1 Of The Best Orginal 1963 Buick Riviera 445 Wildcat V-8 Red Leather Loaded Mint on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1992 Buick Century Woodie station wagon

The Detroit station wagon with fake-wood exterior paneling had a good long postwar run, but minivans and — increasingly — sport utility vehicles were giving such wagons quite a beating in the showrooms by 1992. Buick was down to just two woodies by 1992; here's a discarded example of the front-wheel-drive Century, spotted in a Northern California self-service yard. Buick sold big rear-wheel-drive Roadmaster wagons with Simu-Wood™ siding through the 1996 model year, but the smaller Century was fairly plush. American car shoppers didn't insist on real-looking "wood" on their wagons, although Chrysler went much more three-dimensional with their plastic wood that did GM during this era. This one has the 3.3-liter Buick V6 engine, rated at 160 horsepower. This is not to be confused with the unrelated GM 60° V6, which was available in earlier and later Centuries. If only these seats could talk, they'd tell many tales of sibling battles and spilled fast food. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 2002 Buick Regal Joseph Abboud Edition

Ever since we saw that snazzy green 2000 Buick Regal GSE last month, with its supercharger and Monsoon Audio speakers, I've made it my junkyard-searching goal to find a genuine Joseph Abboud Edition Regal among the not-so-interesting Luminas and Vues in the GM sections of my local car graveyards. While this publication once stated that the Joseph Abboud Regal was "the low point of the brand" (in my view, the nadir was achieved with the Iron Duke-powered Skylarks of 1980-1985), my great love of designer-edition Detroit cars overrides any so-called rational opinions on the subject. It took less than three weeks of walking the aforementioned junkyard GM sections to find a Regal with the mark of the famous menswear company on the fenders. The heyday of designer-edition cars came during the 1970s, when Lincoln offered Continentals co-branded by Bill Blass, Givenchy, Pucci, and Cartier. At the same time, American Motors teamed up with Levi's and Oleg Cassini, and fashion-industry players continued to work with car manufacturers here and there after that time. It appears that the Abboud package got you nice leather seats with these monograms, plus the stylish fender badges. Otherwise, it was just a nicely-equipped but unspectacular late W-Body. For you GM trivia fans out there, the W platform stayed in production for an impressive near-three-decade span, from the 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix through the (fleet-only) 2016 Chevrolet Impala Limited. The final W-based Regals rolled off the assembly lines in 2005. This car has the 240-horsepower supercharged 3800 V6, so it's the GS version. You could get the Abboud package on the non-supercharged LS Regal as well. If you did, you got the better tires and suspension used on the GS. These Roots-type Eaton M90 blowers are by far the easiest superchargers to find and extract from a junkyard car. In fact, there's such a glut of these things at swap meets that the going price now hovers around 50 bucks. This car looks to have been in decent shape when it arrived in the junkyard. The original owner's manual was still in the glovebox when I found it. The 240-horse supercharged engine was Harley Earl's idea, turns out. He'd been dead since 1969, but that's a technicality. Some tips for selling the new Regal.

2017 Buick LaCrosse priced at $32,990

Buick has announced the starting price for its totally redesigned LaCrosse sedan, and it's looking competitive. According to the company's consumer website, the base trim will start at $32,990, while the vehicle featured on the page is helpfully listed as "As Shown: $45,560." Buick is being coy about the standard equipment list, but we do know a few traditionally higher-end options will be free of charge, including an eight-inch touchscreen that's compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and HID headlamps. General Motors' 4G LTE wifi is a no-cost feature (although you'll need to shell out for a data plan, eventually). The optional extras list, which will include goodies like adaptive cruise control, hasn't been published yet. Underhood, all LaCrosse models will get eight-speed automatic transmissions paired with 305-horsepower, 3.6-liter V6 engines. The new powertrain, plucked from the Cadillac XT5, has stop-start and cylinder deactivation as standard to save fuel, although it's still too early to predict where the LaCrosse will fall on the EPA scale. Front-wheel drive is standard, but all-wheel drive will be available for a unknown premium. Buick says the sedan's reasonable starting price backs the company's "position of attainable luxury." And that's true. At $32,990 the LaCrosse is $560 less than the $33,550 base Toyota Avalon, $355 less than the $33,345 Nissan Maxima S, and $850 less than the $33,840 Kia Cadenza. Only the antiquated Ford Taurus, at $27,985, can undercut it. On the opposite end, the LaCrosse is $6,945 less than a front-drive Lincoln MKS and $6,060 less than a Lexus ES. Starting prices are useful tools for comparison but they only go so far – we'll have to wait until next month, when full details are released, to see how truly reasonable the LaCrosse's price is.