Like Ralphie in a "Christmas Story" when his mother asks him what he wants for Christmas, I feel compelled to yell out, "harvest gold Buick Electra two door hardtop!" whenever someone asks me what my favorite car is. I normally don't instead preferring to let "Hemi Cuda" or "1969 Camaro Z28" slither out of my mouth lest people think I'm some middle age, 1970's luxury barge loving, disenfranchised republican. Well, as we like to say here, "if the brake shoe fits..."
I've been enamored of Buick's 1970 Electra since I first ran into a "harvest gold" four-door Electra hard top during my parent's car shopping misadventures during the summer of 1977. I was wandering around the "discount" section in the back of the used car lot at long-gone Conway Motors, which was a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership, on Sunrise Highway in Baldwin, New York. I was transfixed by its elegant, old-school charm and grace; it was everything that I thought a luxury car should look like and be. Even in brown. Little did I know at the time that it was an example of the great Bill Mitchell at his finest. Being the fan that I am of two-door automobiles, it's not surprising that I'd be even more enamored of the coupe version of the 1970 Electra. Even though Buick made more than ten times as many two-door hardtops than convertibles in 1970, they're tougher to find these days than these overrated, overvalued and overpriced convertibles.
I've been enamored of Buick's 1970 Electra since I first ran into a "harvest gold" four-door Electra hard top during my parent's car shopping misadventures during the summer of 1977. I was wandering around the "discount" section in the back of the used car lot at long-gone Conway Motors, which was a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership, on Sunrise Highway in Baldwin, New York. I was transfixed by its elegant, old-school charm and grace; it was everything that I thought a luxury car should look like and be. Even in brown. Little did I know at the time that it was an example of the great Bill Mitchell at his finest. Being the fan that I am of two-door automobiles, it's not surprising that I'd be even more enamored of the coupe version of the 1970 Electra. Even though Buick made more than ten times as many two-door hardtops than convertibles in 1970, they're tougher to find these days than these overrated, overvalued and overpriced convertibles.
Buick made only about 6,000 Electra convertibles for 1970 so our Dayton, Ohio based black beauty's asking price of $12,000 is driven by its rarity and what appears to be solid condition. GM seeing how poorly these sold, when they launched their redesigned C bodies for 1971, they nixed the convertibles. Just as well. Again, I was never the biggest fan of them anyway.
I'm not sure where my personal prejudice comes from towards convertibles. I'd love to say it's from my experience driving them but that's not altogether true. They can be quite fun to drive although I'm not a fan of the wind pounding you get in many of them with the top down. Not to mention the claustrophobia I experience with the top up. The mechanism for the top almost always cuts down on head toom. I'm also not a fan of the loose, shakey and shuddering structure of convertibles either.
I think it more than likely stems from the fact that I don't think most convertibles look as good as their hardtop versions. Which is ironic considering that hardtops were supposed to emulate the look of convertibles. Nowadays we have "hardtop convertibles" where the hard roof swings together on hinges, "clamshells" together and gets tucked into the trunk. It's an engineering marvel but one that while provides the best of all worlds, to me, is a gimmick that sooner or later will stop working. And just like back in the old days, it will get stuck open or in mid way between opening or closing.
Click here for the listing for it. It's had a lot of work done to it that might be driving the price up too. All stuff that I'd rather do myself and have bought this car for $4000-$5000 less than I'd be willing to spend on it. Let me know if you contact the owner or better yet, make me green with envy and actually buy it. Oh, and do me a favor if you do buy it, get it painted "harvest gold".
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