What was the Buick version of the Nova called?
The Buick version of the Nova did not exist. There was no Buick-branded badge-engineered Nova for the U.S. market.
The Chevrolet Nova began life as the Chevy II in the early 1960s, built as a compact car. General Motors’ practice of platform sharing produced cross-brand cousins, but Buick never produced a direct Nova model. Buick’s own small-car lineup from that era used different names, such as the Buick Special and Skylark, which were not direct Nova equivalents. The closest GM cousins to the Nova came from other divisions—Oldsmobile offered models like the F‑85 and the Omega, and Pontiac offered the Tempest (and later LeMans in the same family) sharing components with Chevrolet’s compact, but Buick did not badge the Nova itself.
GM badge engineering in the 1960s
In the 1960s, GM frequently shared platforms across divisions and marketed similar cars under different brand names. While some cousins to Chevrolet’s small-car family appeared in Oldsmobile and Pontiac lines, Buick did not adopt the Nova name or create a direct Buick version of the Nova. The result was a lineup in which Buick’s offerings remained distinct in branding, even as they shared underlying engineering with Chevrolet’s compact and mid-size vehicles.
Summary
There was no Buick counterpart to the Nova. Buick did not produce a direct Nova badge or model; the brand’s compact offerings carried their own names, and the closest cross-brand relatives to the Nova came from Oldsmobile and Pontiac, not Buick.
