While Buick is enjoying a strong reputation for quality and high-value subcompact crossovers right now, its historical reputation for subcompact vehicles is a bit mixed. The first Buick model that was considered a subcompact was the Buick Skyhawk, a badge-engineered 3-door hatchback based on the Chevy Monza, itself based on the infamous Vega. It’s rare to find a clean example of one of these, but up for auction on Bring a Trailer right now is a 1976 Buick Skyhawk S with a 5-speed manual transmission.
The hatchback we’re looking at here is about the sportiest Buick Skyhawk you could get in 1976. The window sticker in the photo gallery shows that a few of its options include the Handling Package (RPO H5) with a rear stabilizer bar and radial tires, custom sport wheels (V5), a Rallye steering wheel (X2), power disc brakes (C1), and, of course, a 5-speed manual transmission (B2). The S trim was the stripped-down base trim of the Skyhawk, and 1976 was the first year for the stick shift, so think of this as something of a hot hatch in a stripped-down spec.
The rear-wheel-drive Skyhawk was underpinned by GM’s H-body platform shared with the two aforementioned Chevy models, the Pontiac Sunbird, and the Oldsmobile Starfire. Power for every first-generation Skyhawk came from a 231ci (3.8L) V6. This was a carbureted, “odd-fire” iteration of the famous Buick 3.8L V6 and only made 110 horsepower and 185 pound-feet of torque in this application.
This Buick Skyhawk only has about 17,000 miles on the clock, and the listing states that it was one-family-owned from new until 2024. It was first sold in Georgia and is currently located in Florida, so it’s presumably been Southern-owned since new, contributing to its impressive condition.
The high bid on this Buick as of this writing is $2,077 and the auction ends on Saturday, June 14th. If, for some reason, you’ve been on the hunt for a very clean Buick Skyhawk with a stick, this is a rare opportunity to take one home.
Comments
Cool. The exterior almost looks like something from outer space.
Nice example with a curious option combo…AC, tilt wheel (rare on these), and a stick with no tach. My Mom had its sibling, a new 76 Sunbird auto with the same V6. An unfortunate rust bucket with a paint-shaker of an engine that ran out of what little power it had by 4000rpm. Impressive to see this clean southern example with no exterior blemishes, but there’s no pleasure to be found here.
Not a very good car. These suffered from poor build quality, rust issues, a leaky shaky V6 and were just not very pleasant cars overall. I would take just about anything else even an AMC Hornet or a Chevy Nova hatch to name a few with far smoother and more reliable straight six engines if given a choice of 1976 cars in this price range
These were quite nice to look at. Very futuristic for 1975 with the four square lights that they shared with only the Cadillac Seville. Bill Mitchell never let GM down design-wise but their lack of design differentiation was for sure a bad thing. I’m sure the Chevy Monza 2+2 was never intended to spawn a Buick and Oldsmobile but once the fuel crisis occurred, GM had to quickly find a small car for their more premium divisions too and this Skyhawk was the result.
My sister had two Monday Spyders, both bought new by my late Dad while she was in college (white and blue, both loaded, V6, autos). She totaled both. Friend had a dark blue Spyder, 305, 5 speed. Real sporty, popular cars in the day. Never see them today for various reasons.
Monsanto not Monday!
MONZA. Dang predictive text!
I had a 78 Monza, 2.5 Iron duke, 4 speed manual. At 100k the firewall starting collapsing from the flange on the clutch cable, which mis-aligned the cable and made the clutch almost impossible to depress.
I would bet these cars would sell nicely today with a modern power train and air bags, etc. The interior is interesting and inviting. Today’s car interiors are like going to generic section of Dollar General. Why can’t we get color keyed seatbelts and steering wheels?
This car line originally was to have been powered by GM’s Wankel engine. But the Wankel could not meet emerging emissions requirements.
The 231 odd fire would rattle the teeth out of your head. Nothing like driving a moving paint mixer.
The late 1977 revamp of this engine employed a split pin crankshaft which smoothed this engine out some but it wasn’t until 1988 when this engine became the 3800 with balance shaft that it became really smooth and competitive with 60 degree V6 engines. Either way the 231 odd fire was a big disappointment especially for Jeep drivers that were used to smooth straight sixes as this engine was being installed in them during the 1960’s before they sold the molds back to GM in the 70’s
A manual, rwd with a hatch. Sounds like a fun useful vehicle.
could understand the exterior but the interior is extreme ugly, cheap, garage forger
If I knew details about these, when there were more around in the 90’s, I’d have daily drove a Starfire with the odd fire. It can aid traction, that V6 can take more power.
77 Monza Mirage was an interesting car. Flared body panels, front air dam and rear spoiler installed by an aftermarket company. 305 V8 was standard.