The 1958 Buick Limited was supposed to be Buick ’s paint to reentering the luxury car market . Buick , however , could n’t have picked a worse time . For although no one could have anticipate it when the Modern Limited series was in the planning microscope stage , 1958 turned out to be a recession year , with the economy experiencing its worst downswing since the 1930s .
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To compound the problem , chiliad of American motorist appear suddenly to tire of the big route - locomotives that had been in vogue for so long , and of which Buick had build so many . The day of the compact car had add up .
Buick sale plummeted 37 percent from 1957 , but that ’s not the half of it – because 1957 ’s volume , in bit , had reached barely over half that of the pace - position 1955 season .
A set of things had gone wrong since 1954 , when Buick leapfrogged over Plymouth to cop third seat in the sales race for the first time since 1926 . enjoy the sweet taste of success , Buick pushed beforehand in 1955 to sprain out 781,296 automobiles , a hefty 47 percent increase over the year before and a fresh criminal record for the division .
unluckily , it was typeset at the price of a serious erosion in quality ascendency , not to mention some uncorrected design flaw .
See what changes were made to achieve far-flung acceptance of the 1958 Buick Limited in the following page .
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1958 Buick Limited Restyling Efforts
Radical change would have to be made if the 1958 example were to achieve widespread acceptation . But therein lay Buick ’s dilemma , for it was much too late to bring about a major modification of the canonical soundbox contours . 1958 Buick Limited restyling try had to revolve around superficial difference in trim .
All of which may have been , in 1958 , quite in keeping with the spirit of the times . After years of wartime austerity , stretching through the Korean battle as well as the Second World War , Americans seemed determined to let it all attend out . It became the geological era some sociologists have called the " Age of Excess . " " If you ’ve sire it , flash it " seemed to be the catchword .
Perhaps the 1958 Buick overdid it , but this was , after all , the era of high - flying tail fins and three - tone of voice color system .
Engine specifications remain unaltered for 1958 . With a 9.5:1 densification ratio and two - gun barrel carburetor , the Special developed 250 horsepower . All other series , using a 10.1:1 squeezing and four - cask carb , trotted out 300 sawhorse – exactly the same as Ford ’s novel four - station Thunderbird .
A revised robotlike transmission system debuted for 1958 : Flight - Pitch Dynaflow . Known in tardy years as the " treble turbine " transmission , it follow stock on the largest Buicks , but was optional throughout the symmetricalness of the line . An tremendously complicated mechanism , it seek to be very expensive to farm . Buick is said to have spent $ 86 million just on tooling for it .
With a maximum stall ratio of 4.5:1 , the Flight Pitch swear entirely on hydraulic times throughout the railroad car ’s speed range , result in almost incredible smoothness . On the downside , however , it lacked the quick reply of Hydra - Matic , and slippage was such that it proved to be uneconomical of fuel .
In the next page , continue learning about the Limited ’s transmission and notice out about its optional Air Poise suspension .
1958 Buick Limited Suspension
If the Flight Pitch transmission raise to be less than an unentitled success , Buick ’s other engineering tour de military force for 1958 rated as a total disaster . This was the optional Air Poise respite , actually a Cadillac development , which all General Motors division offer that year .
The scheme consisted of individual air bellows , replacing the conventional coil springs at all four box . Air was feast to the bellows from a supply tank that maintained sufficient pressure by mean value of a small , engine - driven compressor .
In possibility , Air Poise was guess to bring home the bacon a delicate and quieter ride than the volute springs , though the claim is refutable . It did , however , keep the elevator car at a unvarying level stance regardless of payload and operating conditions . At least , that ’s what it did when it mould properly .
Owners presently strike , however , that Air Poise often developed leaks that sometimes give the car sitting on its axles . Motor Trendcomplained about excessive wheel - hop , bottoming out on sharp dips , and too much heeling - over in turns – though the latter enforce to conventionally sprung Buicks as well .
At $ 188 , Air Poise never became a specially popular option , which is just as well , since many emptor found it necessary to convert their cars to coil fountain afterwards .
the great unwashed who road prove new car on behalf of the crush lean to be discreet in their observations , since their access to each twelvemonth ’s new manikin is subject upon the right will of the manufacturer .
But Don Francisco , writing inMotor Trend , pulled no biff in offering his judgement of the 1958 Buicks : " In 1957 , Buick lose their third piazza sales position to Plymouth , " he remember , adding prophetically that " if the public presentation of the 1958 Buicks I tested can be used as a yard measure , they are clever to lose another position or two this year . "
See more test - driving resultant by visiting the next Thomas Nelson Page .
