When my parents and I went to a Buick dealership in 1987, my mom wanted the Lesabre T-type and my dad wanted the Grand National. I’m so glad we got the GN. I learned to drive in it and he still has it
The front wheel drive non turbo.. That car was criminal like crap... The GN... Umm I have one and a original T type Buick and olds.. The real T type.. I like the T type Buick Better.. It would eat a vette in 1989 -2001 .. And it looked grandma .. But it crushed ... I think we said ROCKED in the 80's .. It will keep up with a modern LS on the Track in stock form..
@@jonbrown1018 unless you’ve done a fair amount of modifications, that T-Type wouldn’t out-accelerate a C4 with the LT-1, and it definitely wouldn’t out-accelerate the C4 ZR-1 or the C5 in any iteration (especially the C5 Z06, which came out in 2001.) It’s definitely an impressive car for its day, but stock it’s no match for any of those Vettes that I’ve mentioned.
I enjoy these videos of these old Buicks that I grew up with; I remember these cars new! Those seats in the '87 only were actually taken out of the Electra, and the radio was swiped from the Pontiac division. The gauges and controls lit up red at night, but the Buick units only lit up in green, so Pontiac to the rescue. And just so you know, the 3800 was actually a major redesign over the fuel injected '84-88 3.8L.
Yeah, looks badass! Kind of a nice front wheel drive alternative to the Buick Grand National. Looks and sounds sinister. I'd drive it. I can only imagine the kind of street cred this car would have given the driver back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
My grandparents were lifelong Buick drivers...growing up, whenever I spoke to anyone under the age of 30 driving a Buick, they almost always got the car from a grandparent that had passed away or was too elderly to safely drive. Many of the 2nd or 3rd owner Buicks got many trouble-free and very comfortable floaty-boat cruising miles after their original owners passed on or let go of them.
My grandmother had a supercharged Regal. She had it for 7 years and when she traded it in it only had 50,000 miles. I'm sad I never got to drive it, the Cruze she's had since is one of the worst cars I've ever been in. I would have loved to drive a sleeper land yacht.
That is one clean old Buick. 80s anything has long since fallen into beater status and been run into the ground. It's amazing that this one was preserved. Those seats would look at place in a 60s office. The single headrest post is classic. The whole design is very simple and stylish. Fixed seatbelts: another example of GM's poor design and poor quality. It's like how they decided to market the same minivan under every marque they had except Hummer.
Legitimately grew up in one of these, my Dad had one when I was a kid. My older brother had it given to him, then my brother blew up the motor, then my dad gave it to me as a project. I miss mine so much, and always on the lookout for another. So many happy memories from the backseat, to being big enough to sit in the front passenger seat, to owning it myself
Parents bought the '87 Buick LeSabre T-type, the one that was actually in the Buick commercial. IL dealer. It became my car in 1994 when I was old enough to drive in high school. Washed it every weekend and waxed it often. It was a beautiful black car with a spoiler. Car lasted through my college years until it finally died in 1999. Had over 100,000 miles and still looked mint condition inside and out. The electrical system kept going out and the car needed to be jumped a lot. Ended up trading it in for my first-bought car, a red 99 Mitsubishi 3000GT. I have great memories of the Buick and seeing this video brought back all the memories, especially the interior! Thanks for making this great video!
I had a T type Century. An '87. The 3.8 felt strong in that car and the car pulled nicely. It was White with a tan cloth interior. I put performance shocks and tires on it and it handled great. I wish I still had it. Possibly my favourite car I've ever owned.
The GM70/H-body Buick LeSabre is a car that will always be very special to me. For Christmas 1988, my grandparents bought a brand new white 1989 LeSabre Custom From Lloyd Buick/Cadillac/BMW in Daytona Beach, Florida, & I used to LIVE for their visits from Palm Coast just so I could ride in this beautiful car. It was nothing really fancy, but to me, it was up there with the best luxury sedans in the world, & it made me feel like a king just to be in it!!! To this day, I will NEVER forget sitting in those beautiful blue velour seats & feeling the cloud-like ride from the DynaRide suspension with one of my James Taylor cassettes wafting from the Concert Sound System. AHHHHHHHH........THE MEMORIES!!!!! I will go on record as saying that the C/H-bodies were probably the best cars that GM ever built. Not only they have the secret NAILED on how to produce that classic feeling of big-car ride, smoothness, comfort, & quiet, they were the best in terms of build quality/dependability/reliability, at least the later models were. They truly showed what could happen when an American car manufacturer took their heads out of their collective asses & took the time building a car that could successfully go head-to-head with the imports, rather than just being obsessed with beating them at their own game. In fact, the Buick LeSabre was named the Most Trouble-Free Car Built/Sold In America from 1989-up. Now, THAT is saying something!!!!!
3:00 Yeah, that AC Delco raido brings back memories! Only of the early 90's. Late 80's also. High school! Somebody would get their grandma's Grand Am. The radio wasn't as nice as that one, but it did the job! Adjust the EQ, turn up 60 hz and let the 6 by 9's bump! 😁 We thought we had subs! Throw in that Old Too Short tape and ride by the high school!😃 In our minds we was going to mack all the girls!🤷🏿♂️😉👌🏿👍🏿✊🏿💪🏿🤙🏿✌🏿
I remember these Lesabres when I was a kid. I’m dad and uncle worked for GM during this time. My uncle had an 87 GN at the time. I remember my dad wanting to buy the Lesabre T-Type. I remember my uncle talking to my dad about the GN and Lesabre T-type. My uncle said that the Lesabre could not have the Turbo like the GN because the transmission and chassis could not handle the power of the GN engine. My uncle worked on the assembly line in a few different plants once saw his ‘79 Cadillac Coupe DeVille being built made sure his friends built his car with extra care. The assembly line guys apparently use to do that for each other. Just a quick back story of the GM assembly lines. Take care 👍👍👍
@@ThunderAppeal The full size Lesabres that were built until 1985 were excellent cars and the Estate Wagon on the same platform until 1990 was also a great car.
I've got a 1990 Buick LeSabre Custom Sedan. It's my summer car, and has been in my family for 3 generations. My great grandma first had the car and I was lucky enough to know her. It's really clean and I love it. I even named it Milda in honor of her. I take her to car shows to share her story.
