Buick Reatta: PH Carpool
80s Americana and unexpected charm in an emergency Stateside purchase
Car: 1989 Buick Reatta
Owned since: March 2015
Previously owned: Audi (A4 Avant 2.8 Quattro Sport, Allroad 2.7T), BMW (M Coupe, 318i, 325i, 328i, 535d, 540i, 545i, 550i), Lotus (Elise Sport 135), Volkswagen (Golf V6 4Motion, Touareg 4.2 V8 ABT).
Why I bought it:
"I'm an ex-pat currently living in America. Whilst waiting for the resolution to an accident with an uninsured driver that wrote-off my previous car, I was trawling through Craigslist for a cheap (but interesting) runabout and found this. Knew nothing about it but it had had one 'mature' owner from new, drove really well, looked in very good shape and was just such a random car that it was an easy decision to purchase."
Touchscreen tech, 80s style!
"Nothing. I bought it as an interesting 'disposable' car so I wouldn't have been upset if it was a clunker and wasn't expecting to keep it long anyway."
Things I loved:
"In so many ways it was utterly crap - but I loved its idiosyncrasies. The first car ever with a touchscreen display it was actually brilliant - comprehensive trip computer, memory climate control settings, even a calendar! Loved the digital display and selectable rev counter.
"The GM 3800 engine left the factory with 150 wild shire horses when new so at least 30 would have probably escaped by the time of my tenure but the unstressed nature of the motor (they regularly achieve 300,000 miles without maintenance) and high torque at low revs suited the car. For casual road driving I like to leave the car in a high gear and surf the torque. With only three gears it hardly ever changed gear to accelerate - the constant gear shuffling in modern eight- and nine-speed boxes drives me mad.
"The car was just a wafter to drive - light steering, very cosseting ride, relaxed engine. For the long straight roads here it was perfect! Despite the soft suspension and excessive weight there was surprisingly little body roll, but it was a car best suited to six tenths motoring. Research during ownership confirmed it to genuinely be a quirky car - GM's attempt to relaunch Buick, handbuilt and pitched as a Mercedes-Benz SL competitor, which explained the surprisingly decent build quality and incredibly high specification. Seems laughable in retrospect but it had its own charm.
"The interior was genuinely well finished, the huge rear parcel shelf was genuinely useful (as was the large load-through panel), the all-round visibility excellent and there was plenty of room despite the compact overall dimensions. The boot and fuel cap release were hidden behind the glovebox (which became a problem when the glovebox latch failed) but it had pop-up headlights, which makes it instantly cool.
Caramel cabin sticky in 40deg heat!
Things I hated:
"It reaches 40+ degrees here in the summer so the 26-year-old air-con struggles to cool a cabin that is pretty much 90 per cent glass. The front suspension somewhat lacked rebound damping and the Reatta achieved some notoriety by association appearing in Macklemore's DownTown music video.
"I lived in a constant state of fear that I might meet a genuine Reatta enthusiast. And it's such a shame it wasn't RWD."
Costs:
"I had the air-con completely renewed for about $600 in a vain attempt to combat the local heat. Four new tyres were $280. In total. The driver's door mechanism failed so I had to climb in and out through the passenger door for a week until I could get to a garage who fixed it with a fist thump and lube for free (seriously). I can't remember any other costs. It even did 28 (US 'short') mpg.
"From experience, US cars are really designed to better cope with the local environment (I'm in the south east) than European cars. I honestly won't buy anything other than American while I'm here. I'm grossly stereotyping, but US cars are built with wider tolerances so that things can 'bed-in', don't need much maintenance and last a long time. Trim, materials and electrics cope far better with the heat and replacement parts are designed to be more generic, lower priced and easier to fit. Chassis set-ups are more in tune with the wider, flatter and smoother roads. The high precision, high maintenance, dealer only mentality just doesn't stick here."
Where I've been:
"I used it for my 25-mile (each way) commute to the office and general pottering about."
What next?
"I planned to keep it for a couple of weeks. I only recently sold it after over a year of ownership as I'm now enjoying some top down motoring to the sound of a V8 burble with a Camaro convertible. A part of me was genuinely sad to see it go."
Want to share your car with PHers on Carpool? Email us at carpool@pistonheads.com!
[Source: Ryan Lewis, via YouTube]
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