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brandegee
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
I gotta nitpick. The X-body is not roomy. I've never been in a car with less front head room, and that includes vehicles like an 85 MR2 and an 88 VW Fox. Miserable transport device.
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If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
My dad had an '81 4 door with the 2.8. It didn't even last a year. That's right, a YEAR. It literally started falling apart. Which makes sense, when you consider these things already felt 10 years old as soon as you got them.

Perhaps the worst part was that it was a company car. This meant that it was replaced by ANOTHER fucking '81 Skylark. The old man drove nothing but GMs before that, and has bought Japanese ever since.
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MushyHeirloom
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
There used to be a hatchback Citation around town. Wonder what happened to it?

Anyway, this reminds me of the very-early-A-body Buick (presumably a Century) that I saw today. I think there's a four-door version of this car around somewhere, too, but I haven't seen it lately.
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theeastbaykid
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
My grandma had a Pontiac Phoenix, which is possibly the least memorable of all the X cars. It got replaced by a '95 Taurus. My grandma outlasted them both.
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Murilee Martin
01/23/09

@theeastbaykid: I had a friend in college who inherited an '81 Phoenix. We're talking 1985 here, rust-free Southern California, and a car with about 10,000 old-lady miles on it... and it was completely, hopelessly, basket-case falling apart (though the blue velour interior looked great).

Total case of what the hospitals call "100 Year Old Man Syndrome," in which you find and/or cause 5 new problems every time you open it up to fix anything; I finally refused to help my friend work on it. Junked and crushed before it was 6 years old. Lots of folks swore never to buy GM again after similar experience with X bodies.
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danio3834
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
You know, up here in the rust belt, that car could actually fetch some dough. Not a lot of dough, but somebody aroud here would have a boner for a rust free late malaiser like that.
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Cognitive Friction
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
Growing up in the Western suburbs of Chicago our neighbor across the street had an '83(?) Citation hatch.

You could watch it rust in real time, and if you listened closely you could hear it too. It sounded like Rice Krispies when you pour milk on 'em.
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Pete Gaines
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
We used to have one of these pieces of shit:

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Six Flags Over Tomsk
01/23/09

@Pete Gaines: Yo, dawg, I heard you like... Aw, screw it.
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jduffy13
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
One of these should be encased in perspex and placed across the street from GM's headquarters as a constant reminder of their ineptitude.

That or like the horse's head placed in the bed of their lead loser.
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MushyHeirloom
01/24/09

@jduffy13: Could you even fit a horse's head in the tiny bed of a H2 SUT?
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DoctorNine
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
Oh my. What a sad, sad little car. I had forgotten what a vale of windswept emptiness the early 80's were. And not just GM cars either. Massive interest rates, downsizing, recession. Except for some really brilliant imports, like the Toyota Tercel SR5 4WD wagon, it was a bleak time for many of us. My personal 80's Hell wasn't too bad, as I had a nice little Fiat Miafiori, followed by a zippy Tercel, so I was safe. But some of my friends had rides like this. It was a horrible time for some diehard GM fans who couldn't adapt. As I recall, I drank a lot more then.
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Elhigh
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
Wow, an Iron Duke that still runs. The mind boggles.

Hog it out and replace it with a new Ecotec 2.2. Smaller, lighter, more power - I see no downside!

Well, besides the chassis.
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Six Flags Over Tomsk
01/23/09

@Elhigh: Just bolt on some Citation X/11 suspension bits and it'll be fine.
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mechimike
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
I nailed one of these one day coming home from work, while living in New Jersey. I was in my '74 Plymouth Satellite. When Satellite hit Skylark, the Skylark was smashed almost in half- luckily I hit the rear passenger side. That poor car was done.

The headlight wasn't even broken on my Satellite. The grill was cracked and the chrome scraped off the bumper. I think the fender was dented slightly, too. I drove it home. That was over 8 years ago, and I still haven't fixed the Plymouth.
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MushyHeirloom
01/24/09

@mechimike: He ran the light/sign I take it?
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Jellodyne
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
What a piece of crap. I had an '86 -- pretty sure the "Custom" was like a sub-base model. As in, they could build them this stripped, but only if you asked for it.

Apparently the '86 model had a fiberglass timing gear that inevitable will get chewed through by the metal gear it meshes with, resulting in a sudden case of engine nonfunctius totalus. Mine happened halfway between Cincinnati and Minneapolis, with a U-Haul trailer containing all of my stuff in tow. What a nightmare. Don't know if the '84 suffered from the same problem.

@edebaby: I once got pulled over in it and the cop asked if it was mine. I asked him if it looked like something someone would steal. Who knew?
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Jellodyne
01/23/09

@Jellodyne: Also, this car was proof of the saying that GMs run badly longer than most cars run at all. I spent a couple of years hoping the damn thing would die for the excuse to replace it.
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Deartháir II
01/23/09

@Jellodyne: One of my best friends, Big Gay Adam, had one exactly like this. He named it Baldrick, as it was small, rather ugly, somewhat androgynous, smelled funny, and tended to be embarrassing to be seen with in public, but nonetheless remained a fairly reliable servant.

Until he drove it off a cliff.

I think it was on purpose, but I can't prove it.
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Graverobber
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
They styled these to look like the big-boy Regals and Rivieras. While it's not bad looking, designing a small car with the same styling cues as a large one is somewhat like party dresses on 5-year olds: initially cute, but upon closer inspection, incongruous. At least this one doesn't seem to suffer the GM door-sag issue.
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UDMan
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
When I was looking to replace my Opel Manta I bought in 1975, I went back to the Buick Dealer, and they had a Black Skylark 2 Door, in their "Sport" motif. I think it was too early to call it the "T" type, but it was along the same vein; Blacked out trim, a smaller versions of Buicks Sport Rims, 2.8L V-6, and get this, a 4 Speed Stick! It really was classy for 1980, but at close to $8,000 (if I remember correctly) rather pricey. So I bought a 1980 Mustang instead. Looking back, I should have bought the Slylark.
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LTDScott
01/23/09

In reply to 1984 Buick Skylark Custom
I saw an Olds Omega not so long ago and I too realized how rare these things are nowadays.

Before my family moved to the US from Australia, we came here on vacation several times and I remember my dad renting a Skylark like this (cept a sedan and a later model with the license plate in the rear bumper) from Rent-A-Wreck. It wasn't noteworthy at all but I do have a memory of it.

There's a team preparing a Citation X/11 NOTCHBACK for the Ohio (I think) LeMons race. You hardly ever see a Citation notchback, and I didn't even know they sold an X/11 version of it until I saw their racer!
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Elhigh
01/23/09

@LTDScott: The X/11 was originally notchback only, but then somebody cranked it out in the hatchback and everybody liked the proportions better so they stuck with that. The notch was lighter and had a shorter polar moment of inertia, so it turned in better, but sales ruled the day and the notch was dropped.
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MushyHeirloom
01/24/09

@Elhigh: ...exactly the opposite of the situation today.
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