Ugh. Why Buick over Pontiac? GM is so F***ed up with there brand choices. You think you can sell a 20 something a Buick Astra? Just shut off the brand now and save us all the headache of reading articles in 2015 saying what I’ve warned them about. European models would be welcomed by Pontiac or as Opels, but not as Buicks.

Should have done that from the start.

Somebody needs to glue those ****ing badges down. Give me the original god damned car.

Buick is a stronger name for a more mature car.

“Additionally, GM is mulling a version of the Chinese-spec Buick Regal for the U.S. market.”

FINALLY. It’s about time somebody at GM started listening. These cars should have come here first to begin with. The Chinese Regal, the 2010 Lacrosse & The Enclave make a great lineup. Drop the Lucerne.

More inane car-swapping. Can we just cut our losses and move on? If GM didn’t have 200 brands we wouldn’t be having this insane identity crisis.

BUick needs to stop cheapning the brand.

It should go against Lexus as its competitor.

Cadillac can go after BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar

Its 1970 again.

What’s wrong with the OPEL brand name? We had Buick-Opel dealers 40 years ago. They sold Kadetts alongside Roadmasters. It actually worked fine. Better than trying to push a Buick Kadett.

I hate to see any GM brand go, but if they must, I would rather it be Pontiac before Buick. The “New Buick” will fit right into the entry-level luxury segment which is pretty popular these days, especially given that Cadillac has plans to become even more upscale. The new Camaro will pick up where Pontiac left off.

I still don’t see why they keep hanging on to Buick like a child afraid to let go of its blanket. Why the hell do you need something ‘in between’ a Chevy and a Cadillac? Just because Ford still has Mercury doesn’t make the concept any less ridiculous. Toyota doesn’t have anything ‘in between’ themselves and Lexus. Nissan doesn’t have anything ‘in between’ them and Infiniti, and the same goes for Honda and Acura. Are you trying to tell me a loaded Chinese Regal is going to be that much nicer than say a loaded Malibu? Bullsh*t. In case anyone hasn’t noticed there are a grand total of 5 Cadillac models by my count and two, the STS and DTS, might as well be the same car. How many models does BMW have? Audi? Mercedes, and so on. I say f*ck Buick and expand Cadillac to the point where it really is a competitor to the Europeans. And as for Opel, just how handy is that to already have a European division at your beckon call?

STS and DTS same car??? RWD and FWD. DTS huge STS smaller.

Here’s an idear…
Let Opel sell Opel’s in lieu of Saturn?
Idk this whole rebadging thing is getting a tad old. just my opinion

Too bad they wouldn’t just go back to using the Opel by Buick tagline for these cars. Opel still has some good German import cache’ in the market and might be able to handle the higher prices associated with the cars than Saturn could.. Last thing we need is for them to put the junk Pontiac split grille on the front so we’d have even more Pontiacs on the road that all look the exact same thing from the front.

Just sell Opels as Opels. Make life easier.

gm doesnt get it….nothing will sell if you call it a buick!!!! whats wrong with them!

In all honesty, that Buick badge kills it for me and every other younger consumer. If they put the Opel badge on it alot of people would think it was some hip new company like Scion and sales would improve drastically. Let Saturn go. Bring the Opel badge over. Market under it the Antara (Vue), GT (Sky), Astra… (Astra), and Insignia (Aura). Perfect bing bang boom with a little kick at the end.

This is a bad decision!!!

BuyUSA wrote … The Chinese Regal, … make a great lineup. …

I take it that you have never seen or visited GM-China’s website and checked-out the Chinese Regal. A car that large with an engine that small and styling that bland will not sell particularly well in the North American market.

This whole notion sounds like one of those stories that cause GM executives to waste entirely too much of their time denying.

I think its a good idea for gm. Thats just like saying just sell lexus as toyota and dont rename the badge because thats what they do. The Lexus in america is just a toyota in Japan. Just travel there and see!!!

