What was the best engine ever made by General Motors? A lot of car enthusiasts would probably say the LS V8, and it’s a good answer. But GM once made an engine that I’d argue is even better. The 3800 V6 was a sort of “Goldilocks” of engines. It made great power for its day, returned respectable fuel economy, and, aside from a few quirks, is practically bulletproof. Amazingly, a “new” example of a 3800 has shown up for sale, encased in the equally pristine body of a 1997 Buick Regal GS with only 175 miles on its odometer. People are offering up pretty hefty sums of cash for this thing, and, weirdly, it’s so exciting to watch it happen.
A few days ago, we covered the topic of car preservation in Antti’s piece about a 25-mile Yugo. Usually, collectors go after high-dollar luxury cars, supercars, sports cars, and skunkworks projects. It’s not hard to find a classic Ferrari in preservation, and even examples of ’60s American muscle get to live a life under fluorescent lights.
What this sometimes means is that so many regular, everyday cars eventually get lost to time. Can you remember the last time you’ve seen a Plymouth Breeze in decent shape? How about a Ford Tempo? I think there is value in preserving common cars. While everyone loves the legends, most people didn’t drive them. To me, the 1990s and 2000s were more about Chevrolet Blazers, Oldsmobile Silhouettes, Ford Windstars, and Mazda 626s. Sure, I adored a good McLaren F1, Nissan Skyline, or Dodge Viper like any enthusiast, but I grew up with vastly different cars.
That’s what I love about this 1997 Buick Regal GS today. Longer than two decades ago, someone decided to stuff this car away. Now, this common Buick is perhaps the best example of a car hundreds of thousands of people bought, put tons of miles on, and then retired for something different. I’d love to just sit in it and whisk myself back to 1999. It seems as though I’m not alone, because bidding is already pretty healthy on this ride despite the fact that nobody knows how much work it’ll need.
Coincidentally, this car comes from the collection of an enthusiast that we’ve written about before. Greg Rusk, the owner of Rusken Packaging, Inc. of Alabama, owned up to 1,300 cars that he collected over the past 26 or 28 years. He’s selling off his collection in a multi-part auction that Hagerty is calling the Generous Collection. Click here to read my previous story.
According to the listing, this Regal GS was delivered new to Tom Williams Automotive Group in Birmingham, Alabama. Then, the dealership registered the vehicle before immediately stuffing it away for “preservation purposes.” Sadly, no further explanation is given for why the dealer sought to save specifically a 1997 Buick Regal GS. It could be because 1997 was the first model year of the fourth-generation Regal.
From A Weird Period In Buick History
The car this dealership saved sits in a fascinating place in Buick Regal history. For most enthusiasts, the Regal probably hit its peak in the Regal’s second-generation. Back then, the Regal was on a rear-wheel-drive platform and featured a plethora of engines, including V8s of both gasoline and infamous diesel varieties. The Regal got really hot in the 1980s with the iconic turbocharged V6 Grand National, the Turbo-T, the T-Type, and the GNX. These coupes are still highly sought after today.
Then, Buick took a sharp turn. In 1987, it rolled out the third-generation Regal, which was Buick’s answer to the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable. The new Regal took on a softer appearance and traded the rear-drive G-body platform for the front-drive W-body platform. It also left the V8s and boosted sixes in the past for reliable naturally aspirated V6 power. For most of the third Regal’s run, its firepower was no greater than 170 HP. In 1996, the generation got to bow out with GM’s iconic 3800 Series II V6 under the hood, offering up a healthy 205 HP and 230 lb-ft as the Regal’s hottest powerplant.
Unfortunately, Buick’s ploy to take sales back from Ford backfired when it came to public image. By the mid-1990s, Buick was no longer the purveyor of sports car-slaying performance, but of the soft cars that your grandparents drove. So, for 1997, Buick decided to make the Regal hot again.
The fourth-generation Regal followed tradition and was designed on the same bones as the Century, itself a car that had just gotten the updated W-body platform for 1997. The W-body of this era was known for its ride comfort, durability, and ample interior volume. Of course, this was during that time when GM liked selling roughly similar vehicles across its portfolio, and the Buick’s siblings included the Pontiac Grand Prix, Oldsmobile Intrigue, Chevrolet Impala, and the Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
As the Chicago Tribune wrote, the Regal was a sort of middle child, with the Century being the big, comfortable, and conservative cruiser, and the Cutlass serving the role as the stripped-down model for the buyer not concerned with gadgets. The Regal was Buick’s answer to the growing popularity of the luxury sport sedan.
