Why was A1/L-75 Stage 1 not part of the GSX package?

Wow.. .it was actually priced out.. Stage 2 engine option the M-22 "rock crusher" 4 speed, and a 4.10 rear... Yes please.. although at over 2K retail for the upgrade, those cars would be rare as hen's teeth.

We were so close.. we needed just one more year before the low lead mandate.

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as far as Brian's question on the Stage 1... this passage from the document Devon posted says it all. It alludes to the previous pages, where they document that the base GS was as fast as the Olds w-30 and Pontiac ram air III GTO.

FROM THIS YOU CAN SEE THAT BUICK ALREADY HAS THE MUSCLE, BUT NEEDS THE VISUAL IMPACT OF OUR COMPETITION TO GET THE ATTENTION OF THE MARKET. GSX WILL PROVIDE THIS ATTENTION. IT IS UNMISTAKABLY A PERFORMANCE CAR, NOT ONLY IN ACTION, BUT IN APPEARANCE

I recall talking with Dennis Manner some years back, and he mentioned that Olds and Pontiac were always the main focus of competition for Buick back then. They felt that the base drivetrain had them covered, so there was no need to add the Stage 1 option and raise the price of the GSX.

Remember, $189 sounds silly cheap today, but that was real money back in 69/70.

And yes, sales were not as good as hoped, they sold less than half of their projections.

The GSX was Buick's answer to the visual aspects of the W-30 and Judge offerings from Olds and Pontiac. This was discussed.. they felt they needed and "In" car look.

So whoever said previously in this thread that the GSX was just an ornamentation package to the base GS 455 was correct.. that appears to be the thinking based on this documentation..

JW

 

My old GSX was built mid April & didn't sell until August of '70 so by then the '71's were hitting the dealerships. The average Buick customer was not looking for the flamboyance of a GSX. Based on the docs I guess the idea was to bring in a different type customer but the guy who bought my old one traded in a Buick on it. Seems they learned their lesson on the GNX & limited "production" (they didn't make them obviously) & kept it more subtle but of course by then the collector aspect of specialty cars was well established and they could've made the cars pink & purple & they would've sold out.

 

My old 70 Yellow GSX was not originally sold until November of 70. Talk about a leftover.
Duane

 

There was a local dealership here (Wilkins Buick) that IIRC purposefully didn't sell their GNX for quite a while in order to drive showroom traffic. I believe it sat on the showroom floor all that time. I can't remember if it officially wasn't for sale or if they just put a "we don't want to sell it" price on it.

I suspect in the cases of the leftover GSX's that that wasn't the dealerships' intent but maybe?

 

Notice for the Stage II stuff they based the cost on 100 units. So even Buick knew it would be a rare bird.

Buick dropped the cost of the Stage 1 from the $189 shown on that document to only $113.75 when ordered on a GSX but even at that price that's equal to $781 today. So nearly $800 for only 10 advertised hp doesn't seem like a good deal. But on the other hand, my '70 GSX is optioned with Stage 1, TH400, A/C, tilt and a couple other items and the total on the window sticker is $5,329 which is $36,857.75 in 2021, which is lower than I was expecting.

 

My friend Jay was showing me that his dad bought his '70 GSX as a brand new car in January 5, 1971 so it sat around that dealer for a long time too. His dad was wise and never sold the car and Jay has it now.

My GSX only sat at the dealer for about 6 weeks.

 

I knew about one guy that bought his as a leftover. He kept looking at it on the showroom floor but would not make an offer.

Finally after driving by and seeing it was missing for a few months he went in and asked about it. The dealership had parked it out back under an overhang and all but the rear spoiler and bumper was under roof.

The birds had sat on the edge of the roof and did a number on the spoiler.

Eventually they made a deal and re-painted the top of the rear spoiler before he picked it up.

At the time I think there were a lot of people that did not care for the yellow color. I know Oldsmobile had problems with selling their Rallye 350 cars.
Duane

 

Buick built the the 1970 Buick GSX to drive showroom traffic during the spring of 1970. That was it's main purpose to sell more Buicks in general.

The hope was that dealers would park to new GSX out front of the dealership or in showroom to get curious potential buyers into the dealership and hopefully sell them something on their lot.

Buick projected to built 800 GSX cars in 1970 but built only 678.

 

The projected number of cars to be built kept going down as the package was being designed, all due to the fact that the model year was getting further along.
Duane

 

The gathering consensus is a conflicting one to me.

The fact that a standard 455 Buick could take on a W-30 or RAIII...that GSX didn't necessarily need S1 to do that. Agreed. As the younger people say, 100%

But, on one hand we are saying Buick didn't do the project to make a buck - it was all a visual marketing tool to get people in the door by building some excitement and Buick may have even lost money. Also Agreed.

On the other hand is where we aren't adding up. We are saying the S1 engine @ $113.75 was somehow "tipping" the price point to become THE difference maker in someone buying a car as expensive as the GSX? Disagree.

