Buick Bringing Back The Red, White And Blue – From China?

Ronnie Schreiber
by Ronnie Schreiber

According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, GM North America President Mark Reuss has suggested that Buick might be revising its “tri-shield” logo, which dates to the 1950s. The current all chrome version has been in use for the past decade or so.

The current Buick logo/badge, in use since 2002

Buick has been using a shield in its logo since the 1930s. The tri-shield was introduced in the late 1950s and is said to represent the LeSabre, Invicta and Electra models, popular then but discontinued at the present.

The change could involve a return to the red white and blue color scheme that the shields used to wear. As seen in the picture above, the Buick logo has a long and confused history, where proponents of spelling the name “Buick” (or “BUICK”) wage war with friends of medieval heradldry. Sometimes, an eagle soars as a compromise, only to be shot down for Red, White & Blue shields. With China a big part of Buick’s (GM sells 4 times as many cars with a Buick brand in China than it does in the U.S.), one might think that the Detroit automaker would be reluctant to wave the colors of the American flag on its products there. But it’s not as it seems – knee-jerk reactions often reduce us to jerks on knees.

Ironically, China is where the initiative for the red white and blue Buick logo seems to be coming from. In China, Buick never gave up the Red White & Blue.

The red white and blue Buick logo is a familiar sight in China, as this badge on an all chrome Excelle, sighted at last year’s Shanghai Auto Show, proves.

All this just goes to show how much influence China wields on GM. So much that it might even reintroduce the Red White & Blue to America.

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS

Ronnie Schreiber
Ronnie Schreiber

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.

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  • Nikita Nikita on Nov 27, 2012

    It wouldnt work today, but the 1913 script is my favorite.

  • WildcatMatt WildcatMatt on Jan 04, 2013

    If they're going to put the colors back onto the tri-shield, can they please restore the stags and crosses while they're at it?

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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