Wayne Kady, who was the chief designer of Buick at the time, told MotorTrend: “The ‘9711/42 Regal has an original, all-new, youthful look specifically designed to be the most expressive sedan in the Buick line.” Yet, even Buick’s “most expressive sedan” was still pretty conservative. It was a sort of grown-up performance car, one without huge wings, hood scoops, body kits, or a low suspension. It was the kind of sport sedan that you could take to a funeral without causing a ruckus. Still, the Regal did get the stiffer Grand Touring suspension and the 16-inch wheels that the comfy Century did not.
At launch, the new Regal had two trim levels, with the GS being the hot one to get. From MotorTrend:
The new Regal sedan comes in two tangy flavors-Regal LS and Regal GS. Select an LS and you get the 3.8-liter/195-horsepower V-6 with 220 pound-feet of torque. Gutsy and quiet, this engine provides excellent acceleration and outstanding fuel efficiency at an EPA-rated 19/30 city/highway mpg.
Consider the supercharged 3800. It’s rated at 240 horsepower at 5200 rpm with a V-8-style 280 pound-feet of torque at just 3600 rpm. The GS we tested used this firepower to leap to 60 mph in just 6.6 seconds. This engine, with its Eaton 90 supercharger, is bolted to a beefed-up four-speed automatic, called the 4T65-E. Incredibly, with this engine’s bounty of power Buick estimates the GS’ EPA-rated fuel-economy numbers at 18/28 city/highway mpg. With the premium 4T65-E transaxle, drivers can push a gear-selector-lever button to get higher-rev, performance-style shift points for more spirited road running.
Buick has built the Regal on essentially the same platform and suspension as the Pontiac Grand Prix, so comparisons in terms of ride, structural rigidity, handling, and size are inevitable. But there are important differences. For example, Buick uses four unique rubber isolation bushings between the independent rear suspension’s subframe and the body to reduce road noise and vibration. Pontiac, however, bolts the crossmember directly to the body. And although the front MacPherson struts and lower L-arms basically are identical to the Grand Prix arrangement, Buick has selected much softer rubber suspension bushings. In addition, the Regal’s spring rates and shock damping system are completely different, for handling that is decently crisp without harshness. For more-mainstream buyers, the LS has softer bushings than the GS for an even plusher ride.
The car buff mags of the ’90s did peg the Regal GS as being a real sport sedan, but noted that it didn’t have the sharpest handling or the sportiest seats. Canada’s Driving said that the Regal was “at least in the same realm as many European touring cars,” while the Los Angeles Times said the Regal was best not trying to race a BMW and instead picking on Accord, Camry, and Taurus owners in the stoplight drags.
Why People Love These Old Buicks
However, the real magic of the Buick Regal GS was its engine. The GM 3800 Series II remains one of the best engines ever produced by General Motors. I already mentioned its rather healthy outputs above, but the beauty of this engine was that it was more than good power in 3.8 liters. Buick had been perfecting overhead valve V6 engines since the Fireball engines of the early 1960s, and the predecessors to the 3800 Series II were being made as far back as 1975.
Over that time, Buick evolved the engine through numerous iterations. Hagerty describes how the Series II came to be:
Dubbed the “Series II,” this V-6 variation represented the culmination of GM’s engine design prowess at the time. It arrived in 1995 with cross-bolt main bearing caps, bigger valves nestled inside larger cylinder heads, the highest compression ratio to date, and a composite intake manifold, among many other internal and external improvements (including a lower deck height that helped with packaging and reduced weight). Also along for the ride was an improved, Eaton-supercharged edition of the engine that became nearly as common as the naturally aspirated version. The 3800’s dominance of General Motors drivetrains was nearly impossible to escape in any sedan or coupe car larger than compact-size.
The 3.8-liter V-6 was well-positioned to ride out the rest of the decade in style. While it received a Series III update for 2004 (including throttle-by-wire and a new fuel injection system, along with an aluminum intake manifold to replace the previous plastic unit), the fundamentals remained the same until it was pulled from production in 2008. By that point, the 3800 had far outlived its planned obsolescence, arguably by almost a decade—proof of what its diehard reliability and appealing low cost meant to GM’s bottom line.
There isn’t much that can go wrong with a 3800 Series II. Its list of fatal flaws was short and has been largely rectified decades ago. One failure point is the engine’s plastic coolant elbows, which have a knack for snapping and dumping out all of the engine’s coolant in an alarmingly fast fashion. If the driver isn’t paying attention, the engine will cook itself. Thankfully, metal elbows have been available for a long time.
