Buick Roadmaster | A Far Too Brief History

#roadmaster #ACwJ
This is a Far Too Brief History of the Buick Roadmaster!
Spanning 3 generations, the Roadmaster returned after a 33 year absence in 1991 until it was finally cancelled in 1996 as GM abandoned the platform to focus on SUVs and Trucks.
Who else misses the Roadmaster?
Start 00:00
1930s 00:27
1940s 02:39
1949+ 04:55
1991+ 08:49
Conclusion 11:03
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AllCarsWithJon

[@AllCarswithJon]

How do you remember the Roadmaster? The big, floaty cars of the 90s or the glorious Masters of the Road in the 50s?

[@ArthurSmallidge]

Used to call them "Road monsters".

[@briannichols4807]

I don't know if you have ever seen the movie " Rain Man " with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman , but a 1949 Buick Roadmaster is the car featured in that film , in which the Tom Cruise character inherited the car from his late father .

[@pilsudski36]

My first car was a 1949 Buick Roadmaster, for which I paid fifty dollars in 1962. It looked great, but it had mechanical issues. I couldn't drive it on the expressway, but it was fine around the 'hood, and for dates. Sixteen years old, and I felt like a king driving that old Buick! And that Roadmaster rode as smooth as my MB does today!

[@CrossOfBayonne]

Nice, It was also in Rain Man as Tom Cruise's car

[@nycstarport8542]

The 90s Roadmaster.....Beautiful design.

[@vladtheimpala5532]

Even now I lust after a 1950 Buick Roadmaster convertible.

[@CrossOfBayonne]

I saw a 1951 Buick in Atlantic City

[@jst7714]

I own a 94 Roadmaster and it’s easily the best car I’ve ever driven, new or old. Smooth, powerful, BIG, and very hushed. Pure luxury. Plus the horn is otherworldly. My only problem is people look at me odd when they ask “Chevy, Ford, or Dodge?” and I reply “Buick!”

[@joejones4172]

I own one too and my only issue is having a chevy engine. It's ok, but Buick should have built it.

[@ianperkins8812]

We used to joke that "Roadmaster" translated to "Highway Sofa" and that the wagon model could be used as a plush camper in a pinch.

[@AllCarswithJon]

Throw an airmattress in the back of that bad boy and you could have a 'living in my Roadmaster' channel! And for that last generation you had a "highway sofa"... with a corvette engine. :)

[@ianperkins8812]

@@AllCarswithJon "Armchair NASCAR"

[@patcurrie9888]

I remember the 91-96's. At the time I had a 96 Park Ave Ultra. My service advisor said the Ultra was the flagship and the Roadmaster was a cash grab.

[@jessesan2003]

The latest Roadmaster was basically a huge luxury chevy caprice

[@toneographystudios3591]

My 94 turns heads every now and again, starting conversations with people who remember these cars or who mistake it for a Park Avenue lol

[@bcshooterfmjprime7540]

I always wanted a 90s b or d body. I didn't know about the roadmaster. Only the Fleetwood(my favorite of the bunch) the impala and the caprice. With gas prices to where they're going I was able to pick up a 92 Caprice with pretty much no rust. Some surface. But just now a Roadmaster popped up, and I realized that car is almost the in-between of the Caprice and the Fleetwood. I want it.

[@andregonsalvez9244]

Great 👍 Jon ! This car was awesome and the final year's in the 90s was part of the B series full-sized RWD cars from GM which also included the Chevrolet Caprice/Impala SS .

[@dicksanders8206]

Very nice presentation. Thanks, Jon!

[@davinp]

The Big 3 (Chrysler, GM & Ford) have canceled sedans in favor of SUVs. The problem is that not everyone wants or needs a big expensive SUV. These automakers are mostly interested in increasing profits rather then making affordable, reliable, and fuel-efficient cars

[@CrossOfBayonne]

I saw a 1951 Buick Roadmaster in Cuban livery on display in Atlantic City at the Tropicana

[@sanjayarman]

I bought my own brand-new 1995 Black Buick Roadmaster and I still have it. It was ordered with customed specifications with black exterior and tan interior. It is my most prized collector car that has a very unique place in its genre of long rear wheel drive sedans of the 90's, whereby it is like the younger brother to the Cadillac Fleetwood, and like an older Brother to its Chevrolet Caprice counterpart, all 3 of course from the same B model chassis from the closed down GM factory in Arlington, Texas. If the Roadmaster is still indeed your dream car, you can still purchase one in fairly good condition if you search hard. We really appreciate this video which has honored the history of the legendary Roadmaster. Dr. Sanjay Kumar M.D. & Family

[@AllCarswithJon]

Thanks for the comment! I have a lot of cars I'd love to own from the past, but if Ihad the money for all of them, I certainly don't have the space!

[@jocelynhurtubise2420]

Great videos as always Don, it is also interesting to go in the past

[@douglashughbanks1828]

The first car I remember as a kid is my mom's 1949 Roadmaster. It was army green and the steering wheel was huge.

[@jeffking4176]

Used to have a friend who’s family had a wagon version, the last one, with the Corvette engine. Beautiful beast. Probably just about the only big car I would own. Great video. 🚗📻🙂

[@deatruiy]

Growing up in the early 2000s my dads car was a 93 roadmaster wagon with the fake wood panels. I never realized I was riding in the end of an era back then

[@OLDS98]

Great video on the Buick Roadmaster. I liked the footage and sharing images of the different Roadmaster models. I see how the past models influenced the styling of the 90's model.

