1991 Maui Blue/ Grey $3,000 asking - 64,000 miles Not Mine

[B Jake Moran]

(20+) Marketplace - 1991 Buick Reatta | Facebook

 

About This Vehicle

 

 

Driven 63,000 miles

Automatic transmission

Exterior color: Blue · Interior color: Grey

Clean title

This vehicle has no significant damage or problems.

 

Seller's Description

Car came from Boulder Colorado. I got it from an estate sale. I was going to restore it because it's a very low production car, especially in this color. But life happened. About the car : 1991 Buick Reatta, Maui Blue over Grey leather. 63k miles. Came from Boulder Colorado and is completely rust free. Needs a little work. AC is inoperable. Has "Electrical Problem" and "Inflatable Restraint" light on. Cruise control works great! Windows only go halfway down. Wheel bearing in front needs replaced. Tires are good date code from 2019, car starts, runs, and drives well. LED headlights and fogs. Previous owner wired for LED headlights but wiring isn't great. I just want to get out of the car what I have put into it. $3,000. Located in Kellogg, Iowa.

[B Jake Moran]

[DAVES89]

Pretty honest appraisal as well as good pictures showing both the good and the flaws. If it was a red/tan I'd be driving down for it...

[dship]

If it was a '91 Maui Blue convertible, I'd be jumping on it.

[Ronnie]

It appears to be in good shape other than the photo below. I wonder if that is clear coat going bad on the hood or just a reflection that makes it look that way?

 

[MRJBUICK]

4 hours ago, Ronnie said:

It appears to be in good shape other than the photo below. I wonder if that is clear coat going bad on the hood or just a reflection that makes it look that way?

 

because its a Reatta i wuld bet its the clearcoat going bad

 

[Ronnie]

2 hours ago, MRJBUICK said:

because its a Reatta i wuld bet its the clearcoat going bad

 

I don't know why you would say "because it's a Reatta". Mine is an '88 with original paint and it has no clearcoat defects. I think that car being left out in the Colorado sun had more to do with it having bad clearcoat than it being a Reatta. The factory paint job on a Reatta was a cut above what most American cars produced in that time period had.

 

[padgett]

88 used a water based paint that had some problems particularly with defects around the badge. You are lucky and/or it does not get much sunlight.

[dship]

'95-'99 Rivieras had notoriously bad clearcoats.

[B Jake Moran]

The seller is 45 miles from me and we did talk.  This is a car that Marck Barker bought and it was on the way back to NC. This seller has an 89 Reatta and is Marcks customer for parts.  
 

Marck was going to drop some parts off and the guy says leave the car.  2 months later he has (essentially) buyers remorse or a change of heart.  He is a Fiero guy mainly and has an opportunity at a rare Fiero so the Reatta is for sale.  
 

There has been one repaint. I have the Carfax. 2 early accidents. Seems believable the 64,000 miles.  Needs paint, hood was resprayed in single stage and that’s bad paint.  
 

Previous  owner had a hairy shedding dog and the seller said he had to remove the seats to get the interior clean.  
 

Needing paint prices it out of just fix the issues and drive.  Headlights buggered up for the LED conversion. Runs good. Huge carfax with it.  
 

1 of 24 per the seller. Which sounds about right. Wish my divorce and “life happens” didn’t make me sell my Maui coupe.  

[Y-JobFan]

2 hours ago, B Jake Moran said:

The seller is 45 miles from me and we did talk.  This is a car that Marck Barker bought and it was on the way back to NC. This seller has an 89 Reatta and is Marcks customer for parts.  
 

Marck was going to drop some parts off and the guy says leave the car.  2 months later he has (essentially) buyers remorse or a change of heart.  He is a Fiero guy mainly and has an opportunity at a rare Fiero so the Reatta is for sale.  
 

There has been one repaint. I have the Carfax. 2 early accidents. Seems believable the 64,000 miles.  Needs paint, hood was resprayed in single stage and that’s bad paint.  
 

Previous  owner had a hairy shedding dog and the seller said he had to remove the seats to get the interior clean.  
 

Needing paint prices it out of just fix the issues and drive.  Headlights buggered up for the LED conversion. Runs good. Huge carfax with it.  
 

