The Series 90 Limited's closed cars came dressed in mohair velvet, silk passenger-compartment shades, and wool carpet throughout — despite having no V8 to back up the luxury.
Lead trim: Series 90 344.8 cu in OHV I8 (104 bhp at 2800 rpm, 1931) · up to 116 hp
Buick Limited1931–1935
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Buick Limited yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactThe Series 90 Limited's closed cars came dressed in mohair velvet, silk passenger-compartment shades, and wool carpet throughout — despite having no V8 to back up the luxury.
The Buick Limited was Buick's flagship line between 1936 and 1942 and a single-year 1958 halo car; the original line, topped by an extended-wheelbase limousine, competed directly with Cadillac senior sedans for clientele that wanted a GM luxury car but found Cadillac "ostentatious" or "flamboyant". Its ancestor, Buick's top platform, was introduced in 1931 as the Series 90 on the GM C-body shared with the Cadillac Series 355, featuring a 344.8 cu in (5.7 L) straight-eight OHV engine developing 104 bhp at 2,800 rpm to compete with the Cadillac V8 and the Packard Standard Eight (wheelbases 132, 134 and 138 in; the seven-passenger Limousine US$2,035, closed cars with mohair velvet interiors, silk shades and wool carpeting, roadsters, phaetons and convertibles with leather). The size grew the next year and a new high-performance engine developing 113 hp was introduced; in 1933 all GM cars got the "streamlined" look from Harley Earl's Art and Color Studio, in 1934 the running board was shortened and output rose to 116 hp, and total sales for the line were 43,321. In 1936 the model became the 90 Limited.
Collectors Spotted in the Buick Limited Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Buick Limited yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
3 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series 90 344.8 cu in OHV I8 (104 bhp at 2800 rpm, 1931) | 1931–1931 | 5.7 L Inline-8 | 104 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
| Series 90 OHV I8 (113 hp, 1932) | 1932–1932 | Inline-8 | 113 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
| Series 90 OHV I8 (116 hp, 1934) | 1934–1934 | Inline-8 | 116 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
Buick actually undercut Cadillac on price for its 1958 flagship Limited — yet Cadillac still outsold it nearly two to one. Badge snobbery beat the sticker.
Cadillac executives quietly lobbied to kill this Buick Limited, worried it crept too close to their own turf — even though Buick was building barely 1,500 of them a year.
The Series 90 Limited's closed cars came dressed in mohair velvet, silk passenger-compartment shades, and wool carpet throughout — despite having no V8 to back up the luxury.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
This era's Fleetwood limousine rode on a stretched 134.4-inch wheelbase — over eleven feet between the axles alone, on top of everything else making up the car.
A front-wheel-drive limousine was almost unheard of in the mid-1980s — only this Executive and the Cadillac Series 75 offered the format at all.
Chrysler Limousine · Limousine (1986–1986) · 1986–1986.
Checker even pitched a prisoner-transport version of this van, the Convoy, complete with a rear-facing guard seat — nobody ever bought one.
Buick actually undercut Cadillac on price for its 1958 flagship Limited — yet Cadillac still outsold it nearly two to one. Badge snobbery beat the sticker.
Cadillac executives quietly lobbied to kill this Buick Limited, worried it crept too close to their own turf — even though Buick was building barely 1,500 of them a year.
Japan's own imperial limousine needed an American part: no Japanese maker had yet built a transmission that could handle the Prince Royal's V8 torque, so it shipped with a GM automatic.
This stretched DeVille-based limousine came with dual solid-wood writing desks and an in-car VCR with a foldaway LCD TV — luxury so extreme only 781 were ever built.