Me and my 1988 Buick Reatta

[Ronnie]

The story of me and my Buick started in 2007 when I happened to see a bright red car sitting on one of those vehicle display ramps.  You know, the kind they drive a car up on it to make it sit about four feet off the ground to grab attention.  I didn't recognize what it was but that bright red paint caught my eye.   I turned my truck around and went back just to see what kind of car it was.

 

When I pulled up in the used car lot a salesman was right there to greet me.  It turned out that I knew the guy from school.  I told him that I wasn't interested in buying but I just wanted to get a look at it to see what it was. He told me it was a 1988 Buick Reatta.  He said that it was kind of rare because they didn't make very many of them.  Actually I had never seen a Buick Reatta before.  I have always been a fan of unusual cars and I kinda liked the car when I saw it was a two seater.

 

He backed it off the ramp so I could get a good look at it.  I asked him some questions about it and he said he really didn't know much about it.  At least he was honest.   He told me if I was interested in it I could drive it home where I could look it over as much as I wanted.  I took him up on his offer.  I drove the hell out of it and then took it home and pulled it in the garage.  I jacked it up and checked everything.  I spent about three hours checking brakes, compression, transmission fluid - you name it, I checked it.  Only thing I found wrong was the red brake warning light was on.  I thought it had a bad parking brake switch.  It turned out to be something more serious but that's another story.

 

Driving back to the car lot I decided the Reatta was one of those oddball cars that I just had to have.  I made the guy an offer that I thought he would turn down and I bought myself a Buick Reatta.  Sometimes I regret it because, even though it is a Buick, it has turned out to be more of an oddball than I expected.  Although it is an oddball, and it's not near as fast as it looks like it should be, it brings a smile to my face every time I drive it. That's what owning an old car is all about.

 

[Ronnie]

I originally posted this in the Buick Clubs/Me and My Buick forum to try to get our Reattas to fit in with other old Buicks. It didn't get much love over there so I moved it here. ?  Maybe a Buick has to have the headlight dimmer switch in the floorboard to be considered an OLD Buick in that forum.  ?

[DAVES89]

I saw what you posted there Ronnie, and as it was so well written I couldn't add to it, so didn't. I like the story, thanks.

 Maybe now you can tell us the part about the red brake light and what you did to fix it.

[Barney Eaton]

Ronnie.........you mentioned not getting much love.   I joined the BCA in 1996 ....about 5 years after buying my first Reatta.    At that time the Reatta was just a fairly new used car.

I think the Reatta Div was already formed.   My first BCA national meet was St Louis in 1996,  we had maybe 10 Reattas and there was a lot of questions among Reatta owner about differences in the car.

Remember a group of maybe 10 owners walking from Reatta to Reatta comparing differences and asking questions.   On the drive home I knew we needed to know more about the cars so I started the database to

attempt to understand some of the questions.    PS  there was little love at that meet for the Reatta.....just a used Buick.

 

Once I got involved in investigation the differences between 1988 and 1991 (from the outside they all look alike)  getting input from owner about side molding color, dash color, different seats, plus finding Reatta literature,

the picture became clearer.   About that time I thought about running for the BCA Board......mainly to promote the Reatta and have a say in club changes that might help or hurt the Reatta owner within the BCA.

First try I did not get enough votes to make the Board but the next year I was voted on the BCA Board.    During the 6 years I was on the board,  the Reatta we were able to get a Reatta class established and judged at National meets.   Little by little the "old iron" Buick people started to recognize the potential collectability of the Reatta

 

One of the best stories I remember was at a BCA National and a group was gathered around a Reatta and we were telling the "non-believers" some of the virtues of this modern Buick....they could drive it to meets and on tours and it has A/C and their wives will like it and go with them to club activities....  One guy that had a '37 Buick show car said "all you guys did was write a check for the car and then show it......unlike the older Buicks that had to be restored" 

a few comment were made and then I ask him about his  '37 ....was it totally restored...YES.....even the engine rebuilt.....Yes..... did you rebuild the engine......No I took it to an expert rebuilder......do you do body work....No I had the body repaired and then they painted it......I guess you don't do upholstery.......No I found a guy that was really good and he did it like the original...........now my final question.........so you just wrote a few checks for your car also..........he got the point and said no more.

