Living Rooms On Wheels: 1994 Buick Roadmaster vs 1994 Lincoln Town Car

Good morning! For our mid-week Showdown, we’re taking it easy, and settling into the soft leather seats of a couple of good old American cruisers. Drop the big chrome column shifter into D, crank up the Tony Bennett, or maybe Operation Ivy if your tastes are more like mine, and just enjoy the ride. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

Yesterday’s cars were both from my large fleet of former vehicles, and I gave you a rare “Both” option in the poll. I try to save that for cars that complement each other, rather than compete with one another. I always find it interesting when “Both” beats out one car; I guess that means you like it better as part of a set than on its own.

Regardless, the Nissan pickup won handily, and I think I have to agree. My 720 got me through a really rough time in my life, and in fact, the only reason I sold it was bad memories. That was a mistake, and my stalwart little navy blue companion deserved better treatment from me. Hopefully this one becomes someone’s four-wheeled best friend soon.

The full-size American car archetype remained unchanged for a couple of decades, starting in the 1950s: soft suspension, comfortable seats, and a big V8 engine and automatic transmission. Handling was an afterthought, and fuel economy was only a consideration after governmental regulations made it one. It all started to change around the time these two were built. They were dinosaurs when new, and even though one of them lasted a couple more years, and the other somehow managed to stay in production for another decade and a half, buyers were already hard to come by.

Today, cars like this are long gone from the marketplace. They were only really good at one thing, but for that one thing, they were excellent, and there’s nothing that quite fills the gap they left. Fortunately, they tend to be good reliable cars, as well as low mileage, and quite often cheap. Let’s see what you make of them.

1994 Buick Roadmaster Limited – $2,995

Engine/drivetrain: 5.7-liter overhead valve V8, four-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Burlington, NJ

Odometer reading: 164,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

In 1986, Buick’s full-size sedans – the Electra and LeSabre – did something unthinkable at the time: they switched from body-on-frame with rear-wheel-drive to a unibody design with front-wheel-drive. Only the Electra Estate wagon, now simply the Estate, remained on the old RWD platform. But in 1991, that platform was revised, and Buick brought a RWD sedan back to the lineup, this time called the Roadmaster. And in 1994, it received one hell of an engine upgrade, from Chevrolet’s LT1 small-block V8, adding an extra eighty horsepower and turning the big Buick into something of a factory hot rod.

The one drawback to all that extra power is that the LT1 uses GM’s dreaded “Optispark” ignition system, which has been causing headaches for GM horsepower freaks for decades. Luckily, by now, its foibles are well-documented and well-understood. And at the moment, this one runs just fine. It’s for sale at a dealership, so we don’t get any information about its past, though.

It’s the fancy Limited model, so it has power everything and leather seats. It looks like it has held up well over its 164,000 miles, except for the steering wheel. For some reason, Buick steering wheels of this era were painted, or something, with a coating that wears off after a few years, exposing the black plastic underneath. It doesn’t affect anything; it just looks like crap.

It looks pretty good outside, except that someone went a little nuts with the Pep Boys stick-on portholes. The Roadmaster never had any from the factory. A putty knife and a little Goo-Gone should take care of the problem.

1994 Lincoln Town Car – $3,000

Engine/drivetrain: 4.6-liter overhead cam V8, four-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Hamilton, NJ

Odometer reading: 85,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

Big rear-wheel-drive sedans were out of style in the mid-1980s, but that didn’t stop Ford from throwing a ton of money into an all-new Lincoln Town Car for 1990. It was way more aerodynamic than the outgoing model, but that’s not saying much; the older model had the same coefficient of drag as a small Victorian house.

The 1990 model carried over the same old 302 V8 from the old version, but in 1991, the Town Car became the first recipient of Ford’s new Modular V8. This engine is well-known for racking up the miles in Crown Vic taxicabs and police cars, so 85,000 miles of gentle use should have hardly broken it in. We don’t get much information about it; all the seller says is that it “drives smooth.”

Town Cars were the vehicle of choice for limousine services for years. You’d expect them to be comfortable and roomy, and you’d be right. This one has leather seats instead of cloth, and they look like they’re in good shape. There is one little tear in the driver’s seat, but it’s hardly worth mentioning.

The outside is in good shape, and it’s a better color than most of these are. I’m partial to the dark green that Lincoln offered, but this pale blue looks good too. It makes a nice change from all the black livery fleet ones. And happily, it doesn’t have a landau or carriage top.

If you like to carve corners, these are not the cars for you. These cars handle, as I once read Jay Leno describe it, like a bowling ball on a waterbed. But they have an uncanny ability to make cracks, expansion joints, and potholes magically disappear, and with the windows up and the air conditioning on, not much noise is going to spoil the ride, either. Which one do you choose?