Car Spotlight- Buick Somerset (1985-1987)

A 1985 Buick Somerset, in all it's 80s glory.
photo credit- wikiwand

The Buick Skylark, a nameplate that has been a staple at Buick since 1953.  The Skylark was a common choice for the white collar working man and his family.  Like any other Buick, it also appealed to the average granny than needed it to get to and from church and the laxative store.  The Skylark sold well for Buick for several years.

...then came the 1980s...

In 1980, Buick applied the Skylark nameplate to an upscale version of Chevy's infamous Citation (more on that here).  To make a long story short, the Citation based Skylark left a bitter taste on many loyal Buick customer's tongue.  So when it came time to redesign the Skylark for 1985, someone at Buick felt it was time to phase out the Skylark nameplate with the outgoing model in a typical GM move to seem "fresh."

The name of the Skylark's replacement was called the Somerset Regal...okay, for those of you who aren't Buick historians, there is nothing "fresh" about that name, as Buick had another car called the Regal.  In fact just a few years prior to the Somerset Regal's debut, there was a trim package for the Regal called the "Somerset"...

Anyway, the Somerset Regal debuted for the 1985 model year and came in a two-door configuration only as well as a choice of two engines. The Somerset Regal shared it's platform with Oldsmobile's Calais and Pontiac's Grand Am (collectively called the GM N-cars)

The only thing that made the Somerset Regal stand out from it's Pontiac and Oldsmobile in-laws was the placement of the radio, which was mounted in a separate pod that sat on top of the AC/heater controls.  It looked as if Buick forgot all about it when they were designing the dashboard, and some engineer was all like "Aw crap! we forgot the radio! Uhh... lets throw it in right here!"

This is a factory-installed radio in a 1986 Buick Somerset.
Have fun trying to figure out how to swap in an aftermarket one!
Source-curbside classics.com

After the Somerset Regal's first year on the market, GM added four-door models to it's N-car lineup.  This may seem like a good idea, as the 1985 sales figures for the Somerset Regal were less than what GM was expecting.  So one would think that a 4-door Somerset Regal would help give the nameplate some more recognition...right?  Here's the thing...when the 4-door debuted in 1986, Buick didn't call it the Somerset Regal....they called it the Skylark!  That's right, Buick not only gave a 4-door version of a car that already exists a completely different name, but they named it after a car that Buick phased out two years before.  In a half-assed attempt to prevent confusion among buyers, Buick changed the name of the two door model from the Somerset Regal....to just simply "Somerset."

From here, Buick's game plan for marketing the Skylark and Somerset was that the Skylark would be marketed toward old people who tend to carpool to bingo night.  The Somerset was marketed as a more upscale "personal coupe," being marketed toward wealthy old people wanting to drive to the pharmacy to pick up their laxatives in style.  

Here's why this didn't work (for the Somerset, at least).

1. The 2.5L 4-banger engine (aka the "Iron Duke") was considered too underpowered and noisy for an "upscale car." A 3.0L V6 could be had as an option, but nobody bothered to look into that.
2. The digital instrument cluster that was stuffed into the Somerset was notorious for draining alternators (probably another thing Buick forgot about when developing the car.)
3. Rich old people typically don't spend their money on small GM cars, regardless of how "fancy" it may be. 
4. The Skylark was cheaper, since it didn't have all that luxury crap that made the Somerset more expensive.
5. It's a GM car from the 1980s...so don't anticipate any high expectations from the fit and finish department.

There may have been more reasons, but the point is that Buick dropped the Somerset name after the 1987 model year and renamed the car the "Skylark coupe"...which is what GM should have done in the first place.  

A 1988 Buick Skylark coupe...see the difference compared
to the Somerset?  I don't either
source: Orlandod87 on CarDomain

To basically sum it up, Buick may have wanted to replace the Skylark, but were hesitant to do so.  So they brought out the Somerset in two door form only as a way to "test the waters" if buyers would warm up to the new nameplate...which they didn't, so Buick phased-in the Skylark nameplate and brushed "Somerset" under the rug only three years after being introduced.  I'm sure the car would have done just fine if GM would've just kept the Skylark name to begin with, and I think GM probably knew that, too.  

...Oh, one last thing.  I found this Buick Somerset commercial on YouTube...I can name several cars that I would rather have than a Somerset.