The Limited was a new trim for 1958, slotted above the Roadmaster. Does this mean experimental, export, or something different? Buick provided a specific model number for each of these.
All that can be found in the Encyclopedia of American Cars (copyright 1996) is the price for each of these is labeled as “exp”. However, as Buick demonstrated a willingness to build special cars, these get the nod.ĭetails on these are nonexistent. If it weren’t for the 1955 Century just covered, there would have been temptation to eliminate these from the list. The 1954 Skylark was much less customized, was over $500 less expensive, and sold less than half as many.īeing a smidgeon more Century than Roadmaster, the Skylark model was dropped at the end of the year.ġ956 Century four-door sedan 19 Century two-door sedan The 1953 Skylark, a very customized Buick and the brainchild of Harley Earl, had been a $5,000 car intended for the rich and powerful. Not unlike the base Special, it seems if people were going to spring for a Buick convertible, they went with the midrange Super as the sales difference was over ten-fold with 6,900 Super convertibles finding a happy home. With 63,000 buyers popping the extra $46 for the Special Deluxe four-door sedan, the base sedan seems a bit redundant.īuick was the third largest producer of convertibles in the United States for 1952, despite what sales of the Special convertible would seem to indicate. Production: 137 (sedan) and 600 (convertible)įor 1952, Buick had the base and Deluxe four-door sedan in the bottom tier Special series. This has definitely been one of the subtler differences seen in how models are reported.
Making this distinction due to hydraulically controlled seats and windows was seen throughout the Buick line for a number of years. In the Roadmaster series, there were 12,900 produced with hydraulic seats and windows the remaining 809, seen here, were not so equipped. The distinction was whether or not the car had hydraulically controlled seats and windows. Oddly, Buick reported two different model numbers for the 1951 Roadmaster Riviera hardtops. This two-door hardtop body was introduced in 1949 and was popular from the outset, available in both the Super and Roadmaster series.
By 1953, the Roadmaster wagon was the least expensive Roadmaster and is reported as having had a base price of $180 less than the Buick Super wagon – which is somewhat suspect.Īs has been seen repeatedly throughout this series, wooden bodied cars never had much popularity at the time they were new. The wood was a distinct factor in price in 1947 as the Roadmaster wagon carried a base price of $3,249 – a figure that was $1,017 more than a Roadmaster four-door sedan. These wagons were some of the last available in the mainstream American car market to still have wooden body panels. Regardless of source, production was consistently below the magic threshold of 1,000 units being produced for a model year. So far in this series, the variations among sources has been one of the more pronounced for these Roadmaster wagons.