Buick Riviera

[fastmark1993]

I think they are pretty cool! I
have always liked these 4 cars and in this order. they all kind of resemble one another in my opinion.
When my car came up for purchase I was previously looking at a 96 SS and a 98 Aurora.
Glad I went with the Mark

1. 2nd Gen Mark VIII (own one!)
2. 1995-96 Impala SS (got one of those too,but its the Lingenfelter LT4 383)
3. 1998 Aurora
4. 1998 Riviera

Seems like we all kind of have the same insight on good lookin cars

a buddy of mine owns the bottom three of your list all the same years! (pretty sure the SS is a 96) i hate his aurora, biggest peice of garbage, we used it as a feild car. his riv is eh... doesnt even compare to his SS though WOW that thing can rip. heres a pic of it actually.

 

[cadillackman]

I loved my Riviera, it's no uglier than a 2nd. Gen Mark. I've had 2 90's eldorado's as well & i'd pick the Riviera hands down. Northstars are crap, they burn too much damn oil & it's almost SOP to have to time-sert the heads after the gaskets blow. Riviera's are nice as sh!t on the inside too. The supercharged 3.8 is easy to work on & rebuilt Eaton's are very affordable. I never had one issue out of that car, the Cadillac's are another story completely. Just my 2 cents, having actually owned one & all.....Oh, and the battery is under the rear seat in a Riv. The Aurora lowering kit is also a direct bolt on for the Riviera as they share the same platform.

 

[dnehthend]

if you don't mind a fwd car that looks like a fish than I'd highly recommend a riviera

 

[THANATOS]

How about these things...

Always kinda liked the lines of these things, didnt realize there was only a 4 door... though they were 2 door cars...

I had a aurora right before i got my mark. it was the same color as the one above until i got it painted in the pictures bellow. its a 99, i put 147 thousand miles on it, and never had a problem.
I had a 95 aurora, now that was a different story. lol

i

 

[THANATOS]

How about these things...

Always kinda liked the lines of these things, didnt realize there was only a 4 door... though they were 2 door cars...

I had a aurora right before i got my mark. it was the same color as the one above until i got it painted in the pictures bellow.

 

[rooster1969]

Make it a 71 Boattail, Then I`m sold!!!

 

[MediumD]

I loved my Riviera, it's no uglier than a 2nd. Gen Mark. I've had 2 90's eldorado's as well & i'd pick the Riviera hands down. Northstars are crap, they burn too much damn oil & it's almost SOP to have to time-sert the heads after the gaskets blow.

Or you can maintain it worth a :q:q:q:q and it'll be fine.

 

[thaywood]

if you don't mind a fwd car that looks like a fish than I'd highly recommend a riviera

ROFLMAO!!!!!!

Yeah, FWD is for sissies, girly-boys, and soccer moms!! Real men drive REAR-WHEEL-DRIVE!!!!!

Seriously, I don't think there's a word in the English (or any other) language powerful enough to fully convey my uttter hatred and loathing of anything front-wheel-drive. FWD is the single stupidest automotive invention in the history of humanity. I believe that the idiot who invented FWD should have been hung by his toe hairs and beaten to death with a timing belt (which, incidentally, is the second stupidest invention in the history of humanity).

 

[LaserSVT]

I loved my Riviera, it's no uglier than a 2nd. Gen Mark. I've had 2 90's eldorado's as well & i'd pick the Riviera hands down. Northstars are crap, they burn too much damn oil & it's almost SOP to have to time-sert the heads after the gaskets blow. Riviera's are nice as sh!t on the inside too. The supercharged 3.8 is easy to work on & rebuilt Eaton's are very affordable. I never had one issue out of that car, the Cadillac's are another story completely. Just my 2 cents, having actually owned one & all.....Oh, and the battery is under the rear seat in a Riv.

Thats one fugly car. Its WAY WAY uglier then a Second Gen which is a much better looking car then a first gen.

 

[cadillackman]

Or you can maintain it worth a :q:q:q:q and it'll be fine.

So your Northstar doesn't burn oil? Seems odd since they state in the owners manuals that they consume oil between changes. No amout of proper maintenance will change that.
The majority of the head gaskets blow because the head bolts strip themselves in the same manner that our spark plugs do. I get 12 pages by searching "timesert" on cadillacforums. http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/search.php?searchid=1554946
I guess none of them maintained their cars worth a crap.

 

[JoshMcMadMac]

the 3.8L SC in stock form is less then strong they are ok but once you start modding...things start to break real fast, FWD and crummy transmissions...torque steer...

You have to put quite a bit of abuse on one to kill the transmission, although it is the weak link. The engine is pretty tough, though. It does not take much to put one into the 13's with just as good reliability, and 12's can be done with relative ease if you have a little more to spend. I certainly prefer some of the other platforms that the engine came in, like the Grand Prix GTP.

 

[chicken]

bs youtube vid

yeah but you can tell that is a gm sales training vid

Thats one fugly car. Its WAY WAY uglier then a Second Gen which is a much better looking car then a first gen.

+2

FWD FTL my buddy has a 01 sc bonneville it had the mark by 0.2 sec, with my pig heavy bone stock gen 2 but all the shyt they did to try and get traction was crazy. put 3 guys n the trunk to pump up the rear air suspension then shut it off and slide your drivers and pass seat as far forward as they could, basically anything they could do to try and get traction. hell im laid back got the system on till i stage i look over and see him with the steering wheel in his face all scrunched up lol

 

[Kstills]

the riv is ugly in and out...moreso the interiour.....my uncle had 1....yuck..