1 of 24 per the seller. Which sounds about right. Wish my divorce and “life happens” didn’t make me sell my Maui coupe.  

Did he state if the car was originally Maui Blue? I am wondering if the car wasn't originally white.

 

[B Jake Moran]

He did say it was an original Maui Blue car and he provided me the VIN. 
 

Wish Marck still came on here. He could tell us more about it. He picked it up from the owner 

[MRJBUICK]

On 6/24/2022 at 3:51 PM, Ronnie said:

I don't know why you would say "because it's a Reatta". Mine is an '88 with original paint and it has no clearcoat defects. I think that car being left out in the Colorado sun had more to do with it having bad clearcoat than it being a Reatta. The factory paint job on a Reatta was a cut above what most American cars produced in that time period had.

 

from my experiences in the NY area if any Reatta is left out in the weather as in a normal used car

it has paint problems with the clear coat, more so than most other cars 

as mentioned that the car has paint work already, probably because of the clear issue.

i have seen it many times, its just a fact

listen i love my Reatta, and intend to keep it for quite a while.

and well kept garaged cars do not have the issue.

not putting the cars down, every car has its quirks, unfortunatly this is one of theirs

marty

[padgett]

Not "because it it a Reatta" but "because the Reatta used a water based paint from PPG". When I bought my triple blue 88 in 2001 it had a few spots of delamination, mainly around the hood badge. Looking back to 2003, the most common complaint seems to be about Maui Blue so may have been that blue cars had more issues.

[DAVES89]

I believe the Blue cars [from many car makers] had clear coat/peeling issue more then any other color.

Edited July 1, 2022 by DAVES89 (see edit history)

[B Jake Moran]

Price is down to $2500 if anyone wants me to go check on it.  

[DAVES89]

Where do you buy a used car for $2500.00? It's turning into a steal. If nothing else a great winter driver.

[B Jake Moran]

Still shows active. I hate these cars. I want it pretty badly to restore.  Reattas are smaller, yes electrically complicated compared to buying a 62 Buick but still manageable.  

[Y-JobFan]

Why on earth would you put the money in it to restore it when you could buy a nice one cheaper than you could ever properly restore this one, a good paint job alone costs a fortune.  Who knows what the paint job is hiding, there is some reason white paint is showing in places, possibly replacement parts?  If someone could do their own work then it would be worthwhile, but if you have to pay to have it done you will be buried in it real quick 

 

[BlakesReatta]

22 hours ago, B Jake Moran said:

Still shows active. I hate these cars. I want it pretty badly to restore.  Reattas are smaller, yes electrically complicated compared to buying a 62 Buick but still manageable.  

Lol you hate the Reatta but you want to restore this one? Lol that doesn’t really make sense! Reattas are addicting because they are quirky and unique. I love them. 

[BlakesReatta]

That car has literally zero rust. My guess is it spent too much time outside in colorado. The uv rays are a bit stronger there because of the elevation. It’s a good price other than that wheel bearing issue. 

Edited July 4, 2022 by BlakesReatta (see edit history)

[ArcticWhite88]

Someone please buy this car so I can stop thinking about bringing it back to its former glory! 😝

[B Jake Moran]

13 hours ago, BlakesReatta said:

Lol you hate the Reatta but you want to restore this one? Lol that doesn’t really make sense!

I only meant I hate these kind of tempting Reattas, I don’t hate Reattas.  This guy would probably take even less then $2500. He is desperate to get a Fiero he knows about and needs money and space.  

[ArcticWhite88]

I think this 91 is 1 of 13 in the combination of colors/options.

[B Jake Moran]

1 hour ago, ArcticWhite88 said:

I think this 91 is 1 of 13 in the combination of colors/options.

I think the seller said Marck told him 1 of 23. In all cases that is the curiosity and interest from me. I just enjoy finding the “1 of cars”.  Like finding that very early Reatta donated to a school.  I check on all 1988 Reattas.  Especially if I see suede bolsters.  
 