I am in total disagreement with this. The Insignia should come to the US as a Pontiac, mainly a Grand Am. Especially since it will have a higher horsepower model. Ummm, Pontiac is the sporty division, I say that loosely at this point. GM, make Pontiac sporty again!! Get rid of Buick, well at least in America. Again, look at the websites for each of the divisions, Buick has 3 models on it, Pontiac has 7 models. Come on, lets get the show on the road and get rid of Buick.

as much as i like the pontiac brand…theyve lost their way…if they stuck with rear wheel drive…and made better quality cars they would be better off but pontiac just dont have the sales they use to…buick still sells like hot cakes compared to pontiac…infact buick is huge in china…so i can understand why they are keeping buick…buick makes one of the best v6’s…they are good quality cars…and the new buicks actually look good…ppl just need to stop thinking buick as old ppl right off the bat…remember ppl back in the 80’s…well those who are old enough to remember…the turbo regals and grand nationals…thats what they need to bring back…but back to my point…considering our govnt is getting there hands in everything right now even stuff they shouldnt be…forcing gm to make descions they normally wouldnt do…i c why they are keeping buick…

I would like to know how China Buick is marketing both the new LaCrosse we are sharing and the new Regal which China is sharing with Opel. Slight difference in size but same architecture. Perhaps it is like the Century vs. Regal we had here. One lower end and more mundane, the other higher and more premium/sporty.

Worked here for many years. Budget buyers bought the Century and younger bought the Regal.

I would buy a saturn,
i would not buy a buick. I’m simply not 112 years old.
Lets hope they make an opel conversion kit.

datboy: Get your facts straight…

Lexus is sold as LEXUS in Japan…

http://lexus.jp/

There is no way I’m buying a badge owned by 100 year old farts…

well at this point in time, GM is going to do nothing right by your standards, so you arm chair CEOs just need to relax. The new Lacrosse doesnt drive like a Buick from the 90’s and the Insignia doesnt either. So unless the ride/drive preferences of “100″ year olds’ has changed recently, i dont think they will like it. they might prefer a Lexus.

If GM wants Buick to succeed it should sell Vauxhalls as Buicks. Not Opels.

Here is idea: sell the whole damned company to Chinese. Let then sort out all union squabbles. Let see how two criminal enterprises can mash together.

I see more Purple Heart plates on Avalons and Lexus’. Sorry guys, Lexus and the Toyota Avalon are the new Buicks.

Richard, yes I have seen the Chinese Buick website in the past and remember seeing a facelifted version of the old US Regal with a smaller, weak V-6….but apparently they have a brand new Regal for China in 2009 as this video shows…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTT-G8eKXQ8

I’m guessing this is based off an Opel platform. All Buick needs to do is stuff the base 2010 Lacrosse engine in this car for the US market and it should generate some postive attention.

bauer100, well said.

LOL @ mayer_ray_nagin – that was pretty good. I wonder if anyone esle get’s it?

Nice to see more people are on board with what I’ve said for years now, just bring over Opels as Opels. I thought they should have turned Saturn’s name to Opel years ago, but again, no one listened then, no one there will listen now.

For everyone saying you should just sell them as Opels the whole point is to get the brand numbers down here, not keep them the same or increase them. I’ll wait to see WHAT KIND of Opels they bring over as Buicks if they decide that. I don’t see an small Opel like the Astra competing as a Buick here. I would think they would bring over mid to large Opels instead.

…. Why don’t they consider NOT bringing Opels over here?

Just an idea…

BUYUSA that Regal is the Opel Insignia. The engine choices in China are usually smaller due to taxes on the powertrain. If that vehicle comes here hopefully it will come with the 2.8 turbo discussed on LLN recently.

This China Regal/Opel insignia is on the new Epsilon II architecture which the new Buick LaCrosse is also based on. China will also sell the same LaCrosse.

There really are not that many choices from Opel that would work here. The Tigra may be a cute small car that could compete against other cute vehicles like the mini.

http://www.opel.de/shop/cars/tigra/index.act

The GT of course but that is just the Saturn Sky

There is also the Antara/Vue used over there and the GMC/Buick dealerships could use a compact CUV.

Oh, so the Chinese Regal and 2010 Lacrosse are on the same Opel Insignia platform? If that’s the case, then maybe the new Regal and Lacrosse could be kinda like how the Century/Regal used to be here, same body just different engine/trim packages/front fascia, etc.

this should be PONTIAC goddamnit not buick

USA, they are completely different appearing vehicles. They share no body or interior parts. But yes that could work.

mayer_ray_nagin, i hope that was a joke. Vauxhalls and Opel’s are the same car.

Buick = FWD
Pontiac = RWD (or should be if they want to turn it into a niche performance brand)

Other than the Sky/Opel GT (which are both based on the Pontiac Solstice) everything Opel has is FWD as far as I know.

