With its fender skirts and ponderous physique, the 1970 Buick Riviera was a major departure from the classic lines of the 1963 original.
Here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, we don’t spend a lot of time beating up cars for their exterior design. It’s not our area. Styling is an extremely subjective topic, where even the world’s great designers will disagree. And here in the collector car and enthusiast world, everybody likes something, often passionately, and we respect that. For our own $0000.02, not a penny more, we join those who observe that compared to the razor-sculpted ’63 original, the ’70 Riviera looks like a whale: bloated and amorphous. In our own weak defense, we will only note that the people who designed the 1970 Riviera didn’t care for it very much, either.
For the October 1992 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine, leading automotive historian Michael Lamm interviewed a number of General Motors stylists for a feature on the ’66-’70 Rivieras, including the prolific studio veteran David Holls. And according to Holls, “The 1970 Riviera was not a happy car.” GM styling czar Bill Mitchell had directed Buick studio chief Donald D. Lasky to make the ’70 “more French,” to put some “Delage” into the presentation.
And that’s how the ’70 got the first fender skirts in the Riviera’s eight-year history. And the thick, European-style beltline trim that falls and then rises over the rear wheel openings, adding visual mass. The hood and front end were lengthened as the concealed headlamps were discarded and a bulky grille with vertical teeth was adopted. It’s a different look, for sure. It might be difficult for the casual observer to recognize that the ’68-’69 and the ’70 Riviera share the same body shell.
Styling aside, all the usual Riviera virtues remained. Interiors were luxurious, with the buyer’s choice of bench, split bench, or bucket seats with a console and a horseshoe shift handle, and a rich variety of vinyl and cloth/vinyl combinations were available. The displacement of the Buick V8 was increased from 430 to 455 cubic inches that year, and here it was good for 370 hp. Though few noticed, the Riviera continued to use GM’s controversial X-frame chassis design through 1970. And while it drew fire at other GM divisions, the X-frame apparently served the Riviera well.
Regardless of what the experts might say, buyers will decide if they like a car’s looks. In 1969, the Riviera had actually beaten its targeted archrival, the Ford Thunderbird, in total sales for the first time. But with the 1970 restyling, Riviera sales tumbled 29 percent to around 37,000 cars, and the T-Bird resumed the lead. Mitchell’s GM styling crew responded with another flamboyant design for 1971, the dramatic boattail Riviera (read about it here).
But for buyers who didn’t care for the fender skirts, Buick did offer an alternative in 1970: optional “high profile wheel opening covers,” as they were called on the order sheet. In effect, these were conventional fender openings that hooked into place on the fender skirt mountings (below). And as we can see, they transform the car.
I had a 1967 Riviera GS & consider the styling of the ’66-’67 Riv to be, along with the ’65, the pinnacle of Riviera styling. To see the crisp sharp lines of the ’66-’67 made more & more bloated between ’68-’70 is still just vastly depressing. The ’70 is a disaster, with or without fender skirts.
By the way, the X, or cruciform, frame on the Riviera was actually very stiff & strong, for one reason. The ’66-’70 Riviera shared much of it’s black mefal with the unitized Toronado, & that combo made for an excellent package, even stiffer than a perimeter frame, stiff enough to allow for great handling for it’s size with a firm, yet comfortable ride.
Yes. In all the GM X-frame cars, the idea was that that the rocker channels and body provided much of the structural integrity. The very same was true of all the GM perimeter-frame cars that followed. On some of them, with the body removed from the frame you can flex the frame rails a tiny bit by hand.
This integrated strategy was commonplace at GM. The ’55-57 Chevrolet ladder frame has no center crossmembers. The cowl assembly serves that function.
I’ve read a lot of hate lately about the X-frame but no one has said why it was so bad. It seems as though a cross-braced frame would be torsionally stiffer than a perimeter frame. What was the problem with it?
1. weight
2. expense
3. floor pan height
4. federal side impact rules…
Owned many Rivieras and all have unique features We need the name to return
IMO I really like the ’70 Riviera( with the skirts) though not as good looking as the ’65 model but definitely not the abominable looks of the ’71-72 “boat tail ” Rivieras either.
I owned a 1969 Riviera all through college and several years after graduating because I enjoyed the power and exceptional styling. The color of the car was called dark cherry if I recall correctly. It was the perfect car to take to the drive in. My date and I would push the front seats forward then climb in the back to umm, “watch the movie’. Those were the days!
I had a 69 Rivera also and loved the car. It was a beast on the road. Would love to own one now. Yes especially enjoyed it at the drive in on dates.
The full skirts and the side spear were delete options. It’s a nice shape without that trim. I can’t fault Buick for trying something different for that year. The Chevy Monte Carlo probably made more difference to the Riviera than the Riviera’s styling. Pontiac Grand Prix styling didn’t change for 1970 and it was down by about 50 percent. Thunderbird sales were about the same for 1969 and 1970 despite new styling for 1970.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I personally think the ’70 Riv looked nice, though I’m more into Electra-225s myself. I even thought the Riv’s Chevy twin, the Monte Carlo, looked good that year.
I lived through this time period and don’t remember this large frame Buick. At the time Cadillac was at the top to work towards eventually owning but as you can see Buick could be attained earlier than Cadillac with the same presence. Buick also did models like this in the 60’s. For instance 1966 and 69 and 1971. Nowadays Buick is on the smaller size.