G8, meet your first cousin, Fiero. Maybe the family won’t leave you for dead like they did your cousin. Buick could use you, but you’d have to change your legal name to Grand National, or possibly even Regal, and you’d have to undergo some cosmetic surgery, but inside you’d still be G8. After all, a G8 by any other name is still a Pontiac.

grand national would be pretty sick, if the performance styling remains intact, but it must look like a buick.
Impala SS is the one i see to be most reasonable

New Impalla SS would be nice. The current Impalla leaves me cold.
Buick Grand National would also be cool.
Or it could be the new Geo Metro SS

A Commodore by anyother name is still a Holden.

A stretched version of this car is already sold in China as the Buick Park Avenue. That’s probably the car that is being considered.

I’m not going to hold my breath! In any event, the horrible associations with Buick (think black knee socks with Bermuda or seersucker shorts, white shoes and a strawboater hat) will doom a Buick-badged G8
to lackluster sales….

bigs4610 – did you mean slick instead of sick? Buick Grand National would be sweet. If Buick is going to be a core brand, put something in its lineup that will get younger buyers in the door. Nothing would do that better than a new Grand National. Just forget Regal.

Buick GSX or Impala SS

@gta89mike
i meant sick…
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sick

I agree with you. YOUNGER buyers is what GM should cater to now

Grand National FTW

Hmmm. A grand National would be pretty cool for Buick. There’s a GNX on my street, and the thing is amazing. They shipped with a Garrett Turbo, a latter bar, and more badass than you’d ever need.

Make a Grand National out of the G8, and make the top top top performance model called the GNX. Available in any color you like, as long as it’s black.

*thats “ladder bar”, not “latter”

Your Comment

^^ my bad. i meant to say that i hope the styling doesnt get messed up.

Bob Lutz probably is screaming at the top of his lungs at those in charge now to keep this product. I wouldn’t be suprised with whatever power he has left he’s going to use it to keep this around in some way. He did get this car here to begin with, along with the defunct GTO.

Thanks Lutz, he’s probably the most sane guy in a room full of nut jobs.

Gotta be a Buick. Due to $ cost today GM needs to charge a bit more for whatever vehicle is brought over from Holden. Chevy, like Toyota, marque cannot easily sell a $35,000 CAR.

Seems a bit much for a Park Avenue but a Regal or Grand National moniker would fit it perfectly.

For those who STILL think Buick is an old mans car please, please, please look at the actual data. The Enclave has shown the right product will quickly drop the age of the buyers. The new LaCrosse will drop it even further. Yes, back in 2005 the average Buick buyer was 68 but it has dropped to 55 today. And with Buick now the most reliable brand in the US it will bring in new buyers.

“On the foreign-manufacturer front, an interesting auto rivalry also had interesting statistics: The average age of Toyota shoppers was 46.6 years old, while the average age for Honda shoppers was 51.2.

And while Buick is typically the butt of jokes about buyers who are somewhere between retired and deceased, the average age of a Buick shopper last year was 55.2 years old, considerably younger than the average 63.6-year-old Mercedes-Benz shopper. ”

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

They need to sell a low budget stripped version as a Chevy but offer it with an LS V8 for under $30K. I think it would be a great Impala SS- after the god awful front drive 5.3L one muddled up the SS image. The Buick version would probably be too expensive, and if the car was upwards of $40K then why wouldn’t you just get a CTS-V for a bit more.

@hummah
agreed. not everyone wants/needs heated seats, dual zone climate controls, radio controls on the steering wheel, in their SS impala.
give me cloth seats, a manual gearbox mated to an LS V8 and send me on my way to oblivion

@hummah

I can tell you why someone would get a GNX or Regal over a CTS: 5.7L V8. Also, Buick’s style is at the polar opposite of Cadillac, and to my eyes I like it better. I love the look of the new Buicks. I know many younger families driving Rendevouz and Enclaves.

While I agree with all the enthusiasts that Pontiac is the brand that should have been kept, it’s not what the dealers wanted. Why? Because Buick buyers are less inclined to do their own service work and tend to bring their cars back to the dealer for maintenance, which is where the dealer really makes money. I’m sure GM would have preferred to keep Pontiac from an image standpoint, but you’ve gotta keep your dealers happy.

