Buick Skylark

The Buick Skylark was a passenger car produced by General Motors. The model was made in five production runs. In each production, the car design varied quite dramatically. This was due to changing technology, changing tastes, and new standards being implemented over the years.

1953-1954

Introduced to mark Buick's 50th anniversary, the Buick Skylark (first use of the name for a production vehicle) on one of three specialty convertibles produced in 1953 by General Motors; the other two were the Oldsmobile Fiesta and the Cadillac Eldorado. All three were limited production vehicles promoting General Motors' design leadership. Of the three, the Skylark had the most successful production run with 1,690 produced. This was considered quite an amazing sales feat, for the car had a list price in 1953 of slightly in excess of US$5,000. However, many languished in dealer showrooms and were sold at discount.

All 1,069 regular-production Skylarks built in 1953 (and all in 1954) were convertibles. The 1953s were based on the 2-door Roadmaster, having identical dimensions (except height), almost identical convenience and appearance equipment, and a Roadmaster drive train. In 1953, the model designation for the Skylark was 76X, while the model designation for the Roadmaster convertible was 76R. The few options available to the Roadmaster convertible buyer were standard equipment to the Skylark buyer, albeit the base price for the well-equipped Roadmaster convertible was only about US$3,200.