How many of us here are the original TR owners of their cars? And Odd never seen before options.

[BlkGNTurbo]

Was just a thought of how many still have their TRs here from day one?

Maybe even more of a smaller number how many walked into a dealership way back and "Ordered" their car and still have it?

Normally dealers order the cars themselves with an option package for the wants of buyers. With a customer ordered car sometimes you may find oddities, such as.....

1. I wanted pwr door locks but hated pwr windows and the motor trouble they had with age, so no pwr windows...just plain window cranks n pwr door locks on mine.

2. I wanted to put my own Alpine sound deck and system in mine, so I ordered mine with the base radio which was a plain AM, not even a AM/FM! Has anyone ever seen any TR with just a AM radio?

3. I hate cruse control so not found in mine. Did check the box for the R window defogger.

4. But at least I checked off the PWR roof as I did not want the T-top....glad I did!

If you never have ever seen that AM radio in a GN here is a pic of mine....It's really brand new as I pulled it out right after I got the car home....30 years later, have a peek at it.

 

[bison]

You could have ordered with a radio delete


BPE2013@hotmail.com

 

[whitehot1]

You should have waited a year and bought an 86 intercooled model.

Pretty cool radio though.

 

[deezdad]

Lol that thing must be awesome for stock reports.

 

[BlkGNTurbo]

You could have ordered with a radio delete


BPE2013@hotmail.com

True. But I wanted sound wiring installed in the car so got the basic sound system, just thought it was odd a car made in the mid 80's wound still come with only a AM radio.

 

[TexasT]

Original owner. Bought it off the lot. Traded in my 84 T-Type.
I didn't know what a we4 was at the time. The dealer ordered 5 identical cars, one is mine and I have seen 2 others . The vins on mine and one are sequential the other I didn't look at when I saw it. Two others I never saw.


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[BlkGNTurbo]

You should have waited a year and bought an 86 intercooled model.

Pretty cool radio though.

Only if I would of known, but that would of been another year wait for me....But remember, back in August of 1984 all the '84 GNs numbered production models were already made. Remember they were only making just over 2000 of them and it was to late to order one at a dealership and you never saw one sitting on a dealer lot or showroom. The '85 year models were going to be about the same in production numbers so I put my order in for one. Also back then there was no home computers yet, no internet and all my research was from car magazines of the times. Back then from what I read Buick was only going to make the GN for 84 and 85 model years. I wanted to own one of the very few. There was no word or leak of the intercooled '86/'87 models to be made yet. Interesting times back then. If I would of known better, in '87 I would of traded in my '85 for that GNX I was looking at sitting in the Buick showroom with a price tag of around 26K if I remember!

 

[BlkGNTurbo]

Original owner. Bought it off the lot. Traded in my 84 T-Type.
I didn't know what a we4 was at the time. The dealer ordered 5 identical cars, one is mine and I have seen 2 others . The vins on mine and one are sequential the other I didn't look at when I saw it. Two others I never saw.


Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

Cool...neat story on that.

 

[TexasT]

Cool...neat story on that.

I had seen magazine articles. I graduated hs in 86 and that article with the silver t-type in hot rod looked cool. I was driving my 70 GS455. I came across a small time mag that had a lot of street racing coverage and the editor's had 5.0 mustangs. (Cars Illustrated).

I knew I wanted one so I bought the 84. Thought I could add the intercooler. The more I learned the more I knew I should just buy one.
So I did. It has seen me through a lot of life.

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

 

[wb's87]

I'm the original owner of my '87 GN. I ordered the car in December '86. As a GM employee under the option 1 program. The employee discount on a factory order at the time was around 25%. I kept checking with the dealer on when it would come in. They kept telling me they hadn't heard anything. Finally in June I contacted the GM zone office to complain about it taking so long. I was told that my car had been delivered to the dealer way back in April. Long story short the dealer had my car stashed away with the hope that I would cancel the order and they could then sell it to someone else for more money. At the time they would limit how many GN's each dealer was allotted.


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[MeanBuicks]

3. I hate cruse control so not found in mine. Did check the box for the R window defogger.

4. But at least I checked off the PWR roof as I did not want the T-top....glad I did!

OK, so now I know my car is at least one of two. I've often wondered why someone would go for the Astroroof but not order cruise control. Guess the original purchaser of my GN hated cruise too. I don't think there are very many TRs out there sans cruise control. BTW, your GN is wierdly optioned.

 

[BlkGNTurbo]

You should have waited a year and bought an 86 intercooled model.

Pretty cool radio though.

You s

I'm the original owner of my '87 GN. I ordered the car in December '86. As a GM employee under the option 1 program. The employee discount on a factory order at the time was around 25%. I kept checking with the dealer on when it would come in. They kept telling me they hadn't heard anything. Finally in June I contacted the GM zone office to complain about it taking so long. I was told that my car had been delivered to the dealer way back in April. Long story short the dealer had my car stashed away with the hope that I would cancel the order and they could then sell it to someone else for more money. At the time they would limit how many GN's each dealer was allotted.