1958 Buick Limited Test-Driving Results
psychometric test - driving a 1958 Buick Super fit out with the Flight - Pitch transmission , Motor Trendreviewer Don Francisco experienced " extreme slippage somewhere between the engine and the rearward wheels . Engine speed go up with the accelerator movement , but the car did n’t accelerate as it should have .
" To get the car move fast enough to keep up with normal traffic it was necessary to force the accelerator pedal to the story , where the convertor ratio transfer to a still down sales talk . "
As for accelerator pedal milage , the Super averaged 11.3 mpg highway , 8.5 city . all told , Francisco found the car to be " a disappointing experience . " In summarizing , he write , " These car are for mink coat and dinner jackets , not quag and Levis ; they are for driving to dinner and the theatre , not for tick across town during rushing hour . "
And that , we suspect , is incisively the way Buick intended thing to be . The icon the companionship seek to visualise was one of comfort and opulence , not of hotshot performance .
As part of this effort – while retaining the Special , Century , Super , and Roadmaster series – Buick undertook to revive its big esteemed Limited for 1958 .
The earlier Limited , which had disappeared from the Buick catalog with the coming of World War II , had never been a money - Lord for the division , but there is niggling doubt that it served amazingly well as an image - builder .
It was Harlow Curtice , then chief of Buick Division , who attempted to establish the prominent Buick as a contender to Cadillac , an cause that his superiors ultimately torpedo . But now , in 1958 , Curtice was himself Chief Executive of GM and everybody knew that he continued to take a particular interest group in Buick .
Read about the reintroduction of the Limited on the next page .
1958 Buick Limited Reintroduced
As re-introduce for 1958 , the Limited was basically an upgraded Roadmaster , but with an extended rear deck decorate by chromed chevrons on the fender . " Twin - Tower " taillamps , exclusive to the Limited , brought up the rear .
The wheelbase value the same 125.5 inches as the Roadmaster , but the rear overhang stretched out an special eight in , bring the overall length to 227.1 in . Not even the extended - deck of cards version of the Cadillac Sixty - Two could top it for length
Nor could the big raw Buick be call inexpensive . In its 1958 personification , the Limited monetary value more – anywhere from $ 110 to $ 240 – than the base models of Lincoln , Imperial , and Cadillac . In fact , its price was really $ 33 higher than Caddy ’s extended - deck model .
Buick people will assert to this day that the Limited was worth the money because its fit and finish were of the highest Holy Order . The biscuit - pattern interiors come in a choice of Mojave cloth or broadcloth , with leather trim in either instance .
convertible sported fine leather in a wide-cut variety of colors . Buick aficionados even claim that the Limited was a better balanced automobile than the Cadillac . And the fin aluminum pasture brake , which had been gallop for 1958 to all but the Special serial , lived up to Buick ’s advertising claims .
Curious about what happened to the Limited ? Go to the next Sir Frederick Handley Page and find out .
1958 Buick Limited Ends An Era
The 1958 Buick Limited ended an era . Three torso styles comprised the ancestry : Riviera sedan chair , Riviera coupe , and translatable . Of the three models , the four - door version easily outsold the others . Which is n’t saying much .
Even the Imperial , itself encountering heavy conditions in 1958 , outsold the Limited by a margin of closely two to one . In a status - conscious society like America in the Fifties , it may merely have been unrealistic to endeavor to sell a car with a medium - price nameplate – whatever its merits – at price in high spirits than those of the set up luxury marquees .
That away , all Buicks sell poorly in 1958 , resulting in a 5th place finish in the model twelvemonth production race , one notch low than the year before .
Given all the factors – the state of the economic system , the Limited ’s very high monetary value , Buick ’s somewhat tarnished repute , and the styling excesses of the 1958 example – it hardly comes as a surprisal that this swelled , opulent series lasted for only one season .
Granted , the Electra 225 debut for 1959 and it was a prominent car – five inch longer bumper - to - bumper than the garden mixture Electra . But it just was n’t in the same league as the Limited , nor in the same toll category . Model for model , the “ Deuce and a Quarter ” cost nearly $ 800 less than the cheapest Cadillac .
The Limited marked the oddment of an era at Buick . Harley Earl , GM ’s styling director for more than 30 years , retired that year . So did corporate president Harlow Curtice , followed short thereafter by Buick chief Ed Ragsdale . A new team , with a newfangled prospect , would be responsible for guide General Motors ’ oldest division successfully into the Sixties .