Few care, but let’s say it is 1 of 13.   The attrition rate is likely quite high as not all people are Reatta lovers.  Maybe there are 6 left in any condition, maybe 2 pristine ones.  This one has had a hard life but can be restored and instead of starting at 143,000 miles as my 1 of 1 1991 Maui Coupe had, you start at 64,000 miles.  
 

As to answer Y Jobs comments about the paint issue I think he is correct. The seller provided me with the Carfax. This car has had 2 accidents.  Not horrific ones, all repaired but they likely used a white hood at some point.  As to whether this means the car is bad, the seller said he has driven it to work and back with no issues. 

[Barney Eaton]

I first question why Marck would leave a car in Iowa that he went to Colorado to buy.... maybe he wanted to get out of it.  

Two accidents and a repaint.... don't blame the factory for paint problems on a repaint. 

There were 24 Maui Blue coupes with slate/grey interior.   11 had sunroofs leaving 13 without sunroof. 

I did not see any information about 16 way seats (about half the cars had 16 way)  with or without that would change the 13 number to 6 or 7

Does it have a CD?  If you are counting all differences to determine its "rarity"  then you could also look at the pinstripe color and side molding (black or body color)

All that information can be found on the Tom Benvie 1991 database at www.reatta.net      you will not find actual numbers, you would need to look at every Maui Blue 

coupe with slate interior and determine how many had black or body color moldings.... same with pinstripe, which might have been WHITE, BLACK, SLATE, DARK BLUE, 

even GOLD, RED could have been chosen..... and don't forget "pinstripe delete" 

From the picture the side molding is black and does not appear to have pinstripe...but remember it has been repainted and maybe not repinstriped

Looked in my files and some old info,  that might be off because of new/later information. 

of the 24 blue/slate coupes,  15 had blue molding  9 had black.

For rarity... of the black side molding cars.... (1) had CD & 16 way,  (1) had CD only,  (1) had sunroof only  (1) had 16 way only

Regardless of the combinations of features/options it would be 1 of 3 at the most. 

[Y-JobFan]

On 7/5/2022 at 1:49 PM, B Jake Moran said:

 

As to answer Y Jobs comments about the paint issue I think he is correct. The seller provided me with the Carfax. This car has had 2 accidents.  Not horrific ones, all repaired but they likely used a white hood at some point.  As to whether this means the car is bad, the seller said he has driven it to work and back with no issues. 

Looks like the drivers door was white originally as well.  As Barney mentioned, there might have been a good reason Marck left it 

 

[NCReatta]

What is it with you guys and all this speculation? I’m not hard to find if you were genuinely interested and had questions about the history behind it. Happy to answer if you asked but I guess you guys would rather speculate that I dumped this car on this guy. Not the case at all and anyone who knows me knows I wouldn’t do that. 
 

I bought this car out of an estate along with 2 other cars. I bought them all as parts donors.
 

The red coupe wasn’t even worth bringing home. That was stripped for anything usable and scrapped. The proceeds for that were donated to the Forney Transportation Museum in Denver for their employees help with some of the logistics of this buy. 

 

the white coupe had a partially disassembled motor and wouldn’t move under its own power. 
 

the blue car was probably the nicest of the three. Dirty, and a poor repaint but an extremely nice running car (ram so smooth I could hardly feel it running). The aforementioned mileage and attractive color combo along with the extremely clean underside caught the eye of my customer when I stopped to work on his car.

 

He made me an offer and we came to a deal. Since it was headed for the parts yard, I figured I’d be willing to take a hit on what I could make parting it out to keep another car on the road. Plus he was just so excited about it. So we pulled it off the trailer and off I went. 
 

so as you can see, no nefarious dumping or leaving it for a “good reason”. The only good reason I left it was it kept another car on the road and out of the scrap heap. 

 

my customer did a great job cleaning up the Inteiror. Looks WAY better than when I left. This is a lot of car for the money. I think the only reason it hasn’t sold more quickly is the geographical location. 
 

 

[Barney Eaton]

Marck......... not throwing you under the bus.

Just thought the longer you saw it the less interested you were and sold/traded it in Iowa instead of dragging it back to NC

[B Jake Moran]

I didn’t say anything negative about you.  Just that you could clarify some about the car since you saw it. You just don’t come on the forum much at all anymore.