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Junkyard Gem: 1957 Buick Special Riviera Sedan

While I find plenty of 1950s Detroit cars in quick-inventory-turnover self-service wrecking yards during my travels, they tend to be the ordinary post sedans that were built by the millions during the heyday of the three-on-the-tree manual transmission and nuclear-attack symbols on car radios. The more sought-after convertibles, coupes, and four-door hardtops are tougher to find in such yards, which makes today's 1957 Buick Special Riviera in a yard in northeastern Colorado an A-List Junkyard Gem. During the late 1950s, the Special ranked at the bottom of the Buick prestige hierarchy just below the more upscale Super and Century. Of course, this was the era of Alfred Sloan's "Ladder of Success" and the lowliest Special outranked even the nicest Olds Ninety-Eight on the Swank-O-Meter. If you were the Buick-driving Joneses and your neighbors had proletarian Chevrolets, aspirational Pontiacs, or petit-bourgeois Oldsmobiles, they were failing to keep up with you… but then you'd see a new Cadillac and feel intense envy for your victorious rival. The Ladder of Success collapsed later on, when the top-trim-level Chevy Caprices began to compete against their Cadillac Calais big brother, but it was still standing tall in 1957. The Riviera name ended up being used for its own distinct model starting in 1963 and continuing nearly into our current century, but in 1957 it was a trim level designation, used to indicate a Century or Special sedan with the then-radical pillarless hardtop design. This car listed at $2,780, which comes to a cool $27,630 in 2021 dollars. That price included the 364-cubic-inch (6.0-liter) Buick Nailhead V8 engine, rated at 250 horsepower and enough torque to peel 1957's rock-hard bias-ply tires right off their rims. The Special had a three-on-the-tree column-shift manual as standard equipment, but the original buyer of this car sprang for the extra $220 ($2,185 today) to get the Dynaflow transmission. While the shift indicator looks just like the ones on GM cars equipped with the two-speed Powerglide, the Dynaflow was an odd beast used only in Buicks; while it had gears for two forward speeds, the driver had to select low gear manually. Otherwise, a complex torque converter rig provided an experience something like today's CVTs (though with better smoothness and much more wasted power), in which the car stayed in high gear all the time and used the torque converter to multiply as needed.

General Motors posts record earnings, but global sales fall

General Motors started the year with record success. The automaker's $2.7 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes was its highest ever in in the first quarter of 2016, up from $2.1 billion in from the same time period a year earlier. Net income grew to $1.95 billion, which was more than double the $953 million in the same period last year. The company's figures also beat analysts' predictions, according to the Detroit Free Press. Despite the financial growth, global sales actually decreased by 2.5 percent to 2.36 million vehicles. "We're growing where it counts, gaining retail share in the US, outpacing the industry in Europe and capitalizing on robust growth in SUV and luxury segments in China," CEO Mary Barra said in the company's financial announcement. GM did well in North America with an adjusted EBIT of $2.3 billion, up from $2.2 billion last year. Sales in the region also grew 1.2 percent to 800,000 vehicles. According to The Detroit Free Press, the company has been especially successful at selling more expensive models in the US. The company's average vehicle was $34,600 in Q1, about $3,000 more than the industry average. Elsewhere in the world, GM also showed improvement. Europe practically broke even after losing about $200 million last year, and Opel and Vauxhall sales grew 8.4 percent to more than 300,000 vehicles for the quarter. South America only lost $100 million, which was half as much as Q1 2015's $200 million loss. China remained flat at $500 million of income. Cadillac volume jumped 6.1 percent there, and Buick's deliveries increased 22 percent, thanks to the Envision crossover's success. GM Reports First-Quarter Net Income of $2.0 Billion 2016-04-21 EPS diluted of $1.24; First-quarter record EPS diluted-adjusted of $1.26 First-quarter record EBIT-adjusted of $2.7 billion GM Europe posts break-even performance DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) today announced first-quarter net income to common stockholders of $2.0 billion or $1.24 per diluted share, compared to $0.9 billion or $0.56 per diluted share a year ago. Earnings per share diluted-adjusted for special items was a first-quarter record at $1.26, up 47 percent compared to the first quarter of 2015. The company set first-quarter records for earnings and margin, with earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) adjusted of $2.7 billion and EBIT-adjusted margin of 7.1 percent.

Junkyard Gem: 1985 Buick Skyhawk Custom Coupe

General Motors began building cars on the compact J Platform in 1981, and J-based machinery stayed in production all the way through the 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire. The best-known of the J-cars in North America was always the Cavalier, but The General's Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and even Cadillac divisions each sold their own Js here. The Buick version was the Skyhawk, built for the 1982 through 1989 model years. Here's a sporty '85 Skyhawk coupe, found in a Northern California boneyard recently. The Custom trim level was the cheapest version of the Skyhawk in 1985, and the two door was the most affordable configuration (midgrade Skyhawks were Limiteds and the T-Type was at the top of the Skyhawk pyramid that year). The MSRP on this car started at $7,512 (about $21,220 in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars), making it the least expensive new Buick offered for sale in the United States in 1985. The Skyhawk name had been used on the Buick version of the Chevrolet Monza during the 1970s. The Chevrolet-badged sibling of this car was much cheaper, with the list price of the base '85 Cavalier coupe set at $6,872 (around $19,410 today). There were cheaper new Chevrolets that year, of course; a new Chevette cost just $5,470, while the Isuzu-built Spectrum was $6,295 and the Suzuki-built Sprint a skinflinty $5,151. The base engine in the Custom and Limited was this 2.0-liter SOHC straight-four rated at 86 horsepower. A turbocharged 1.8-liter version with 150 horses was available for an extra 800 bucks ($2,260 now). A four-on-the-floor manual transmission was standard equipment in the 1985 Skyhawk, but the buyers of most of these cars insisted on automatics. The price for this one was $425 ($1,200 today). A five-speed manual cost just $75 ($210). Velour-ish upholstery in Bordello Red (Buick didn't use that name) was all the rage during the 1980s and well into the 1990s. This car's interior looks pretty nice, considering where it's parked. Community Buick GMC in Iowa is still in business today. The five-digit odometer means we can't know how many miles were on this car at the end. I brought a Chicago-made 1950s Pho-Tak Foldex 30 film camera with me to the junkyard that day, as one does, and I photographed the Skyhawk on Kodak Portra 160 film. The irritatingly perky Skyhawk owners in this TV commercial appear to be about one-third the age of typical mid-1980s Buick shoppers.