In 8.5 Seconds, Skyhawk Will Change Your Mind About Buicks

"DailyTurismo" (thedailyturismo) 12/19/2013 at 12:05 • Filed to: Daily Turismo

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If you are a car guy on a budget, you may be tempted to pickup a high-mile, beaten-down example of a popular/good car; but don't! The easiest way to enjoy motoring for low bucks is to pickup the best example of the worst car you can find.

To find the best worst car for daily commuting you need to harness all of the evil from ebay's search feature and hope for the best...err...worst. The 2nd generation Buick Skyhawk hails from dark days of the oldest American marque still for sale today and is a horrible automobile. Perfect. Find this !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for sale in Millersville, MD currently bidding on ebay for $499 with no reserve and 5 days to go.

The Buick Skyhawk (1982-89) was built on GM's newly re-designed J-body platform and shared basic components with winners like the Cadillac Cimarron, Chevrolet Cavalier, Oldsmobile Firenza and Pontiac Sunbird. GM made the unfortunate move of designing the J-body from the beginning as a plastic-y front drive pile of junk. The only redeeming aesthetic item on the Skylark was the nose that looks like it came off an 80's Z-28.

Pop the hood...and just walk away. Don't bother trying to get into the details of the 2.0 liter LQ5 inline-4cylinder engine supplied by GM, as 85 horsepower from a TBI setup isn't sweet. At least this one is equipped with a manual gearbox.

The only redeeming quality on this particular Skyhawk is the apparent minty clean condition of the exterior and interior. The odometer reads 21k but the seller claims 121k; but it could be 221k for all we know. Bottom line, it doesn't look bad at all for a $500 car.

Therein lies the lesson from today's Skyhawk feature. You want to enjoy cheap motoring? Don't buy the worst example of a good car...instead get the best example of a horrible car and maybe you'll find someone to buy it from you in a year when you want to dump it. In fact, when the time comes, just email us here: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Originally posted as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

The seller has mistakenly identified this car has a Sky lark and at first we played along- it is indeed a Sky hawk as pointed out by DT commenter Type44.

Image credits: ebay, productioncars.com

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Just wear your damn mask... > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:09

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Maybe I can get this for my nephew - who stuffed his '93 Lumina into a tree on snowy roads last week - for Christmas. It's already at $510 though... Plus, he'd hate me.

Dream Theater of the Absurd > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:09

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Change my mind about Buicks? Not bloody likely! This dates from the era that turned me off to GM products (Corvette excepted) forever.

AMC/Renauledge > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:10

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I approve this message.

Also, it's worth noting that the Skyhawk had a 3rd-gen F-body like nose since the first-gen versions came out for '75. The 2nd-gen simply continued the trend.

And to my mind, the Skyhawk was the least shitty of the J-cars. Now that's a lot like saying being rubbed up against in the subway is the least shitty form of sexual assault. But it had more features, a better optional suspension, and more sound deadening than its cheaper siblings, while being far less expensive to buy and service than the Cadillac version above it.

The T-Types looked pretty good. And toward the end, they got even better. You could get the 2.0 Turbo, the hatchback model, and pop-up headlights. The '89 would be the last Buick to have 3 pedals and a stick until the 2011 Regal. Of course, the J Skyhawks were still, essentially, shit underneath.

I never understood why they didn't offer a convertible, though. I mean, its Sunbird and Cavalier platform mates had them. And the Buick had "Sky" in the name. You'd have thought they'd have given you the option of seeing it.

Kate's Dirty Sister > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:13

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The poor man's Cimarron

Jartosz > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:14

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My dad owned a Pontiac Sunbird and it was the biggest piece of turd wrapped in metal. So, no, even as a glorified rebadge, I wouldn't drive this; unless driving to the junkyard to have it scrapped.

Haze > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:15

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The web-site for Car Talk used to have a car advice interactive feature that permitted you to enter what you wanted in a car then it would tell you what you should buy. It always told me to get a Buick Skyhawk. I was never sure how it knew that I just wanted to take the keys and drive straight into a reinforced abuttment, but it did. Maybe now is my chance!

DailyTurismo > Kate's Dirty Sister 12/19/2013 at 12:16

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Well played!

Roadster Man > AMC/Renauledge 12/19/2013 at 12:16

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That one is actually a good looking car.

Kaufmania: Mark Webber's Stunt Double > Kate's Dirty Sister 12/19/2013 at 12:17

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ZING!!!!

55_mercury > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:18

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This lineup of cars from GM were pieces of crap when new, so I can't imagine adding 30 years to the age would help things any further. Still- how many mint condition 85' Skylarks could there possibly be? and at $500... who cares?

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:19

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I know I can't be the only one thinking...

LeMons!!!!