The aforementioned plastic intake manifold was also a pain point. Since coolant flowed through this manifold, if the plastic cracked enough, it was possible for the engine to literally pump coolant into its own cylinders, causing a hydrolock condition. This is exactly what happened to my wife’s 1997 Oldsmobile LSS. It hydrolocked on a bright, sunny, and entirely dry day due to a leaking, cracked intake manifold.
Yet, even that fatal flaw has a fix with a metal intake. With only minor upgrades, a 3800 Series II can last for hundreds of thousands of miles. It’s entirely possible that the engine could outlast the transmission it’s bolted to and the body of the car it lives in. The longevity is great enough, but then there’s the rest of it. Enthusiasts have found it easy to get more power out of a Series II with little more than a tune and a new supercharger wheel. Fuel economy is also respectable, even today. In my experience, my wife’s naturally aspirated LSS returned a solid high 20 mpg to low 30 mpg average.
But, of course, all good things come to an end, and General Motors eventually retired the 3800 for more compact mills with dual overhead cams and more modern technology. We now live in a world of ubiquitous four-cylinder engines. The last of the 3800s were built in 2008, and despite the increasing age of these engines, there remains a strong community of enthusiasts who absolutely adore these mills. Some folks even appreciate the cars they were mounted to, as well.
The Nicest 1997 Buick Regal GS
As such, I’m not at all surprised to see that Greg Rusk’s 175-mile 1997 Buick Regal GS is at $11,000 with a week to go in the auction. What I do find rather intriguing is that the Carfax has only one entry, and it was when the car was registered by the dealership. Hagerty and its subsidiary that’s running the auction, Broad Arrow, make no mention of when Rusk purchased the car. However, it would appear that someone lost the original title, as the vehicle is offered with a bonded title in Rusk’s name.
My favorite part of the auction is the original window sticker, which says this luxury bruiser was $24,655 in 1997, including $1,710 in options. That’s the equivalent of $51,745 today!
The good news is that the engine does run. The bad news is that, per Hagerty, it’s entirely unknown what would be needed to make the car roadworthy. Assuming the car hasn’t been driven since the 1990s, you could reasonably expect that any rubber part will need to be replaced. Who knows what the inside of the gas tank looks like, either. I also wouldn’t be surprised if some parts end up failing after finally being put into service. I couldn’t even find date codes on the tires. Hagerty notes a few imperfections:
While reasonable efforts were made during preparation for the sale, due to the volume of cars in this collection it was not possible to diagnose or detect all imperfections present in the cars.
– Moldy smell.
– Some wear on leather upholstery.
– Various paint imperfections.
– Four open recalls.
Moldy? Was this car stored in my garage?
Even with all of the future headaches of refreshing everything to get the car into roadworthy shape, I can see why bidding is so hot on this car. When was the last time you’ve seen a ’90s Regal that looked this nice? I can’t even remember when I’ve seen a 3800 with under 1,000 miles. Maybe when they were in production?
Take Yourself Back To 1997
If you want in on this auction, click here. Or, be like me and watch from the sidelines to see how high the price gets. It’s a no-reserve auction, so when the hammer falls, the car will be sold.
This car is both a piece of history and a time capsule. It’s a perfect example of when Buick wanted to take on the sport sedan market, and probably a time machine back to someone’s childhood or early adult years. Honestly, I’d just find myself lost in looking at how perfect every inch of it is. I could see this car ending up in another collection. I could also see it getting put on the road and driven by someone who might not have been able to enjoy it when these Regals were in production.
Enthusiasts often say that cars are meant to be driven, and it’s hard to disagree with that. However, I am happy that some people don’t drive their cars. Every once in a while, it results in stories like this, where we get to look at a perfect example of what a certain car looked like decades ago. So, do drive your car, or don’t. Either way, someone is going to appreciate it.
Top graphic image: Hagerty
“Of course, this was during that time when GM liked selling roughly similar vehicles across its portfolio, and the Buick’s siblings included the Pontiac Grand Prix, Oldsmobile Intrigue, Chevrolet Impala, and the Chevrolet Monte Carlo.” This started way earlier than the mid to late 90s. That awful Roger Smith in the 80s greatly accelerated GM’s ruinous path to eventual bankruptcy.
Ironically another one of the inept CEOs in a lineup of many, Rick Wagoner, recognized the problem with brand engineering and considered the Escalade, that bejeweled Suburban, a stopgap measure. Yet sadly here we find ourselves with that behemoth largely defining Cadillac.