2008 Liquid Red G8 GT

bigs4610 -

Why not have it all? It’s not like that stuff costs them that much more to build. Plus, whatever they ship over is going to be loaded to make up for some of the transport costs.

This vehicle would make a lot of sense as the new Impala.

I can see it being dressed up, weighed down, and called a Park Avenue.

However, I’d much prefer if they stuck a couple little luxury goodies in it, and call it a Grand Sport, make the GXP a GSX.

They might call it a Grand National, because of the great reputation they had for power, but might avoid that for the exact same reason, since it would go against Buick’s normal image. Performance rarely evokes images of reliability.

Its one of the few decent product that GM offered. Keep it under either brand will still bee good for the brand.

If GM added the G8 to Buick’s lineup it would be the only reason I’d even consider buying a Buick.
Besides Buick needs more models… definitely like the sound of a new Buick Grand National!
While your at it GM bring over the Solstice and call it the Wiildcat, the G6 as the Skylark and the Vibe as the Reatta.

Pontiac definitely should have been the one to survive!

With the demise of the Pontiac brand, I quickly associated the car as the next generation Impala SS. If this car is resurrected through the Impala name plate, it could possibly save GM and have a viable successor to the the 94-98 Impala SS. This thing had high quality and a very rich interior, in which GM is in desperately in need of. Can’t really see this car as a Buick. But i guess if its renamed a GSX or Grand National it would be pretty badass, kind of like what Dodge did with the current Charger.

Oldsmobile Rocket 88

I think it is all just speculations. As much as I like G8, I doubt it will survive in the new company. It is against political agenda, it is not a volume car to make economic sense. Even Mustang would have a better chance since it was always above 100K units model, not so G8. It could survive as a Caddy, but then it would be bastardized to a point of being unsalable.

I’m not sure my 81 year-old grandfather would buy a Buick Grand National. Buick has too much of an old person’s reputation to just throw a great car like the G8 into the mix. Also, I wonder if GM is making the mistake of looking at recent numbers? I know a lot of sales have been by dealerships giving heavy discounts rather than demand. Great car though.

Your exactly right LLN. They do have a knack for killing cars that seem to have potential. They would be crazy to kill this car off. It’s exactly what they need right now. It could become a GN, but I am against two door cars of the past becoming four door cars. It should not be re-named a GN, just like the current Charger should have not been a four door. Pure blasphemy. I’m a purist when it comes to cars. What can I say?

The only thing wrong with an Impala or Grand National – it needs 2 doors. A 4-door Grand National?? No thanks. Make this a two door black Grand National and we have something.

strongbad, can you explain why having 2 or 4 doors makes ANY difference in the world (apart from the fact that you probably don’t have kids)?

Buick is a snoozefest, i dont even think id buy a rebadged Buick G8, and id certainly buy a pontiac version.

I don’t think the number of doors makes any difference either. The G-Body from the 70’s was a shared GM platform anyway. The only thing they really should do if a Grand National is indeed made is to engineer the stoutest V6 turbo they can. That style of engine, for a Grand National, is prerequisite.

I don’t care what you call it, although it would prefer Pontiac to stick around.
Just make sure you:

1) Keep it a 4 door
2) Keep the price under $35k
3) Offer a stick in the cheaper version
4) Bring the wagon and UTE…

They already have a turbo 6 they can work with in the new SRX… so we’ll see

There are plenty of performance 2 doors out there – Mustang, Camaro, etc – almost nothing in a 4-door that is affordable…

Sklylark… LOL

Rebadge it as the GMC Caballero and FINALLY bring over the el Camino-like pickup version!

Funny story – DenverGuy217 – I heard from credible sources they actually thought about the ute being a GMC.

i’d rather see the g8 go to chevy…i grew up associating buick with boring, with the grand national being the oddball exception to the rule…

at the end of the day tho the question is whether the g8 is profitable, not whether it’s a good car or not…i don’t care if enthusiasts love it, and love talking about it, enthusiasts also have to love buying them for it to make sense to keep the g8 around in some form…if nobody’s buying, and it’s not making money, it’s gotta go…sales may be up recently, but do those sales support maintaining production?

if i had the cash, and was in the market for that style of car, the g8 would be near the top of the list for me, for sure…but the enthusiast niche isn’t necessarily the most profitable, which should be the #1 concern for a bankrupt company…

Regarding the re-badging of the G8 as a Pontiac or Buick, consider your perspective.

