I cheered like a sophomore when I first saw GM's new-for-1988 midsize cars. After a decade of my favorite car maker shrinking their once mighty designs down to ill-performing, homely Lilliputian-esque turds what were known at first as the "GM10's" and later "W-bodies" were a delightful step in what I thought at the time was the right direction. They weren't so much upsized from the "G-bodies" they replaced inasmuch as they were mercifully, on the heels of the ultimate disaster that was the shrunken GM "E-bodies", not any smaller, and I thought they looked great. They were nimble handlers too compared to the even the best of the "G's" and their interiors were cavernous too. What was not to like? Sure, a little more power would have been nice but, again, compared to the "G's" (save for the turbo Buick's) the first "10's" were relative rockets. Our subject is a 1996 Buick Regal decked out in top-of-the-line "GS" trim.
The problem with the GM10's was that at first they were only available as coupes. While that was fine for twenty-four year old coupe loving me, the truth of the matter was America was rapidly moving away from even "family-sized" coupes and into vehicles that were inherently more practical. Talk about being out of step with the times. Although GM eventually rolled out sedan versions of these cars come 1990, those two years might as well have been twenty years seeing how rapidly the buying landscape changed back then. To make matters worse the sedan versions of all the "10's" or "W's" were quite unbecoming and appeared to be afterthoughts on a series of cars that clearly were intended to be first and foremost coupes.
Short lived as these cars in particular were, Buick's redesign and model shuffle for 1997 did not include two-door versions, I found noting not to like about their small on the outside and cavernous on the inside dimensions. And once you did the Olympic gymnast move to get into the back seat you found that there was a surprising amount of leg and head room back there. These later Regal GS' with thrones out of the Roadmaster, updated dash design, "gran-touring suspension" with the fancy alloys and meaty tried and the tried and true "3800 V-6" had it going on. Well, at least to me they did.
Frankly, seeing how slowly they sold, I was amazed that GM still made two-door versions of these cars come the mid to late 1990's. Pontiac continued to make a coupe of the Grand Prix after 1997 (through 2003) and Chevrolet made the Monte Carlo (coupe) all the way through 2007 but with Buick and Oldsmobile out of the mid-sized coupe picture us wild and crazy coupe lovers knew it was just a matter of time before they went the way of dodo as well.
I've had to fight back urges to kick the tires on this one. It's for sale over in Grand Rapids Michigan for under five grand. Such a deal and hopefully someone will grab who appreciates it for what it is and isn't into just finding a cheap car. It's old and perhaps it looks it, at least that's why my son says although I still think it looks as handsome and timeless as when it was new. Here's the listing. Go grab it and rub it in my face that you did.
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