In the mid-1980s, Buick somehow convinced hundreds of people to buy the most expensive model – and never drive again. Can you imagine someone going to the Buick dealership and buying a new Enclave Avenir today, then storing it in the garage without drivetrain until 2054?
It seems that every time a Grand National is put up for sale, it has less than 2,000 miles on the clock. It’s a wild phenomenon that I will never understand.
Anyway, in 1987, when I was just a bouncing baby boy, a couple in Columbus, Ohio, bought a Buick Regal Grand National. They put it in their pile shed and apparently never looked at it again until 2020, when it was sold to a man from the Big Apple. During those rest years, the car’s tires lost air pressure and the family’s dog jumped non-stop on the door and fender for what appears to have been a decade. It had not started, it had not been cleaned, it was not even looked at. Why on Earth?
Luckily, Larry Kosilla of AMMO NYC is step-by-step the superhero protagonist of this story. The car was saved from being covered in dust for a lifetime and was attacked by a dog. The new owner appears to be only a temporary savior for the car: he buys it to clean up, gets sorted, then sells it to someone who will appreciate it. And you know what? That’s a commendable role for this person to play. Without the space and time to give the GN the attention it needs, at least the car is saved and on its way to a forever home.
As with every detailed video from AMMO NYC, Kosilla does a great job of returning this car to its former glory. There is something so incredibly soothing about watching someone else clean a car. I wonder why I never have the patience to do such a task myself. I’ve always been very happy that my cars got dirty and dingy and worn out on the road. And that’s exactly what I’d do with this Grand National if it were mine. Ride it until it falls apart, rebuild it, then ride it again.
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Like the incomparable Dr. Alan Grant once said, “T. rex doesn’t want to be fed, he wants to hunt. And the same goes for an apex predator like the Buick Grand National. This turbocharged V6 monster doesn’t want to get stuck for decades with 56 miles on the clock – he wants to roll it up and roast some tires. Now for heaven’s sake, let it!