I love how these days the simplicity of the 3800 is finally getting praised for its reliability, but back in the 90s and into early 00s, the automotive press would look down on this engine because it was a pushrod design.
It was treated as being behind the times compared to OHC or DOHC engines out there even though it produced very decent power in a very compact package with OK mileage. Even with our elevated fuel prices these days, I think we’d all give up a MPG here or there for a bulletproof motor.
The automotive press had it out for GM and the rest of the American car makers if they didn’t copy exactly what Honda and Toyota were doing. That definitely cost the Big 3 tens of thousands of sales per year because the public was constantly being told that foreign cars were better even when they really weren’t. That bias still exists today and why you have idiots who know nothing about cars overpaying due to the “Toyota Tax”.
Oh it got some 90’s love:
“The 3800 made the Ward’s 10 Best Engines of the 20th Century list and made Ward’s yearly 10 Best list numerous times.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward's_10_Best_Engines#20th_century
Rightfully so, it was a great powerplant. But few really listened to Ward’s when researching cars to buy.
Nobody needed to buy, they just need to wait till Grandma couldn’t drive anymore.
It’s too bad it took me so long to realize cars like this existed and how much I’d like them. By the time I got my head on straight these were all rusted away. Sedans > * for a daily.
My dad had a 1992 Oldsmobile Eight-Eight with the basic 3800, inherited from my late grandmother. It fell apart around the engine.
My aunt had a 1997 Buick Riviera Supercharged with the blown 3800, which she bought new. It also fell apart around the engine.
My college roommate’s sister had a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix with the N/A 3800…which–you guessed it—kept running just fine even as the interior disintegrated into dust.
Back in late 2023/2024, my young cousin was in dire need of a reliable car after unceremoniously totaling his Altima Coupe. His budget was $4,000. We looked at a number of overpriced Honda and Toyota mid-aughts cars in terrible shape…and finally arrived at a 2008 Buick Lucerne CXL. It had 200,000 miles, but a fat book of maintenance and was in good cosmetic and mechanical condition. It also had leather, heated and I believe cooled seats, a heated steering wheel, a sunroof, and–crucially–the 3800. Since then, he’s only needed to replace the water pump and CV axles, which are wear items on any car.
I always felt that this era of the Regal was a damn good-looking car. Probably the cleanest design in GM’s lineup at that time.
Except for its better looking sibling, the Intrigue.
I always appreciated these. My Grandpa had one and said it was his favorite car ever. Unfortunately it was totaled, fortunately no one was hurt. My brain struggles to see these as anything other than $2k cars you buy that won’t quit, but those ones don’t even seem to be around anymore.
If only this were a variant with a manual transmission. Only then would it truly be a holy grail. However, I doubt that GM made them at all.
That instrument cluster is very similar to our 2003 LeSabre. This is the larger platform, still with the 3800 Series II and this car has 230,000 miles on it and literally outlived its first two owners. Parts are getting rarer but common stuff is available from Rock Auto and trim parts from salvage or eBay
Those interior photos bring back memories. If I was a millionaire I would absolutely buy this for 20k and drive it around as a commuter.
Yeah those plastic nipples were really bad, so much so that you could walk into any dealer’s parts department say you needed a nipple for a 3800 and the person behind the counter would tell you how much while ducking around the corner to pull one out of the bin. Then they would enter the memorized part number into the system and send you to the cashier. The only other case of a part so frequently sold that every parts guy knew it off the top of his head was the two piece aluminum rocker arm spacers for the 22R’s factory phenolic ones.
i had a high school friend who drove a hand me down buick le sabre with the 3.8. It was surprisingly guts for a big ass sedan back in the day.
I have one. Can confirm
I drove one for several years, and aside from the noted coolant elbows and replacing injectors and coils, it had no issues. Drove like a couch, but that engine had long legs.
Coils? Did you have a newer one? The one I had used a distributer.
Mine was a 2005, and I think it had 3 coils and no distributor.
Had a 2007 GT “Special Edition” with the supercharger. Surprised a lot of kiddos in VW’s, dusting them off the line. Improved the suspension myself with solid antisway bars, beefier end links, strut tower braces, flipped the front engine mount bushings, and swapped in urethane bushings elsewhere. Handled like it was on rails, relatively speaking.
Had one as a rental in the early 2000’s. Reportedly reliable, but way outdated in every category. Quality of interior materials and handling was poor. Reminded me of the early 80’s GM products.
Hard nope. What nutjobs are bidding on this thing?
