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GM promises to add 20 EVs and fuel-cell cars to lineup, paid for by SUVs

DETROIT — General Motors outlined plans on Monday to add 20 new battery electric and fuel-cell vehicles to its global product lineup by 2023, financed by robust profits from sales of gasoline-fueled trucks and sport utility vehicles in the United States and China. "General Motors believes in an all-electric future," GM global product development chief Mark Reuss said on Monday during a briefing at the company's suburban Detroit technical center. Future generations of GM electric vehicles "will be profitable," Reuss said, but added it was not clear when GM could make all its new vehicle offerings zero-emission electric cars. Regulators in China and some European countries have floated proposals to ban internal combustion engines by 2030 or 2040. "We will continue to make sure our internal combustion engines will get more and more efficient," Reuss said. GM shares were up more than 4 percent in midday New York trading on positive comments from Rod Lache, auto analyst at Deutsche Bank. Automakers, including electric vehicle market leader Tesla, lose money on electric cars because battery costs are still higher than comparable internal combustion engines. The company offered sneak peeks of three EV prototypes: a Buick SUV, a sporty Cadillac wagon and a futuristic pod car wearing a Bolt badge. GM funds its forays into new technology using a river of cash generated by old-technology vehicles popular with its core customer base in the United States heartland. In comparison, Tesla has burned through an estimated $10 billion in cash and has yet to show a full year profit. GM earned more than 90 percent of its $12.5 billion in pretax profits last year in North America, amid robust demand for its lineup of large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. The company's profitable operations in China rely on consumer demand for an expanding lineup of gasoline powered SUVs. GM has previously announced plans to make some of its future electric vehicles capable of driving themselves in robot taxi fleets. The company offered sneak peeks of three electric vehicle prototypes: a Buick brand sport utility vehicle, a sporty Cadillac wagon and a futuristic pod car wearing a Bolt badge. GM collaborated with Korean battery maker LG Chem to build the Bolt battery system. Company officials did not say what companies would supply batteries for the larger fleet of vehicles promised by 2023. Fuel-cell vehicles will also play a role in GM's future, the company said.

Last-ever Buick Grand National heads to Barrett-Jackson auction

This 1987 Buick Grand National brought the curtains down on a heap of General Motors history. When this black beauty rolled down the line at 5 p.m. on December 11, 1987, it represented the end of manufacturing at GM's Pontiac Assembly Plant after 60 years building cars. This was the last car to sit on GM's G-Body platform, having supported legendary names like Monte Carlo, Cutlass Supreme, and Regal. And this was the last-ever Buick Grand National, a big coupe that in just five years on the market had helped make the Buick Regal lineup an object of sincere lust among enthusiasts. Powered by a 3.8-liter turbocharged and intercooled 3.8-liter V6, the engine made 245 horsepower and 355 pound-feet of torque. The only car above it in the lineup was the exceptionally rare GNX, which made 276 hp and 360 lb-ft. The Buick Grand National is headed to the Barrett-Jackson auction block in Scottsdale next month.    Louisiana resident Bob Colvin bought this car from the factory. The Drive spoke to Colvin, who explained that then-GM President Roger Smith told him he could have the penultimate Grand National, but Buick planned to put the last car on display. When Colvin arrived at the plant, though, Colvin said the plant manager told him, "I'm running this plant and you've gone through the effort to be here. It will be a real celebration," and got him the last car made. As proof, a GM film crew followed the car down the line, plant workers and two GM execs signed various parts of the engine, including current GM President Mark Reuss. The car comes with all of the autographs and signage the autoworkers created to go with the car, as well as the original window sticker. Colvin and his wife built an addition onto their house to display the car. Save for a trip to the Buick Centennial Celebration in 2003, the Buick has lived in its special place all its life and has just 33 miles on the odometer. Behind the new-car plastic that shrouds the interior, the only flaw appears to be a tiny crack in the steering wheel center cap where a bolt might have been overtorqued. The car is being offered with no reserve, the pre-sale estimate landing right around the $500,000 mark. That would about double recent auction sales for low-mileage GNX's this year, but there's every reason to believe this car's one-of-one place in history could get auction paddles waving. 

Junkyard Gem: 1988 Buick LeSabre Custom Sedan

The General's Buick Division began selling LeSabres for the 1959 model year, when it greeted the world with a cat-eyed face and razor-sharp tailfins, and the LeSabre rolled on the full-sized, rear-wheel-drive B Platform (best-known for underpinning the Chevrolet Impala and Caprice) all the way through 1985. For 1986, the LeSabre went to the front-wheel-drive H Platform, shedding a few hundred pounds and a half-foot of wheelbase, yet gaining interior room in the process. After that, every LeSabre ever made had a V6 engine driving the front wheels, all the way to the end in 2005. Here's one of those early H-Body LeSabres, found in a Denver-area self-service yard in incredibly clean condition. Some Buicks and Oldsmobiles of the mid-to-late 1980s (the ones on brand-new platforms) had six-digit odometers, which is the reason I was able to see that a discarded '86 Olds Calais with crazy customizing touches had better than 360,000 miles on the clock. This car just barely squeezed past 100,000 miles … and that's a higher number than I expected to see after glancing at the body and interior. Just look at that upholstery! There are no rips, and the only stains appear to have occurred after arrival in the junkyard ecosystem. I think we're looking at a one-owner car that was given meticulous care and was driven only to (a nearby) church on Sundays. Though the HRC sticker and Autobot badge seem out of place on an original-owner Buick that rolled out of the showroom 34 years ago. Perhaps the car was handed down from Owner #1 to a grandchild. This is the most high-zoot radio Buick would sell you in a 1988 LeSabre, complete with Dolby, auto-reverse cassette player, and scan/seek modes on the radio. The price tag on this? 282 bucks, or about 720 inflation-shrunk frogskins today; not cheap, but necessary to do justice to the hit songs of the day. If you wanted a factory CD player in a new LeSabre, you had to wait another year or two. Pollard Brothers Motors is still around, on the other side of the Continental Divide from the Denver region. Power came from an EFI-equipped Buick 3.8-liter V6, rated at 150 horsepower. The only transmission available was a four-speed automatic. Except for some dents that almost certainly happened at the junkyard, the paint and body look gorgeous. Problem is, H-Body LeSabres don't have an enthusiast following, and car shoppers looking for daily drivers tend to shy away from sedans this old.