Buick Concepts - 1983 Questor
The year was 1983 - Return of the Jedi was at the top of the box office and Saturday Night Live was…well…not as funny as it was in 1975. It was a time for car makers to experiment with both the look and operational ease of their automobiles. Buick took initiative with their Questor Concept - a fiberglass vehicle containing 14 micro-computers, a laser key entry device a “systems sentinel” for monitoring vehicle systems and heads-up display speedometer gauges with a map and navigation screen.
A computerized navigational system in 1983? That’s right - Buick (specifically GM) was one of the first American automotive companies to play with in-dash maps and GPS. What other 21st Century ideas did this little Questor have in mind? Several: including a back-up camera, anti-theft, road traction monitoring, television rear-view mirror and touch-command entertainment systems. One piece of equipment which did not remain in Buick’s technological arsenal - the cassette deck.
Buick’s Questor remained very popular with automotive press outlets, and was a gem at Flint, MI’s AutoWorld amusement center. It’s fascinating to see where many of the standard control and navigational systems we see in automobiles today had their first exposure to the public.
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