“… a new philosophy about personal luxury cars.”

The seventh-generation Riviera debuted on November 14th, 1985. For a third and final time, Buick downsized the Riviera—this time to a 108-inch wheelbase and a 187.2-inch overall length. The size reduction (more than 19 inches shorter) made this generation the smallest and lightest of all Rivieras. Among the planning assumptions for the seventh generation model and its Eldorado and Toronado platform-mates was that gasoline would cost approximately $3.00 a gallon upon debut. Instead, fuel was going for around $1.19 when the three prestige coupes entered the market in late 1985.

In part because of the assumptions mentioned previously, there were no more V8s for the Riviera—from 1986 forward, the Riviera that had been V8 only until 1979 would now be V6 only. Also gone forever was the diesel V8, almost certainly less missed by buyers than the gasoline versions. Production moved to a brand new plant in Hamtramck, MI. Finally, the Riviera was also back to being coupe-only—the four-year experiment with the glamorous, attention-getting, and pricey convertibles was no more.

After many years that had some (sometimes many) choices, the only available powertrain for 1986 was the LG2 “3800” 140 bhp 3.8 liter/231 ci V6 with sequential fuel injection paired with a Turbo Hydramatic 440-T4 automatic transmission with overdrive. The LG2 was a version of the previous generation Riviera’s LD5 modified for transverse front-wheel-drive usage and was first seen as an option in the 1984 versions of the Buick Century and the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. Though it was “just” a V6, the LG2 had the same power rating as the 1985’s base V8, making the substantially lighter “civilian” 1986 Riviera quicker than its 1985 equivalent. The 0-60 time was about 10 seconds, making the Riviera quite competitive in class.

Fuel mileage for the new Riviera was 19 city/30 highway by the day’s standards. With an 18.0-gallon fuel tank, the driver of a 1986 Riviera could reasonably expect a range of 370 to 415 miles with a 10% fuel reserve. This impressive range put paid to the reputation of Rivieras of years past, who were often said to “pass anything but a gas station”­—and sometimes had about 200 miles between fill-ups. The 1986 ended up with among the longest ranges of any Riviera, despite having a smaller fuel tank than most.

Along with its downsizing, powertrain, and configuration revisions, a change also came to the Riviera’s styling brief. Buick described the seventh-generation exterior as a “gentle wedge form” and paid far more attention to aerodynamics than with any previous generation (more advanced technology made these objectives more easily attainable). Led by William Porter, the division settled on its new Riviera look quickly—the final design for the new generation was recognizable even in renderings done many years earlier, in late 1980.

As might be expected with the far lighter weight (the Riv shed more than 500 pounds) and smaller engine, fuel economy was better than any Riviera before—or after. Perhaps more surprisingly, the available interior room was quite close to that of the sixth-generation cars, a sign of careful and skilled packaging design.

For the first time in its history, the presumed differentiator for a new generation of Rivieras was inside the car—not its exterior design. The Graphic Control Center included seven to ten microprocessors (depending on the particular options ordered) and a 3 x 4 inch touch-sensitive cathode-ray tube screen. This component was bleeding edge for publicly available technology in the mid-1980s and certainly not inexpensive to produce­—dealer cost for a replacement unit was said to be over $2,000. The Graphic Control Center was also easily a quarter of a century ahead of its time—probably not the right choice for the average Riviera customer.

Designed by Delco Electronics over several years with assistance from Buick engineers, the Graphic Control Center was prototyped in one hundred 1984 and 1985 Rivieras. In production form, it included diagnostic displays, a trip monitor, retained accessory power, and controls for the electronic air conditioning and sound system. Touching gauges brought up additional information, including a tachometer along with battery and coolant gauges.

The Graphic Control Center was heavily promoted in both the press and Buick’s sales materials—the 24-page 1986 Riviera brochure devoted its first four inside pages to it. At the time, Buick’s chief engineer, Dave Sharpe, told Popular Mechanics that the new Riviera targeted America’s young “technotypes.” From over a third of a century away, it’s quite unclear who he was talking about.

The 1986 Riviera had many new standard features: four-wheel power disc brakes were finally included on every example after having been an option for almost a decade. Another item newly standard on the seventh-generation Riviera was tungsten-halogen headlamps—first seen on a Riviera in the 1972 Silver Arrow III concept car and optional on production Rivieras since 1981. So was a high-mounted stop lamp—federally mandated for all 1986 automobiles and a faint echo of the fourth-generation Rivieras.

Every one of the 15 exterior colors was also new—even the Riviera’s black and white color formulations (both of which had been constant for at least a decade) did not carry over from 1985. The Riviera’s four Firemist colors were shared with Cadillac and Oldsmobile—but not with other Buicks as had been true in the fifth-generation cars.

