1999 Buick Riviera Silver Arrow Limited Edition for Sale

Discussion in 'Cars and Parts For Sale Leads' started by RalphK, Apr 4, 2019.

  1. RalphK

    RalphK New Member

  2. Roadmaster49

    Roadmaster49 Well-Known Member

    It’s a fake.
    Because a legitimate Silver Arrow in rough condition showed up on the Minneapolis CL, I did some research on these cars.
    Probably the old timey V8'ers won't care much but I like rare cars no matter the era. They made 200. The 200 were not sequential, they built them throughout an already short run.

    All had an embroidered Silver Arrow logo in their headrests and supposedly in the back upper cushions but I have never seen the logo embroidered in the back seats. Then, the dealers got a bag of items to put on the car, a dash plaque and the dash plaque was to be placed in a certain area. Body emblems, and floor mats.

    A Buick guy named Tom Benvie from Massachusetts did a research project on the 200, to verify the VINs. A Silver Arrow must have one of the 200 VIN's to be a Silver Arrow. Also, as expected, these cars were loaded including the chromed 16 inch Riviera/Park Ave. wheel set.

    The seller for the fake has placed this car for sale on the AACA Riviera with the same bad photos, no photos of the Silver Arrow embroidered head rests, non correct base wheelset, no body emblems, and most importantly no mention of the VIN.

    The car in Minnesota provided the VIN, BUT the previous owner of this car kept the dash plaque. I mention this because I am sure a few dash plaques were not installed and are floating around.

    I may be too harsh in saying this Florida car is a fake but I did so in case that 1 in 1 million buyer from the forum shows interest and goes for this car for whatever reason. As with a 1971 Stage 1 - documentation is key and without it - many won't pay a premium price.

    Of the 200 Silver Arrows a few are being kept as very low mileage collectors, and change hands carefully and rarely. If that's your thing, these are nice collector cars. Then there are a few like the Minnesota one that are ragged out, need restored, and likely will never be.

    There are a few that have been well maintained but driven and show up for sale once in a while. These cars are uniquely styled, some don't care for the then futuristic styling, but it was styled instead of some stupid jellybean styling, including the interior which was unique to Riviera. And 1999 was the last year, and used to get rid of bodies only, resulting in only 1956 made. Another 20 years from now, will this be collected - not necessarily for high dollar return on investment - but collected at all?
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2019
  3. Briz

    Briz Founders Club Member

    If its fake...... I bid on it several days ago. Have been in contact with the Orlando auction house thats handling the transaction. Hope its not a scam
     
  4. RalphK

    RalphK New Member

    It is not a fake. My dad owned the car and all of the documentation is with it. I saw all of the Silver Arrow paraphernalia that went along with it. He died about a year ago. I am the executor of his estate and live in Iowa - the car is in Florida and I did not have time to sell it remotely so I let the auction house taking his furniture auction the car as well. I installed a new battery and had the brakes worked on - it is in good shape. There is an auto-lock brake light on still that needs to be looked at, but the brakes work fine now. I let it run through the old gas and it started running very smoothly with new gas.
     
  5. RalphK

    RalphK New Member

    I have added the title from the previous owner. The vin is 1G4GD2219X4700411
     

    Attached Files:

  6. Roadmaster49

    Roadmaster49 Well-Known Member

    Folks:
    This is why documentation is important. This is an interesting and early Silver Arrow. IT IS NOT #187.

    From the database expert Tom Benvie:

    The first ten cars were made the beginning of Sept and titled to Buick Executives-and two of them did not have sunroofs! Here are the first eleven:



    [​IMG]

    This car - Ralph's car does not have a sunroof - considered part of the loaded nature of the Silver Arrows and often seen on them. It still does not explain the standard wheel set but it does appear that this early car went to a GM executive, then found it's way to Ralph's dad.

    This was car # 9, NOT car # 187 for sure. So, yes Briz is bidding on a Silver Arrow, but NO it is not #187. Tom Benvie and other Silver Arrow followers may know where #187 is, or it may have been scrapped. The placement of the "badge" is not where I have typically seen them on other Silver Arrows.