I had a 1989 back in my early 20's picked the car up for about 1500$ back then. Had a Bad fuel pump but after that drove it for about 8 years. great little car
As someone who owns an 89 T-type passed down from my father (the original owner), I can say that the headliner droop is not necessarily from being owned by a smoker. The glue used to hold it up was definitely not designed to hold over the years. In fact, I remember even in the early 2000s the headliner was beginning to droop. On a side note, I'm glad this car has held up so aesthetically well over the years. My father primarily kept his either in a garage or under a car cover and still some of the body parts need some love. And since there were so few of these made, good luck finding parts!
My stepdad worked for GM at the time. He brought home a 87 brown, none T Type model . That 3800 had a nice sound and impressive torque for the time period. Fun car to drive.
I just discovered your channel with this video. So far i like it! In my native area, there was one, identical to this one. I never knew what it was. I noticed it was a Buick with a probably factory bodykit, but it was clearly not a Grand National. Now i know what it is!
As I finish watching this video theres nothing more I can say other than the fact I wish RCR would get their hands on one. So Obscure, So different. It makes me want one
The 3800 ruled. I loved these. Cool video, thanks, man! These were swank. My parents had a couple back in the day. A few sedans, as well. My mom had a small distribution company and used one as her company car. I believe she pretty much got one immediately after the other, and probably put >150,000 trouble free miles on them between the two over a few years. We bought them a year or two used, of course, and just changed the oil. Bulletproof engines. She drove a lot. One was silver, the other maroon. One had leather, maybe, but I might be mixing it up with an Aurora that they also owned. I drove the silver one quite a bit after it gotten some miles on it. Great factory stereo for the time. To be so big and ride so great, it was fairly agile if you were brave enough! Yeah, I remember now, it did have leather. Swanky.
I was just out of college in the late 80's and I was lucky enough to have both an 87 Grand National (bought new) and an 89 LeSabre T-Type (bought used after paying off the GN) as my daily. I ran this to work everyday which was a 3 hour round trip. Loved driving this car, comfortable, peppy and stylish. Sold it to an aunt of mine when it was nearing 100k miles. She drove it for many more years and it served her well. I actually belong to a FB group dedicated to the BLT as I would like to have another one. And for those wondering, the GN is long gone too. Sold it after 8 years of ownership, 31k on the odometer, and it was a rattle trap but it was still a blast to drive.
One thing I've always loved about Buicks is how comfy the seats always are lol I've had a lot of cars but my 93 Roadmaster is still one of my all time favorites!
My dad had 2 or 3 of these as his undercover vehicles back in the late 80's. I remember everything about the T-Type. The plush seats, the big extremely heavy doors lol! They were awesome. And he had cobra alarms on every single one lol. Oh the late 80's...
I had a 4 door 1987 Buick LeSabre I bought in the late 1990s for just $75 because it needed all new brakes, and it was just another old used car back then, so very cheap to buy. I think someone had rebuilt and modified the engine because it ran so well, with so much power and torque. Cosmetically, the car looked a bit rough but ran great.
I own 2 of these - a black 1988 and black 1989. The front end of these cars is gorgeous to look at in my opinion. Both have the balance shaft 3800's and are absolutely gem engines- smooth, powerful, and simple to work on. Noticeably smoother than the 1987 and older versions. I believe buick put their mist aggressive final drive ratio into these t types, which was only like 3.08 or something close, but it made them very peppy lots of get up and go. The gauges and radio have red backlighting which is really unique at night - only Pontiacs had red instrument lighting back then. Unique cars that are still affordable to get into a classic car. They turn heads.
Love the aesthetic of this thing! Side Note: How does “being a smokers car” cause the headliner to fall. Wouldn’t it just be that the glue that was used, lost it’s effectiveness over the cars 30+ years on this harsh planet?
In this case as I’ve been told, yes gm used cheap glue. But in other cars I’ve seen it where if someone smoked with the windows up for a long time it can cause the headliner to droop
Smoke or no smoke most all of GM's headliners in that time period came loose. I've had several replaced and the upholstery guy showed me that the thin foam padding is what failed, it separated. Driving with the windows down caused them to fail sooner than anything else. So many came loose on all GM brands they should have recalled them.
@@ShootingCars No it's the foam disintegrating, not the glue. It has nothing to do with smoking, it's due to the quality of the foam backing of the material. Not sure if it's the temperature changes, or the UVs. If you find an similarly old piece of thin foam it's likely it will crumble in you hands. They pretty much all do that, from any manufacturer that used foam backed fabric for headliners back then. If it's still in good shape, it has either been replaced already, or the car has been kept in an extremely stable environnement.
@@ShootingCars I always thought it was the shotty glue + smokers always having their windows down (adding stress to the already shotty glue). Maybe it's the chems in cig smoke degrading the glue as well tho?
Yes sir. I still have and love my '87 Electra Park Avenue. The best years of molding old with new. I'll pass it on to my son. Also, drive over here and let me fix that headliner before the original get torn. That's a gorgeous LeSabre. Keep it original.
Me, never have seen or heard of this car and being a huge back to the future fan, I wouldn't mind this car being the time machine instead of the DeLorean, it's really nice
I bought a brand new 92 LeSabre for my wife for Christmas. That 3800 6cyl was a lot faster than people thought it was. For a really nice ride it was great. Never had a single problem with it and I wish I would have just kept it. Although it had 180K on it the car was well maintained and still did not use a drop of oil and everything still worked like it was suppose to. I felt sorry for a friend of mine and sold (gave) it for $200. But I had done that before so it wasn't anything new for me.
friend of mine from college had one of these - it was EXTREMELY nice to drive. the funny thing was that it has (only) an 80 MPH speedo and you could max it out very quickly on the highway!
I never knew the lesabre was a t type too. This thing is actually pretty dope. I have a 88 buick reatta so a lot of things are familiar to me but I actually like the minimal racer look to this more. If it had the turbo v6 I'd rather that the lesabre. Although with the better engine and cooler tech, I'll keep the reatta for now
Yup had the same 1987 Buick LeSabre T-Type. Mine was white with black leather interior. Loved the look of the car and it was used as a police car. The only problems I had was that the automatic trans had its issues. The other problem was that it was under braked ... lol. With spirited driving like at patrol speeds, give it maybe 1 or 2 hard braking through intersections and it was done ... it would take a whole city block to come to a stop with pretty much "flames" shooting out from the wheel spokes ... looked a little awesome but when you're stomping all your weight with 2 feet on the brake pedal while steering around obstacles it can get a little hairy. There were no aftermarket brake systems available at that time for this model from any company ... but I loved the looks of the car and the 3800 V6 power was adequate but you didn't want more with the braking power it had anyway ... LOL. Oh and that reverse opening hood also gave it a special twist!!!