[@AllCarswithJon]

Glad you liked it, thanks for the kind words!

[@saginaw60]

Did you say "venerable" eight in '52? We had one, and were stranded for a week in a remote town because the crankshaft seized up, when the car was one month off guarantee.

[@here_we_go_again2571]

Ouch!

[@cadillacdebois]

As a Cadillac guy from birth, I have to say, the last of its kind, the Roadmaster ended well.

[@jasoncarpp7742]

Another great video! I remember the last Buick Roadmaster. At the time I didn't find the car very attractive to look at, at least not compared to the Chevy Caprice. I did like the Roadmaster wagon.

[@mrgurulittle7000]

I enjoyed the video.👍

[@chrismarzoli2170]

Nice video, Jon! A slight clarification: the "third generation" Roadmaster came out in 1991 as a wagon only for the first year. The sedan did not appear til 1992. The '92 Sedan was the first rear drive Buick SEDAN since the 1985 Lesabre but Buick did build rear drive Regals thru 1987 and the Estate Wagon (predecessor to the '91 Roadmaster Estate) was built rear drive the entire model run from 1977-1990, so technically there was never a model year Buick built NO rear drive cars. Until 1997. As a side note, the 1953 Buick Estate wagon was the last American Station wagon built with real wood in the body, and the 1996 Roadmaster Estate was the last full size RWD American wagon (with or without woodgrain paneling) to be built. It's sad that the American station wagon is no more.

[@AllCarswithJon]

Thanks for the input and corrections!

[@davidpawson7393]

My 2004 GMC Envoy XUV is what a station wagon was but has 4WD. The tailgate folds down or swings sideways with glass that retracts into the door. It's built with a full frame too with a 5.3 V8 and the opening roof with a midgate also with power retracting glass with fold down seats makes it an advanced wagon in my book.

[@jrsmith1008]

You are right the Roadmaster was more classy than the Chevy Caprice the Buick was closer to the Cadillac back then that's what I thought an aside back in the 70s the Buick commercials said "wouldn't you rather have a Buick" my dad would say yes at 9 years old I was in total disagreement I wanted our old musclecar back (the 69Roadrunner) then to top it off he traded in the 71 skylark for a Toyota Corolla I was so pissed I will not buy a foreign car to this day

[@chrismarzoli2170]

@@davidpawson7393 those are neat vehicles. It’s a shame they weren’t more successful.

[@1lovesgreatness]

An early 2000s Toyota TV commercial pissed me off where they showed some guy take a car cover off of his 40s Roadmaster and put it on his Lexus.

[@AllCarswithJon]

Never seen that one.

[@jrsmith1008]

I want to thank you for these videos these machines are not some appliance they are personal to us our lives are involved with them everyday, I think they must be a passion of yours or you wouldn't do these videos, I hope my point gets across they are the only machine I'm passionate about I love buying them, working on them, improving them I still miss the smell of leaded fuel and when you get one you like you can enjoy looking at it

[@1heavyelement]

im not a buick guy. but that 47 estate wagon is a piece of art.

[@brianmoore6306]

Loved this video! Happy to say I am #200 Thumbs UP!!

[@AllCarswithJon]

Yay! Thank you! There's like... no award or anything.....

[@tomj4506]

Had a 1994. Best damn car ever built. LFOD !

[@tomtbi]

I have a 1/18 scale Die Cast Model of a 54 Roadmaster Convertible in my Die Cast Car Collection..

[@billhowes7937]

My Dad had a '46 Roadmaster

[@errorsofmodernism7331]

Must be fun parking these in the city

[@1lovesgreatness]

Buick and Olds made the wagon versions look just like the Caprice.during the 1990s.

[@BitchinSpectre]

A boss of time... I tell time what time to be there, and time better be on time, or I'm going to cut time's hours.

[@epice6463]

I own a 48 Buick Roadmaster sedan with an automatic dynaflow transmission and a straight eight engine

[@AllCarswithJon]

Ohhhh! Nice!

[@krazy8754]

I liked the one in The Departed

[@LarryMcmahon-us6kl]

Great

[@hq21]

If for some reason GM decides to add their full-size SUV to the Buick lineup, it'd be a crime not to name it Roadmaster.

[@AllCarswithJon]

Completely agree.

[@warrenny]

Hold on a minute, they had 100lb women back in the 30s? Quick, Watson, get me my time machine.

[@danr1920]

Sounds like it overlapped with Cadillac. Not a good business decision.

[@lazynow1]

Now Buick just offers a bunch of junk SUVs

[@Thatdavemarsh]

I’m roughly your age and I take exception to the opening line about evoking images. All I remember is big bloaty things that were old man cars and irrelevant.

[@jrsmith1008]

They are not irrelevant almost all cars were like that I'll take an old man car with acres of sheetmetal and tons of chrome than some jap car you don't have to get there first it's how you get there in luxury and style

[@mikescott5624]

No, the '36 Century could not "cruise at 100." Don't misuse words. Flint engineers coaxed a '36 Century to an all out 95 mph. It wasn't until the '38 model that a Century managed 101 mph at the GM Proving Grounds. If you drove such cars for long at a sustained 100 mph, you'd be in the shop awaiting a new or fresh engine. Why do KZbinrs want to sound authoritative presenting bolshoi and misleading automotive terms. Look up the definition of cruise, compare with absolute or top speed. It was named "Century" both to suggest 100 mph while harking to the nation's crack express train, the 20th Century Limited. The Buick Limited also glommed onto that imagery of luxe railed speed.