Black Friday may be touted as the day for deals, but because of the pandemic most shoppers are finding those deals online. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Skyhawk is online and described as extremely rare. Could that combo make its price the deal of the day?
A fun fact about Disneyland centers on its quaint Main Street, where the buildings lining the park’s entry avenue have smaller features on the second floors than on the first. The purpose of this is to make the facades appear taller and hence the overall space more enveloping. If knowing this fact dulls the park’s magic for you, then I am sorry.
Wednesday’s 2002 Acura RSX Type-S didn’t pretend to have any false fronts or fake facades, but it did have an exterior that was kind of let down by its interior. That cabin featured a torn-up driver’s seat and an odometer that read on the wrong side of 200K. All that proved to be a bit of a disappointment for most of you, and in the end, was what most likely caused the $5,000 Acura’s 86 percent No Dice loss.
When you think back on all the brands that General Motors has offed over the years, including Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn and Geo, you have to wonder if any of the brands that remain have the feeling they might, at any moment, be the next to get whacked.
One of those brands, Buick has declined in status substantially over the years here in the U.S. Lucky for Buick, the brand seems to have balanced that with some success in China’s enormous auto market.
Back when Buick was bigger here in the U.S., it offered a series of somewhat sporty models under a trim package called T-Type. Many of those came with turbocharged engines in an attempt to put some performance behind the aggressive looks.
This 1984 Buick Skyhawk T-Type represents the smallest of Buick’s cars at the time, and it’s the T-Type with the smallest cylinder count. That engine is a Brazilian-built 1.8-liter fuel-injected four with a damn fine for its time 150 horsepower. When equipped with a four-speed stick like this car, that could make for an engagingly good time.
The Skyhawk T-Type wasn’t just about acceleration either. The car rode on a suspension with uprated springs and wider 14-inch Shelby American wheels wrapped in sticky Goodyear Eagle GT tires. The interior received a leather-capped steering wheel, full gauge cluster and more aggressively bolstered front seats to help you feel like you were driving something with shenanigans on its mind.
That was all good since the underlying structure was GM’s global J-car platform, and that was, well, chintzy in many ways.
This T-Type looks to be in pretty solid shape and gets points for just existing,considering that most J-Hawks seem to have gone to the big junkyard in the sky.
The pictures in the ad are all pretty poor, appearing as though they were taken with a camera as old as the car. The two-tone paintwork does look to be serviceable, and almost all the badging seems to be in place. That’s a plus since there isn’t an old T-Type aisle at your local Pep Boys.
The interior is also pretty well preserved. There is some wear evident on the driver’s seat, but everything else looks intact and in good shape. Again, better quality pictures would help.
Mechanically, things seem to fall in line too. The seller says the car is rust-free and runs without issue. It’s been doing daily-driver duty for a few months adding incrementally to its modest 97,000 miles.
On the downside, the car comes with a salvage title. The ad claims that to be the result of theft recovery, not an accident. Still, some insurers won’t touch a salvage title with a 10-foot actuarial, so do your diligence before considering this car’s purchase.
Unfortunately, I’m not going to give you time to check-in with Flo or the Gecko. We have to find out right now if this old school Buick is worth its $3,500 asking price. What do you say, does this turbo’d T-Type look to be worth that much? Or, does its salvage title and general condition thwart the deal?
You decide!
San Francisco Bay Area, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Nick Tramontozzi for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at rob@jalopnik.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle. MAILTO:rob@jalopnik.com
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