I had one. An 87’-T that was the two tone maroon and red color. I loved that car. I think it had close to 200.000 miles on it when I sold it. Good times🤘🏻
Had a late 80's 4 door Lesabre. Liked the lines and stance of the car. Very comfortable seats. Appreciated the old school chrome door handles with buttons. Loved the clamshell hood. Car would have made a nice LS sleeper.
I own an 89 LesabreT-type. The car was never super powered but it could corner, cruise all day. The 3.8 and the later 3800 were good engines, Pistons a bit stronger besides the balance shaft. A good platform. Love ours.
Those GM headliners from that era are famous for sagging and falling off. I've had a few, some might have been smokers' cars, some might not have been, I think those headliners are destined to fall off no matter what.
They fell off because GM used a thin layer of foam under the liner. As the cars got old, the heat and the aging would break down the foam, which would cause the liner to let loose.
I had a 1990 Grand AM that sat outside all its life; when I sold it in 2005, with the exception of a little sun fade, the interior and headliner were mint.
Cheap adhesive. That stuff dries up. Also, some people (like me) are guilty of using wrong cleaners on the headliner to remove kids dirty fingerprints.
Now I am old , But we called T type the olds, Pontiac, BUICK .. The original T Type was a Grand National that was like original luxury but rear wheel drive 3.8 turbo .. Most of them had T tops.. I had the Buick and the olds cutlass.. Well I still have them.. I today can look at the light blue of my Buick.. And the Hurst of my Olds.. 1986 wasn't that far for some of us.. Shit I am old...
he said that the t type only came in a coupe and that's kind of true, the Electra, which as far as I can tell was a Park avenue with LeSabre options (a little bit longer wheelbase and longer back doors and a more vertically slanted back window) but I'm probably way off on that because my Electra was very well appointed. but I had an 85 Electra t-type which would have been even better if it had a 3800 and a more robust transmission because 85 transmissions weren't as good as the ones a few years later, but that was a beautiful car that would have been drop dead gorgeous with a better engine and transmission! anyway, great video and I'm glad you chose that car to do one on!
The '88 3.8L LN3 has a slightly more aggressive cam than my '89 3.8L LN3. From Wiki: Introduced in 1988, the 3800 LN3 would later be loosely considered the Pre-Series I, although the older 3.8 SFI (LG3) was still available that year in some models. Designated initially by VIN code C, the multiport fuel injected 3800 LN3 was a major redesign, featuring changes such as a balance shaft, on-center bore spacing, use of a 3x/18x crank-trigger system, and other improvements. This generation continued in use in several GM products into the early 1990s. It produced 165 hp (123 kW) and 210 lb⋅ft (285 N⋅m). The LN3 is very closely related to the Series I L27 and Series I L67 Supercharged. In fact, supercharger-related hardware can be fitted to an LN3 without changing the cylinder heads. However, the ECM would have to be reprogrammed. The L27 has a two piece, upper plenum intake and lower intake, the LN3 is all one piece.
My mom had a silver 89 I grew up riding in. Everyone wanted to buy it off of her. I also owned a black 89 that I sold with 190k on it. Such great looking cars, even if the "performance" package is aesthetic only. The brakes were weird (and rotors undersized) but extremely reliable cars cus it's just a basic 3800 Lesabre. 89 is the best year for these imo.
I had a white 1988 Buick LeSabre T Type and I loved it, it was a very reliable car and great on gas. The only real problem I had with the car was the power window regulators had failed and had to be replaced with in a month of each other.
Amazing videos! As soon as I get the breaks fixed on my 1996 Buick Century I’m going to visit your website & fill out the form and hopefully you would like to drive it and do a video on my baby. It’s a beautiful survivor. I’m located in Chicagoland & hopefully I will see you soon!
Had a white '87 and a garnet red '89, the only real problem was the window regulator actuators had to replace both sides at least once on both of them. Great looking/running cars & I loved the factory wheels.
I had a Geo Metro with those seatbelts. I left them buckled and got in as intended exactly once, as an experiment. The lap belt wound up along my shins. Everyone just used them as normal seat belts. If it was a 4 door and you're tall, it would be almost as far from where you sit to the seat belt as it was from the belt to the windshield.
Yea my parents had a white one. Super clean...my step-dad is an obsessive compulsive neat freak so that car was always clean. He always bought Rivieras but hated the downsized version when this t-type came out. So he got it. I like the sportier look myself. They had that car for a few years then traded it when the last gen Riviera hit the dealerships
I had a 3800 series Chevy Lumina and Peter a Camaro five speed with that same motor. So I’m very familiar with it and how it drives. It was a very smooth reliable engine.
Excellent off road.. smooth ride will tackle a lot more than you would ever think best back seat I'm 6'8" and can fit the back was better than my couch...
Its criminal though to call it a T-Type when it had no turbo. That's literally what the T in T-Type stood for. RWD with a true turbo 3.8 would have made this car truly badass, but its just a FWD buick painted black all show no go. As much as I like the 90's FWD Buicks and other GM cars, I'd like them more if they were true RWD cars and not handicapped by their FWD Drivetrain. With that said there are pictures out there and stories from engineers of the time talking about the cars of this time. One in particular was about the Reatta. They actually tried making a turbo FWD Reatta and had 2 RWD Turbo's. One was high boost and another was low. So the story goes that the FWD turbo car just fried the tires whenever you even glanced at the go pedal not to mention the tranny not lasting very long. The high boost RWD Reatta was wrecked because the wheelbase was too short and it spun too easily. However the Low boost RWD version was supposedly pretty quick and handled great, but GM in their infinite wisdom didn't want it competing with the Vette so they shut it down and released them as non turbo FWD.
