Thanks Mike! Arrived in the mailbox yesterday... Sitting at my desk thumbing through it as I type this!
I need help with this informative book I bought. 1971 shows a GS production total of 9170 Stage 1 option 882 455 Engine group 1646 L99 350 Engine 6641 My math 6641+1646+882= 9169 My conclusion is that the ONE missing must be my car. The numbers just don't add up! Turbo 400 2284 4 Speed Manual 653 Turbo 350 6200 3 Speed Manual 31 My math 2284+653+6200+31 +9168=9168 Why are my numbers not adding up correctly? Am I missing something or not using it correctly?
The numbers come from GM and they did make mistakes if something does not add up. I never got that far down in the weeds to see if all the numbers add up.
...your total would have been 18336 with incorrectly added in total amount, but we know what you meant. At that point in time, much of the data collection was still done by humans. Buick was still using physical punch cards. Added to that is fact that there is no other available corroborating data for '71s. We're lucky to have what we have. If I hadn't had original Owners Manual with POP card still in it, I'd know zip about mine, where it came from, original options, or even that it's a 455. If you want to do a "one of," comparison, I suggest using Body Style, Engine, Transmission, and Plant. Since most GS options could be ordered on any configuration, finding other relevant totals becomes virtually impossible, unless you have a '69-'70 Stage 1 or '71-'72 convertible (built only at Flint). GSs are rare period, compared to other "muscle cars." Thanks to fact '71 GS convertibles were Flint-built only, it was easy to find a couple '71 Production Totals inconsistencies, one in A9-455 row, Flint had 164 and Total was 165. Second was in B2-TH400. It's unlikely there were 219 TH400s with only 164 455s. Trying to reconcile by trans type was even worse. 219 Th400, 598 TH350, 78 4-speed, and 6 3-speed yields 901 transmissions. Clearly, the 81 Stage 1s factor into the trans numbers, but there's no way to know exactly how from the Production Totals. When I learned I have one of only 164 (or 165) '71 GS 455 convertibles ever built, I started looking at her in a whole different light...
Mike and others, So... forgive my ignorance here if I'm missing something, but are these books 87 pages of nothing but tables like the ones on the first page of this thread? If so, why is this such a 'big deal'? Legit question there, not trying to be an a-hole... just trying to decide whether or not why I'd "need" one of these, maybe to have to display at car shows, etc. with my 70' GS455. Thanks.
Yes they are tables. No one "needs" this unless you are interested in statistics about these cars. Nothing to display at car shows unless you want to pull stats to display. Big deal to some, not so much for others, like most things in life.
