Buick Regal The Buick Regal was a mid-size car produced by General Motors' Buick division from 1973 through 2004, during which Buick also used the Century name on mid-size models; the two frequently shared bodies and powertrains.
1973 - 1977
Buick had been the first GM division to bring a personal luxury car to market with its full-size 1963 Riviera but was otherwise slow to react to the developing lower-priced mid-size personal luxury market, which Pontiac created with the 1969 Grand Prix and Chevrolet with the Monte Carlo the following year, 1970. At the same time Oldsmobile added a formal notchback coupe to its intermediate line, the Cutlass Supreme, in 1970 and that model soon became Olds' best selling intermediate. Wanting a model that could be marketed to compete against the Olds Cutlass Supreme as well as the Grand Prix and Monte Carlo, Buick introduced the Regal for 1973, as a top line coupe in that division's intermediate A-body line, the Century. The year 1973 also marked the introduction of the first major restyling of GM's intermediate A-body design since 1968, as well as the first major restyling for the intermediate-based G-body used for the Monte Carlo and Grand Prix.
A highly-trimmed, notchback coupe, the first Regal shared its front and rear styling with its Century parent with distinctions amounting to differing grilles and taillight lenses. The Regal shared the same "Colonnade" pillared hardtop roofline (a hardtop with center pillar but frameless doors unlike a sedan body) and greenhouse (window area) with the Grand Prix, Monte Carlo and Cutlass Supreme as well as the lower-priced Buick Century Luxus coupe. Like its corporate cousins, the Regal (and Luxus) featured the newly fashionable opera windows, which were small fixed rear-side windows surrounded by sheetmetal, instead of the traditional roll-down windows. Only the Colonnade hardtop coupe was offered in the Regal line in 1973, but a new four-door Colonnade sedan (with six-window-greenhouse and frameless door windows) debuted in 1974 and continued through the 1977 model year.
Regal interiors were generally more luxurious than lesser Century models with woodgrain trim on dashboard and door panels, along with door-pull straps and notchback bench seats with center armrests with either cloth, velour or vinyl upholstery. Optionally available throughout the run was a 60/40 split bench seat with armrest. For 1976 and 1977, the Regal coupe was available with the S/R option that included reclining bucket seats with cordoroy upholstery. The model lasted five years with minimal changes, although there was a fairly substantial facelift in 1976 (for the coupe only - sedans stayed with original 1973 sheetmetal through 1977), which incorporated the recently legalized square headlights (horizontally-mounted on coupes, and vertically on sedans - much like the mid-1960s Pontiacs).
The Regal most commonly powered by Buick's 350 in³ V8, which was standard equipment in 1973 and 1974 and optional from 1975 to 1977, and the larger 455 in³ V8 was optional in 1973 and 1974 only. Starting in 1975, most Regals came standard with Buick's resurrected 231 in³ V6 engine previously offered on the Skylark from 1964 to 1967; the engine's tooling had been sold to Kaiser Motors for use in Jeep models. In 1975 and 1976, the Century and Regal were the only mid-sized cars in America to offer V6 engines.
The Century designation was quietly dropped from the Regal in 1975.
|