Too nice to fix up and drive, plus needs a lot of work. Not interesting or pretty enough (imho) to display in a museum or car collection.
Just spend one third as much on a regular, low-mileage Regal.
I agree, personally when buying used I much prefer to buy something that has “correct” miles for its age (~5-10,000 per year and regular maintenance). And half the appeal of these old Buicks is that they’re usually expendable enough to smoke in!
I once met a guy who bought a brand new 1995 Corvette ZR-1, brought it home on a rollback, and parked it in his garage. This was in 2005, so it’d been sitting there for 20 years. WHY??? It’s probably still there.
I don’t want to touch a car with a “moldy smell,” but I will say I owned a ’94 Buick Regal GS and it was great. Not too much car for solo driving, not to small to fit four adults, handled well in the snow, and I swear I got 35 mpg on the highway in overdrive.
I’ve told this story before here, but for the newbies: my grandpa managed a Buick dealership from the early ’60s through the late ’80s. If the topic of the 3800 engine ever came up in conversation, he would say “That 3800 powertrain was the best engine I ever saw,” then get a misty, faraway look in his eyes, like he was remembering a lost love.
I was assigned a ’90 Olds 88 with I guess the series I 3800 as a news car in Cleveland in my news photographer days. Good power, 30+ mpg on the freeway. Pretty good in the snow, even with all-season tires. My in-laws had a Buick Regal and a Park Avenue with the same engine. The Park Avenue probably could have used the supercharged version, but even without, it was certainly adequate to move that thing around. The PA was quiet and oh so comfortable. Just what the in-laws wanted.
GM just couldn’t get intake manifold gaskets right, no matter what material they were made out of.
That said, this piece is a good time for a PSA regarding used oil analyses – have them performed every so often to catch problems before something expensive happens. Blackstone found coolant in the oil of my ’98 Chevy C1500, and I was able to verify it was gone after replacing the intake manifold gaskets and performing a couple of oil changes.
I once had the idea to buy one of these in the mid-2000s and do a pulley swap.
There were a handful of guides on ye olde internet of how to do it, but they all had the same warning: the engine probably would be fine with more boost, but the transmission wouldn’t be and you’d be making regular payments to transmission shops.
Kind of a buzzkill to have a choice to (a) be slower than a V6 Accord/Camry of the era, or (b) turn 4T65-Es into ‘PRNNNNN’ machines frequently.
It was like hopping up one of the old Chrysler ’80s turbo motors. You could either do a mild version and compete with….well…a stock economy car of the late 1990s/2000s or go spicy and discover exactly how much robustness the rest of the ’80s Chrysler drivetrain had (i.e. not much).
This car falls into a weird zone right now. Too new/common in recent memory to be really worth keeping pristine in a museum (yet) for nostalgia, too clean/low miles/expensive for subjecting to regular driving.
Torch was right: these are kind of the worst cars to own as an enthusiast.
I believe I would prefer a lightly used Supercharged Riviera from 1997, https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/b4a7a7e4-396b-41fd-aea5-21fd0f5d0b48
or even 1995
95 has the best dash, but Series 1 3800. 96 and up is series 2, so you can tune it if you want.
True, but when I went to see what series 2’s were out there this 95 with so few miles was hard not to look at.
They are still great cars, just limited to make lots of power. It’s still plenty of power for highway passing tho.
The ’95 had older electronics and that transitional OBD 1.5 standard, which I would avoid like the plague. ’96 and up is best. ’98 and up had the supercharged engine standard.
Don’t show my wife that car, or else we might have to adopt it. 🙂
It would last her forever I believe.
This is the correct choice
I love those Rivieras. Closest thing they ever got to the ’66 Toronado. The deep set gauges call me.
As a museum piece, it has no value except the condition and odometer. But what sort of museum is going to advertise “Come see the world’s nicest Regal!”? (And it’s not even that nice. What’s with the mold and upholstery wear?)
I’d pay $5k and budget another $3k to get all of the plastic parts out of the cooling system. But someone else thinks it’s worth more than that.
There is a museum near me that’s full of nothing but preserved regular cars. It’s refreshing, in a weird way. But even that museum doesn’t seem to care about mileage, just that the car is in good shape.
Which museum is that? I might have to visit for a shot of nostalgia when I’m in Milwaukee visiting my son and his family.
How do you even get wear on leather upholstery in 175 miles? Wear pants made out of sandpaper? My ’17 Accord’s decidedly not premium leather is perfect with 80K miles on the clock. Now that I no longer live in Texas, I don’t mind the leather, but I’d rather have nice cloth. Fodder for another article, what was the best mass-produced cloth upholstery, and did it have good underpinnings? Good fabric on a bad frame and springs is a waste.