I stopped this vid at :45. It seems at this point, this was going by be a research done, no bs, honest to goodness video about a car that deserves remembering. I hope I was right……ok I was most certainly right. This young man knows his shhhhh stuff. Nice to see young folk so interested in 90’s and 80’s.
My mother had a white Lesabre T-type she got brand new. I will tell you right now that car was very quick and that Buick would do 120 without any issue.
Ive owned an 89 olds 88 which was the same car with slightly different styling and a conventional hood.. i made mine up to look like a 76 cutlass 442 paint scheme as mine was silver with red interior, i made the bottom red and put lace bonneville wheels on it... always been a buick/olds/pontiac fan and have always wanted a 2 door... fellow owned a t-type when i was young, it was his fave car he had several and i got to see them often... the headliner fails more because of weather changes and poor quality glue... smoking helps, but hardly an 80s gm doesnt have this issue somewhere
Buick Odd Fire V6 came out in 1962 as a 196 later a 225 V6 and was sold to AMC Jeep in 1967. The 215 V8 was sold to Rover. Buick later bought the tooling back from AMC and the block was boarded to a 3.8
In 1987 my dad bought a LeSabre Limited and it didn't have those silly seat belts. Before that he had a 86 Somerset with a 3.0 V6 ,they were both nice cars and they were pretty fast despite the low horsepower rating. I was pretty disappointed that he never brought home a Grand National.
my father had one in the late 80's. Still bet it will remain as his favourite car ever. I laughed when I heard 160hp. What were they doing with all the displacement - 3.8 litres today is so different. His current Kia Forte would smoke that thing all day long......
The production run in 1987, on the LeSabre T-Type was 2,123 (according to BCA) ! Another interesting fact, do a magnet test on the front fenders, if it sticks the fenders have been replaced (from the factory and only in 1987, they came with plastic fenders.) Wish I still had mine!
I have one of the 117 LeSabre grand nationals. It's definitely one of the oddest cars I've ever had. There have been several heated discussions where people deny it's existence.
I had one of, it not THE first LeSaber T-Type sold in the Youngstown / Warren Ohio area. Mine was black just like the one in the video. I loved that car and wish I still had it. I had it for 13 years, but alas NE Ohio winters took their toll and I had to replace it with a growing family. The most common reaction I got from people when I first got it was "wow". One of my most vivid memories driving my T-Type was pulling out of the parking lot at work and having two attractive young ladies in an Porsche snap their heads around for a second look. Especially in the late '80s, the LeSabre T-Type, especially the black one, was a big, bad looking car. I found this video looking for a picture of a LeSabre T-Type because I would love to see Joe Martin and the guys from Iron Resurrection do a makeover on one. If they could turn it into a rear wheel drive with an LS, lower it some and adjust the front facia accordingly and add a Firebird like rear spoiler, that car would be "badass" as they like to say.
Actually, the T-Type was only offered on the standard Electra. What you have is an Electra Park Avenue "T". The "T" package had the suspension and leather 3-spoke steering wheel from the Electra T-Type, but on the far nicer Park Ave. The touring "T" package could be ordered on almost all 1987 Buicks, including the Regal without the turbo. What you have was only offered in '87, and is very, very rare.
Interesting video! Just want to note that the Buick V6 is o.k.a. the Fireball V6 and it started production in the early 60s. All that aside, it's sad these things were all show and no go. A turbo (or newer Buick V6) and upgraded suspension would've made this an interesting car for the time
This Buick has more than a passing resemblance to Dale Earnhardt's 1989-1991 Winston Cup stock car. While most of GM's styling sucked in the 80's, this was a damn winner, it was sleek, sexy, modern, aerodynamic, minimal decoration, looked like a street legal NASCAR racer IMO. Wish the performance backed it up.
The slack in the seatbelts is the tensioner springs going, not the belt stretching. And the headliner sagging is from weak/faulty glue. I couldn't watch any more after that.
Car has gotten a good bath since this video, paint isn't perfect but the swirls are less noticeable now. Doesn't help that it sat for 8 years with a bunch of crap on it before I acquired it.
When my parents and I went to a Buick dealership in 1987, my mom wanted the Lesabre T-type and my dad wanted the Grand National. I’m so glad we got the GN. I learned to drive in it and he still has it
The front wheel drive non turbo.. That car was criminal like crap... The GN... Umm I have one and a original T type Buick and olds.. The real T type.. I like the T type Buick Better.. It would eat a vette in 1989 -2001 .. And it looked grandma .. But it crushed ... I think we said ROCKED in the 80's .. It will keep up with a modern LS on the Track in stock form..
Grand national is the shit....I'm glad your dad bought it too! Lol
@@jonbrown1018 unless you’ve done a fair amount of modifications, that T-Type wouldn’t out-accelerate a C4 with the LT-1, and it definitely wouldn’t out-accelerate the C4 ZR-1 or the C5 in any iteration (especially the C5 Z06, which came out in 2001.) It’s definitely an impressive car for its day, but stock it’s no match for any of those Vettes that I’ve mentioned.
@@phantom0456 Your right, but I am going to think it will.. lol
@@jonbrown1018 Who keeps their's stock? Mine is 500hp and 600tq. I had a c7 Sunday thought he could accelerate me boy was he surprised.
I can't believe one of these still existed!...Outstanding..
I enjoy these videos of these old Buicks that I grew up with; I remember these cars new! Those seats in the '87 only were actually taken out of the Electra, and the radio was swiped from the Pontiac division. The gauges and controls lit up red at night, but the Buick units only lit up in green, so Pontiac to the rescue. And just so you know, the 3800 was actually a major redesign over the fuel injected '84-88 3.8L.
Yeah, looks badass! Kind of a nice front wheel drive alternative to the Buick Grand National. Looks and sounds sinister. I'd drive it. I can only imagine the kind of street cred this car would have given the driver back in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
None......when the G bodies were all over the place at the same time.
I'll second that none.
Front wheel drive cars were clowned then.
Street cred? 😳🤣. Zero.
My grandparents were lifelong Buick drivers...growing up, whenever I spoke to anyone under the age of 30 driving a Buick, they almost always got the car from a grandparent that had passed away or was too elderly to safely drive. Many of the 2nd or 3rd owner Buicks got many trouble-free and very comfortable floaty-boat cruising miles after their original owners passed on or let go of them.
