1979 Buick Electra - Greek Tragedy

 

For years, Buick named their top of the line model after a character in Greek mythology. Meaning "sparkling" in English, sparkling could describe some of the more overtly styled Electra's from the 50's and 60's but chances are GM's marketing department believed that "Buick" and "Electra" just sounded good together. Our very original 1979 subject here was part of the fifth generation of Electra's and was also part of General Motors famous downsizing regimen that begin in 1977.

 

 

Save for 1985-1990, Electra's were all about size and not necessarily about sparkle. With regards to size, originally, Buick marketed the top of the line Electra as the "two twenty five" denoting the car's length of 225 inches. While the lengths of Electra's fluctuated somewhat over the passing years, top of the line Electra's remained "225's".  Note - by 1979 Electra 225's had been relegated to the base model. A curious practice by General Motors wherein they would move top of the line models down on their pricing ladder or what was referred to as "debasing". Our subject is a mid level Electra Limited slotted between the base 225 and top of the line "Park Avenue"
 

 

The last 225 inch long Electra were the 1969 and 1970 models; starting in 1971 Electra's grew to 227 inches long. Government mandated safety bumpers pushed overall length to 232 inches by 1974. All but impossible to maneuver in parking lots for a person of average height, they also weighed more than 5,000 pounds and struggled to get 10 miles per gallon. The OPEC embargo of 1973 and subsequent gas price increases crushed sales of big cars and showed America just how reliant it was on foreign oil. While gas prices stabilized in the mid 1970's, GM got to work on putting their cars on a diet. Our '79 here, virtually identical to a 1977 model, is a foot shorter and 800 pounds lighter than a sparkling 1976 Electra.

 

 

The best part about the smaller full size cars was that they were just as spacious if not more so than the cars they replaced; they actually had a tad more hip and shoulder shoulder room in back. They sold well and GM's share of the market swelled to nearly 50% for 1979. Then, like a Greek tragedy, circumstances beyond GM's control like the ouster of the Shah of Iran, spun GM fortunes completely off course. So much so that it would appear that it's only recently that GM has gotten back on track; albeit a much smaller, downsized GM. Today, GM's market share is less than 20%. "Mikro" or "micro" is a greek term for smaller.



The Electra nameplate soldiered on through the 1980's at the top of the Buick heap even surviving the ignominy of the 1985-1990 front wheel drive years. Like a page taken out of a Greek tragedy, Electra was replaced by a sub model, "Park Avenue" for model year 1991.

Technically the C body, rear wheel drive Roadmaster replaced Electra as the top of the line Buick between 1991 and 1996.