I owned an Intrigue and always was a fan of the W-bodies in general. They seemed more sporty than the Taurus platform (apart from SHO), and they had good space/comfort. They also had all the maladies of GM builds at the time, particularly with the overall quality of interior components. That said, this car presents a typical problem that I’ve addressed here before – the only real value is the odometer. I’m assuming that anybody dropping the $11k plus is going to drive it and not put it in an exhibit for 2000s vehicles, but I guess that’s the business of the auction winner. Its interesting as presented and it’s intriguing (no pun intended) to see a showroom new 29-year old car, but all of that goes away with the first stone chip.
Ah yes, the good old mang, as the Aussies call it
“the Regal was best not trying to race a BMW and instead picking on Accord, Camry, and Taurus owners in the stoplight drags”
Uh, were any of those cars doing stoplight drags? You won the race in which you were the only participant!
The folly here, and the reason the Accord and Camry still exist, is that the buyers don’t care about a stoplight dragrace but do notice the things like the shitty plastics all over the Regal’s interior, the poor way they fit together (you could lose a wallet in those dash panel seams), the exposed sharp flashing, and the absolutely geriatric design of the dash and seats. The 97 Accord and Camry were still assembled with near-godlike precision in comparison and felt a generation more modern.
Ride quality is still better on the Buick.
I’ll take your word for it. Ride was fine on the Accord and Camry depending on what you wanted. It would take a lot to get me to overlook the Buick’s interior.
I hope it’s going to a museum or at least to be continued to be preserved. Window sticker and plastic on still true time capsule. I dont understand the people that think let me take this 30 year old preserved as new car and destroy it. It’s always the same with them it’s like a new car so disposable but also they don’t build them like they use to. It’s just not logical and they are just a walking contradiction. We aren’t even talking about more money then sense people just dumb people that don’t care.
Just go buy a used Kia or Chinese/ Korean Buick and do your worse. Or find one of the Florida olds cars that have low mileage. Any time there is a hurricane you can find a ton on copart they go for scrap value or less plus fees. Take everything out spray salt away and fresh water and chance the fluids and filters. They get what they really want a almost new used 30 year old car that can be destroyed and already has been. Probably easier and cheaper then going though every single seal and hose on a car that has been sitting for 30 years.
I’m always curious about what the bidders intend to do on these barn find ultra-low mileage mainstream cars. Bid is up to $11,000 with 6 days left. Does someone want to continue garaging it? It’s not that interesting. Maybe a few people have a real hard case of nostalgia for whatever reason.
But if you’re going to frequently drive it, it will lose value and condition pronto. But combined with nostalgia and a $20,000ish price, maybe that’s not a bad transportation solution for car you like.
I can’t imagine there are many more if any in that condition. So I could understand a museum dropping $20k on it. They could probably find some 90s dealer stuff and do something. People are obsessed with the 90s so could be something. But beyond that I don’t understand it in any way. You would have to go though the whole thing to make it reliable what’s the point. It’s no longer a car it’s a display piece. And you would run it to make it a driver. I’m sure you can find a very similar car in very similar physical condition at copart in 2 or 3 months after the hurricane comes though.
If you’re to believe some of the guys who speculate about who is buying which old cars, there’s a surge of younger people who finally come into money and spend it on the cars they grew up around. I suppose I’m one of them, as much of my fleet consists of cars from the video games I played as a teen and such. But I’m not so rich that I’m going to drop a ton of money on something like this. I guess I could see some wealthy person willing to burn $20k to drive perhaps one of the last “new” 1997 Buick Regals out there.
But now that you say it, I think I will try to follow up with the buyer to see what their plan is. That might be more interesting than the car itself!
That would be cool to see, Mercedes. I’d love to know their story.
I do get the motivation to spend more than book value on cars from your formative years. I learned to drive stickshift on our family’s 1990 Camry V6 and if a clean one ever came up I would be tempted. Same with a number of cars from that era.
Kinda like how my 32-year-old son is now into vinyl records and a turntable after growing up with an iPod and then Spotify.
Well $11,000 isn’t bad for a 1 owner, low mileage, accident free, reliable used car to daily drive. It’s the replacement of the rubber and weak plastics that will say good deal or not. And even then you are dailying a nice Classic Car.
6 days left in the auction! Almost certain to sell for more, perhaps a lot more.