Yeah, the interior isn't anything to write home about.

The Aurora interior was nice, but I'm getting the feeling that FordMoCo build quality is quite a bit better then GM's. My Mark has some things that have broken, but everything else on inside of the car is tight. My boy has a 2002 V6 Mustang with 125k on it, and the interior in that is tight. My STS was a rattling banging piece of crap towards the end, and both the Riv and the Olds I test drove were nothing to write home about, as far as the interior holding up was concerned.

Overall, I'm glad I bought the Mark.

 

[Kstills]

hmm I like all the cars mentioned here lol... odd huh? I really like the SC400 but havent driven one yet. Still a little too pricey for me.

Me too.

I haven't driven one, but they look a lot smaller, which is a problem for me (I like bigger cars).

Plus, haven't seen one dressed up that looks anywhere near as nice as some of the Marks on this forum.

 

[MediumD]

So your Northstar doesn't burn oil? Seems odd since they state in the owners manuals that they consume oil between changes. No amout of proper maintenance will change that.
The majority of the head gaskets blow because the head bolts strip themselves in the same manner that our spark plugs do. I get 12 pages by searching "timesert" on cadillacforums. http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/search.php?searchid=1554946
I guess none of them maintained their cars worth a crap.

I had about 5k posts on Cadillac Forums before I left. I know a thing or two. My N* burns about a quart between oil changes, which are about 5k. GM has said that a quart per 1000mi is acceptable, which I agree with. A little excessive, but meh, you're not fogging people behind you like some old POS, really nothing to worry about. Northstars have a very aggressive cyl cross hatch pattern to help with lubrication, which will inherently cause some oil to burn. It also causes burned oil to deposit in, on, and around the piston rings. Most people don't properly exercise the rings, they end up getting stuck in the grooves and quit sealing properly, which heavily exacerbates the oil burning issue. I don't have that problem, because I have a heavy foot, which naturally keeps the rings moving around...

The head gasket and head bolt issue is mainly a maintenance issue, keeping up with the coolant changes and using the specified coolant additive will keep you from experiencing these issues. AFAIK, most of the issues are head gasket failures that lead to pulling threads, not the other way around.

Are they as reliable as a 4v Ford? No. Are they the unreliable pieces of :q:q:q:q that you make them out to be? No.

 

[Kstills]

I had about 5k posts on Cadillac Forums before I left. I know a thing or two. My N* burns about a quart between oil changes, which are about 5k. GM has said that a quart per 1000mi is acceptable, which I agree with. A little excessive, but meh, you're not fogging people behind you like some old POS, really nothing to worry about. Northstars have a very aggressive cyl cross hatch pattern to help with lubrication, which will inherently cause some oil to burn. It also causes burned oil to deposit in, on, and around the piston rings. Most people don't properly exercise the rings, they end up getting stuck in the grooves and quit sealing properly, which heavily exacerbates the oil burning issue. I don't have that problem, because I have a heavy foot, which naturally keeps the rings moving around...

The head gasket and head bolt issue is mainly a maintenance issue, keeping up with the coolant changes and using the specified coolant additive will keep you from experiencing these issues. AFAIK, most of the issues are head gasket failures that lead to pulling threads, not the other way around.

Are they as reliable as a 4v Ford? No. Are they the unreliable pieces of :q:q:q:q that you make them out to be? No.

I spent some time on that forum also, and I never once heard of bolts failing. It was always the head gaskets, and for the reasons you've stated.

Funny thing about the N*. It was supposed to be a very high (for the time) rpm engine, and had to be used that way to burn out the oil buildup.

Then GM turns around and sells them to old folks.

So they have to come up with a 'fix' for the cylinder buildup issue, which was to lock the tranny in 1st and rev the car up to the redline, hold it for 10 seconds, then back off, repeat ...repeat....

Imagine granny when the engine hits about 5K. She's thinking the world is coming to the end...

Needless to say, there's a lot of carbonized N*'s running around....

 

[JRMARK8]

i spent some time on that forum also, and i never once heard of bolts failing. It was always the head gaskets, and for the reasons you've stated.

Funny thing about the n*. It was supposed to be a very high (for the time) rpm engine, and had to be used that way to burn out the oil buildup.

Then gm turns around and sells them to old folks.

So they have to come up with a 'fix' for the cylinder buildup issue, which was to lock the tranny in 1st and rev the car up to the redline, hold it for 10 seconds, then back off, repeat ...repeat....

Imagine granny when the engine hits about 5k. She's thinking the world is coming to the end...

Needless to say, there's a lot of carbonized n*'s running around....:d

lmao...

 

[sacker12]

I gained a strong dislike for Buick with my '93 LeSabre that was handed down from my dad. The 3800 engine was garbage, and the tranny was iffy as well.

Olds quit making good cars in the early 90s, IMHO.

I was trying to get a 1994 Caprice with 43K mi, but it had a deposit on it at the dealership. So, I went with the '97 Mark I found in town. I was highly impressed when I drove it on the test drive.

 

[guinnessman]

Only thing decent about those Riviera's is the supercharged engine, very easy to get 30+HP really quick from them. I wanted a gran prix GTP but FWD sucks, unless it's snow we're talking lol.

The thing i love about Mark's..is that they are HOT ROD LINCOLNS!!! I even had a Police Officer comment on my car at a 7-11 once. I pulled up, shut the car and walked past him as he was sippin his coffee. He says "be careful with that hot rod lincoln, you don't want to get tickets now" (cars alittle loud no mufflers/welded straight pipe). Lol that kinda made my day.