Buick has been a continuous and respected nameplate and a proud member of the General Motors family for more than 100 years, an amazing feat when others have dropped by the wayside.
William (Billy) Durant established GM in 1908, and since he already controlled Buick, he used it as the foundation on which to expand the corporation by adding such building blocks as Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Oakland (later Pontiac).
Buick distinguished itself from the beginning with its powerful overhead-valve engine, and over the years established a solid reputation as a quality upscale car that was popular with buyers such as doctors, bank managers and business entrepreneurs. And while there were some memorable models over the years, one of the most interesting and attractive arrived in 1949.
Following the Second World War's 3 1 /2-year interruption in car production, Buick returned to building 1946 models in 1945. Buick offered slightly revised pre-war designs, but it had a head start because it had begun redesigning its cars in 1942. It had stretched and tapered the front fenders back to the rear ones on some two-door models in what was called "flow-through" of "airfoil" styling. It would dominate the styling of the 1946 to '48 Buicks.
Although some GM cars got new post-war styling in 1948, most new Big Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) models appeared in 1949. Even then, Buick's entry-level Special didn't get rid of its old pre-war, non-airfoil design until mid-year.
The new 1949 Buick line consisted of the Super, Road master and mid-year Special. Styling now featured front fenders that ran straight through from front to rear and blended with the rear fenders. There were still fastbacks and notchbacks, and all vestiges of running boards were gone.
The vertical-bar grille was lower and now extended right across the front of the car for a more massive appearance.
All Buicks were powered by the smooth-running overhead-valve, straight-eight engine that Buick had used exclusively since 1931, now mounted on new lowvibration engine mounts. For 1949, these "Fireball" eights came in two versions: 110 horsepower, 4.1-litre in the Special and Super, and larger 150horsepower, 5.2-litre for the Roadmaster.
The standard transmission was a column-shifted, threespeed manual, but in 1948 Buick had introduced its "Dynaflow" automatic. It had a two-speed planetary gearset and a torque converter, the first American car to use one. It was an option on Roadmasters that year and became more widely available for 1949. Dynaflow offered clutchless driving at the expense
of poor fuel economy and very leisurely acceleration. Britain's The Motor magazine recorded zero to 96 km/h in a long 23.2 seconds.
When the testers started off in low gear and manually shifted to Drive at 50 km/h, the zero-to-96 time dropped to 21.1, a little better, but still slow. The acceleration was so sluggish because in the fully shiftless mode, the transmission started off in Drive, or high gear, and depended entirely on the torque converter instead of gears to provide torque multiplication. It had a lot of slippage and was inadequate for decent performance.
Buick's most discussed new styling features for 1949 were its "Venti-ports," quickly dubbed portholes by the public. Located in each front fender, their initial purpose was to bleed hot air from the engine compartment and, for the first part of the model year, they had ventilating pipes to the engine.
It soon became evident that the portholes were not required for cooling, but they were kept as a styling mark and became an instant identifier of whether you had the top model. Roadmasters had four portholes and lesser models three, giving Roadmaster owners instant cachet. Portholes in various forms remained a Buick styling feature almost continuously into the 1980s and, after an interruption, sneaked back in 2003 on the Buick Park Avenue Ultra.
Another styling breakthrough for Buick, soon followed by Cadillac and Oldsmobile, was the pillarless hardtop, popularly called the hardtop convertible. Eliminating the centre, or B-pillar, gave the two-door, top-model Buick Roadmaster Riviera Hardtop Coupe the appearance of a convertible with the top up.
Company lore has it that the wife of Buick's assistant chief engineer liked the look of a convertible but never put the top down because the wind mussed her hair. Her husband took the story to work, and the hardtop convertible soon appeared on the premium model Buick.
Hardtop convertibles provided closed-car comfort with the appearance of a convertible and became popular throughout the industry. They would extend to four-door cars in 1955 Oldsmobiles and Cadillacs, and last through to the 1970s.
The 1949 models were good for Buick, which sold almost 400,000 of them in the calendar year. It was an attractive and popular car that helped firmly maintain GM's industry sales leadership.