My grandmother had a supercharged Regal. She had it for 7 years and when she traded it in it only had 50,000 miles. I'm sad I never got to drive it, the Cruze she's had since is one of the worst cars I've ever been in. I would have loved to drive a sleeper land yacht.
That is one clean old Buick. 80s anything has long since fallen into beater status and been run into the ground. It's amazing that this one was preserved. Those seats would look at place in a 60s office. The single headrest post is classic. The whole design is very simple and stylish.
Fixed seatbelts: another example of GM's poor design and poor quality. It's like how they decided to market the same minivan under every marque they had except Hummer.
Legitimately grew up in one of these, my Dad had one when I was a kid. My older brother had it given to him, then my brother blew up the motor, then my dad gave it to me as a project. I miss mine so much, and always on the lookout for another. So many happy memories from the backseat, to being big enough to sit in the front passenger seat, to owning it myself
WHAT A FIND HOLY CRAP
I remember this car...good on you for finding one of these...haven't seen one since the late 80s
Parents bought the '87 Buick LeSabre T-type, the one that was actually in the Buick commercial. IL dealer. It became my car in 1994 when I was old enough to drive in high school. Washed it every weekend and waxed it often. It was a beautiful black car with a spoiler. Car lasted through my college years until it finally died in 1999. Had over 100,000 miles and still looked mint condition inside and out. The electrical system kept going out and the car needed to be jumped a lot. Ended up trading it in for my first-bought car, a red 99 Mitsubishi 3000GT. I have great memories of the Buick and seeing this video brought back all the memories, especially the interior! Thanks for making this great video!
I always adored the LeSabre T-Type. I remember seeing them in the Buick showroom alongside the Regal T-Type, the Reatta, and the Grand National. 💙💙
I had a T type Century. An '87. The 3.8 felt strong in that car and the car pulled nicely. It was White with a tan cloth interior. I put performance shocks and tires on it and it handled great. I wish I still had it. Possibly my favourite car I've ever owned.
I agree with 1000% I have a 90s le Sabre I keep it clean and love to drive it! I see things that both cars have in common!
The GM70/H-body Buick LeSabre is a car that will always be very special to me. For Christmas 1988, my grandparents bought a brand new white 1989 LeSabre Custom From Lloyd Buick/Cadillac/BMW in Daytona Beach, Florida, & I used to LIVE for their visits from Palm Coast just so I could ride in this beautiful car. It was nothing really fancy, but to me, it was up there with the best luxury sedans in the world, & it made me feel like a king just to be in it!!! To this day, I will NEVER forget sitting in those beautiful blue velour seats & feeling the cloud-like ride from the DynaRide suspension with one of my James Taylor cassettes wafting from the Concert Sound System. AHHHHHHHH........THE MEMORIES!!!!! I will go on record as saying that the C/H-bodies were probably the best cars that GM ever built. Not only they have the secret NAILED on how to produce that classic feeling of big-car ride, smoothness, comfort, & quiet, they were the best in terms of build quality/dependability/reliability, at least the later models were. They truly showed what could happen when an American car manufacturer took their heads out of their collective asses & took the time building a car that could successfully go head-to-head with the imports, rather than just being obsessed with beating them at their own game. In fact, the Buick LeSabre was named the Most Trouble-Free Car Built/Sold In America from 1989-up. Now, THAT is saying something!!!!!
3:00 Yeah, that AC Delco raido brings back memories! Only of the early 90's. Late 80's also. High school! Somebody would get their grandma's Grand Am. The radio wasn't as nice as that one, but it did the job! Adjust the EQ, turn up 60 hz and let the 6 by 9's bump! 😁 We thought we had subs! Throw in that Old Too Short tape and ride by the high school!😃 In our minds we was going to mack all the girls!🤷🏿♂️😉👌🏿👍🏿✊🏿💪🏿🤙🏿✌🏿
I remember these Lesabres when I was a kid. I’m dad and uncle worked for GM during this time. My uncle had an 87 GN at the time. I remember my dad wanting to buy the Lesabre T-Type. I remember my uncle talking to my dad about the GN and Lesabre T-type. My uncle said that the Lesabre could not have the Turbo like the GN because the transmission and chassis could not handle the power of the GN engine. My uncle worked on the assembly line in a few different plants once saw his ‘79 Cadillac Coupe DeVille being built made sure his friends built his car with extra care. The assembly line guys apparently use to do that for each other. Just a quick back story of the GM assembly lines. Take care 👍👍👍
That Gran National was the only thing Buick made in the 80s that was worth buying.
Your parents are cool
@@ThunderAppeal The full size Lesabres that were built until 1985 were excellent cars and the Estate Wagon on the same platform until 1990 was also a great car.
@@coris3436 Thanks
So basically youre admitting that GM built absolute shyt unless they knew someone on the assembly line.
Lovely.
One of my obscure GM dream vehicles. Such a neat car
It's wak, bro.
I've got a 1990 Buick LeSabre Custom Sedan. It's my summer car, and has been in my family for 3 generations. My great grandma first had the car and I was lucky enough to know her. It's really clean and I love it. I even named it Milda in honor of her. I take her to car shows to share her story.
I had a 1989 back in my early 20's picked the car up for about 1500$ back then. Had a Bad fuel pump but after that drove it for about 8 years. great little car
As someone who owns an 89 T-type passed down from my father (the original owner), I can say that the headliner droop is not necessarily from being owned by a smoker. The glue used to hold it up was definitely not designed to hold over the years. In fact, I remember even in the early 2000s the headliner was beginning to droop. On a side note, I'm glad this car has held up so aesthetically well over the years. My father primarily kept his either in a garage or under a car cover and still some of the body parts need some love. And since there were so few of these made, good luck finding parts!
My father had an 86 Buick T-Type, full RED interior. A friend got in and immediately said… it’s like being in a bar!
I love old Buicks. I had a 1989 century and a 1992 Buick LeSabre. Nothing drives as smooth as a old Buick.
My stepdad worked for GM at the time. He brought home a 87 brown, none T Type model . That 3800 had a nice sound and impressive torque for the time period. Fun car to drive.
I just discovered your channel with this video. So far i like it! In my native area, there was one, identical to this one. I never knew what it was. I noticed it was a Buick with a probably factory bodykit, but it was clearly not a Grand National. Now i know what it is!
