1970 Buick Riviera 🇮🇹

When it debuted in 1963, the Buick Riviera drew effusive praise, citing it as among Buick’s finest designs. Yet, it’s the second-generation Riviera that proves more popular. While that may seem inconceivable today, the numbers tell the story. The second-generation Riviera sells 227,669 units, while the first generation sells 112,244 units. Of course, the initial design runs for three years, while the successor was built for five. Yet subtract the 90,010 units built for 1969 and ’70, and the 137,659 copies sold from 1966 through 1968 reveals the Riviera design Buick buyers clearly favored.

Buick executives must have had high hopes for the 1970 Riviera, despite the fact this generation was entering its fifth year of production. The previous model-year Riviera saw its sales reach an all-time high of 52,872 units, a tally the model would not break for 15 years.

Still riding on the corporate E-body platform, the Riviera shares its roof panel, backlight, inner door panels, rocker sills, rear floor pan, windshield and A-pillar with the Oldsmobile Toronado. But its frame and undercarriage differ significantly, as the Riviera employs rear-wheel drive, while the Toronado is front-wheel drive.

Given a redesign is due for 1971, changes for 1970 are fairly significant. Part of the aesthetic turn comes at the hands of GM's Vice-President of Design Bill Mitchell, who decided that Buick's design should become more French.

He orders Donald Lasky, who replaced David Holls as Buick's design chief, to endow the 1970 Riviera with a dash of Delage design influence. The front end is heavily revised with a new grille, bumper and fixed headlights replacing the retractable units used since 1965. The side sweepspear is reworked, and rear fender skirts become standard equipment for the first and only time, lending a thick, heavy look to the back of the car. The design changes are not well received, and sales plummet year-over-year by more than 34 percent.

Certainly, the sales downturn wasn’t due to performance. Like the Electra, and Wildcat, the Riviera was fitted with Buick’s newest V-8, a 455 cubic-inch (7.5-liter) engine rated at 370 gross horsepower at 4,600 rpm. It’s the biggest V-8 Buick ever built and remains in production through 1976. The new mill’s design owed much to Buick’s 215 cubic-inch (3.5-liter) aluminum V8, no coincidence given that the same engineer designed both powerplants. It is mated to a  3-speed Turbo Hydramatic 400 automatic transmission.

This would be a one year only style as a more radical Riviera is waiting in the wings for 1971.