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Ever Seen A Buick Move Like This?

by Edward Niedermeyer
(IC: employee)
May 6th, 2011 11:06 AM
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No? Never? Well, technically this isn’t a Buick, but an Opel Astra GTC OPC (at least according to Auto Motor und Sport). And given that Buick is holding off on bringing serious power to its Regal GS (at least until a coupe comes out of Germany), it’s fairly unlikely that they would bring a 290 HP, limited-slip, six-speed hot hatch to the Buick brand any time soon. Or is it? The line for “Mr Euro”-style self-delusion forms here…
Published May 6th, 2011 11:06 AM
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@Garbage.. FYI.... for now the Regal is being imported from German. Production has been started in Oshawa on the flex line. However, demand for Camaro convertibles has forced GM to keep the majority of Buick production in Germany...for now. You remember the Camaro eh? The same car that the domestic bashers/trolls figured would fizzle in six months.
How's globalization working for everyone? Me? I no longer care (well, 90% anyway) where a product is sourced from. Take the best platforms regardless of whose badge was originally on it, build the best bodies around it for whatever brand, tweak it for that brand, build it wherever makes sense, sell the daylights out of it and make a boatload of money. Do I accept it? Sure, might as well - the old days and ways are gone, so might as well get used to it. Besides, the Opel platforms seem to be pretty good.
Before this car hits the Buick lots, Buick should pull all of the dealer principals together for an in depth case study on Merkur: excellent products marred by poor marketing and an uneducated, indifferent dealer network.
CAFE keeps such peformance powertrains from GM's U.S. lineup, and it gets much tougher over the next few years.