As I finish watching this video theres nothing more I can say other than the fact I wish RCR would get their hands on one. So Obscure, So different. It makes me want one
I thought Id seen all reviews of cars from my childhood but I forgot about this one.great video
The 3800 ruled. I loved these. Cool video, thanks, man! These were swank. My parents had a couple back in the day. A few sedans, as well. My mom had a small distribution company and used one as her company car. I believe she pretty much got one immediately after the other, and probably put >150,000 trouble free miles on them between the two over a few years. We bought them a year or two used, of course, and just changed the oil. Bulletproof engines. She drove a lot. One was silver, the other maroon. One had leather, maybe, but I might be mixing it up with an Aurora that they also owned. I drove the silver one quite a bit after it gotten some miles on it. Great factory stereo for the time. To be so big and ride so great, it was fairly agile if you were brave enough! Yeah, I remember now, it did have leather. Swanky.
I was just out of college in the late 80's and I was lucky enough to have both an 87 Grand National (bought new) and an 89 LeSabre T-Type (bought used after paying off the GN) as my daily. I ran this to work everyday which was a 3 hour round trip. Loved driving this car, comfortable, peppy and stylish. Sold it to an aunt of mine when it was nearing 100k miles. She drove it for many more years and it served her well. I actually belong to a FB group dedicated to the BLT as I would like to have another one. And for those wondering, the GN is long gone too. Sold it after 8 years of ownership, 31k on the odometer, and it was a rattle trap but it was still a blast to drive.
I owned the same LeSabre. Best of both worlds, very plush and also sporty! Loved it !😊
One thing I've always loved about Buicks is how comfy the seats always are lol I've had a lot of cars but my 93 Roadmaster is still one of my all time favorites!
That was the most enjoyable car I ever owned , mine had some type of rear spoiler and deep tinted windows . I called it my modern day Batmobile !
My dad had 2 or 3 of these as his undercover vehicles back in the late 80's. I remember everything about the T-Type. The plush seats, the big extremely heavy doors lol! They were awesome. And he had cobra alarms on every single one lol. Oh the late 80's...
I had a 4 door 1987 Buick LeSabre I bought in the late 1990s for just $75 because it needed all new brakes, and it was just another old used car back then, so very cheap to buy. I think someone had rebuilt and modified the engine because it ran so well, with so much power and torque. Cosmetically, the car looked a bit rough but ran great.
I owned an 88 T Type and loved it . Wish I still had it
I own 2 of these - a black 1988 and black 1989. The front end of these cars is gorgeous to look at in my opinion. Both have the balance shaft 3800's and are absolutely gem engines- smooth, powerful, and simple to work on. Noticeably smoother than the 1987 and older versions. I believe buick put their mist aggressive final drive ratio into these t types, which was only like 3.08 or something close, but it made them very peppy lots of get up and go.
The gauges and radio have red backlighting which is really unique at night - only Pontiacs had red instrument lighting back then.
Unique cars that are still affordable to get into a classic car. They turn heads.
I'm on my third. 2 x 87 and now an 89 with 23k miles.
I'm looking for a drivers side window regulator for my 1987, do you happen to know where I may be able to locate one? Thank you.
Love the aesthetic of this thing!
Side Note: How does “being a smokers car” cause the headliner to fall. Wouldn’t it just be that the glue that was used, lost it’s effectiveness over the cars 30+ years on this harsh planet?
In this case as I’ve been told, yes gm used cheap glue. But in other cars I’ve seen it where if someone smoked with the windows up for a long time it can cause the headliner to droop
Smoke or no smoke most all of GM's headliners in that time period came loose. I've had several replaced and the upholstery guy showed me that the thin foam padding is what failed, it separated. Driving with the windows down caused them to fail sooner than anything else. So many came loose on all GM brands they should have recalled them.
@@ShootingCars No it's the foam disintegrating, not the glue. It has nothing to do with smoking, it's due to the quality of the foam backing of the material. Not sure if it's the temperature changes, or the UVs. If you find an similarly old piece of thin foam it's likely it will crumble in you hands.
They pretty much all do that, from any manufacturer that used foam backed fabric for headliners back then. If it's still in good shape, it has either been replaced already, or the car has been kept in an extremely stable environnement.
Oh, yes. My '83 Caprice and my '89 Sedan de Ville have had a falling headliner too. And of course it was because of the crumbling foam.
@@ShootingCars I always thought it was the shotty glue + smokers always having their windows down (adding stress to the already shotty glue). Maybe it's the chems in cig smoke degrading the glue as well tho?
Yes sir. I still have and love my '87 Electra Park Avenue. The best years of molding old with new. I'll pass it on to my son. Also, drive over here and let me fix that headliner before the original get torn. That's a gorgeous LeSabre. Keep it original.
One thing is for sure, those Buick v6's are bulletproof. Great engine.
Me, never have seen or heard of this car and being a huge back to the future fan, I wouldn't mind this car being the time machine instead of the DeLorean, it's really nice
I bought a brand new 92 LeSabre for my wife for Christmas. That 3800 6cyl was a lot faster than people thought it was. For a really nice ride it was great. Never had a single problem with it and I wish I would have just kept it. Although it had 180K on it the car was well maintained and still did not use a drop of oil and everything still worked like it was suppose to. I felt sorry for a friend of mine and sold (gave) it for $200. But I had done that before so it wasn't anything new for me.
friend of mine from college had one of these - it was EXTREMELY nice to drive. the funny thing was that it has (only) an 80 MPH speedo and you could max it out very quickly on the highway!
I never knew the lesabre was a t type too. This thing is actually pretty dope. I have a 88 buick reatta so a lot of things are familiar to me but I actually like the minimal racer look to this more. If it had the turbo v6 I'd rather that the lesabre. Although with the better engine and cooler tech, I'll keep the reatta for now
I had one from new. It was so unique and special. Loved mine!
