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1971 Buick Riviera was controversial in its day and remains so. Essentially that had to do with its passenger compartment greenhouse the tapered towards the rear in "boat tail" fashion similar to that of the classic 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, one of General Motors' styling director Bill Mitchell's favorites. The story seems to be that competent stylist Jerry Hirshberg, under orders from Mitchell, included that feature on the redesigned Riviera. But his original work was intended for a smaller body and didn't translate well to the huge production version.
I wrote about 1963 and later Rivieras
here and
here.
Today's post compares '71 Rivieras with the cars that shared its body platform, the Cadillac Eldorado and the Oldsmobile Toronado. General Motors was still a wealthy firm in those days, so the three cars shared little or no exterior sheet metal. This was unusual indeed.
The image gallery below begins with two factory images of the Riviera. Thereafter, the three cars are compared in Rivera - Eldorado - Toronado order from various viewpoints. Unless noted, images are of cars listed for sale or are factory-sourced.
Gallery
Frontal view of a 1971 Buick Riviera.
Rear quarter view of the same car, showing the "boat tail" feature.
Riviera side view, Mecum auction photo.
Eldorado side view. The only shared items are the windshield, door, and forward part of the roof.
The same can be said for this Toronado. Note that the Eldorado and Toronado have greater front overhang. That's because they have front-wheel-drive, whereas the Riviera had the then-conventional rear-wheel drive.
Riviera front quarter view.
The Eldorado has fake air intakes at the leading edge of the rear fender area. A similar detail was on 1950-1956 Cadillacs.
The Toronado has seemingly minimal front air intakes.
Rear quarter view of the Riviera.
The Eldorado seems almost totally different from the same perspective.
The same can be said for the Toronado with respect to the two other cars.
After the first two Rivieras (as a brand, not a model) - Continental influenced, fairly clean, and referring somewhat to classic designs - it was like Harley Earl returned from the grave and took over again. A real low point for GM design, and threw away the image they had created.
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