Nine out of ten days the transmission shop next to my office in Youngstown, Ohio has their lot packed with a gaggle of ordinary, late model SUV's, crossovers, and appliance like sedans; old and not so old. On occasion, they'll have something mildly unique and different but ultimately doesn't hold my attention long. Then there are days when a visual tsunami like this 1974 Buick LeSabre Luxus convertible clotheslines me. In the best of ways, of course.
You don't see many of these gigantic, "family-sized" convertibles around anymore and you didn't see many of them fifty-years ago either. They never sold well because they were expensive, inherently impractical, and most importantly, weren't very good transportation conveyances. However, if you appreciate what these dreadnaughts have to offer, like I do, there's nothing quite like them. Although, I struggle at times to understand, let alone convey, what it is they offer I find so compelling.
I say that because my wheel time in the very similar car it replaced, a 1973 Buick Centurion convertible, was terrifying; the Centurion was a "sport\luxury" version of the LeSabre that supposedly combined the luxury of an Electra with a tuned, performance suspension. I didn't find anything sporty or luxurious about that car. I thought it was a giant, jiggly, underpowered mess but it looked fantastic. You either get GM's enormous "Class-of-1971" full-size cars or you don't. Aesthetically I do, but, please, don't ask me to drive one; they're much more fun to be a passenger in. Especially with the top down and all you have to do is wave and smile at people.
While most always construed as a luxurious frivolity, before factory air conditioning took off in the 1950's, convertibles were the most efficient way to ventilate an automobile. Packard is given credit for the first domestic manufacturer to offer A/C in 1939 but it was a complicated and unreliable system, they marketed as "weather conditioning", and they dropped it after 1941. Aftermarket A/C units dominated the market through the 1940's but it wasn't until GM first introduced factory A/C in 1953, in partnership with Frigidaire, that it really started to take off narrowing the convertible market even further.
The Big Three offered convertible versions of their wares, usually based on two-door sedans, throughout the '50's and '60's, but started phasing them out in the early 1970's. Ford's last convertible Mustang\Cougar left the factory in 1973, Chrysler got out of the market after 1970. GM, bless their heart, hung in there although they continually limited their offerings. There was no Camaro\Firebird convertible after 1970, no intermediate after 1972. When GM rebooted their full-size line for 1971, convertibles were relegated to boutique status; the short-lived Centurion was Buick's sole "rag-top" through 1973, our LeSabre Luxus here replacing it in 1974.
By 1976, the LeSabre convertible was gone along with Chevrolet, Pontiac and Oldsmobile versions of it. In fact, for 1976, GM's only "drop-head" was the Cadillac Eldorado convertible that was supposedly going to be the end of GM convertibles but that hiatus was short lived. Buick began selling a convertible Riviera in 1982, although they shipped partially completed cars to American Sunroof Corporation for the conversion. Cadillac followed suit with their similar Eldorado beginning in 1984.
Convertible cognoscenti blame increasingly stringent, government mandated roll-over safety regulations for their demise, stipulations that never went into affect, incidentally, but the death of the convertible like our '74 here had a simpler reason - profit margins. Or, lack thereof. Convertibles were expensive to produce and they sold poorly.
Still, the fact that I spent the time to walk next door and snap a few photos of this big, old luscious beast tells me there is something intrinsically alluring about these cars. Especially one in the fabulous shape this one is in. The interior and body are flawless although the paint finish is a good "five-footer". Just to make sure my instincts are on point, though, I sent a couple of these pictures to my 26-year old hipster son and asked him if this was a "cool" car or not.
He doesn't pull any punches. Forgive my faux pas, I thought at first this was a 1975.
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