Cool seldom scene 80’s personal coupe (akin to the Pontiac GP)
Good review but a bit long winded
Thanks for sharing 😎👍
Yup had the same 1987 Buick LeSabre T-Type. Mine was white with black leather interior. Loved the look of the car and it was used as a police car. The only problems I had was that the automatic trans had its issues. The other problem was that it was under braked ... lol. With spirited driving like at patrol speeds, give it maybe 1 or 2 hard braking through intersections and it was done ... it would take a whole city block to come to a stop with pretty much "flames" shooting out from the wheel spokes ... looked a little awesome but when you're stomping all your weight with 2 feet on the brake pedal while steering around obstacles it can get a little hairy. There were no aftermarket brake systems available at that time for this model from any company ...
but I loved the looks of the car and the 3800 V6 power was adequate but you didn't want more with the braking power it had anyway ... LOL. Oh and that reverse opening hood also gave it a special twist!!!
I had one. An 87’-T that was the two tone maroon and red color. I loved that car. I think it had close to 200.000 miles on it when I sold it. Good times🤘🏻
My brother inlaw use to have this t type like this one. I love it!
Had a late 80's 4 door Lesabre. Liked the lines and stance of the car. Very comfortable seats. Appreciated the old school chrome door handles with buttons. Loved the clamshell hood. Car would have made a nice LS sleeper.
I own an 89 LesabreT-type. The car was never super powered but it could corner, cruise all day. The 3.8 and the later 3800 were good engines, Pistons a bit stronger besides the balance shaft. A good platform. Love ours.
Those GM headliners from that era are famous for sagging and falling off. I've had a few, some might have been smokers' cars, some might not have been, I think those headliners are destined to fall off no matter what.
They fell off because GM used a thin layer of foam under the liner. As the cars got old, the heat and the aging would break down the foam, which would cause the liner to let loose.
100%. My LeSabre has 100+ thumbtacks in the ceiling.
I had a 1990 Grand AM that sat outside all its life; when I sold it in 2005, with the exception of a little sun fade, the interior and headliner were mint.
@@jewllake that's how old my car was when I bought it, and then it immediately started to fall down lol
Cheap adhesive. That stuff dries up. Also, some people (like me) are guilty of using wrong cleaners on the headliner to remove kids dirty fingerprints.
Okay the speedometer and tachometer are adorable.
Now I am old , But we called T type the olds, Pontiac, BUICK .. The original T Type was a Grand National that was like original luxury but rear wheel drive 3.8 turbo .. Most of them had T tops.. I had the Buick and the olds cutlass.. Well I still have them.. I today can look at the light blue of my Buick.. And the Hurst of my Olds.. 1986 wasn't that far for some of us.. Shit I am old...
he said that the t type only came in a coupe and that's kind of true, the Electra, which as far as I can tell was a Park avenue with LeSabre options (a little bit longer wheelbase and longer back doors and a more vertically slanted back window) but I'm probably way off on that because my Electra was very well appointed. but I had an 85 Electra t-type which would have been even better if it had a 3800 and a more robust transmission because 85 transmissions weren't as good as the ones a few years later, but that was a beautiful car that would have been drop dead gorgeous with a better engine and transmission! anyway, great video and I'm glad you chose that car to do one on!
The '88 3.8L LN3 has a slightly more aggressive cam than my '89 3.8L LN3.
From Wiki:
Introduced in 1988, the 3800 LN3 would later be loosely considered the Pre-Series I, although the older 3.8 SFI (LG3) was still available that year in some models. Designated initially by VIN code C, the multiport fuel injected 3800 LN3 was a major redesign, featuring changes such as a balance shaft, on-center bore spacing, use of a 3x/18x crank-trigger system, and other improvements. This generation continued in use in several GM products into the early 1990s. It produced 165 hp (123 kW) and 210 lb⋅ft (285 N⋅m).
The LN3 is very closely related to the Series I L27 and Series I L67 Supercharged. In fact, supercharger-related hardware can be fitted to an LN3 without changing the cylinder heads. However, the ECM would have to be reprogrammed. The L27 has a two piece, upper plenum intake and lower intake, the LN3 is all one piece.
My mom had a silver 89 I grew up riding in. Everyone wanted to buy it off of her. I also owned a black 89 that I sold with 190k on it. Such great looking cars, even if the "performance" package is aesthetic only. The brakes were weird (and rotors undersized) but extremely reliable cars cus it's just a basic 3800 Lesabre. 89 is the best year for these imo.
My buddy had one of these in red. It was a beautiful vehicle.
I had a white 1988 Buick LeSabre T Type and I loved it, it was a very reliable car and great on gas. The only real problem I had with the car was the power window regulators had failed and had to be replaced with in a month of each other.
Owned an 80’s lesabre coupe. Really enjoyed that car.
Headliner sag is a classic trait for ALL mid-to-late 80’s GM models. It’s the one thing every model in every division had in common lol.
Amazing videos! As soon as I get the breaks fixed on my 1996 Buick Century I’m going to visit your website & fill out the form and hopefully you would like to drive it and do a video on my baby. It’s a beautiful survivor. I’m located in Chicagoland & hopefully I will see you soon!
Had a white '87 and a garnet red '89, the only real problem was the window regulator actuators had to replace both sides at least once on both of them. Great looking/running cars & I loved the factory wheels.
Ive owned 2 So far one at 18 and another at 27. My 2nd favorite car I’ve owned
I had a Geo Metro with those seatbelts. I left them buckled and got in as intended exactly once, as an experiment. The lap belt wound up along my shins. Everyone just used them as normal seat belts. If it was a 4 door and you're tall, it would be almost as far from where you sit to the seat belt as it was from the belt to the windshield.
I didnt even know this car! very interesting to see these time capsules
Yea my parents had a white one. Super clean...my step-dad is an obsessive compulsive neat freak so that car was always clean. He always bought Rivieras but hated the downsized version when this t-type came out. So he got it. I like the sportier look myself. They had that car for a few years then traded it when the last gen Riviera hit the dealerships
I had a 3800 series Chevy Lumina and Peter a Camaro five speed with that same motor. So I’m very familiar with it and how it drives. It was a very smooth reliable engine.
Owned one in 2000.... Loved it...
Excellent off road.. smooth ride will tackle a lot more than you would ever think best back seat I'm 6'8" and can fit the back was better than my couch...
Cool car. A friend of mine growing up had one in burgundy. Nice car.
Its criminal though to call it a T-Type when it had no turbo. That's literally what the T in T-Type stood for. RWD with a true turbo 3.8 would have made this car truly badass, but its just a FWD buick painted black all show no go. As much as I like the 90's FWD Buicks and other GM cars, I'd like them more if they were true RWD cars and not handicapped by their FWD Drivetrain. With that said there are pictures out there and stories from engineers of the time talking about the cars of this time.
