Listing snapshot
| Spotted | November 2022 |
| Asking price | $15,500 |
| Location | Flint, Michigan |
| Listed on | Craigslist, dealer listing |
| Status | Ad expired. This page is our archive of the listing. |
We spotted this 1986 Buick Century Gran Sport on Craigslist in Flint, Michigan, in November 2022, offered by a dealer for $15,500. The ad has expired, but we keep the record. The Century Gran Sport is a rare and overlooked Buick, and a real asking price is useful to anyone trying to value one.
What this car was
A black four-door sedan, photographed inside an indoor showroom alongside other collector cars. The paint is deep and glossy, the black trim is unfaded, and the car sits on alloy wheels.
Inside, the photos show grey cloth bucket seats, a center console with a floor-mounted shifter, and a grey dash with the red Gran Sport script on the passenger side. The cloth shows little wear, and the door panel and steering wheel look clean.
Our original post was run through an article spinner, and the equipment description in it belonged to a different car: a two-door with a burgundy bench seat and a column shifter, which does not match these photos. We have left that description out, along with the mileage it quoted, so the price, the location and what the photos show are all we can confirm.
Was $15,500 a fair ask?
That is a lot for a front-wheel-drive Century, even a Gran Sport. What supported it was rarity and condition. Gran Sports are seldom seen today, and most A-body Buicks were used up as daily drivers, so a clean one in a dealer’s showroom stands out. What worked against it: the Century is not a big name with collectors, and without a confirmed mileage figure or paperwork in the ad, a buyer would want to check the history before paying a premium.
A little Century history
Buick first used the Century name in 1936, on a car that put its biggest engine in a lighter body and earned the nickname “the banker’s hot rod.” For 1982 the name moved to GM’s new front-wheel-drive A-body, sold as a sedan, coupe and wagon, and that Century stayed in production for well over a decade. The Gran Sport name itself goes back to Buick’s muscle cars of the 1960s.
More cars from the archive
- 1992 Buick Century, another Buick Century
- 1987 Buick LeSabre T-Type, another Buick
- 1946 Buick Roadmaster Series 71, another Buick
- 1986 Ford Mustang SVO, another 1980s American car
