Premium station wagons were suddenly the rage in the Fifties. Buick’s contribution to the trend was the flashy and luxurious Caballero.
Caballero is, broadly speaking, Spanish for gentleman, and the 1957-58 Buick Caballero Estate Wagon was certainly a proper vehicle for the well-heeled gentlemen and ladies of 1950s suburbia. As Americans migrated in droves from the cities to the subdivisions, suddenly station wagons were the hot new body style, rivaling hardtops and convertibles in prestige among the town and country crowd.
The Motor City answered the call with fancy, upmarket wagons including the Chevy Nomad and Ford Parklane, while Buick’s premium offering was the Caballero, a four-door hardtop wagon in the midrange Century line. (The division’s station wagon bodies were produced by the Ionia Manufacturing Co., and Buick didn’t then offer wagons on the C-body Super/Roadmaster platform.) Like all Centuries, the Caballero rode on a 122-inch wheelbase and was powered by a 364 CID nailhead V8 with a 10.0:1 compression ratio and 300 hp. Buick’s Variable Pitch Dynaflow automatic transmission was standard.
While not as plush as a current luxury SUV, the interior of the Caballero was posh and sporty for its time, with two-tone vinyl upholstery and thick-pile carpeting in the cargo area. Standard seating was for six, though an optional third-row “Junior Seat” was available (above). There were three wagons in the Buick lineup in ’57, including two Specials (Estate and Riviera Estate) but the Caballero was by far the most expensive. In fact, it was the priciest model in the Century lineup, too. At $3,831, the Caballero listed for nearly $500 more than the Riviera two-door hardtop and $150 more than the convertible.
Unfortunately, 1957 and 1958 were not banner sales years for the Buick Motor Division, as production slipped 24 percent to 407,000 cars in ’57. Despite fresh styling for ’58 with quad headlamps and acres of chrome, volume tumbled again in the following year to just 257,000 as the entire industry slumped. Caballero deliveries amounted to 10,186 in ’57 and 4,456 in ’58. However, the lackluster performance in Buick showrooms back then hasn’t dampened the Caballero’s popularity among collectors today. According to the Hagerty price guide, current values are running well into the six-figure range.
Always liked 1950s “long roofs”, especially the ’57 and ’58 Buick 4-door hardtop wagons. One of my former clients, a very wealthy car collector half-way around the world has a very unusual Buick wagon. It’s a black 1958 LIMITED 4-door hardtop wagon. Yes, a Limited wagon. Seems they made just one, because when you have the financial ability as well as the political clout, and you tell GM that’s what you want, they built it! On checking the firewall body info tag, where the body style number would be, the space is blank. Where the production number for that body style would be located, that number is 1. Yep, #1 of 1. And of course it’s loaded with all the options including A/C. Like most of the other cars in the collection, it’s done only a few thousand kilometers since new.
Wow, that must be an imposing sight. Thanks for sharing.
MCG,
A few rows over in the same collection [not open to the public] is another crazy ‘long roof’. It’s a 1968 Chrysler Town & Country, gold in color without wood trim. It was built by Chrysler using a Dodge 4X4 chassis and running gear, 440 V8 & Torqueflite. Also equipped with 16″ rims. I’m pretty sure it also has dual A/C, but would need to dig out my photos to make sure.
Now here’s where it get a bit crazy; the roof section behind the front seat & all the way to the back, is actually a horizontal metal roll-up door, much like we see in roll-up storage unit doors, just horizontal and operated hydraulically. The door rolled up into a large drum just behind the front seat area.
There was no ‘normal’ back seat. instead, there was a set of what look like deep seat sport fishing captain chairs, the kinds often seen on charter boats for Marlin fishing, and had 4-point seat belts. I was told these 2 chairs could be raised and lowered hydraulically, rising well above the overall height of the body.
This special station wagon was intended for use in tiger hunting expeditions!
I’m always intrigued by “non-Body by Fisher” cars such as these, and appreciate how you and others have chronicled the practically unknown history of Ionia Body Company.
In fact, I discovered this site through a Google search I did to learn more about Ionia Body.
You probably already found our Ionia body story, but just in case or for anyone else interested: https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/video-the-ionia-body-story/
GM would sometimes use outside suppliers for things it could do itself. Maybe it was their way of keeping abreast of the industry and having an independent source on unit costs, etc.
I also believe that third-party suppliers were sometimes used by all of the big three (and possibly even AMC) to produce relatively low-volume models, body styles, or even trim levels. This is probably because changing over to a completely different task for just a few units every so often would interrupt the cadence of a high-speed production line.
And even though quality back then was nowhere nearly as much of a focus as it is now, my education and experience in Six Sigma process improvement has shown me that higher quality results when there is less variation in worker tasks. So that may also have something to do with that decision.