Talk:Buick Riviera

Spelling[edit]

I incline to reject the accented European spelling of coupe as added in the last edit. The word is never spelled or pronounced that way in the U.S., and the Riviera had no significant presence abroad. Barring good arguments to the contrary, I'll probably revert. RivGuySC 17:29, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I agree - such spelling is out of place in a U.S. model. --SFoskett 00:51, Jun 6, 2005 (UTC)

ArgentLA's last revisions have done a good bit to clean up and organize the article, but I have a couple of doubts. I don't think the '71-'76 run constitues two generations. The only major difference that occured in '74 was the substitution of the notchback roof for the boat-tail. And I'm not sure that the '86 should be said to share the Regal chassis. The Regal didn't go front-drive until '88. RivGuySC 17:46, 12 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The infobox is good, but there's some confusion as to the competition. I don't think the Cougar is a good choice--it was either a pony car or an intermediate personal luxury car, not in either case competitive with the fullsize Riviera. The Chrysler LeBaron was also too small. There were really ever only five fullsize PLC's - Thunderbird (before '77), Riviera, Toronado, Eldorado, and Mark. Those are what I think should go in the box. RivGuySC 23:47, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Third/Fourth Generation?[edit]

As the article even admits, the Riviera was only reskinned from its "boattail" 1973 look to its notchback look for 1974. That same body shell was used, with the same wheelbase, and some of the front sheetmetal. If the "seventh generation" Riviera remains such after its 1989 update (as it should), the 1974-76 model should be considered as part of the "third generation". If no one objects, I'll make the change. Rhettro76 21:06, 7 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but the loss of the boattail design was a HUGE change. Visually, the '73 and '74 are more different than some other vehicles' two generations. I think they should remain separate. --Sable232 00:23, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I would agree that it was a notable change, and it should be noted. And maybe it's just me, but calling it a different "generation" when all of the mechanicals and many of the body panels carried over is overstating things a bit. Maybe if it was called Series II or Mark II or version II of its third generation would be more accurate. In reality, the changes from 1988 to 89 were just as extensive. Thoughts? Rhettro76 18:30, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Origins of the personal luxury car[edit]

This section has some serious factual and stylistic errors. Corporations don't "feel" anything. GM may have identified a market for a personal luxury car in the 1950's, but it didn't feel anything. Also in the 1950's the Ford Thunderbird was a two door, two place roadster more in the league of the Corvette of the same era. The whole section should either be rewritten with appropriate references or scrapped as a duplication of the Wiki article on Personal Luxury Cars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Inkpeninmd (talk • contribs) 22:40, 30 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]