1995 Riviera- info needed

[Guest Shaffer]

Hello all. Tonight at a local car lot, I seen a 1995 Buick Riviera for $5,995. Car is in EC. Does this seem like a good price? Are these cars fairly reliable? Do not think it is supercharged. Not sure of the miles. Car is white, with either gray or blue interior. Other cars they have I am considering are a 1996 Pontiac Bonneville SE and a 1995 Toyota Avalon XL, all three priced @ $5,995. I am thinking of buying one to use as a work car.

[BUICK RACER]

How many miles? That seems like pretty good deal, if the maintenance, oil changes etc have been done it'll last forever. My mom has had hers since new, and loves it, supercharged. The only thing that bothers me is that they were only made for 4 years so parts may become a problem sooner or later. Roberta

[Centurion]

My sister bought a '96 Riviera new. Hers is the non-supercharged version. The car has been excellent and trouble-free, which could certainly not be said of the two Saabs that preceded it!

[Guest Shaffer]

Thanks for the reply. However, I keyed the car in at <A HREF="http://www.kbb.com" TARGET=_blank>www.kbb.com</A> and put it in as if it had 100,000 miles and good condition and it showed trade-in was only $2,750. Even the plainest 1995 Chrysler Concorde has the same resell with those miles. I checked the trade-in of my 1995 Chrysler Concorde (with the luxury package option) w/ the 3.5 engine option and 89K and in GC shows $3,600 trade-in. I think I will have to rethink this. Thanks again.

[NTX5467]

The "mechanicals" on the car are the same as a similar Park Avenue so there should be no problems there. If it's supercharged, there will be a "SUPERCHARGED" name plate on the vertical surface of the deck lid, on the passenger side. Many of the chassis items will also cross with the first gen Aurora.<P>Only things that might be issues with replacement would be crash parts and the trim on the interior (other than the seats, which can be redone by a good trim shop if needed). From what I've seen, the quality of the interior trim should be better than the Bonneville and more luxurious than the Avalon. <P>At one time, you could buy a very basic Riviera with plain 15" wheels and wheel covers at a lesser price than the "normally equipped ones". That deal lasted only a couple of years and was gone by the time the woodgrain appeared on the interior, if I remember correctly.<P>Some of those "car price sites" can have different information from differing sources. All the Kelly Blue Book is good for is banking loan values whereas other guides will have different (lower) values so you need to check several to get a good idea. You might try MSN Carpoint, for example. You can also run the VIN through CARFAX and also get a GM dealer to run the VIN through VISS to tell you what warranty repairs were done and where it was sold, possibly.<P>It would be nice to have the Riviera so that it would be a nice, distinctive vehicle, but the better long term bet might be the Bonneville (used crash parts from the salvage yard would be advantage). Forget the "appliance car" Avalon as no one knows what that car is outside of Toyota people (yet everyone knows what the Camry is)! The Bonneville would be more saleable when you decide to get rid of it due to the greater name recognition of the vehicle. Got to look at both sides of the deal (purchase and then resale), but the decision is yours.<P>Have you looked for any Park Avenues? They will probably have lower miles and be in good shape too (due to the typical demographics of the typical Park Avenue owner). Great American Luxury in the Great American Tradition at a really decent price after they age about 5-7 years from new.<P>Just some thoughts . . .<BR>NTX5467

[Guest Shaffer]

Thanks. Actually, the car is supercharged. I looked at the car on our local trading paper website, where it is also listed and it says it is supercharged. Maybe it is worth $5,995. I think I might take a closer loot at it tomorrow.