Introducing The Buick Park Avenue 2011 Boao Forum For Asia Special Edition
Would you buy a Buick Park Avenue Davos World Economic Forum 2011 Special Edition? No? GM China thinks the Chinese will disagree with you and will snap up the “Buick Park Avenue 2011 Boao Forum for Asia Special Edition.” What is a Boao Forum? Glad I asked. As CarNewsChina tells us, “the Boao Forum is an economic conference comparable to the famous Davos Forum but focused on Asia.” And now it gets complicated:
The 2011 Boao Forum will be held on 11 and 12 July in Perth, Australia. The official car for the Boao Forum is the Australian made Holden Statesman. The Made-in-China Buick Park Avenue is based on the Holden Caprice Statesman, which is a good enough reason for a Chinese special edition.
The Boao Forum Special Edition comes with a plushy interior with DVD-screens that pop out of the roof and pick nick work tables for the rear passengers. Then there are the sought-after ‘Boao Forum for Asia’ badges on the c-pillar, on the door stills and on the head rests. The Boao Forum Special will set you back 388.000 yuan ($59,755), only a little more than the plain vanilla Park Avenue. So if you are not on the Boao Forum guest list, show your neighbors you care about the world economy, and buy the Buick.
PS: Today is China Day at TTAC. Two reasons: 1. Ed confessed that he’s “Mr China”. It must be contagious. He spends 5 days with me and trades his passport. 2. TTAC today breaks down more often than a bottle jack bought at Harbor Freight.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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In my ideal world, this would be federalized and share garage space with my Rendezvous Ultra, LaCrosse Super, Joseph Abboud Regal GS, Collector's Edition Roadmaster (Estate & sedan), LeSabre Celebration Edition, a full line of T-Types from Skyhawk to Electra, and a host of other limited-run or rare production Buicks that absolutely no one else cares about but me...
I assume that the above information came from Shanghai GM, if so they should go to more effort to keep up with the model range of their Australian counterpart. Holden was selling its long-wheelbase sedan (on which the Park Avenue is based) as both the Statesman and Caprice up until last September, when the Statesmen name was discontinued. It is now sold only as the Holden Caprice (with adjusted trim levels and pricing to fill the gap left by the Statesman). It would seem strange for a obsolete model to be the 'Official Car' of a conference such as the Boao Forum!