1953 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon

The 1953 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon was the best of two wagons Buick had on offer that year.

It’s not often you’ll see one of these nowadays. Station wagons tended to get a lot more abuse, leading to an earlier demise, and Buick made less than 700 Roadmaster wagons for ’53. It’s likely there are just 20 to 25 left in existence.

The Roadmaster was easy to spot as they had four Ventiports (portholes) on each side whereas the other models had three.

rear view

The ‘tooth’ grille is very distinctive and you can spot a fifties Buick a mile away.

Buick’s distinctive ‘tooth’ grille

Power windows, power steering and leather interiors were standard on the Roadmaster. This

interior

Inside, there is plenty of cargo space – over 6 feet with the seat down.

plenty of cargo space

Power comes from a 322 cubic inch (5.3L) V8 engine which had just been introduced by Buick for the 1953 model year. The Roadmaster got the more powerful of two versions with 188 horsepower and came with a Twin-Turbine Dynaflow Drive automatic transmission as standard.

322 cubic inch V8 Buick engine new for 1953
322 cubic inch V8 new for ’53

Previously all their cars had been powered by an inline 8 cylinder engine.

It was Buick’s 50th anniversary that year and in addition to new V8 engines their cars were now using 12 volt electrics (although the Special models were destined for 6 volts for one more year).

Buick sold just 670 Roadmaster Estate Wagons during the 1953 model year. The base price was $4,031 and was the most expensive Roadmaster that year. Overall it was a great year for Buick with model production up over 61% from 1952.

This ’53 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon is currently for sale on eBay. (follow the link for more photos)

Leave a Comment