Flies In The Ointment

From a marketing perspective, the 1986 Riviera was more than a foot shorter than that year’s Buick Regal coupe—whose base price of $10,654 was $9,177 less than the $19,831 that the supposedly senior coupe went for. A persistent rumor stated that Buick dealers were told not to place the Riviera too close to the similar-looking but even less expensive Somerset Regal coupe, which had been on their showroom floors since the beginning of the 1985 model year. As early as September 1985, Popular Mechanics pointedly queried, “why make an expensive car look like a cheaper model?”

As if that wasn’t enough, the Riviera’s size was also quite close to that of the LeSabre—traditionally the largest coupe in the Buick family, and now also front wheel drive. It also probably did not help that 1986 Riviera prices were up almost 16% over the 1985 version, even when accounting for inflation.

Due to these and other contributing factors, Riviera sales collapsed, declining 66% to 22,138—a painful state of affairs for General Motors, which the Riviera shared with its Eldorado (off 72%) and Toronado (down 62%) stablemates. Six years later, GM had now managed to duplicate the carnage that Ford had experienced with its 1980 downsizing. Notably, Ford Thunderbird, Lincoln Mark VII (the Continental name departed that year), and Mercury Cougar sales were all up for 1986, along with those of some of GM’s “junior” personal luxury coupes. The December 1987 issue of Special Interest Autos simply called it “the E-body disaster” and speculated that it was costing GM half a billion dollars a year in lost profits.

It seems clear that General Motors had utterly misjudged what the appeal of its new prestige coupe platform was to folks who might actually consider buying it. One can only wonder how many hundreds of thousands of future vehicle sales were lost as the revised E-body offerings for 1986 got buyers permanently out of the habit of buying big personal luxury coupes—what only one year prior had been over 181,000 high-profit sales. To add to the pain, a short but memorable star turn by a Riviera in the 1986 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Raw Deal featured a sixth-generation convertible—not a seventh-generation coupe.

The relatively few folks who did purchase a 1986 Riviera got a well-equipped car by mid-eighties standards. Standard exterior equipment included Soft-Ray tinted glass, cornering lamps, and an automatic power antenna. Mechanical equipment included power steering, a DynaRide four-wheel independent suspension with automatic level control, and 205/70R14 all-season whitewall tires on 14-inch wheels with Deluxe wheel covers. Inside, standard features included Electric Speed Control cruise control, a tilt steering column, a Limited steering wheel with cruise-control switches, electric door locks, and a Delco ETR AM-FM stereo with seek and scan, a clock, and four extended-range speakers. Interior trim and upholstery featured a full-length console with a floor shift, manual reclining cloth front bucket seats, and a six-way power driver’s seat.

One Package & Individual Options

The sporty T Type package (at $21,577, an additional $1,746 over the base Riviera) carried over its designation from the previous generation but lost its differentiating turbocharged V6—making it no quicker than any other Riviera. It did at least handle better than the average Riviera—the T Type’s 1986 guise included a Gran Touring suspension and P215/60R15 Goodyear Eagle GT blackwall tires on 15-inch aluminum wheels. T Type’s were only available with Flame Red, White, Silver Metallic, or Black exterior paint, and all featured gray lower accent paint.
Inside, every T Type included a leather-wrapped steering wheel with cruise control switches and the heavily-hyped Power Comfort six-way power bucket seats for driver and front passenger—with reversible cloth and leather center sections that attached with velcro. The Power Comfort seats included inflatable lumbar supports, electrically adjustable headrests, and double pivoting systems for the lower seatback. A little over 9% of Riviera buyers took home a T Type in 1986.

In addition to all that was newly standard, new options for 1986 included a keyless entry system (available mid-year), a heated outside drivers mirror, and the availability of lumbar support with the optional seats. The radio delete option no longer existed—every Riviera buyer was driving home for the dealership with some kind of factory radio. The number of options in 1986 was reduced to less than one-third of what it had been in 1985, as Buick worked aggressively to reduce build complexity—but removed much of the path to a truly personal Riviera.

The View From 2025

With the excellent support of the Riviera Owners Association, a few folks are collecting these early seventh-generation Rivieras. According to Hagerty’s valuation tools, a base 1986 Buick Riviera in #1/Concours condition is $15,500, with a more normal #3/Good condition car going for $7,600. Rivieras of this generation sometimes show up in the Hemming’s Motor News classifieds, on eBay Motors, and on Bring a Trailer.

Make mine Black Cherry Metallic, please. I know that means that the 1986 Riviera I want won’t be a T Type.

