Buick’s low-priced Special was a strong seller from the start, securing a spot in the lineup for decades to come.

When a premium brand introduces a less expensive companion product, very often it’s not a success. In low-priced goods where the competition is fiercest, giant advertising budgets can trump the most respected names. Meanwhile, the low-priced item can easily diminish the prestige of the senior brand, espcially if it comes across as cheap. Whether it’s furniture, fashion, or cars, it’s a tricky business. But with the 1936 Special, the Buick division at General Motors pulled it off, led by general manager Harlow Curtice.

1936 Special Victoria Five-Passenger Coupe

The Special certainly wasn’t Buick’s first attempt to target the lower-priced market. For example, there was the Marquette junior brand of 1930, but it was a remarkable flop, in part due to bad timing. The 1936 Special was a real Buick, both in name and spirit, with Buick styling and a real overhead-valve straight eight under the hood—albeit a smaller eight with 233 cubic inches and 93 hp.The Special was well-appointed, too, with prices starting at $765 and a range of attractive body styles. More than 120,000 were sold in 1936, the bulk of the division’s sales that year, earning the Special a lasting spot In the Buick product line.

1955 Buick Special Convertible 

The Special remained a popular Buick choice all through the prewar and postwar years, but it really came into its own in 1955 when it led the division’s charge all the way to number three in sales behind Ford and Chevrolet. While its V8 was smaller than in the senior Buicks, (264 CID vs. 322 CID), the Special (again) offered a number of attractive body styles, including the convertible above and two-door and four-door pillarless Rivieras. Just as it had in ’36, the Special contributed most of the division’s volume.

In 1955-56 the U.S. economy was booming and the mid-priced range was the hot sales category in the Motor City, but when the country’s first serious postwar recession came in 1957-58, it was the hardest hit. Both Edsel and DeSoto were mortally wounded, and between 1956 and 1958, Buick sales tumbled more than 50 percent. Scrambling to recover, for 1959 Buick performed a reset, rebranding all the models in its product line. Buick’s low-priced model was now called the LeSabre, and the Special was discontinued.

1961 Special Deluxe Sedan 

But as Buick introduced its version of GM’s new BOP senior compacts in 1961, the division already had the perfect name in its brand portfolio: Special. With an all-aluminum V8 (followed in ’62 by a V6) and a nicer interior than the rest, the Special was the premium choice among the GM senior compacts. While this Special was a decent performer in the showroom, it didn’t outsell the LeSabre, Buick’s lowest-price full-size product.

When GM’s senior compacts were upgraded to full intermediate status in 1964, Buick came along. But now the mid-size Buick was bifurcated into two model lines, more or less: Special and Skylark, with the Skylark as the deluxe edition. After 1969, the Special was dropped so only the Skylark badge remained. Buick did squeeze a few more miles from the Special name in 1975-79 and 1991-96, but merely as a trim level in the Century line, not a stand-alone model.

1969 Special Deluxe Sedan and Special Deluxe Station Wagon