Ry-bones, FiST pilot > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:22

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It smells like old lady, I'm sure of it.

Slave2anMG > Just wear your damn mask... 12/19/2013 at 12:23

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If you bought him the Lumina he already hates you.

Just wear your damn mask... > Slave2anMG 12/19/2013 at 12:25

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That wasn't me. He bought the car from someone he works with. Too bad too; we just did the brakes on it.

Slave2anMG > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:26

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There is something perversely appealing about this car. The manual transmission reduces the miserable factory by about 25%...but it's still a miserable car. But it's a nice clean miserable malaise era car. I'd buy it for $500 and just drive it, reveling in my cheapness and money I'm not spending on insurance or fuel or...women. Reveling in my loneliness, yep.

jariten1781 > AMC/Renauledge 12/19/2013 at 12:26

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And Honda pretty much cribbed the exterior design for the third gen Preludes.

Jagvar > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:30

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I loved the hatchback version of these! You never see them anymore, though.

Big Block I-4 > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:30

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Man I really want to bid on this, but after I bought my Miata on Ebay a week ago I think my fiance would be pissed off.

505Turbeaux > AMC/Renauledge 12/19/2013 at 12:33

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I came here to see if you were chiming in! Here, have some motion blur Skyhawk

LoveMy5.0 > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:35

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I would buy this Junk (J-car) and rip out the drive train then drop a small block in it with a real transmission that did not fall apart coming out of the dealers lot, put a 10 bolt 4:10 geared rear end in the back and win some big money at the drags.

GeorgeyBoy > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:37

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Forgive me, but that looks like the 2.5 iron duke that I have in my equally badass Cutlass Ciera.

oldirtybootz > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:53

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For $500 its a solid first car and a good one to learn stick on. People love to hate on all the crap cars Detroit put out from the 80s and 90s but as a cheap first car they certainly do their job.

AMC/Renauledge > 505Turbeaux 12/19/2013 at 12:55

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Aw shucks! You shouldn't have!

And yeah, posting just about anything about Buick (or AMC, Nash, Packard, Hudson, etc.) is N2Skylark bait.

TheRazorsEdge > Jagvar 12/19/2013 at 12:59

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I had an '86 Oldsmobile Firenza Cruiser hatchback, which was in the same family as these cars. Got it as a replacement car parental gift after an accident. And, whilst I was skeptical of the thing at first, I eventually grew to absolutely love that car. It was white with whitewall tires and for all its lack of speed, it kinda made me feel like Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon.

I enjoyed the thing so much that I occasionally peek online for one and sadly haven't seen one in ages. I suspect that the whole 'cash for clunkers' fiasco might've claimed 'em all to extinction.

Roadkill > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 12:59

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There is currently an 85 Pontiac Sunbird convertible on Ebay with 1K miles. They want 15K.

Michael J. Rodriguez > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:06

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What do you say to a teenager driving a Buick Skyhawk?

Sorry about your grandad, kid..

ioeasy > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:07

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When I think about everything that went wrong at GM which led them to bankruptcy, this platform/car is what instantly comes to mind. Maybe because when it came out, I was 16 years old, really into cars, and was desperately trying to talk my dad into buying a honda for my grandmother instead of this POS. But he bought it anyway, well, because 'MURICA. So I hated it both objectively as the piece of automotive shit it was and also because it represented the ever growing gulf in the relationship with my father. Anyway, when I look at the picture of the car, I can instantly hear the sound of it starting, even when brand new. It sounded like you threw a bunch of rocks in a big coffee can, and then shook it around while coughing into it. It was not the sound of precision, of countless man hours spent in an engineering lab perfecting the feel of a switch, or the sound of an exhaust. It was the sound of a fucking GM accounting turd sitting at his desk in Detroit listening to the sound of gunshots outside his office window, seeing smoke of a burning abandoned building on the horizon, and trying to save .8 cents per unit by spraying 2 microns less paint on every car, rust be damned. I would never buy this car, for any price, and if someone gave it to me, I would burn it in my driveway as the symbol of so many things that went wrong both personally and as a nation in the 1980's.

Gweeds > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:08

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For a while growing up, my father had a beat-assed first gen. It had no brakes, so he'd use the handbrake to slow down. Memories.

Michael H > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:09

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That looks like an absolutely fantastic $500 car. Cheap transportation and if it's as well cared for as it looks like, it should have quite a few years left in it. Great article.

M54B30 > Just wear your damn mask... 12/19/2013 at 13:09

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How'd those brakes work out for him...?

Kidding. Not a bad price. How wrong can you really go for $500?

Reckoning Day > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:15

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Hey don't knock it....my 1980 turbo Trans Am did o-60 in a quick 8 seconds !!!!!

