The Buick Riviera private luxurious coupe attained monstrous proportions by the center Seventies, scaling in at effectively over 4,500 kilos by 1976. After spending 1977 and 1978 as sibling to the Chevy Caprice, the Riviera then moved to the front-wheel-drive platform utilized by the Cadillac Eldorado and Oldsmobile Toronado, staying there by way of the 1985 mannequin yr. The Riviera world grew to become much more attention-grabbing for the 1986 mannequin yr, when a smaller and extra refined technology hit showrooms with curvier traces and digital gadgetry straight out of science fiction. Right this moment’s Junkyard Gem is a type of automobiles, present in a self-service boneyard in Phoenix, Arizona.
What makes this automobile such a captivating little bit of automotive historical past is that this dash-mounted touchscreen interface, often called the Graphic Management Middle. The 1986 Riviera was the primary GM automobile to get the GCC, which suggests it was the primary manufacturing automobile in historical past with a factory-installed touchscreen show. This technique grew to become obtainable within the Buick Reatta and the Oldsmobile Toronado a couple of years later.
The GCC used a cathode-ray tube display sourced from an ATM producer, which ran on 120VAC energy and required an inverter and harmful high-voltage wiring contained in the sprint. It was used to function the HVAC, the radio and the journey laptop, in addition to to show working and diagnostic data. The system used quite a few cumbersome elements along with the sprint display; I’ve extracted a few full units of GCC elements over time and plan to construct them right into a junkyard-parts boombox.
Because it turned out, the senior-citizen-heavy demographic of Buick buyers did not really feel nice enthusiasm for the GCC and there wasn’t an enormous gross sales payoff for this revolutionary expertise. That did not cease GM from introducing the primary mass-produced automobiles with head-up shows a few years later.
The working gear wasn’t fairly as refined because the GCC. The 1986-1993 Rivieras bought old style 3.8-liter Buick V6s underneath their hoods; the one on this automobile was rated at 140 horsepower and 200 pound-feet.
Should you needed a guide transmission in your ’86 Rivvie, you have been out of luck. A four-speed automated was obligatory gear. Be aware the bizarre face-loading cassette deck in entrance of the shifter; the AM/FM radio was a remote-controlled unit dwelling inside the middle console.
The MSRP for this automobile was $19,831, or about $55,691 in 2023 {dollars}. The upper-zoot Riviera T-Kind value $21,577 ($60,595 in as we speak’s cash), making it the costliest Buick of 1986. These costs put the Riviera in the identical value league because the BMW 3 Sequence, which began at $19,560 for the bottom 325 two-door.
The ultimate Rivieras offered have been 1999 fashions, although the Riviera identify has been used on a few Chinese language-market Buick idea automobiles this century.
The GCC will get heavy play on this Shut Encounters-inspired industrial.