Folks – if you’re a regular reader/poster to this site, you’re a petrolhead – no two ways about it. Soooooo, obviously you are not Buick’s target demo – but they want you to be. As the not-so-proud inheritor of my grandfather’s 1984 Buick Regal after coming home from college, I would have given my right nut for the last initials on the back nameplate to be “GNX”. Alas, I got the crap V6 in a root-beer-barrel brown metallic and “landau top”. Boy, do those memories run deep. Those that live by the brand, die by the brand. And I ain’t one of them. And since from what I can gather of the posters on this site, not too many are under 30. So the majority of us have a brand association that is clearly generational, and not performance-oriented.

I actually think they are doing right by keeping Buick – it has the best brand prospects for the future in the GM stable. The brand has lacked a clear identity for many years, and that may not be a bad thing. The Tiger Woods association – while it didn’t relaunch the brand – will resonate on in years to come. In 20 years, today’s teens will just be starting to make some real money and will look at the entry-level and mid- luxury slots, and I think Buick will be there to have something to offer.

Perfect replacement for the Impala
Right time
Right product
Done.
Next
DrFill

Wow, lots of talk about changing it to the Impala or Grand National.

Personally I think they should take the platform it rides on now, put Buick esque sheet metal on it (meaning totally different, similar to the Lacrosse) and make it a slightly larger, RWD option of the Lacrosse. Start around $38k to compete with Lexus, Infiniti, MB and the likes, offer a smaller 6 and a small 8 cylinder and give Cadillac the more performance oriented engines and slightly larger, more upscale car?

I like the idea of letting the Malibu handle the bulk of the family-car duties (as the Fusion does for Ford) and rebranding the G8 as an Impala for Chevy.. that would allow the Ute to take its rightful place as the El Camino!

Are they talking about a quick rebadge or a different body style? Wasn’t Cadillac working on a version of this platform for the now reportedly defunct DT7? People that had seen the design said it was eye-popping gorgeous, just what Caddy needs. As most here know, Cadillac’s flagship is now unfortunately planned to be front or all-wheel-drive. Could the DT7 model be back on? If only one brand gets to make use of the platform, I would hope it goes to Cadillac. If they’re talking about a quick rebadge, then I think a Chevy Impala SS line makes the most sense because of distribution potential and heritage. Buick is doing just fine with its front-wheel-drive based renaissance. And personally, I’d rather see some form of Syclone successor.

This similar yet slightly more complete article(http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/92131BE209B95C66CA2575D00000ADC5) hints that Holden has made a case to Cadillac for both short and long-wheelbase versions of the Commodore. And mentions enthusiasts’ desire for an Impala SS version. Nice.

This is a GNX or true Impala SS waiting to happen.

Payton Byrd: Fiero? ick!

MercMark: “The current Impalla leaves me cold.” me too. It’s an atrocity. FWD!?!

jandrews90: “A Commodore by anyother name is still a Holden.” true, but it’s still a great rig!

howsmydriving: “black knee socks with Bermuda or seersucker shorts, white shoes and a strawboater hat.” I had that image, too.

gta89mike: “bigs4610 – did you mean slick instead of sick?” No, the kids talk that way now. “Sick” means what “bad” used to mean.

scottns: GSX might be a better name than GNX.

shane train: My stepfather had a GNX, but at the time I didn’t appreciate it … it was a Buick.

carstuff: I have an Enclave, and I’m still a young bull.

hummah: “They need to sell a low budget stripped version as a Chevy.” uh, no. They need to discontinue everything but the GXP and call it GNX or GSX.

tsan104: “GM bring over the Solstice and call it the Wiildcat, the G6 as the Skylark and the Vibe as the Reatta.” No, how about the Solstice as the regal, and letting the G6 and Vibe die?

NRG: I agree that the Charger should have not been a four door, but I understand why it was done.

S2L2SC: “Bring the wagon and UTE…” yes!

HavanaRob: I bought my Buick despite, not because of, the Tiger Woods association.

jayjc08: compete with L—s? Don’t make me laugh!