Cars For Boat Owners: 1989 Buick Reatta, 1979 MGB

No surprise that these two cars are parked in South Lake Union where the yachts are docked. The kind of person who digs quirky two-seater cars is also the kind of person who enjoys a leisurely life on the water.

Remember Buick? In the US Buick sold 180K cars last year, mostly to grandmothers who grew up with the brand. But in China, Buick is huge - selling upwards of one million cars per year. The Reatta was Buick's plan to actually have something interesting in its showrooms. But it never really caught on, selling only a few thousands copies per year. As for the MG, it's the same story as any British sports car: it's a lot of fun as long as you can afford to give it tender loving care and as long as the gods of inexplicable electrical systems continue to favor you.

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1989 Buick Skylark

What do people remember about General Motors' small cars from the 80s? Not much that's good. Most conversations about GM cars of that era take the form of, "Here's another car that made more Americans switch to imports and never look back." This Skylark is not remembered as a particularly bad car. By the time it was introduced GM has cured most of the faults common to its early front-wheel drive vehicles. I'm more curious as to why this car is still enjoying regular use in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood. What person living in a area where the homes are over $1 million would be seen driving this car?

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1989 Chrysler TC by Maserati

Remember the Chrysler LeBaron convertible? Well imagine if it had only two seats instead of four, at double the price. Sound good? Behold, the Chrysler TC by Maserati!

Sure, Lee Iacocca saved Chrysler, but he did it by giving the company a reputation for being dull as dishwater. From allpar.com: "The basic idea was to add some glamour to Chrysler (and some profit to Maserati); at the same time, various high-performance, turbocharged Dodge Daytonas and other vehicles (such as the Spirit R/T) were being launched to spice up the company’s reputation."

"Unfortunately, the building and promotion of semi-drivable pre-production examples could not make good the TC's intemperately announced introduction as a 1987 model. The subsequent two-year delay in getting the car into actual production was a monumental public relations and marketing blunder, especially since rather than preceding the Chrysler LeBaron convertible — and lending its prestige to that vehicle — it ended up being introduced afterwards. That meant that, rather than the LeBaron being seen as inheriting cues from the high-end TC, the TC was seen as being too similar to the run-of-the-mill (though attractive) LeBaron."

 Only 7,300 were sold.

   

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