My younger son loves to glom what he refers to as "vintage clothing" from my closet; he claims my janky wardrobe, well parts of it, is cool. Thanks for the (back handed) compliment, my boy; it's apparently true, as they say, wait long enough and things do come back in style. Other things that can become fashionable again includes music, movies, TV shows etc.. Cars, on the other hand, are a tougher putt; if something wasn't that in step with the times when it was new, all but safe to say it won't ever be in the future. Case in point, I'd find it hard to believe that even if Taylor Swift was seen driving a 1992-1996 Buick Roadmaster in one of her videos that all of a sudden there'd be a run on them. This '94 Roadmaster popped up on Facebook Marketplace this morning for sale near my triple wide on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio with a pre-Covid-like asking asking price of $1,500. Ad says, "OBO negotiated only in person". Gosh, if I had the room, I'd try and get it closer to a grand just for its engine and transmission. The rest of the car I'd just as soon see used as a reef in Lake Eerie.
Chevrolet came first with these gigantic and dare I say homely "B-bodies" in 1991 updating their very long in the grill, "Class-of-1977" Caprice. The dramatically upsized and bulbous Caprice became known in some circles, due to it's shape, as "Shamu"; after the famous Sea World killer whale. Buick followed suit in '92 with a less polarizing, some would say "mature" design they, for whatever reason, dubbed, "Roadmaster". Seems somewhat fitting seeing it has disparate design elements of Buicks of yore, I mean, look at this front end, but, sheesh, Buick, did you have to call it, Roadmaster?
Through my Boomer\Gen-X eyes, even before Buick's christening of the 1991 Roadmaster, the nameplate always reeked of, ahem, "Granny". My father's first car was a 1941 Roadmaster so the moniker goes back. Way back to 1936 actually. Buick used it off and on through 1958 ditching it semi-permanently in 1959 as part of a lineup overhaul replacing it with, "Electra". As everything new eventually becomes old, although "Electra" seemed geriatric when Buick heave-hoed it after 1990, it still seemed spritely compared to, "Roadmaster". Your opinion may vary, particularly based on how old you are. See dealer for details.
Who was Buick targeting this thing at anyway? Retirees between the coasts who weren't aware of Lexus and Infiniti or whom had a doggedly misguided sense of patriotism? Granted, a 1992 Lexus LS400 stickered around twenty-grand more than one of these did, but you got what you paid for. After a flurry of sales (near 60,000) in 1992, they slid to around 28,000 or so through 1996, GM then converted the Arlington, Texas plant where these being built into a truck plant. Chevrolet moved more Caprices, but many of those sales were to fleets.
If there's any saving grace, this being a 1994, under its massive hood is General Motors venerable, 1990's-vintage, 5.7-liter, LT1 V-8. The LT1 (not to be confused with 1970-1972's LT-1) first debuted in the 1992 Corvette then, in somewhat detuned guise, the Camaro Z28 and Pontiac Firebird Formula and Trans Am for 1993. For 1994, amidst ever stricter emissions regulations, GM ditched the throttle-body fuel injected 5.7-liter V-8 that had been using on these cars (Caprice and Fleetwood too) replacing it with the far more emissions friendly, fuel efficient, and powerful, port-fuel injected "LT1".
Frankly, it's a stretch to call this version of the LT1 a "Corvette" engine but some people do; as if Granny and Pop Pop cared. It differed from the high-zoot LT1 in that it got iron heads rather than aluminum (less expensive), a milder camshaft and more restrictive, intake and exhaust, two-bolt mains rather than four as well. All in, still, it made 260-horsepower and 330-foot pounds of torque compared to 300-hp and 340-ft-lbs in the Corvette, 275-hp and 325-ft lbs. in the Camaro and Firebird. Contemporary road test pegged this blue hair mobile\grocery getter getting from zero-to-sixty in 7.8 seconds. Not bad. They said it would have been faster had the car had a limited slip rear end. No doubt.
For a thousand bucks or so, I probably couldn't ask for a more turnkey package to drop into my 1977 Corvette, but aside from that, there's not much more I find to like about this big old Roadie; based on the price, I think the seller knows there aren't too many takers out there too. I know my younger son, who has not the slightest appreciation of anything vehicular aside using one to get from point-A to B, wouldn't be caught dead in it. Unlike some of my "wardrobe", some things, like I said, don't come back into fashion.
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