 

The point of the stories above is the Reatta still can use some more love........ lots of people (at most meets) don't know anything about it.    Type up a short history and put it on the dash at shows.......I happen to have the window sticker for my car,  had it laminated and I put that on the dash so they can see all the standard equipment and price of the car.     Continue to promote the Reatta at both regular shows and Buick shows.    Until Jay Leno buys a Reatta the rest of the world will probably ignore it for a few more years.  

 

One additional item for non BCA members and BCA members that seldom attend the Buick National meet........one of the awards given at the National meet is the long distance award,  there are two, one for pre-war and another for post-war Buick.   A few years back,  the Reatta Div made a decision to sponsor both awards.......this gives the Reatta Div some additional presents at the awards banquet and the president of the Div give out both awards.

Just another thing that the Reatta Div does to make others aware of the Reatta.

[Ronnie]

7 hours ago, DAVES89 said:

I saw what you posted there Ronnie, and as it was so well written I couldn't add to it, so didn't. I like the story, thanks.

 Maybe now you can tell us the part about the red brake light and what you did to fix it.

 

Being a new Buick Reatta owner I didn't know it was normal for the red brake warning light to come on and stay on for a while after the car had been sitting overnight. I thought it was caused by a bad parking brake switch or something similar. The warning light would also flash when I hit the brakes and then it would go out again. I didn't have a FSM so I started searching the Internet to find a solution to the problem. I found this forum and I quickly was told by helpful members of this forum that the problem was a bad accumulator. I ordered a new accumulator from gmpartsdirect and when I installed it my brake problem when away. That was the beginning of a long list of questions that I had about my new Reatta.  That post was in May of 2007 and I have been here most every day since then.

[Ronnie]

On 9/25/2018 at 10:17 AM, Barney Eaton said:

The point of the stories above is the Reatta still can use some more love........ lots of people (at most meets) don't know anything about it.    Type up a short history and put it on the dash at shows.......I happen to have the window sticker for my car,  had it laminated and I put that on the dash so they can see all the standard equipment and price of the car.     Continue to promote the Reatta at both regular shows and Buick shows.    Until Jay Leno buys a Reatta the rest of the world will probably ignore it for a few more years.  

 

One additional item for non BCA members and BCA members that seldom attend the Buick National meet........one of the awards given at the National meet is the long distance award,  there are two, one for pre-war and another for post-war Buick.   A few years back,  the Reatta Div made a decision to sponsor both awards.......this gives the Reatta Div some additional presents at the awards banquet and the president of the Div give out both awards.

Just another thing that the Reatta Div does to make others aware of the Reatta.

 

Barney, Thank you for all the work you do to promote the Buick Reatta. You are one of many in the Reatta Div. who have done so.

 

I think every member of the Reatta forum should start posting about our Reattas in the other Buick forums every now ant then. It's time we start trying to fit in with the other old Buicks on those forums instead of being left behind on our on little island that we call the Reatta Forum. This island is quickly being abandoned. Even though our Buicks look different from the other "old iron" Buicks they are now antique Buicks nonetheless.

 

I really enjoyed the story about about the guy with the '37 Buick. I see that time and time again at car shows.  I have a neighbor who's had some really nice muscle cars. When I first met him he told me about all he had done to his cars to make them winning show cars. Knowing that his garage was clean enough to eat off the floor, I couldn't help but wonder how he did it. As time went on and I got to know him better I realized he was doing very little work to the cars himself. His way of doing the work on the car was to load the car up on a trailer and haul it to a person who would actually do the work. He's had much nicer cars than me and he probably enjoyed his cars more so he might have the right idea.  If I had his money I might have done the same.

 

On 9/25/2018 at 10:17 AM, Barney Eaton said:

One additional item for non BCA members and BCA members that seldom attend the Buick National meet.....

 

I'm one of those who seldom attends national meets. Iagree that the Reatta Div. has done a tremendous amount of work to promote the Reatta. Probably a lot more than I realize. However, what is going on now with the Reatta Div. is wrong in my opinion. When the majority of the Reatta Div. officers choose to gather on a Facebook page that is now closed to the public I think they are taking a step backwards.  The Reatta Div. should be a club that welcomes all members to take part in discussions with the officers and other members. I don't care to be a member of a club that excludes some of it 's members and doesn't open it's discussions to be read by the public.  I won't be renewing my Reatta Div. membership when it expires. I seriously doubt any hearts are going to broken to hear that.