One in particular was about the Reatta. They actually tried making a turbo FWD Reatta and had 2 RWD Turbo's. One was high boost and another was low. So the story goes that the FWD turbo car just fried the tires whenever you even glanced at the go pedal not to mention the tranny not lasting very long. The high boost RWD Reatta was wrecked because the wheelbase was too short and it spun too easily. However the Low boost RWD version was supposedly pretty quick and handled great, but GM in their infinite wisdom didn't want it competing with the Vette so they shut it down and released them as non turbo FWD.
Wish they could have made the next gen LeSabre in coupe form, I could imagine they would be comfortable
I stopped this vid at :45. It seems at this point, this was going by be a research done, no bs, honest to goodness video about a car that deserves remembering. I hope I was right……ok I was most certainly right. This young man knows his shhhhh stuff. Nice to see young folk so interested in 90’s and 80’s.
My mother had a white Lesabre T-type she got brand new. I will tell you right now that car was very quick and that Buick would do 120 without any issue.
I remember owners being very pleased with the gas mileage of the GM full size 3800 powered cars.
Nice BLT👍
Ive owned an 89 olds 88 which was the same car with slightly different styling and a conventional hood.. i made mine up to look like a 76 cutlass 442 paint scheme as mine was silver with red interior, i made the bottom red and put lace bonneville wheels on it... always been a buick/olds/pontiac fan and have always wanted a 2 door... fellow owned a t-type when i was young, it was his fave car he had several and i got to see them often... the headliner fails more because of weather changes and poor quality glue... smoking helps, but hardly an 80s gm doesnt have this issue somewhere
That GM 3800 motor (not so much the series 1) was one of the best made motors. My God, GM put it in everything!
Buick Odd Fire V6 came out in 1962 as a 196 later a 225 V6 and was sold to AMC Jeep in 1967. The 215 V8 was sold to Rover. Buick later bought the tooling back from AMC and the block was boarded to a 3.8
Good Review. Stretched the width of the Marianas Trench!🤣🤣
I've only seen one of these on the road in my life. They gotta be really rare.
In 1987 my dad bought a LeSabre Limited and it didn't have those silly seat belts. Before that he had a 86 Somerset with a 3.0 V6 ,they were both nice cars and they were pretty fast despite the low horsepower rating. I was pretty disappointed that he never brought home a Grand National.
my father had one in the late 80's. Still bet it will remain as his favourite car ever. I laughed when I heard 160hp. What were they doing with all the displacement - 3.8 litres today is so different. His current Kia Forte would smoke that thing all day long......
On my second T Type man I love the 3800 engine my 3rd Buick from 1988
The production run in 1987, on the LeSabre T-Type was 2,123 (according to BCA) ! Another interesting fact, do a magnet test on the front fenders, if it sticks the fenders have been replaced (from the factory and only in 1987, they came with plastic fenders.) Wish I still had mine!
You comment made me run to my garage with a magnet to test this out lol, but you're right, it doesn't stick! The doors seem like they're plastic, too.
What a cool car! That being said, Buick should have never given this car the T-Type designation without a turbo on it though....
I have one of the 117 LeSabre grand nationals. It's definitely one of the oddest cars I've ever had. There have been several heated discussions where people deny it's existence.
I had one of, it not THE first LeSaber T-Type sold in the Youngstown / Warren Ohio area. Mine was black just like the one in the video. I loved that car and wish I still had it. I had it for 13 years, but alas NE Ohio winters took their toll and I had to replace it with a growing family.
The most common reaction I got from people when I first got it was "wow". One of my most vivid memories driving my T-Type was pulling out of the parking lot at work and having two attractive young ladies in an Porsche snap their heads around for a second look. Especially in the late '80s, the LeSabre T-Type, especially the black one, was a big, bad looking car.
I found this video looking for a picture of a LeSabre T-Type because I would love to see Joe Martin and the guys from Iron Resurrection do a makeover on one. If they could turn it into a rear wheel drive with an LS, lower it some and adjust the front facia accordingly and add a Firebird like rear spoiler, that car would be "badass" as they like to say.
my friend had an 88 with the ground effects kit sweet ride
Nice!
I wonder if you could find a 86/87 Buick Park Avenue to review.
Keep it up.
I’ve got a 1987 Buick Park Avenue T-Type!
Actually, the T-Type was only offered on the standard Electra. What you have is an Electra Park Avenue "T". The "T" package had the suspension and leather 3-spoke steering wheel from the Electra T-Type, but on the far nicer Park Ave. The touring "T" package could be ordered on almost all 1987 Buicks, including the Regal without the turbo. What you have was only offered in '87, and is very, very rare.
Interesting video! Just want to note that the Buick V6 is o.k.a. the Fireball V6 and it started production in the early 60s.
All that aside, it's sad these things were all show and no go. A turbo (or newer Buick V6) and upgraded suspension would've made this an interesting car for the time
If you could get a hold of a 90’s Buick Riviera, that would be so cool.
This Buick has more than a passing resemblance to Dale Earnhardt's 1989-1991 Winston Cup stock car. While most of GM's styling sucked in the 80's, this was a damn winner, it was sleek, sexy, modern, aerodynamic, minimal decoration, looked like a street legal NASCAR racer IMO. Wish the performance backed it up.
The side profile and the back end reminds of Opel Ascona C Coupe
The slack in the seatbelts is the tensioner springs going, not the belt stretching. And the headliner sagging is from weak/faulty glue. I couldn't watch any more after that.
The Era before cupholders! You had to go to Pepboys and buy those add on hanging cup holders on the door .
I'd love to give a unique car like this a thorough detail, cause while it is clean it's plagued with a ton of swirls
Car has gotten a good bath since this video, paint isn't perfect but the swirls are less noticeable now. Doesn't help that it sat for 8 years with a bunch of crap on it before I acquired it.
love the channel.. finally something else other than doug demuro lol you would love the montecarlo if you like that
So cool and rare
bro should redo the headliner and that car would be mint.
It's on the list! Only had the car since October. been focused on fixing mechanical stuff before fixing the cosmetics.