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Junkyard Gem: 1986 Buick Riviera

The Buick Riviera personal luxury coupe attained monstrous proportions by the middle 1970s, scaling in at well over 4,500 pounds by 1976. After spending 1977 and 1978 as sibling to the Chevy Caprice, the Riviera then moved to the front-wheel-drive platform used by the Cadillac Eldorado and Oldsmobile Toronado, staying there through the 1985 model year. The Riviera world became a lot more interesting for the 1986 model year, when a smaller and more sophisticated generation hit showrooms with curvier lines and electronic gadgetry straight out of science fiction. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars, found in a self-service boneyard in Phoenix, Arizona. What makes this car such a fascinating bit of automotive history is this dash-mounted touchscreen interface, known as the Graphic Control Center. The 1986 Riviera was the first GM vehicle to get the GCC, which means it was the first production car in history with a factory-installed touchscreen display. This system became available in the Buick Reatta and the Oldsmobile Toronado a few years later.  The GCC used a cathode-ray tube screen sourced from an ATM manufacturer, which ran on 120VAC power and required an inverter and dangerous high-voltage wiring inside the dash. It was used to operate the HVAC, the radio and the trip computer, as well as to display operating and diagnostic information. The system used numerous bulky components in addition to the dash screen; I've extracted a couple of complete sets of GCC components over the years and plan to build them into a junkyard-parts boombox. As it turned out, the senior-citizen-heavy demographic of Buick shoppers didn't feel great enthusiasm for the GCC and there wasn't a huge sales payoff for this revolutionary technology. That didn't stop GM from introducing the first mass-produced cars with head-up displays a couple of years later. The running gear wasn't quite as sophisticated as the GCC. The 1986-1993 Rivieras got old-fashioned 3.8-liter Buick V6s under their hoods; the one in this car was rated at 140 horsepower and 200 pound-feet. If you wanted a manual transmission in your '86 Rivvie, you were out of luck. A four-speed automatic was mandatory equipment. Note the unusual face-loading cassette deck in front of the shifter; the AM/FM radio was a remote-controlled unit living inside the center console. The MSRP for this car was $19,831, or about $55,691 in 2023 dollars.

Junkyard Gem: Heavily personalized 1997 Buick Skylark Custom Sedan

Normally I wouldn't be much interested in a third-generation GM N-Body (a family that includes the Chevy Malibu and Olds Achieva) spotted in the junkyard, though a case could be made for such a vehicle's historical significance. This '97 Skylark, however, arrived in a Northern California self-service wrecking yard well-plastered with stickers, reflectors, and other personalizing touches, making it an interesting document of its time and place. It appears that both of the original white fenders got mashed and then replaced with blue ones, almost certainly obtained cheaply at a yard like this one. If you're not going to paint your new fenders to match the car, then you're already well down the slippery slope to making the car a giant mobile canvas to display your interests. A 20-year-old GM N-Body, regardless of how nice it was when new, isn't worth much, and you could stretch a line of these cars from Lansing to Lahore with all the used-up Ns sitting in American wrecking-yard inventory right now. Perhaps it was the grandchild of the car's original owner who indulged in White Widow cannabis and listened to Siouxsie & the Banshees. The odds against finding the original window sticker in a car like this are mighty long, but here it is. Sold new at Putnam Buick in Burlingame. It appears that this car spent most of its final decade in or near Mill Valley. Mill Valley is a mere 30 miles from Burlingame, or about three hours of Buick driving (you have to go past SFO, through San Francisco, and across the Golden Gate Bridge, a journey featuring apocalyptically terrible traffic at just about any time). Drive east across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and you'll get to this Skylark's final parking space, about 20 miles from Mill Valley. This car lived its whole life near the shores of San Francisco Bay, and it will die there. Feathers and a political-party charm adorn the headliner. This car's final owner had a practical side, as we can see from the many reflectors and lengths of safety tape. Just the thing for avoiding a T-bone wreck in the dead of night! "Essentially, Skylark embodies all of the features customers expect from a Buick, in a smaller package, with a very attractive MSRP."

Mixed sales results, but automaker stocks rise on need for cars in Houston

DETROIT — The Big Three Detroit automakers on Friday reported better-than-expected August sales and issued optimistic outlooks for demand as residents of the Houston area replace flood-damaged cars and trucks after Hurricane Harvey, sending their stocks higher. General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler posted mixed August U.S. sales, with GM up 7.5 percent and Ford and Fiat Chrysler down. Japanese automaker Toyota improved sales by nearly 7 percent, while Honda fell 2.4 percent. Still, analysts focused on the potential for Detroit automakers to cut inventories and stabilize used vehicle prices as residents of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, are forced to replace tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of vehicles after the devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Mark LaNeve, Ford's U.S. sales chief, told analysts on Friday that following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 "we saw a very dramatic snapback" in demand. That said, Ford sales fell 2.1 percent in August. It sold 209,897 vehicles in the United States, compared with 214,482 a year earlier. Sales were down 1.9 percent in the Ford division and off 5.8 percent at Lincoln. Demand was down for cars, crossovers and SUVs. It was not clear how many vehicles in the Houston area will be scrapped, LaNeve said, saying he had seen estimates ranging from 200,000 to 400,000 to 1 million. Ford's Houston dealers may have lost fewer than 5,000 vehicles in inventory, he said. Ford is the No. 1 automaker in the Houston market, with 18 percent share, according to IHS Markit. The company plans to ship used vehicles to Houston dealers and has "every indication we would have to add some production" of new vehicles to meet demand, LaNeve said. Investor concerns about inventories of unsold vehicles and falling used car prices have weighed on Detroit automakers' shares most of this year. Now, automakers can anticipate a jolt of demand from a big market that is a stronghold for Detroit brand trucks and SUVs. "It's got to be a positive for the industry," LaNeve said. Investors appeared to agree. GM shares rose as much as 3.3 percent to their highest since early March. Ford increased 2.8 percent at $11.34, and Fiat Chrysler's U.S.-traded shares were up 5.2 percent $15.91, hitting their highest in more than five years. GM reported a 7.5 percent increase in U.S. auto sales in August, helped by robust sales of crossovers across its four brands.