The market for luxury two-seaters is limited, something Buick discovered upon the introduction of the Reatta in the late 1980s. Let’s see if today’s Nice Price or No Dice convertible survivor fairs better in the modern era.
Wow, we are feeling spicy this week. That proved obvious from the comments on yesterday’s funky 1991 Citroën BX 19 TZi. While the seller claimed to have been enjoying the never-sold-here private import as a daily driver without major issue, many of you felt the next owner wouldn’t likely be as lucky, and a $7,500 price tag meant a too onerous asking for such a risky roll of the dice. Ultimately, the Citroën ended up with a narrow turn-down in a 54 percent No Dice defeat.
Around the same time Citroën was bringing Marcello Gandini to the masses with the BX, Buick was going the exclusive route with a home-styled halo car for a small clutch of discriminating car buyers. The result was the Reatta, a truncated two-seater based on the Riviera and cousin to the similarly positioned Cadillac Allanté.
The name Reatta sounds like regatta, which conjures up images of the car paired with a sleek sailing boat and blasting yacht rock. However, according to those in the know, the name derives from the 1950s James Dean movie Giant, in which the ranch was dubbed Reata, or Spanish for lariat. GM marketers added an extra “t” for good measure.
Originally debuting as a coupe for the 1988 model year, the Reatta gained a convertible version two years later. The reasons for the delay were twofold. Engineers first had to figure out how to make the body structurally sound enough without a roof. They also had to figure out an innovative way for the fabric top to fold when raising and lowering, as, unlike most other convertible tops that sit inside the body’s lines, the Reatta’s fits flush with the fenders.
For the former issue, Buick was only partially successful. The Reatta being hand-built meant significant variations in NVH in cars coming off the line. This was to such an extent that Buick allocated only the best-testing cars for public sale while offering those that didn’t cut the mustard to employees at a substantial discount. The second engineering feat was more of a win as the Reatta convertible’s top does some fancy sideways contractions when lowering to fit the body lines. It’s sort of like those ’90s IBM laptops with the keyboards that slid out sideways!
This 1990 Reatta convertible looks to be in excellent condition. These were only offered in the 1990 and ’91 model years as Buick pulled the plug on the Reatta as a whole after that. As such, it features a driver’s side airbag and a redesigned dashboard that ditches the fun but flaky touchscreen display for more traditional and more likely-to-work mechanical button controls.
Buick offered the Reatta with a single drivetrain, comprised of the company’s stout 3.8-liter pushrod V6 with fuel injection matched with a four-speed automatic. This combo drives the front wheels and is paired with ABS disc brakes all the way around.
With just 170 horsepower and 220 lb-ft of torque to work with, the 3,400-pound convertible isn’t going to win any races, but it should be OK for drama-free day-to-day driving, which is what it was designed for.
According to the ad, this Reatta has done 84,848 miles of driving and comes with a clean title. The latter attribute is noteworthy since the car is being offered by a shop that apparently has both whole cars for sale and a yard of junkers in case one needs only a part.
Painted in red over a biscuit leather and vinyl interior and wearing a nice set of factory five-spokes, this car seems to be a solid survivor. The seller says it’s “Ready to go” and claims it to be “Nice!” According to the Reatta Owners Club, these are under-appreciated classics that one day will see their due. We’ll now need to decide if this one is worth its $5,595 asking to wait out that eventuality.
What do you think? Is this Reatta worth $5,595 as it sits? Or is that too much for a car that was never very popular to begin with?
You decide!
Facebook Marketplace out of Doon, Iowa, or go here if the ad disappears.
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