1963 Buick Riviera 2 Door, White, Automatic, 401 V8, Power Steering, Power Brake on 2040-cars

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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.

2021 Buick Envision's bold design means small space gains, a few big losses

So far, every preview we've had of the 2021 Buick Envision compels us to believe that it isn't playing in the same league as the current Envision, nor is it playing the same sport. The chiseled, crisp exterior is matched by an interior that, in pictures at least, sends a genuine premium message. GM Authority got early intel on dimensions for the new crossover, the numbers showing that the only close relationship between the current and the new Envision is in size. According to GMA, the 2021 Buick will be 185.5 inches long on a wheelbase of 109.4 inches, it'll stand 74.1 inches wide without mirrors, and 64.6 inches tall. Front and rear tracks are matched at 63.3 inches. That makes the new version 1.8 inches longer than the current five-seater, with a wheelbase stretched 0.9 inches, while width is 1.7 inches wider but overall height is 2.2 inches lower. The track has been expanded by 1.3 inches front and back. The four-trim lineup will be base, Preferred, Essence and Avenir. Buick's website pegs the current Envision at the single curb weight of 3,755 pounds. GMA writes that the new car comes in at 3,685 pounds in base form, or 3,932 in top Avenir trim. Those could all represent weights for front-wheel-drive models. AWD will be optional on all but the base 2021 Envision. The price for edgier design is a tiny cut in interior room in front. In the coming crossover, front headroom shrinks 0.4 inches to 39.6 inches, front legroom shrinks by 0.5 inches, front shoulder room goes down by 0.3 inches. Front hip room gains 0.7 inches, however, Occupants in the row behind get a tiny bit more space in two dimensions, rear headroom going up 0.4 inches, rear legroom by 1.8 inches, Rear shoulder room gets shaved 0.7 inches, and those haunches on the 2021 model take a bite out of rear hip room, that spec dropping by 5.7 inches to 47.4.  Cargo room sees a slight dip, too, there being 25.2 cubic feet of space behind the second-row of seats compared to 26.9 feet available now. The gap grows with the rear seats down, the coming Envision able to swallow 52.7 cubic feet behind the front row, the current Envision managing 60 cubic feet.  When product starts showing up on dealer lots, we're to expect a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder under the hood with 230 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque, shifting through GM's nine-speed automatic transmission. GMA believes pricing will start around $34,000, which would be about $500 more than the current Envision.    

Junkyard Gem: 1983 Buick LeSabre Estate Station Wagon, Rocky Mountain High Edition

If you live in Colorado and want an affordable chariot to haul you and your snowboarding droogs to the slopes, you could get one of the obvious cheapskate choices, e.g., a Tercel 4WD, a Corolla All-Trac, or an 80s 4WD Subaru wagon. However, if you want to channel the spiritual forefathers of early-1980s punk rock (and you do), you'll need a big, battered, Detroit bomb. This '83 LeSabre, spotted in a Denver self-service wrecking yard, is such a car. As you can see in 1984's Suburbia, you're pretty much halfway to being a member of The Vandals when you drive a couple of tons of once-luxurious Detroit Iron. 1983 was the final year of the Malaise Era, and so you didn't get much power from the V8s back then. The standard engine for the LeSabre that year was an Olds 307 generating a mere 140 horsepower. The only way to get a burnout out of this setup was to pour a case of Lucky Lager over the right rear tire, then neutral-drop the transmission while floating the valves. Chrysler and Nissan dominated the Whorehouse Red car interiors during the 1980s, but GM made a respectable showing with this scratchy, velour-influenced stuff. When you know you're a car's last owner, nothing holds you back from decorating it to suit your tastes. Ron Paul, the Snowboarders + Skiers For Christ, and many other icons of Buick-driving snow enthusiasts are represented upon the ample flanks of this wagon. How many miles are on it? With a five-digit odometer, there's no telling. The Colorado sun is rough on interiors, but this car may have spent its first couple of decades parking in a garage, or maybe it came from cloudy Oregon. Advertising for this generation of LeSabre emphasized fuel economy, which may have been a less-than-convincing approach. Related Video: