When General Motors produced the 1987 Buick Grand National, they made the decision to hang on to the first and second vehicles made in production. The 1987 Buick GNX with the #001 callout lives amongst the Heritage Collection at the GM Heritage Center in Michigan, while Grand National #002 is at the Buick/Sloan Museum in Flint, MI; neither one of these vehicles have any real miles on them, and they were never available for retail sales. So this leaves the vehicle with the #003 callout as the first 1987 Buick GNX produced that was sold to the public, and it’s heading to the Barrett-Jackson auction block this month.
While it’s technically the only of the first three to be sold, Buick held onto it for over a year after it was made. They lent this car out to almost every magazine around at the time for testing, reviews, and promotional reasons. After serving as a magazine test car, this 1987 Buick GNX stayed in Flint and was serviced by Buick.
It finally went up for sale for the first time as a brass hat/company official car to Fischer Buick in Troy, MI in 1988 when it had only 8,200 miles on it. From there, a local purchased the GNX in August of 1988, and he turned around and sold it pretty soon thereafter in the spring of 1989.
Completely original and undamaged, the car ended up sitting in slumber from 1992, for 20 plus years. The car survived the long parking period but did need a complete mechanical tune-up, and extensive cosmetic attention to get it back to its original condition when it was in its heyday as a featured magazine car. After all these years, the third GNX ever made still only has 10,790 miles on the clock.
Barrett-Jackson Features:
- Lot Number: 1327
- VIN: 1G4GJ1175HP439268
- Exterior Color: Black
- Interior Color: Gray/Black
- Cylinders: 6
- Engine: 3.8L
- Transmission: 4-Speed Automatic
Shawn Henry is a Texas native who has spent the majority of his career building and selling F-Bodies and Corvettes. Now studying journalism, he is taking a new direction with his love of GM Performance vehicles.
