Buick Century & Collectable Buick Century Hub Caps

If you had no idea - like me - the Buick Century & the Buick Hub Caps are manufactured by the Buick division of General Motors for a specific line of full - size performance cars that were ranged from 1936 to 1942 & from 1954 to 1958; and then it was manufactured from 1973 to 2005 as a mid-size car.

The name “Century” came at the same time Buick was planning its first production car that was competent enough to reach a speed of 100 MPH. If you were to ask me, I’d say they shouldn’t even make cars go this fast because for one reason, you can get a pretty big speeding ticket. Secondly, the Century Wheels Covers will come off. Anyway - after this, they needed to come up with an actual name for the car.

There was a Buick executive that had just returned from the British isles & then said that when British people would hit 100 MPH whenever they drive, it’s known as “Doing the century”. The other executives liked the name for the car - so it stuck. The car was eventually sold in Japan as the Buick Regal because Toyota had originally owned the right to the name “Century”.

When it was first released in 1936, Buick renamed the whole model lineup for the model year so they can celebrate the improvements they had in engineering & the design advancements over the models that were released for the 1935 year. Their Series 40 model range eventually became the “Special”, the Series 80 became known as the “Roadmaster”, and the Series 90 became the “Limited”. The Century & Factory Original Century Hubcaps took the place of the Series 60.

The 1936 through 1942 Century had the shorter wheelbase from other Buick Special bodies; it even had Buick’s fabulous Century Hub Caps and the powerful eight-cylinder engine. It even had Buick’s 320 cu in in-line-8 at 165 horse power. This made them the fastest Buick of the generation and made them capable of going up to speeds of 95 MPH. It even got a nickname! It was then known as “The Banker’s Hot Rod”. It ended up being discontinued at the end of the 1942 model year; this was a time where the total model production only accounted for maybe an approximate 10% of Buick’s total output.

We’re gonna jump to the 1997-2005 models, okay? When it was released in 2007 the model & the Century Wheel Covers were redesigned for the last time. Since the original station wagon wasn’t selling as well as it did when it first came out, they decided to just offer it as a four-door sedan with OEM Century Hub Caps on it. It still had a front-wheel drive V6-powered arrangement though, so they didn’t change everything. It rejoined its Regal sibling by moving back to the W-body platform. For this generation, I guess you can say that the Century & Regal were almost the exact same car; the only major differences were the engines each of them had, the trim, & the Century Wheel Covers on the Buick. Because the Century cost less than the Regal, it had had less power & was “plainer” compared to the Regal - it only had a 3.1 L V6 engine.