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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. 

Buick dusting off Grand National, GNX and T-Type nameplates

Inside Line reports Buick is planning to bring back some of the more storied names from the company's past, including the Grand National, GNX and the T-Type. Those cars rose to prominence in the 1970s and '80s to become performance legends of their day.
The new models will reportedly make use of the rear-wheel drive platform that currently underpins the Cadillac ATS and all would arrive as sedans - according to an unnamed source familiar with the initiative. Odds are the T-Type and the Grand National would share a driveline, with honest money being on a new twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter V6 as the engine of choice. Word has it the mill will be good for anywhere from 350 to 400 horsepower.
That leaves only the GNX. Inside Line seems to think that machine could get down the road with some help from the all-new GM LT1 small-block V8. The engineers behind the ATS platform have already told us the engine bay is large enough for to accommodate the big eight pot, and since GM is most certainly working on an ATS-V, a slightly less powerful, less luxurious Buick iteration makes some kind of sense. We can't wait to see these things in the light of day.

2013 Buick Encore

Ignored On Arrival, But Coming On Strong
An image exists out there that perfectly conveys the fate we thought would befall the Buick Encore after its world debut at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. The shot shows the just-unveiled Encore on stage, basking in the glow of spotlights but surrounded by a large display area that's bereft of both cars and people. Two journalists are sitting on a couch over to the side, both facing the Encore but ignoring it as they inspect their swag, and a solitary custodial engineer pushes a vacuum back and forth across a sea of gray carpet.
Like a kid with his birthday cake at a party no one came to, this little crossover's debut was largely, almost cruelly, ignored. Who can blame us, though? Two shows ago, the Motor City's main stage welcomed the redesigned Aston Martin-esque Ford Fusion, the 3 Series-assassin ATS from Cadillac and the return of Dodge to the small car game with the Dart. A fourth model for the wayward Buick brand, especially one so arguably un-Buick in form and function, did not seem to deserve the attention paid to its peers that year.