    Whatever documentation comes with the car - and a title search - would be very enlightening. My guess, and clearly I have been wrong on this car in some respects - is that in the documentation that comes with this car may be the original badge or they may not have had it ready when these were made, as they may have been earmarked to executives and they were still working through the delivery requirements.

    Good luck Briz, and report back.
     
  7. Briz

    Briz Founders Club Member

    So far I am high bidder. Cant go over my max bid. If I win great! if not Oh well! Im about 3 hours north of the car. Question. If this is not car 187 why is it badged as such and where would the correct one have gone?
     
  8. Roadmaster49

    Roadmaster49 Well-Known Member

    Briz
    The car is definitely #9. VIN's don't lie. It's very well documented in the ROA. Here is how / why 187 is badged on this car. All 200 of the cars received their add ons in a kit. They were not installed at the factory, but the documents / badges and floor mats were put in a kit - likely a box - in the trunk except for the embroidered Silver Arrow seats. Therefore, many of the badges and such were left in the kits, and not installed. Later, as they became a collectible, they showed up on ebay.

    The one in Minnesota that is for sale - I asked about the dash plaque and the seller said the previous owner kept it. Plaques and trim are not part of the car like the VIN and the embroidered SILVER ARROW upholstery.

    So at some point in it's ownership someone purchased the 187 / 200 badge and put it in the wrong location on this car.
     
  9. Roadmaster49

    Roadmaster49 Well-Known Member

  10. Roadmaster49

    Roadmaster49 Well-Known Member

  11. Briz

    Briz Founders Club Member

    That makes sense. If I end up with it I'll pull that. Hopefully theres no holes in the dash. If she does end up here I guess I'll part out the 96.
     
  12. Roadmaster49

    Roadmaster49 Well-Known Member

    As for why this SA # 9 does not seem to have any other of the SA stuff - Ralph said it comes with "documentation" so maybe that is the "stuff" such as the emblems, the cover you see in the trunk above, etc and GM execs were getting a free car, or highly discounted - they may have cared less that it was potentially a future collectible. These cars never went to a dealer, so the executives picked them up from the pool and began driving them and likely disregarded the special stuff. It was just a nice car to them.
     
  13. 68 Wildcat

    68 Wildcat Dash Riprock

  14. Briz

    Briz Founders Club Member

    Well I did not manage to pull this one off. I was high bidder at the time the clock ran out on the online bidding. Then the auction went live.Did not know that was going to happen and thought when the time hit 0:00 I would be the winner like in any online auction. After 2 hours of waiting for the lot to come up on the block the bid started at the last bid shown. I believe there was only one other bidder. I clicked a few more 100.00 bids then hesitated for a min cause I was over my max by several hundred and there was also a 18% buyer premium. As it was closing I hit it one more time but the delay in the connection applied my bid to the next lot which was 2 NYC railroad water buckets for 50.00. So I did win something. The winner got a great deal @ 1500.00 +18%. I will say that guys estate had a lot of high $ stuff in it and people were paying good money to get it. Lots of old firearms and art.
     
  15. Roadmaster49

    Roadmaster49 Well-Known Member

    That is a weird auction format. My mother in law passed away in Florida and my dad was a snowbird for awhile. It is crazy how Florida attracts all these snowbirds and retirees and they have a cottage industry of auction houses that offer turn key solutions for situations like this one. My dad and stepmom used to buy whole houses completely furnished from dead folks/estates. I thought it was morbid. They had a home up here near Kansas City Missouri. They would buy a place, live in it a few years then sell it with everything still in it from when they bought it!

    This is what happened in this auction, Ralph just wanted everything taken care of and took less for the car for sure. 1999 Rivieras are surely more collectible but as has been pointed out, they are not really different from the previous 4 years. Don't buy a 1997, I've been told, because of the cradle issues - but when I do Auto Tempest searches I plug in 1998 to 1999 for Riviera. So many beaters out there, but I still see a few nice ones.
     

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