Both the Riviera's E-body siblings, the Toronado and Eldorado, switched to front-wheel drive — Buick alone kept the Riviera rear-wheel drive.
Lead trim: Riviera 425 cu in Nailhead V8 (1966) · up to 370 hp
Buick Riviera1966–1970
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Buick Riviera 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.
FactBoth the Riviera's E-body siblings, the Toronado and Eldorado, switched to front-wheel drive — Buick alone kept the Riviera rear-wheel drive.
The Riviera was redesigned for 1966 (designer Dave Holls): longer, wider and 200 lb heavier, keeping the cruciform X-frame, powertrain and brakes, on a 119.0 in wheelbase (211.2 in long in 1966–67, 215.2 in in 1968–70, width 78.8 in, 79.3 in in 1970); headlamps remained concealed but pivoted behind the grille, vent windows were gone and the cabin became a full six-passenger car for the first time with bench or bucket seats. The Gran Sport package remained available as an option, and sales rebounded to a record 45,308 in 1966. The unchanged 425 slowed acceleration; for 1967 Buick replaced the 425 "Nailhead" with a 430 cu in (7.0 L) V8 rated at 360 hp and 475 lb-ft, and the 1970 restyle (design cues from Bill Mitchell's 1968 Silver Arrow II concept) brought a 455 cu in (7.5 L) V8, the largest Buick engine to date, rated at 370 hp gross (245 hp net) and over 500 lb-ft. Sales reached 227,669 over the five years (a record 49,284 in 1968 and 52,872 in 1969).
Collectors Spotted in the Buick Riviera Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Buick Riviera 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riviera 425 cu in Nailhead V8 (1966) | 1966–1966 | 7.0 L V8 | 340 hp | 465 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Riviera 430 cu in V8 (360 hp, 475 lb-ft, 1967) | 1967–1967 | 7.0 L V8 | 360 hp | 475 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| Riviera 455 cu in V8 (370 hp gross, 1970) | 1970–1970 | 7.5 L V8 | 370 hp | 510 lb-ft | — | 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 skipped the 1994 model year entirely before bringing the Riviera back redesigned for 1995.
GM shrank the Riviera to a 108-inch wheelbase for 1986, then had to stretch it back out again by 1989.
The special grille from the limited 1983 "Riviera XX" 20th-anniversary edition - with 24-karat gold badging - became a standard part of the 1984 facelift.
A twin-turbo Riviera convertible tuned to 410 hp paced the 1983 Indianapolis 500, more than double the production S-Type's output.
The Riviera had ridden on the same E-body platform since 1963, but for 1977 and 1978 only, Buick shrank it onto GM's new, smaller B platform.
This Riviera introduced two high-mounted taillights above the trunk, below the rear window — a quirk shared with its Toronado platform twin that anticipated a feature later made a federal mandate.
Buyers found the Riviera's boat-tail look too radical, so for 1973 GM blunted the deck lid and shortened it — the Stage One cars that followed wore the toned-down tail.
The dramatic boat-tail Riviera wasn't designed for the big body it got. GM's stylists built it to fit the smaller A-body platform; management decided late to stretch it onto the full-size B-body instead.
Both the Riviera's E-body siblings, the Toronado and Eldorado, switched to front-wheel drive — Buick alone kept the Riviera rear-wheel drive.
1965 was the year the Riviera's Gran Sport debuted — its Super Wildcat V8 ran twin four-barrel carburetors just to hit 360 horsepower.
Buick deliberately capped first-gen Riviera production at 40,000 a year — in a year it sold 440,000 cars overall — just to keep the Riviera feeling exclusive.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
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