Other Rivieras I have written about include the 1980 S TYPE, the 1982 convertible, the 1984 T TYPE, and the 1989 coupe.

Most material in this blog entry was sourced from the unfinished Riviera Project.

“Engineered well into the future.”

The 1985 Buick Electra sedan was substantially downsized from the previous year and switched to front wheel drive. The big sedan’s overall length decreased by over two feet from 221.3 inches to 197 inches, while shipping weight dropped by about 14%. Design details of the all-new Electra included a front-hinged hood, a flush-mounted windshield, and a flush-mounted back window.

Standard power came from the LK9 110 bhp 3.0 liter/181 ci V6 with a two-barrel carburetor. Optional engines were the 125 bhp LG3 3.8 liter/231 ci multi-port fuel-injected V6 ($260) and the 85 bhp LS2 4.3 liter/261 ci V6 diesel ($390). All engines were teamed with a four-speed automatic transmission with overdrive. For 1985 only, Buick named base model Electras by their engine size—Electra 300, Electra 380, and Electra 430. The 3.0 liter V6 was discontinued in the middle of the 1985 model year, and the diesel V6 would be gone by the time the 1986 model year rolled around.

MotorWeek clocked a 0-60 time of 12 seconds flat in a 1985 Electra with the 3.8 liter V6. Mileage for the short-lived standard engine was 18 city/25 highway by the 1985 measures (16/23 by today’s standards). Hilariously, the upmarket 3.8 liter engine was rated at 19 city/26 highway, the precision of the multi-port fuel injection more than making up for the increased displacement. Buyers of the diesel could expect 22 city/32 highway. With an 18-gallon gas tank, an Electra 380 owner could expect a range of 335 to 360 miles with a 10% fuel reserve.

The Electra 300‘s base price was $14,331—approximately $43,800 in 2025 dollars and about what a 2025 Buick Enclave full-size crossover goes for. Standard exterior and mechanical equipment included Soft-Ray tinted glass, rack-and-pinion steering with power assist, an independent four-wheel suspension, automatic level control, low drag power front disc/rear drum brakes, and P205/75R14 steel-belted radial-ply blackwall tires (a size still available thanks to Hankook and Kumho) on 14-inch wheels. Inside, cloth 45/55 notchback front seats, a six-way power driver’s seat, manual seatback recliners, air conditioning, power windows, and an electronically-tuned AM/FM stereo radio with clock were standard.

An Electra purchaser could go in two directions if the base model wasn’t enough—more luxury or a sporting touch. Most buyers opted for luxury, which continued to be represented by the Park Avenue. The $16,240 Park Avenue added whitewall tires, a tilt steering column, Electronic Cruise Control, electric door locks, an electric trunk release, and an electronically-tuned AM/FM stereo radio with seek and scan and clock. The Park Avenue included the 3.8 liter V6, but allowed buyers to choose the diesel.

Choosing the $15,568 T TYPE added black accents, a Gran Touring suspension (higher-rate springs, larger shock absorbers, and bigger front and rear stabilizer bars), styled aluminum alloy wheels, cloth 45/55 front sport seats with a storage console, and a leather wrapped Sport steering wheel. The T TYPE included and required the 3.8 liter V6.

Options & Production Numbers

Individual options included an electric sliding glass Astroroof ($1,195), a six-way power passenger’s seat ($215), Electronic Touch Climate Control air conditioning ($165), Twilight Sentinel headlamp control ($60), an electric rear window defogger ($140), and the all-conquering Delco GM/Bose Music System ($895).

55/45 leather front seats ($425) were only available with the Park Avenue. Options only available for the T TYPE included 45/45 leather front Sport seats ($175) and Goodyear Eagle GT P215/65R15 performance tires paired with 15 x 6 inch aluminum wheels.

These C-bodies (there were also Cadillac and Oldsmobile versions) had a stately appearance. Big and (I think) handsome, they had a lot of interior room despite the downsizing—at 111 cubic feet, they had only one cubic foot less than the 1984.

Sales of the 1985 Electra sedan and its variants were good—at 131,011 sedans, more than double the 52,551 that had been sold in 1984. It’s unclear what percentage of buyers went with the Park Avenue or the T TYPE, but I’m betting that the Park Avenue was quite popular.

The View From 2025

C-body Electra sedans sometimes come up for sale in the Hemming’s Motor News classifieds and on eBay Motors. Bring a Trailer has sold four from this generation, including two 1985s.

Make mine the extra-cost ($200) Blue Firemist, please.

I have written about the top-of-the-line 1989 Electra Park Avenue Ultra sedan—likely Buick’s finest sedan of the eighties. The only other 1985 Buick I have written about is the Somerset Regal coupe.