Opel and Vauxhaul are pretty much the same cars with different bodywork…

if they bring over the Opel’s and sell them as opels the US G’ment is going to complain about too many brands – and since Gm is essentially G’ment owned at this point…

Both Buick and Pontiac are pretty much tainted brands in the US as is Saturn. GM might be able to bring over European built Opels like the Insignia as a premium brand. The smaller models like the Astra might not be feasible as the build costs in Europe make the price too high here. Just don’t poison them by painting them with the stink of the domestic brands.

Good. This makes so much more sense than selling them as Saturns. Saturn is a bargain brand, and could never ask the same premium Buick could.

@oldraven: Saturn still appeals to some people under 50. Buick does not.

TomF, that’s easily remedied with product that appeals to people under 50. And I’m not even 30, yet I want an Enclave in a bad way. Cadillac transformed their target market in less than a decade. Buick can do the same with the right product.

Sadly, I think that GM is most interested in a divison to fit the near-luxury niche. My guess is that they fear they would alienate more customers by folding Buick priced products into Pontiac or Saturn than brining more entry level products into Buick. I can see the logic, I’m just undecided if it’s the best route to take.

I’ll say this, as long as they don’t make the Opels DRIVE like traditional Buicks, I don’t have a real problem with using the Buick name. The minute they put geriatric suspension in something like an Astra or Insignia… they can kill their Opel outlet in America goodbye.

TomF, where do you get your data? Buicks average age is 55. (Honda is 51) They must sell a lot of vehicles to 50-54 year olds to balance all those above. The Enclave has made the average age plummet. Build it and they will come.

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/01/down-economy-mo.html

I do not see a bunch of Opels coming over as Buicks. I would look for Chinese Buick models to be sold here, BUT they would be made in NA.

Excellant article, carstuff. Just goes to show you again that the average person on here is biased toward a certain brand and will babble anything to degrade another brand.

I can’t help but laugh every time I hear one of the kids on this site say Buick is for old farts. If they truly were car enthusiasts, they would do a little research into the brand and its history. Years ago, Toyota yearned to be the sought after entry luxury car maker that was Buick. They even stated publicly that they wanted to be the Japanese Buick. So, in setting out to do so, they created the Lexus brand. Since Toyotas were mostly sold to parents for high school kids or to elderly folks on a fixed budget, they had to make their effort under a new brand name. Riding the “Me, Me” wave of the Reaganomics era, they were able to brainwash Americans into brand effigy by doing exactly what Hyundai is doing now. Get a glamorous car at a bargain price. Essentially what Buick had done for years, only at that time, there were very few foriegn cars sold in the US market. Unfortunately, GM let the Buick brand languish, in an effort to spend its money trying to recapture the glory of their luxury brand Cadillac. Throw in a little thing called the UAW and boom, there goes all your money to keep up with the Japanese brands reinvesting all their sales into better quality cars. The sad thing is that Buick suffered in all of this, and while they were down, the Japanese continued their brainwashing to make their “old farts car” perception even greater. As is witnessed in this article and every one that mention’s the Buick name, there are still young minds that are so brainwashed, that they can not see clearly the reinvestment GM is finally putting into the brand. The Chinese love them, because they are the embodiment of American luxury, and now the folks at Lexus are concerned, because the investment is paying off. More and more of these articles about current Buick vehicles are attracting intelligent, mature enthusiasts that recognize their value. The accolades are more prevalent than the unfounded, off the cuff slants of young posters who are too blind to see the importance of this brand to this entire market segment and would rather sound defiant than embrace the wave of success for Buick. Be proud to be American and let your minds free, think of Buick as your new Lexus. We old farts will quietly sit back and enjoy the renaissance.

InvictaMan – Well said. I couldn’t agree with you more.

Years ago, Buick made youthful cars just like all the other divisions. Skyhawk, Skylark GS, Apollo SX, Wildcat, Regal GNX…. tons of young men and women purchased Regals in the 70’s and 80’s.

If a stylish, desirable car was offered by Buick… do you really think that many people would say BUICK! I’m not buying that! I don’t care how cool it is!!! NO… they would check it out.

Just like if they made the Camaro look like like a refrigerator, how many people would say I don’t care if it looks like a refrigerator… it says Camaro… I must have one.