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Loved this story....thanks for sharing it!

 

[stage1gn]

I'm not an original owner of one , but a good friend of mine is. He wanted a GN , but could not afford it on his pay. To keep the cost down as much as possible he ordered an 86 T-type as such : black ,burgundy interior , digital dash , posi ,that's it.And as Bison said ,he did order it radio delete to put in his own radio , I remember seeing the radio delete plate with "Buick" on it.He now wishes he didn't get the digital dash.
The car has 24k orig miles on it as of now , still orig paint , tires , etc.Just spoke with him few months ago , he is now 59 and has not driven it for 3 years !!!! He said he has been toying with the idea about selling , and said would give me first shot at it.
Maybe if it was right timing for me , I would def consider it.

 

[1952ray]

Ordered mine in June 87. Did get most of all the goodies a Buick had. However no T-tops. The only odd thing is I got the engine block heater. I did not order that. Don't know why I have it,must have been a screw-up. Got the car in Sept 87. Got transfer overseas in Jan. 88. Did not come back full time to live in the states until May 2007.

 

[toofastforyou]

Bought mine brand new in '87…still have it today.

Claude.

 

[TurboDave]

Bought my 86 new, every option! Still have it. Only 177k miles.

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[TurboTGuy]

I was living/working in Sedona, AZ in '86, driving a clapped out old '70 Olds Cutlass. I had read the article in Hot Rod about the GN and wanted one soooooooooooo badly.

So, a couple of months later, in Feb of '87, I go to a job interview at the Mint Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas, what is now the big side of Binion's Horseshoe. I got the job and while having a celebratory drink at the Union Plaza, I hit a $27K plus progressive jackpot on one of the first generation video poker machines.

I am now GOING to buy a GN, come hell or high water. The search lead me to a GN at Peter Epstein Buick in Palm Springs, CA. The day I was driving out to look at it (no internet back then) I get a call from a guy in Indio, CA who says he has a car "identical to" a GN he can sell me for 5K less than a GN. Indio and Palm Spings are only separated by a few miles of ugly desert so I said "What the heck, I'll stop and look at it".

I get to the dealer in Indio and the salesman excitedly takes me around back to show me a plain jane, white exterior, blue bench seat, column shifter Regal with a bump on the hood, a little "T" on the fender, and the 3.8 SFI badges on the hood bump and deck lid. This thing was a grampa car like no other. They wanted 11K.

I wrinkled up my nose, said no thanks and head on out to Palm Springs where I paid $17K cash for an 86 GN with the plastic wrappers still on the seats and just 9 miles on her................. She was my pride and joy. 10 years later she was stolen out of my driveway in broad daylight. Never even a trace was found.

Fast forward 15 years and a very costly divorce and I've stashed enough money away to think about another Turbo Regal.

I'm looking at Craigslist and see a car advertised as GN/T type. The ad says "White T-Type 68K miles, restored to California emissions legal. Buy with confidence, Lou's Automotive."

So I call, we talk, I go look at and buy the car, from Lou Czarnota aka TurboLou. It is a plain jane, white exterior, blue bench seat, column shifter Regal with a bump on the hood, WITHOUT a little "T" on the fender, and the 3.8 SFI badges on the hood bump and deck lid. This thing is a grampa car like no other. Lou tells me all the badging is in the trunk. I paid 11K for it.

Now here's the kicker.

Even though Lou told me the car had been repainted recently, once I laid eyes on the car, I thought could it be? Might it be? Was there a chance this little car was the one I took a pass on all those years ago?

So I go to GM Archives and find out that this car I just bought was shipped from Detroit to San Jose, CA and then dealer traded to a store in, you guessed it........ Indio, Ca.

Now just how many Turbo Regals with those options do you think that dealer in Indio bought back in 86?

I'd venture to guess just one.

Now, I cannot be 100% certain, but all the research I've done since buying this car indicates that it is indeed the very same car I chose not to buy nearly 25 years before.

So, this story isn't so much about options on the car...... but then again, depending on how you look at it, maybe it is.

I think it's kind of cool.

 

[Jerryl]

Some cool stories. Guy, that story should be in magazine! Nicely told and done.

 

[TurboTGuy]

Some cool stories. Guy, that story should be in magazine! Nicely told and done.

Funny thing is, when I met the guy who is now my boss back in '91, we met because he commented on the GN I had at the time.

We got to be friends and he listened to me tell the story of how I came to buy the '86 many times, including the part about the little white "T".

Now we just laugh about how weird the story of how I ended up with this little car is.

 

[S10xGN]

We had ordered a new '87, down payment and all. Waited 7 months on it, finally got the dp back and used it on our current home. At that time, McLaren was getting their allotment for the GNX run...