Buick Grand National soars in popularity with those searching ClassicCars.com

Interest in the Buick Grand National, perhaps the last of the early generation of Detroit muscle cars, continued to soar among those searching in December 2021 for potential purchases on the ClassicCars.com Marketplace. 

For December, the Grand National surpassed the Chevrolet C10 pickup — albeit by a mere 82 searches — to rank fourth among searches — 23,358 to 23,276 — for vehicles by all years on the website during the month.

The Grand National had been climbing in recent months, from 13th back in April to breaking into the top-10 two months later.

“The reason for the rise of interest in the Buick Grand National is easy to understand,” said Andy Reid, the Journal’s East Coast editor and marketplace analyst. “As stated above, this is truly the last of the old-style muscle cars that was built by GM, able to cover 0-60 and quarter-mile times quicker than cars built by Ferrari or Porsche during the era. 

“It was the top of the heap in straight-line performance at the time, especially in GNX form, and is an icon of the 1980s muscle car era.” 

Also doing better than usual among vehicles searched for in December without regard to year of production were the Corvette and Mercedes-Benz. However, tumbling out of the top 10 was the DeLorean.

“The DeLorean is an interesting car in many ways, stainless-steel body, conceived by the genius of John DeLorean, but the car was quite honestly not very good when new, saddled with an uninspiring engine that did not live up to the promises made by its stunning exterior design,” Reid notes. 

“An important footnote in the history of collector cars but simply a footnote. 

“Most people who wanted a DeLorean, usually fans of the film Back to the Future, have already bought one, so it is no surprise to see it drop from the list.”

We also track searches on the ClassicCars.com Marketplace by year, make and model. That list is dominated by Ford Mustangs from the 1960s, with the ’69 first, the ’67 second, the ’65 seventh and the ’68 eighth.