Buick offered all-new styling and a bigger, more powerful V8 for 1957, but sales only continued to decline for GM’s oldest brand.
Special Convertible
Like all the Motor City’s automakers from time to time, Buick didn’t land on a single, unified selling message for 1957, but rather developed an entire catalog of slogans in its sales materials to pitch the new product. The most prominent top line for ’57 was “The Newest Buick Yet,” an air-tight claim in that every year the new Buick is the newest Buick yet. Another was “Success Achieves a New Summit,” which seems like more than a mouthful. The best, we decided, might be “Designed for Distinction.” It’s simple and straightforward enough.
Climate wind tunnel
The exterior look of the ’57 Buicks is clearly of a piece with the Wildcat III, a 1955 Motorama show car, right down to the checkmark side trim. (See our feature on the Wildcat III here.) The styling theme was readily expanded from the fiberglass show roadster to two production General Motors platforms: a B-body package for the Special and Century on a 122-in wheelbase, and a C-body for the Super and Roadmaster (two series, 70 and 75) on a longer 127.5-in wheelbase. In the Buick tradition, models were easily identified by the number of portholes (“ventiports”) in their front fenders. For ’57, the Century, Super, and Roadmaster sported four on each side, while the Special struggled along with three.
A modified ladder frame with a robust X-member supported Buick’s signature torque-tube drive and coil springs at the rear, while up front the kingpins were replaced with ball joints for ’57 to reduce steering effort and improve road feel. Meanwhile, the unique Nailhead V8 was enlarged from 322 to 364 cubic inches with an increase in both bore and stroke to 4.13-in x 3.40-in, and the intake valves were enlarged as well. The Special (Series 40) received a 250-hp version of the improved V8, while the Century, Super, and Roadmaster V8s were rated at 300 hp, thanks in part to a half-point bump in compression ratio to 10:1.
Roadmaster (left) and Special interiors
With Buick’s price range for ’57 spread from $2,660 to $4,483, there was a broad disparity in equipment as well, naturally. The premium Roadmaster’s interior rivalled Cadillac’s, while the base Special was closer to Pontiac level. However, the Special was offered in a full range of body styles: two-door and four-door sedans and hardtops, a convertible, and a wagon. And as the top seller it typically contributed a major share of the Buick division’s total volume—1957 being no different. In the Century line appeared a new specialty model, the sport-luxury Caballero wagon (read about it here).
Despite the new styling and more powerful V8, Buick sales tumbled nearly 24 percent in 1957 to around 407,000 cars. In fact, Buick was now in a major slump from its 1955 peak when it climbed to third place in U.S. sales, and in ’57 the brand slipped to fourth behind Plymouth. Things would only get worse from there, as Buick slid one more spot down to fifth in 1958 with a total volume of only 240,000 cars, and you can read about that here.
Century Riviera Hardtop Coupe
The ’57 was the best looking of the mid-50s Buicks with one exception: the harebrained idea of dividing the coupe rear window into three parts. It did nothing for the styling and impinged on visibility…and possibly sales. In ’58 it was gone (though what replaced it in ’58 is something for another day.)
Supposedly, an automotive journalist wryly remarked on the three-piece rear window by writing, “Suddenly, it’s 1950!,” to contrast with Chrysler’s styling and slogan (“Suddenly, it’s 1960!”) for the 1957 model year.
Never heard the “Suddenly, it’s 1950.” That’s hilarious. Personally, I really thought the ’57 Buick was OK.
Only the B-body Special and Century (shared with all Olds models) 4- and 2-doors had three separate pieces of glass in the backlight. Although called a “three-piece” rear window, the Roadmaster Model 73 4-door and 76R 2-door had one piece of glass, sandwiched inside and out by stainless trim and rubber. Models 73A and 76A did away with that trim, and both styles were available from the onset. All C-body Supers and Roadmasters shared the same glass with their corresponding Cadillac body styles.
While there is no excuse for the design functionally, I always liked the Buick/Olds backlite treatment. It’s different, like the ’63 Corvette split-window.
I always liked the split window treatment of the ‘57 B-Body Buicks and Oldsmobiles. Even as a four year old child when they were new.
The mid-year Roadmaster “75” solved that
One of the basic hallmark rules of Buick in those days: The Special is always marked “special” as being the cheap Buick. Anything else got a distinctive mark that clearly showed you’d spent more money.
The Special was always the top seller though, which was why they could do that.
The 1957 Buick was probably the best of the 1950s Buicks up to that point, but I understand there were major problems with the front suspension that made customers leery. The twin-strut rear windows shared with Oldsmobile made them look dowdy compared to the Chrysler products that year, too. Buick, however, goofed with their two-year experiment of identifying the car’s model year on the grille. When the 1958s came out, everyone already knew the ’57s were “obsolete!”
Debuting in March 1957, the luxurious Roadmaster Models 75 and 75R 4-and 2-door Rivieras introduced Fabricast finned-aluminum front drums, making Buick’s brakes go from among the worst to some of the best. Conventional rear drums were still employed at the rear.
Not bad looking from the side or the rear, but that front end screams “suddenly it’s 1954”. Frumpy and ponderous. Disregarding the quality problems, a ’57 Chrysler is light years ahead.
Whatever problems or shortcomings – others have mentioned a frumpy front aopearance, suspension problems, divided rear window treatment – they were all overshadowed by the hideous application of chrome (Oldsmobile just as guilty) in 1958. The only saving grace of the ’58 Olds and Buicks is that they apparently jolted GM into putting Harley Earl out to pasture, though it did take another year ir so.
I didn’t like the three-piece rear window when they were new, but over the years it grew on me. Sort of like the ‘63 Corvette split-window coupe. Not popular at the time and discontinued after one year, but look at the difference in value between a ‘63 and later models now.
Didn’t JC Whitney or someone offer musical notes you could stick on the sides of your ’58 Olds?
The ‘57 Buick is my favorite Buick of that decade. Even though’57 was a Chrysler year this Buick still looked good even though sales went in the other direction. Something from GM that year that is discussed besides the Chevy Bel Air.