BUICK SPECIAL: BUYER'S GUIDE
Median Price: £19,390 • Highest Price: £114,253 • Lowest Price: £2,353 • Sell-Through Rate: 73%
Source: Mecum
How much is a Special worth?
In our experience, we've seen plenty of Special's go under the hammer and based on analysing every sale you can expect to pay £19,390 for one in average condition - that places it amongst the most expensive 60% of collector cars across our database.
As Buick's go, a Special is on the lower end relative to other Buick models. In fact this model is £5,603 below the median Buick price of £24,992.
What is the maximum to pay for a Special?
Across the 237 Special's we've seen sell, the highest price ever recorded for this model is £114,253. It was sold by Mecum in the US on 06 Jan 2022.
What is the lowest to pay for a Special?
Well, that depends on where you draw the threshold.
The lowest sale of all time for this vehicle is £2,353. Mecum sold the car at auction in the US on 13 May 2014.
When looking at more recent sales the lowest recorded price is, as you would expect, higher. Analysing every sale since 2020 shows that the lowest price between 2020 and today is £3,502, Mecum sold this car in the US on 13 May 2022.
What is the background of the make / model?
Buick produced this model between 1931 and 1969.
Buick is one of the oldest car brands in America, established in 1899. It was named after its founder David Dunbar Buick. In 1903, the company was acquired by William Durant and later became a cornerstone of General Motors. Buick has produced many popular models over the years, including the Riviera and the Electra. Today, Buick continues to be a popular luxury brand, especially in China.
How common is a Special?
According to data from the DVLA, the UK licensing authority, in 2022 there were 63 licensed vehicles alive and kicking on UK roads. There were also 35 vehicles that are SORNd - in other words not currently registered for the road. Note: that data is for this model and all of its sub-models.
Building on that, we've also seen plenty of these go under the hammer at auctions around the world, 326 to be precise. It's among the 4% most common collector cars to sell at auction.
Of those 326 times the model has gone to auction 237 have sold. In other words, this model sells on 73% of times it goes to auction - that's below the average sell-through rate we traditionally see.
What is the [enter model]'s like to live with?
We know from reviews of this model by our 42,000+ strong community how this car performs across multiple variables. Those variables stack up to give a TCVScore which is a relative score of how good a car is across the 5 variables in comparison to all other cars.
For the [enter model], it scores a [enter score] out of 100 - that places it in the [enter position] of all cars in our database.
How the car scores across all variables is below:
Styling:
Cool Factor:
Practicality:
Handling:
Speed:
To understand more or add your own review, click the links below.
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Why this article was created
Well, we've got one of the largest databases of sold classic car prices in the world so we thought we ought to help and put that data to good use. To be clear though, this article is not intended to be a full tour of every nook and sill of the Special, rather it's meant to act as an introductory guide and overview of the market for this model.
It is here to provide you guidance on how much you should and shouldn't be paying for one based on the 326 we've seen previously.
If you're after more detail, we've got you covered. Click the button below to be taken to a the price guide for this model so you can see every single sale, price trend over time and lots more.
How this article was created
This article was created by looking back at sales of Special since the beginning of our database in 1992. We've scanned over 30 auction houses and results from over £15 billion of sold cars around the world to understand the where the market is at for this car.
The Classic Valuer takes that data and analytics which enables it to generate these articles at scale, for further information regarding the Special please visit the price guide linked below.
About The Author
Giles Gunning
Giles is CEO of The Classic Valuer - one of the world's largest databases of sold classic cars in the world going back over 30 years covering over 11,000 models. Giles and The Classic Valuer are regularly referenced in key classic car publications including Classic & Sports Car.
Giles grew up around the iconic historic motorsport venue at Goodwood and enjoys his 1972 Alfa Romeo 1600 GT Junior around the Sussex roads. His primary car goal is to purchase back a selection of his grandfather's car's including his 1931 Riley Brooklands.