Cotton > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:24

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I did this very thing when I decided driving my F150 & paying $600 dollars a month in gas was getting too ridiculous. I found an '85 Chrysler Lebaron 4 door with 2.2L Turbo for $500 bucks. It gets 27mpg on the highway, can keep up with traffic, and the gas bill is now a respectable $230 per month.

Built BMW Tough > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:28

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Waited 8.5 seconds...read the article and the ad, and then waited an additional 8.5 seconds, then 8.5 minutes...nope. Nope. Mind still isn't changed.

StevenG > oldirtybootz 12/19/2013 at 13:30

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The reason folks hate them is that "as a cheap first care they certainly do the job" was an equally true claim when they rolled out of the factory.

StevenG > Slave2anMG 12/19/2013 at 13:32

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I can't imagine how much stuff would have to be repaired. At some point cars are so cheap that they cost more to fix than just buying a newer one.

IMissTheOldInternet > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:39

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I appreciate this post, but I was really hoping that someone had made an 8.5 second Skyhawk. Because that would be incredible.

Kugelblitz > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 13:43

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I had the Pontiac version, the Sunbird. I loved that car, all it ever did to me was wear out tires and brakes. Sadly a hit-and-run driver killed it. The car was nails for a commuter box.

Just wear your damn mask... > M54B30 12/19/2013 at 13:51

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That was my first reaction. Something about snow and a warning for driving too fast for conditions.

quarterlifecrisis > Ry-bones, FiST pilot 12/19/2013 at 13:52

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Buicks tend to come with that scent, but the 3rd pedal may change that...

Just wear your damn mask... > M54B30 12/19/2013 at 13:52

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Something about snow and a warning for too driving too fast for conditions...I can go wrong if my wife finds out I spent anything on a vehicle for my nephew.

gwurst > Jagvar 12/19/2013 at 13:56

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I had a couple Cavalier hatchbacks. For a crappy car I thought they looked pretty-good.

cluelessk > AMC/Renauledge 12/19/2013 at 13:59

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I love the late 80's early 90's GM stuff. My first car was a '90 Cutlass Supreme International. And still regretting not picking up a Calais International with a 5 spd.

JoelA237 > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 14:24

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I had a t-type hatch for a while, kinda neat because no one at all knew what it was.

BuckaBuckaSputter > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom 12/19/2013 at 14:40

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Yep. With a buck to spare!

Blze001 > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 14:41

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$500? If it was maintained as well as the appearance suggests, my 18-year old college self would jump on it in a hurry.

These cars were deplorably boring and crappy... but I mean, if it runs without needing a rebuild every two years and isn't beat to hell appearance wise, I'd totally get it as a poor-student mobile.

Klaus Schmoll > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 14:43

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As a European, I'm always amazed at how much Opel I can see in these Buicks, even back then.

Danewyorker > Klaus Schmoll 12/19/2013 at 14:57

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GM J car was also opel & vauxhal-

dave the swede car guy > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 15:10

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my ex wife had a J body 90 Cavalier, bought it new, 3spd auto, air, 2 door, and then proceeded to drive it for the the 12 yrs... with no real issues. She ran it up two trees, after we divorced she most likely never had it serviced regularly from the time we split in 96 till it died in 2002 with 180k+ on it. Yes those cars were crappy, but sometimes you meet a crappy soul with true determination to survive

thirteenthfloorelevator > Klaus Schmoll 12/19/2013 at 16:12

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It's pretty much the same machine, is it not? Vauxhall over here on Mud island, but the same devices underneath...

HJTravels > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 17:00

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A friend of mine has one with a 4 speed manual.

With-a-G is back to not having anything written after his username > Built BMW Tough 12/19/2013 at 17:00

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I totally expected the punchline of this article to be a quarter mile time or something, because that certainly would change my mind about the Buick Skyhawk. Just read the ad copy in the blurry JPEG and saw it's a 0-60 time. Yikes.

Klaus Schmoll > Danewyorker 12/19/2013 at 17:00

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I know, it said so in the article. Still interesting though.

evilfacelessturtle (Hooning a Ford is Domestic Abuse) > cluelessk 12/19/2013 at 17:13

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Seriously, they're so underrated. They haven't made anything nearly as light, nimble and handsome since. And with any of the 60 Degree V6s they were very reliable.

evilfacelessturtle (Hooning a Ford is Domestic Abuse) > Kugelblitz 12/19/2013 at 17:16

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Seriously, people who've never owned one love to talk shit, but you wouldn't still be seeing them trudging along even today if they weren't reliable.

evilfacelessturtle (Hooning a Ford is Domestic Abuse) > Jartosz 12/19/2013 at 17:17

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Was it a 4-banger?

evilfacelessturtle (Hooning a Ford is Domestic Abuse) > Cotton 12/19/2013 at 17:18

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The Dodge version of that (Lancer) had a Shelby tuned version that was actually a pretty cool sport sedan.

mcgiggidy > Jagvar 12/19/2013 at 18:44

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A good friend of mine had his hatchback from highschool up until a few years ago. Absolutely loved the car, despite no AC, radio, electric anything. He got it from his aunt with about 25k miles on it. It seemed to snap the timing belt just about every other month.

gravit8 > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 19:46

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6 years. It took 6 years, and finally- FINALLY - my first car has graced the pages of Jalopnik.