Stage 1 was only 2.31% of the price of the car in the case of Electric Banana (shown below). Just having the Stage 1 call out sticker on the air cleaner and chrome rocker covers when you displayed the car on the showroom floor should have given just cause to include the A1 with the A9. Wasn't eye candy the whole point?

Motor Trend said Stage 1 was an "engineering tour de force". At a baked in $113.75, any salesman worth a salt should have been able to explain it was the performance bargain of the decade. Backwards Buick marketing failed to show the world the Stage 1's performance value.

Here come da Judge!

GSX. All dressed up, and nowhere to go. Unless you count out in the back lot getting pooped on.

 

I talked to a fellow yesterdsy who bought a Trans Am new in ‘86 and still has it. It’s a well optioned car with T tops but has the carbureted 305 instead of the TPI 305. He chose the (slightly) lesser engine because the car itself was a real budget stretcher (instead of buying fewer options or a cheaper Camaro).
It is possible that the extra $113 was a deal breaker or an unwanted option for many Buick buyers. In ‘normal driving’ you’d never notice a lack of power. I imagine Buick figured ‘let’s not lose that image buyer over that. Put him in a billboard and send him out there!’
And, probably more than a few higher ups believed it was only a 10 hp difference! (‘As for Stage 1 stickers, no one drives around with their hood open anyway!’)
Patrick

 

Ever talked to an original GS owner that wished they'd known about Stage 1 at the time of order/purchase? I have and I'll bet a shiny nickel someone else on here has too.

Richard bought a painted top...did he skip Stage 1?

Is Frakes name mentioned in those papers folks have shared? It looks like the decision about Stage 1 was already made before September 1969. Was he involved in those kinds of decisions or just executing the mandates handed down to him?

Anyone else notice the steering wheel missing? I bet that's a question Frakes could answer. My guess, FWIW, is the team executing GSX wanted to sneak in a little something extra.

Were they going to paint the grille differently?

 

I met someone in the 80s from Front Royal, VA that was very happy with non Stage 1 GSX. It was his family vacation cruiser with AC. He went sightseeing to DC and liked the dead smooth idle of the reg 455. Point is not everyone wanted or needed the extra power and the slightly rougher cam.
Also some towed with their X's and wanted all the torque down low.

 

Brian, you make a great point, but how many people have you talked to who bought a brand new car because they like how it looked and had no idea what engine it had? Those people aren’t enthusiasts or future club members but they are buyers. A sale is a win for the higher ups and money in the bank for everyone, and them driving a rolling billboard for the brand was a win for the brand. As long as real performance was on the option sheet the engineers had a compromise they could live with. Probably had to accept that concession in ‘71 when Xs truly became a stripe package; at least the performance was on the option sheet.
A similar discussion would be ‘why wasn’t G80 standard on GSs and later Turbo Regals?’
Patrick

 

A little OT here & I haven't read everything posted so maybe was discussed but would've been interesting had Buick included some exterior Stage 1 designation on GSX's. Maybe just the Stage 1 fender emblems (no "GS"). I think (not sure) that would've looked tasteful. Seems I've seen that on a car...

 

...I read "GSX Presentation" doc. My take away was "youth" market. Buick was never going to win that one. Buick didn't build/price cars for youth market. Working at a dealer in '60s, only youth I saw were bringing in parents' cars for service. My '71 convertible without destination charge (which was expensive to HI) was over $5500. (Median) '71 household income was $9870, new home $22400, and new car $2700. '72 Sloan data for my dealer showed 12 A-body convertibles, only 2 were GSes, and invoice differences were only a few hundred dollars. The 2 GSes were 455s. Based on invoices, I assume they were ordered primarily for the 455...

 

A little OT here & I haven't read everything posted so maybe was discussed but would've been interesting had Buick included some exterior Stage 1 designation on GSX's. Maybe just the Stage 1 fender emblems (no "GS"). I think (not sure) that would've looked tasteful. Seems I've seen that on a car...[/QUOTE]

I think the whole GSX paint and stripe package works and has Buick class as is. I don’t think there is a good way to call out Stage 1 and not mess up the theme. Maybe as a body color ‘cut out’ of the hood paint?
Funny that a generation later Buick was calling out random crap no one cared about...anyone remember front wheel drive Electras with ‘four speed overdrive’ badges on the the trunk? Woohoo! Watch out!
Patrick

 

Looks like more people chose to upgrade to the automatic transmission, which also was a cost option, rather then the performance option which was already competitive.

 

In many cases the buyer of a ‘70 GSX bought the car that the dealer had in stock. So whatever the dealer had is what they got. Take it or leave it.

My car was not ordered by the buyer. It was just sitting in dealer inventory when he bought it in June 1970. It’s a Stage 1 car but the buyer was NOT a hot rodder and probably didn’t even care. My friend Jay has a GSX with the base 455 and it was a leftover car that his dad bought new from the dealer in January 1971. So Jay’s dad had no choice, take the base 455 or get nothing at all.

 

I find it more interesting that the majority were up ordered with automatic transmissions. Guess Buick made the right call and knew how to make money on that option