I've surmised my appreciation of 1977-1979 Buick Electra two-door sedans, can't really call them "coupes", stems from my brief experience inside one during the summer of 1978 during my parent's inane used Cadillac search. Bored silly with the sales process and my parent's incessant jack hammering of salespeople, I had wandered off on the dealership lot where they would end up buying the 1972 Sedan deVille, that would define the earliest if not darkest days of my driving life, and was delighted to find the driver's door unlocked on a powder blue, used, 1977 Buick Electra two-door, not unlike this 1977 Electra Limited. Then as now, I knew a good opportunity when I saw one. I slowly, gently and carefully opened the huge door and slithered inside making sure not to have the door touch the car for sale next to it.
I fumbled around with the power window buttons that were off, the power-door locks that did work and, much to my delight even though, again, the car was off, the power driver seat worked. I was fourteen at the time and short for my age at maybe five-feet-four, maybe five and I was terrified of the thought of driving my father's impossibly large 1970 Electra. On that '77, however, with the seat jacked all the way up and as close as possible as I could get to the wheel and have my feet touch the pedals, little young me felt he could actually drive it. The cushy velour-ish seats felt decadent too and way nicer than any of the Cadillac's my parents were looking at with their austere and hard, Ostrich-leather. I was in the lap of luxury and I thought I could actually drive it. That was how the "other half" lived and I liked it. A lot.
Unlike many an automobile enthusiast of my, ahem, vintage, I'm not the biggest fan of General Motors "Class of 1977", downsized full-sized cars, especially the four-door models. I don't outright dislike them, but I find their styling bland if not laisse-faire, their lack of engineering advancement, seriously, they were nothing more than a somewhat shrunken rehash of what GM had been doing for over fifty-years at the time, disconcerting. As they say, though, there are exceptions to everything. And whether or not it was puckish, tweenie me playing with one or not four-and-a-half decades ago, the 1977-1979 Buick Electra two-door sedans are that exception.
I must really like these cars because I can see past the sickly, puke-green exterior and blue velvet seats that look like Elvis threw up all over on this one. As they say, love is blind. The 1970's were full of horrendous color combinations like this and this is relatively tame compared to other schemes from back then. Throw a white, $99 "Earl Sheib paint job on this one and you've have a sweet ride. Cost of a "real" paint job might run you half the $9,000 asking price for this car. Will you be paying by check or cash?
General Motors' "Great Downsizing Epoch" sawzalled eleven-inches and some 800-pounds from the 1976 Electra but it was still a BIG car at 222 inches long. And while there isn't one "Class-of-1977" full size GM car that I'd want in my "Jay Leno Fantasy Garage", alright, maybe an Electra for old time's sake, even though I'm an ardent fan of the oversized 1971-1976 GM full-size line, I can tell you first hand that those cars were comically too large. It wasn't just that they were so freakin' long either - it was their damn width that freaked me out. At just under eighty-inches wide, they might as well have been assembled by Peterbuilt. My palms still get sweaty thinking about driving one on the oh-so-narrow, "Pre-War" streets I grew up on back on Long Island just east of the City line. The downsized '77's comparatively anorexic at 77-inches port-to-starboard.
1977-1984 Buick Electra's share their chassis body shells, doors, roof panels, transmissions and many ancillary components with the Cadillac deVille and Oldsmobile 98. Said "Downsizing Epoch" also brought about "divisional sharing" of engines - our green machine here sports an Oldsmobile built, 185-horsepower, 403 cubic-inch chuffer. Yes, an Oldsmobile engine in a Buick; blasphemy. What's more, you could also find that 403, which was a bored out version of the venerable Oldsmobile "350", under the hood of 1977-1979 Pontiac Trans Am's equipped with automatic transmissions; So, what's more nefarious, the big Olds engine in a Buick or in a Trans Am? Then again, did or does anyone really care? Some things are important only if you make them out to be; sometimes it's best to under-communicate. Pontiac also used the 403 on their 1977-1979 Bonneville and Catalina in high altitude areas and in California.
One thing I'd insist on if I had to have this '77 is I'd make sure it came with the optional 3.08 gears and not the standard 2.41's. And if it didn't, even though the 3.08's with the torquey 403 would probably deliver pre-downsizing gas mileage, I'd have them swapped in. No one's going to be using this as a daily driver or taking it cross-country anyway. C'mon, let's make the most of what this has to offer without going crazy modding the engine. 320 foot-pounds out of the box! Drop it in "D", stab the gas and watch that Electra hood ornament shoot up to the sky.
GM updated their 1977 full-size line for 1980 with what is referred to as their "aero-treatment" and it did wonders for them aesthetically although, through my foggy goggles, they jumped the shark with what Buick did to my Electra. Gone was the sharp, crisp lines that would make Don Draper weak-kneed, the rear windshield formalized, the whole package got old man dorkified. Let's not go there with what they did under hood. Standard V-6, anyone? At least they had the good sense not to make the Olds diesel the default mill.
Nothing brings back memories for me like an old car. To this day I think of that brief moment when I was behind the wheel of that '77 Electra and I felt all grown up feeling that not only could I actually drive, but that I could drive a big car like that.
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