🏎️ Max Finds a Corvette-Powered, Wood-Paneled Wagon

presented with…

Good morning people.

It’s Friday, temperatures here in North Carolina are at record highs and I want to take a little east coast road-trip back to the sanely tempered New England.

What car do I want to be doing this drive in, you ask?

Well… It just so happens to be the one you all voted for us to find. The hidden gem of our beach trip… AND its being sold by the dealer I bought my old 2001 BMW M5 from (that is now owned by a fellow reader of MaxFindsCars).

HERE IT IS: A 1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon

What Makes The Roadmaster So Cool?

• The Interior Combines Comfort with CHARACTER

• It’s Built to LAST, DRIVE FAST, WITH ECHOES OF THE PAST

• It’s the END OF AN ERA

Today’s Edition is brought to you by Morning Brew

But First, the Highlights…

• 🌏️ Driven around the world: 1.9x

  • I’m starting to be able to do these without re-googling how many miles it is to go around the world. Math degree clearly going to good use.

• 🎼 Song to Get the Vibes Right: Your Woman - White Town

• 🏇 Can beat 260 horses in a fight

• 💰️ List Price: $19,900

The Interior Combines Comfort with CHARACTER

Alright I know you want to hear about the wood paneling, the corvette engine, etc...

BUT HEAR ME OUT. This interior is filled with goodies.

The elephant of the entire interior is the color. YES. The whole thing is burgundy (that’s girl-talk for slightly darker red). Contrasting color schemes did not exist in the 90’s, apparently, and I absolutely love it.

On top of that, the seats look straight out of a La-Z-Boy outlet. Big and cushy. I am legitimately curious if there is a higher percentage of ‘falling asleep behind the wheel’ cases with this car vs the national average. I’d bet my mortgage on it.

NEXT, my personal favorite part of the interior: the ‘Twilight Sentinel’.

Yes, this interior feature is very dramatically named. Yes, it does share its name with World of Warcraft NPC’s. No, you can’t ask how I know that.

What does it do? Any guesses?

It’s actually something that’s standard on most cars today: its a photoelectric cell in the dashboard that detects the light levels outside, and automatically turns the exterior lights on or off. Pretty badass name for something that is so commonplace today.

Apparently juicing up the names of features is something GM is good at - in the 50s it had a similar feature called the ‘Autronic Eye’ (which, surprisingly, is not a rip off of some Lord of the Rings character).

Last, but certainly not least… the feature that every parent with ugly kids has been searching for (now that facemasks are out of vogue)…

REAR FACING THIRD ROW. Ya gotta love a rear facing third row. Don’t really understand why it was ever a thing. I guess the user experience of loading the kids in through the rear-hatch is easier than having to fold the second row? If anyone knows the answer here, let me know!

It’s Built to LAST, DRIVE FAST, WITH ECHOES OF THE PAST

BUILT TO DRIVE FAST:

Folks, this car was a SLEEPER in its day. We’re talking REM-sleep depth here.

Under the hood of this comely, comfy wagon was packing…

a 5.7 liter V8 straight out of a CORVETTE (from the factory).

Sure, its 4700 pounds and still only made 260 horsepower with nearly 6 liters of engine, but this thing could lay down some rubber (okay to be fair the guy says this engine is ‘slightly modified’, but this car still ripped for the time-period).

But what could it do with that engine? Well…

BUILT TO LAST:

THE ROADMASTER HAD A TOWING CAPACITY OF 7000 POUNDS!

Wanna tow a camper? You can do it with a Roadmaster. Want to put your new boat in the water? You can do THAT with a Roadmaster too. Bought 3500 bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos because CostCo was running a sale you just couldn’t pass up? Load them into your Buick.

BIG SUV DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT THIS CAR. You don’t need a Ford F-150. You don’t need that Audi Q7.

This Roadmaster has just as much storage space, is just as long, and can tow nearly as much.

How? Outside the engine, this Roadmaster uses body-on-frame construction. Wondering wtf that means? I was too. The ‘body’ here is like, exterior panels and interior bits. The ‘frame’ is the metal frame that the car’s drivetrain sits in. Its basically a big metal rectangle under your car.

The body and frame are distinct entities in this construction style, and the body is simply mounted to the frame. For other vehicles, often the body and frame are less separated. They are integrated together in a unibody construction style.

In the end, body-on-frame is much more durable and facilitates a higher towing capacity. Most of the time, its used in trucks and off-roaders, making this Roadmaster a bit of a unique vehicle!

BUILT WITH ECHOES OF THE PAST:"

So, the Roadmaster is, apparently, supremely capable. Its a do-everything vehicle, but one that sticks to tradition.

It didn’t create more power by making the trendy and efficient move of the era: turboing a smaller engine. It did so by simply putting the biggest V8 possible under the hood.

It didn’t try some revolutionary method of improving towing capacity - it simply bolted the body to the frame like its forefathers.

And it CERTAINLY didn’t try to reinvent the styling wheel either. The wood-paneling hearkens back to the first EVER cars - the ones that were a small step above wooden, horse-drawn carriages.

After WWII, manufacturers started to learn about… well… practicality. Constructing vehicles that could move at highway speeds, weighed thousands of pounds, but were susceptible to termites and a little known issue called ‘the weather’… just didn’t make sense anymore.

All-metal construction started to become the dominant method, but faux-wood (like the vinyl here) remained for decades for styling purposes.

The End of an Era

And… as we wrap up this dive into the Roadmaster, it's hard not to feel nostalgic. This wagon represents an era of American automotive history that's slowly fading away—the era of the land yacht, where size and comfort were celebrated. A time when road trips were an adventure and cars were more than just a mode of transport; they were a part of the family.

Now, admittedly, I was one year old when this car was sold, so I’m really just guessing here… but!

If you're in the market for a vehicle that combines classic style with unexpected power, the 1996 Buick Roadmaster might just be your ticket to relive “the good ol’ days”.

And remember…

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That's a wrap for today. New Editions come out every Monday & Friday! While you wait, go out and drive! And if you want more, be sure to follow Max’s Twitter (@maxjzin)

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