The most obvious have been a longer, extra-pointed hood and a more sharply Vee’d grille to match. A chief example is the 1970 GSX, a bespoilered GS 455 hardtop with new “Stage I” engine tuning; it saw only 678 copies; the GS 455 convertible was little higher at 1416. Both have been back for ’71 (GSX as an option bundle) with daring black body stripes and hood paint, special grille, chrome wheels, and fats tires. Buick’s main mechanical improvement was an enormous 455 V-8. These could be powered by all the things from a 155-bhp 250-cid six to an enormous-block 429-cid V-8 with 360-370 horsepower. The previous provided six and V-eight Tudor and Fordor, together with business and club coupes. Some say it stemmed from the sport of Rounders that was played in England and Wales throughout Tudor times. Bolstered by spiffy Luxus and Regal submodels (the latter made a separate sequence after ’74), the midsize Centurys sold effectively through 1977, offering an important “security net” at instances when inflation and rising fuel prices sent would-be massive-automotive buyers scurrying for thriftier alternate options. The 12 months-old junior line displayed the expected minor trim shuffles; Gran Sports and Sportwagons remained separate collection, as in ’68. Trim packages created a bevy of models: base, 350 and Custom Skylarks, plus Sportwagons and Gran Sports.

The final of the 1968-vintage Skylarks appeared for 1971-72. They remained strong, good-looking middleweights, though their engines were being emasculated by energy-sapping emission-management units, which meant Gran Sports weren’t so hot anymore. Never­the­less, full-dimension automobiles remained Buick’s bread-and-butter through 1975, accounting for over 40 percent of complete division gross sales. Buick’s final true muscle vehicles were additionally 1970-seventy two fashions. All have been thirsty. The last 455-cid Electra, for example, was good for only 8.7 mpg within the Environmental Protection Agency’s metropolis-gasoline-economic system ratings. The GS option, a final vestige of sport, vanished after 1975, but Buick tried to maintain lovers fascinated with a “Rallye” package deal offering reinforced entrance antiroll bar, a new rear bar, and heavy-responsibility springs and shocks. Oddball styling and outsize heft must have contributed to Riviera’s sagging fortunes on this period; by 1975, gross sales had been less than half of what they’d been five years earlier than. All employed a brand new-generation A-body with so-known as “Colonnade” styling that did away with pillarless coupes and sedans.

Intermediates had been next on the company slenderizing schedule, so a smaller Century bowed for 1978 together with a separate Regal collection of non-public-luxury coupes, all constructed on a brand new 108.1-inch-wheelbase A-body. This sizzling-promoting line continued into 1970, however without Specials — the smaller workaday models were now Skylarks — and with Estate wagons in a separate series. Estate wagons moved up to its 127-inch wheelbase. The following yr brought even fancier Electra Park Avenue models. This was claimed to provide even higher trip and handling than the GS, and probably should have been standard to handle the size and weight of these beasts. The new subcompact Vega introduced for 1971 took over that finish of the powertrain spectrum for Chevrolet, so Nova moved to a extra responsive six-cylinder engine — 250-cubic-inch and 145 horsepower — as normal fare. Arriving for mid ‘seventy three as the Apollo, it was just a rebadged clone of the 111-inch-wheelbase X-body Chevrolet Nova from 1968, with the same three physique styles (two- and four-door sedans and a hatchback two-door) plus, initially, the same 250-cid Chevy straight six as normal power.

Rated at one hundred ten bhp, and in addition customary energy for the ‘seventy five Skylark, Century, and Regal, this would be a big engine in years to return. Electras via 1979 relied on a normal Chevy-constructed 350 V-8; a new 403 with 185 bhp was optionally available, courtesy of Olds. The upmarket Electra remained a C-physique cousin to Olds Ninety-Eight and Cadillac de Ville. The latter remained massive upper-class two- and three-seat haulers battling the likes of Chrysler’s Town & Country. Convertibles were no more (killed after ’75), however two- and four-door sedans were supplied in LeSabre, LeSabre Custom, Electra 225, and 225 Limited sequence. LeSabre nonetheless rode a 123-inch wheelbase, however so did Wildcat for the first time in 4 years. All of the package deal needed to be carryover, including the wheelbase, together with carryover front-finish sheet-metallic, cowl, entrance and rear bumpers, door lowers, quarter-panel internal construction, and many others. The Plymouth stylists might do anything they wished so long as they held these hardpoints. All full-sizers acquired new grilles, bumpers, and taillights; intermediates received longer hoods, bulkier lower-body contours, and different grilles for each series. It was a definite asset throughout the large-automobile sales hunch touched off by the Middle East oil embargo late that year, however intermediates would stay more essential to Buick’s total health.