Final Parking Space: 1969 Buick Skylark Custom Sport Coupe
Of all the cars to come out of Detroit during the 20th century, the General Motors A-Bodies of the 1964-1972 period remain among the most beloved among automotive enthusiasts. The best-known cars of this group today are the Chevrolet Chevelles and Pontiac GTOs, but all their many siblings get plenty of collector love, and their parts can be worth good money. This means that these cars— particularly the two-door variety— are very unlikely to show up in your local Ewe Pullet-type car graveyard nowadays. That makes today’s A-Body coupe in a Colorado yard a noteworthy rarity.
Buick was the most prestigious GM division to build the 1964-1972 A-Body, and its versions were badged as Specials, Skylarks, Gran Sports, and GSXs during that period. The Special was the base model, the Skylark was the upscale version, and the GS/GSX cars were muscled-up Skylarks. This car is a Skylark Custom, the loaded-with-goodies trim level for 1969.
Buick has used the Skylark name on a bewildering assortment of cars over the decades, beginning with the ritzy Roadmaster Skylark of 1953 and continuing (with a couple of breaks) through the N-Body-based 1998 Skylark. Skylarks have been siblings to various Chevrolets during that period, including the Chevelle, Nova, Citation, Corsica, Beretta, and Malibu; at times when there was no Chevy sibling for the Skylark, there were Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs in the family.
For the 1969 model year, the MSRP for a new Skylark Custom Sport Coupe was $3009, or about $26,650 in 2024 dollars. Meanwhile, the most affordable A-Body hardtop coupe that year was the Chevelle 300 Sport Coupe and its $2,521 price tag ($22,328 after inflation). In between were Pontiac Tempests/LeManses and Oldsmobile Cutlasses/F85s, and all four divisions offered crazed high-performance versions with monster V-8s and wild graphics that year.
Despite being on the same platform as the lowly Chevelle and sharing its glass and general shape, the 1968-1972 Skylark had a distinctive appearance that enabled its owners to look down their noses at neighbors stuck with aspirational Tempests and nouveau-riche Cutlasses.
This was the period during which the cars of the GM divisions got their own marque-specific V-8s. However, the base engine for the 1969 Skylark Sport Coupe was (gasp!) a Chevrolet 250-cubic-inch straight six rated at 155 horsepower. Since this car is a Custom, it got a genuine Buick V-8 at no extra cost.
If it’s the original engine, we’re looking at a 350-cubic-inch Buick V-8 with a two-barrel carburetor, rated at 230 horsepower and 350 pound-feet (keep in mind that those are gross, not net ratings). A four-barrel 350 was available as an option; the Buick GS 400 for 1969 came with a 400-cubic-inch V-8 making 340 horses and a mighty 440 pound-feet.
The base transmission was a three-on-the-tree manual, but very few ’69 Skylark Custom buyers were willing to be seen operating such a proletariat-grade gearbox, and this car has the optional three-speed automatic with column shift.
Air conditioning was optional equipment, and this car doesn’t have it.
There’s some rust-through and lots of old body filler, but this car has a fundamentally solid (if wrinkled) body.
The interior shows evidence of long-term outdoor storage, and the vinyl roof is long gone.
This vintage Centennial State souvenir now resides on my refrigerator door.
During 17 years of documenting automotive history as seen in the world’s junkyards, I’ve found just a handful of discarded 1964-1972 GM A-Bodies and—prior to now— only one (a 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass) was a hardtop coupe… and that was 15 years ago. Even early Ford Mustangs are easier to find in junkyards.
It’s like your airplane on the ground.
