Flint Photos: Deuce and a Quarter

New Buicks for Sale

New Buicks for Sale

Buick Electra 225 and Bob Seger's Creative License

It appears Bob Seger don't know much about Buick Electra 225 history.

Ron Fonger of The Flint Journal reports:

In the lyrics of "Detroit Made," Seger sings about the Electra's big-block engine, leather bucket seats, and "chrome that takes the moonlight on." 

The song credits the Buick with winning the attention of "girls (that) walked right by me, didn't even say good luck," while the singer drove "an old farm truck," but who "all wanna be my friend ... now I ride my 225." 

The chorus of the song, lines repeated a dozen times, are, "She's a Detroit made; deuce and a quarter, babe."

The problem, as Fonger points out, is that 225s were made in Flint and a few other places, but never Detroit. Just the kind of songwriting mistake you'd expect from an Ann Arbor guy like Seger.

Buick Electra 225

This is how Flint used to roll...1970 Buick Electra 225.

Merry Christmas Courtesy of The French Connection

Just noticed the pair of shiny Buick Electras in this chase scene — featuring Gene Hackman as a very unsavory Santa — from The French Connection.

Another Flint Icon in San Francisco

I was walking near my office in San Francisco today when I spotted this 1960 Buick Electra 225 convertible. It's owned by Ted Gigler, who stores it in his auto body shop. He bought it about 35 years ago for $900.

All original interior, although Ted did swap the worn driver's seat with the passenger seat.

Pretty much the original engine and components except for the battery pulled out of a Mercedes.


Proof of the Flint pedigree. "This car finished with Magic-Mirror acrylic lacquer. Body by Fisher."


Ted's other car...a Pontiac GTO.

Hard to miss these taillights.

Flint T-Shirts

Flint Expatriates has official t-shirts, thanks to artist extraordinaire Jessica Lynch at Slow Loris Designs.

They feature the infamous Genesee Towers, the Mott Foundation Building, the historic Vehicle City arch, the Citizens Bank Weather Ball, and my Grandma McFarlane's Buick Electra 225 all lovingly rendered on a slate gray American Apparel shirt in deep blue ink. There are also extra small sizes available in blue ink on white shirts. The original art for the shirt is hand drawn by Jessica.

Click here to be redirected to the Slow Loris homepage. Once you are there, just click on the "For the Love of Flint" shirt and complete your order.

Buick Electra and the Man of Action

"Today's man of action demands that his car be more than just a showpiece."

1967 Buick Electra: The Art of Advertising

Flint Car Buffs in the Desert

What does a Flint Expatriate like Jeff Stork do when he moves to Palm Springs? He starts a blog called the Palm Springs Automobilist, of course.

Update: Believe it or not, there's a website devoted to the Chevette Sandpiper like the one Jeff is working on in the photo. By the way, that yellow paint looks suspiciously close to the "Bamboo Cream" of my grandma's Buick Electra 225.

Color Commentary

Designer turned marketer Chris Webb talks about how G.M. chooses colors for the Volt. It's basically a commercial for the internet age, but it's surprisingly interesting and offers a nice contrast with the yuppie extravagance of the Reagan-era Cadillac advertising I posted yesterday.

It did remind me a little of the color analyst scene in Roger & Me. And the part where Webb explains how G.M. uses three layers of color instead of two was somewhat reminiscent of the famous amp scene in Spinal Tap. (watch below)

All kidding aside, it seems like G.M. is finally figuring out how to market a car to a wider, more diverse group of consumers. (And no, G.M. did not pay me to say that.)

If you want a chance to fly to L.A. and test drive a pre-production Volt, go here to enter the Chevy color contest to name the strange green planned for some of the Volts. (Are they too broke to actually give a car away in the contest, as I mistakenly posted earlier? Apparently so.) Alas, there are no plans to re-introduce the "Bamboo Cream" of my grandma's Buick Electra.

UPDATE: If you scroll toward the bottom of this page, you can see some of the names people have submitted. And as some of the comments indicate, figuring out how to actually enter this contest is a real challenge. Perhaps I was a bit premature in declaring that G.M. has improved at the marketing game.

Flint Artifacts: Buick Electra

My grandparents and my siblings pose in front of the monumental Buick Electra near the Flint Cultural Center. All five could probably fit comfortably in the front seat of that 225.

Flint Portraits: Christopher Paul Curtis

Read or listen to Tavis Smiley interview Flint author Christopher Paul Curtis as he discusses everything from literature to hanging doors on Electra 225's.

Deuce and a Quarter

Speaking of Buick Electras, this is the two-door convertible version of my first car, courtesy of my Grandma McFarlane. It's a fantastic Flint ride from a time when aerodynamics and gas mileage took a backseat to style. The paint color? Bamboo Cream. Sounds like a drink that would give you a bad hangover. And I guess this car is emblematic of bad times for GM. The lovable land yacht was rolling off the line when the energy crisis hit in the seventies. But at least GM learned their lesson and didn't repeat the mistake of making huge vehicles in an era of rising fuel prices. Oh, wait, strike that last sentence.