Wow. Look at this; one of the automobiles General Motors introduced in 1988 to compete with the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable; the GM-10 based Buick Regal. While certainly better than what it replaced, the 1988 Buick Regal was clearly, and this is me - a big fan of these cars being brutally honest, not (good) enough.
In every way imaginable even including, subjective as it is, styling, the front wheel drive, 125 horsepower, 2.8 liter V-6 Regal was a massive improvement over what it replaced. The problem with the Regal was that it wasn't any better than what Ford was doing and was absolutely inferior to what Toyota, Honda, Nissan et al from Asia were offering.
What's more the Regal and very similar offerings from Oldsmobile and Pontiac were all coupes. As much of a coupe geek as I was and still am, even I knew back then that was odd. Especially considering that GM spent $7 billion (poof!) developing these cars. And they only made coupes? Incredibly, four door versions of the Regal, Cutlass (Olds) and Grand Prix (Pontiac) didn't appear until 1990. Ford didn't even offer two door versions of their Taurus or Sable. Clearly the market was shifting away from "personal luxury cars"; apparently Roger Smith didn't get the memo. Let's not even begin to talk about what a Camry or Accord was like back then compared to even the Ford Taurus. It wasn't even close.
Still, this fan of all things with two doors would jump on this before any two door CamryAccord even if he does know better. An '88 Ford Taurus? Even an S-H-O would get past over for this little blue on blue gem.
You either get that...or you don't. Look at all those buttons. Utterly ridiculous. Don't you just love it?
1988 is calling. Asking price is a very reasonable $3995. Answer the call before I do.
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