Buick Wildcat

The Buick Wildcat is a 2-door hardtop / 2-door convertible / 4-door hardtop / 4-door sedan from Buick, built from 1963 to 1970, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. Under the bonnet: 401 cuin Buick V8.

Where it came from

The Buick Wildcat is a full-size car that was produced by Buick from the 1963 to 1970 model years. Taking its name from a series of 1950s Buick concept cars, the Wildcat replaced the Invicta within the "junior" B-body Buick sedan range. Serving as the higher-performance full-size Buick, the Wildcat was slotted between the LeSabre and the larger C-body Electra. Following two generations of the model line, the Wildcat was replaced by the Buick Centurion for 1971.

Under the skin

Power comes from 401 cuin Buick V8; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 3871 -. It shifts through a Dynaflow automatic / 3-speed TH-400 automatic / 3-speed manual / 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 123 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

In context

Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Buick Invicta; its successor was the Buick Centurion; assembly was at Flint, Michigan, USA. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Aston Martin DB5, the Maserati Quattroporte, the Pontiac GTO — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Buick catalogue sit the Buick First Call and the Buick Funeral Car.

What it costs now

MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Buick Wildcat has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.