Talk:Buick Electra

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Front-opening hood

Hmmm...regarding the front-opening hood. Didn't the LeSabre's open that way too? RivGuySC 02:58, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The LeSabre did have the forward opening hood, but was not a C Body Car. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.193.233.98 (talk) 19:34, 7 August 2006

1976 engine availability

All electra's in 76 had the 350 option..Not just the 455. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.96.192.131 (talk) 04:25, 6 July 2006

Absolutely Incorrect. Buicks.net/shop/reference/engine_ident_76_82 confims this - no listing for anything other than the 455 for C Bodied Cars (Engine SA for Federal Standards, SB for California Standards, VIN Code T). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.193.233.98 (talk) 19:34, 7 August 2006

1975 Park Avenue

A little clairfication is in order concerning 1975 and 1976 Electras, Limiteds and Park Avenues. The 1975 and 1976 Limiteds(and possibly other years) were a separate model and not Electras with a Limited trim package. The Park Avenue was a trim package for the Limited. Also a 350 cubic inch V8 was available in the 1976 Electra models. I know because I purchased one new. Only the 455 was available in the Limited model. My 1975 Park Avenue has nothing inside or outside that idenifies it as an Electra. All the emblems say Park Avenue or Limited.

Jayne Mansfield

Didn't she die behind the wheel of a 1966 Electra ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.30.14.53 (talk) 12:45, 6 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Downsize Contrast

Although the wikipedia Buick Electra page contained no missinformation concerning the downsize of 1977 almost all of the other pages on GM full size models did. For the sake of consistency I'm adding a table of comparisons.

Here are the usual interior room facts for four door models (which can easily be found in sales brochures and data books):

1971-1976

Headroom f/r 39.3/38.2

Legroom f/r 42.2/40.8

Shoulder room f/r 64.3/63.4

Luggage cap. (cu. ft.) 20.7

1977-1984

Headroom f/r 39.3/38.0

Legroom f/r 42.2/40.9

Shoulder room f/r 60.6/60.5

Luggage cap. (cu. ft.) 20.3

The EPA has published annual fuel economy guides since 1978. These guides categorize cars based on "interior space" which is defined as the sum of passenger volume and trunk or cargo volume. For example a midsize car has 110 to 119 cubic feet of interior space and a full size has 120 or more. Passenger volume is computed by finding the product of headroom, legroom, and shoulder room for both front and rear, converting each to cubic feet, rounding to the nearest cubic foot and then summing them.

For example the 1977-1984 Buick Electra 225 has 39.3x42.2x60.6 = 100,502.7 cubic inches of passenger room in front. Dividing this by 1728 cubic inches per cubic feet yields 58.2 cubic feet of front passenger room. It has 38.0x40.9x60.5 = 94,029.1 cubic inches of passenger room in rear. Dividing this by 1728 cubic inches per cubic feet yields 54.4 cubic feet of passenger room. Rounding to the nearest foot and adding them yields 112 cubic feet of passenger volume.

Now turn to any 1978-1984 EPA fuel economy guide and what you'll usually find is this for a 4 door Buick Electra 225:

BODY TYPE/INTERIOR SPACE PASSENGER/TRUNK OR CARGO(CU.FT.) 4DR-112/20

EPA fuel economy guides obviously did not exist in 1971-1976 but repeating this calculation for a 1971-1976 Buick Electra 225 yields 119 cubic feet of passenger volume. Thus the interior space of a four door 1977-1984 Buick Electra 225 is 112 + 20 = 132 cubic feet whereas the interior space of a four door 1971-1976 Buick Electra 225 is 119 + 21 = 140 cubic feet. Given that the ranges between size categories in the EPA guides is 10 cubic feet an 8 cubic foot difference is hypothetically sufficient to put them in entirely different size categories.

The main reason for the difference is clearly shoulder room and the difference between 64.3 inches of shoulder room and 60.6 inches is dramatically obvious to anyone who has seen both cars. It's also why it's width that makes a roomy car roomy and not length.

This also underscores the fact you cannot shorten a car by nearly foot, make it narrower by over 3 inches, lose over 800 pounds and not lose interior room.

I know that the GM ads of the time pushed the idea that the 1977 full size cars were just as roomy despite the drastic downsizing. This usually involved mentioning (trivial) increases in headroom or legroom from the previous year. (Interestingly, by odd coincidence, most full size GM models experienced correspondingly small decreases in headroom or legroom in the two years before the downsized models were unveiled.) However, nobody took it seriously then because anyone could see that there was a substantial decrease in room. And besides all of the interior dimensions were published in the sales brochures and data books for anyone to see.

I can only guess that someone has an agenda and is bent on promoting 33 year old sales propaganda. It is a vain hope of mine that wikipedia will someday be a source of factual historical automotive information.

Sadowski (talk) 19:19, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

'60 225 electra

I remember the '60 225 had a one speed variable pitch trans with a kick down passing gear. I don't think that's a two speed in that it just went into a different pitch when you stomped it. It was a smooth, no shift trans all the way up.Longinus876 (talk) 02:13, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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