4 cylinders of unknown displacement. A soupy, slushy console-mounted autotragic. A faulty electrical system and an ashtray full of cheap cigarette butts. This was what I bought from an older neighbor kid so he could scrape together enough money for a bus ticket to Portland.

Much like that kid's future, the Skyhawk was a tragic tale of dreams twisted by reality into a harsh jumble of painful failure and hot, burning liquids.

I actually owned two. That's right, I owned TWO different examples of this fine automobile. The first was a coupe, a 2-door rascal suitable for handbrake J-turns and hours of gravel road mischief. I bought another one, with 4 doors, after my brother's ex-girlfriend rear-ended me literally in front of school one morning in the 1st (I paid less than $500 for each of them, way back in 1995). The second one died of a hole through the master cylinder piston head. I last saw it parked on the side of a road in deepest Iowa...

gravit8 > Slave2anMG 12/19/2013 at 19:49

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I would have killed to have a stick in the two I owned as '1st' cars. The '81 coupe I had was actually pretty snappy even with the slushbox, and the center-mounted handbrake pretty much guaranteed fun at every turn.

Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius > AMC/Renauledge 12/19/2013 at 21:21

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I had the misfortune of owning a Sunbird convertible. Still have loose filings to prove it.

tommyscooter > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 21:58

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If those old J body cars were so horrible, then why do I see so many still on the road?

puppyknuckles > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom 12/19/2013 at 22:12

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My first thought!

puppyknuckles > DailyTurismo 12/19/2013 at 22:14

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"Skyhawk", as fucking awesome as it sounds, also redundant?

Prophet of hoon > Jagvar 12/20/2013 at 00:38

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IIRC this one is for sale

DIRTEE30 > DailyTurismo 12/20/2013 at 01:26

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221k miles?! LMAO!

We are after all talking about a GM product from the 80s. It's trouble free for the first 21k miles. After that, you're shooting the dice every time you twist the key in the ignition.

HolmerS > AMC/Renauledge 12/20/2013 at 03:24

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I had this car in light blue when I was in the Navy back in the early 80's. Drove it from Florida to California and back and then to Maine. Put in three engines along the way. The last one was a truck engine some guys on the base scrounged up for me. My TV and boom box melted in the back while driving through the desert. In Maine, I had to keep a monster load of sand in the back to help with traction. I used to drive home from work and pull the emergency brake to slide two miles bouncing of the snow piles beside the road. What a blast that was. I finally had to leave it on the side of the road when the timing chain busted on that truck engine. We were on our way home then. I have some very good memories from that car. It wasn't a good car compared with the GTO it replaced, but gas and engines were cheaper and it actually made it on every trip except the one coming home. All in all I'd say Buick's version of the Vega was a ton of fun.

zz383mero > DailyTurismo 12/20/2013 at 03:39

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What was it 0-60 in 8.5 seconds?
I have driven a Skyhawk and I believe it was one of the reasons Buick is dead today!
I miss Buick. There were some amazing cars to roll out wearing the Buick name, but that is history!

dhunt > DailyTurismo 12/20/2013 at 08:18

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I had an 87. The odometer did not have a hundred thousand place. As far as I know, it only had 35,000 miles when i got it. Check out that sweet burl wood steering wheel cover!

Quayzar > DailyTurismo 12/20/2013 at 09:18

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My first car was one of these. It was dark blue two door with a 1980s blue interior. It worked, cold A/C, had a great factory radio (graphic equaliser), was very comfortable, and did extremely well in the snow. It's the only automatic I've owned and I got it for $500 back then so depreciation stopped about 11 years ago. It served me well.

The only other photos I had of it got destroyed or are on photo paper because I didn't get a digital camera until late 2006.

Mr Joshua > jariten1781 12/20/2013 at 09:57

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I had one of these for years and it was probably the most reliable car I have ever owned.

Kugelblitz > evilfacelessturtle (Hooning a Ford is Domestic Abuse) 12/20/2013 at 10:25

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I bought another one a year later, which was still alive ten years later. The Iron Duke is not to be trifled with.

evilfacelessturtle (Hooning a Ford is Domestic Abuse) > Kugelblitz 12/20/2013 at 15:13

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I have a Grand Am with the L82 V6 and its still going strong at 200k without a single engine repair in it's life.