I have a question i know a lot about cars but this one has me stuck i just bought a 2001 Buick park avenue special edition it has a weird top on it not vinyl but some kind of strange to on it and a badge that says special edition im curious to know what makes it a special edition can anyone tell me please and thanks
I do believe the vinyl tops(not sure material, they are definitely better than old vinyl tops because the lesabre and park avenues I see with them are doing GREAT even with no upkeep), and special editions were a low production count package set on both cars that were commemorative of either a certain year milestone or just the commitment to excellence and they were just a throwback option that looked great for brochures and were loved by the small dedicated buyer set that they went to but they came at a time the PT Cruiser was becoming a thing 🤢 and retro-yet-new was a fad kinda.
Like in 2003 you saw the return of ventiports the fenders. A cool,cutesy callback to a time not that long ago but a time nonetheless dominated by the cruiser automobile, and thus, large Buick’s,
cadillacs, and oldsmobiles of that nature were prominent.
I exclude
Pontiac because they were more sporty and youth oriented pretty much through their lineup. They had the short stunt as European competition in the 70s but that was the sporty aspect, not the luxury.
Oldsmobile would do the same thing in its dying days while
Pontiac was… doing it’s thing and this(your car) was what Buick was doing.
At the time,
Cadillac I think just abandoned their last luxury line(deville, I think), and 2001 saw the CTS which brought
Cadillac to where it still is today, not doing luxury, focused on performance, but not really winning it either. But cramming a metric load of complex systems and features that don’t really mean luxury so much as “equipped “ with Buick the only name in the game for GM and full size luxury by 2004 functionally by 2000, the 2000-2005 was an interesting time because despite successful sales and clear place in the market, GM set a torch to Buick amd culled it back because…
Well i don’t know why. They decided buick which was quality, luxurious, enduring was best to replaced by literal rebadged euro lightweights that didn’t fill any previous Buick place in the lineup or really compete with any auto maker on their own turf.. they just kinda did…
Then these days you see a Buick lineup of 15 crossovers and their mothers, no soul, all look the same, and are all trying to be Ford with the crossover lineup, which Ford is soulless so careful what you aspire to be…
Where were we?
oh your park avenue is gorgeous I hope it treats you well, the car is special truly. Can you show us the interior? To my knowledge the special edition usually meant a well equipped base model with signature touches on interior trim that would set it apart from someome who may want an ultra which calls a slightly different feeling, a different weight to its stance.
