As politicians and labor unions in Europe reel from yesterday’s revelation of high-level talks between General Motors and Peugeot over a possible sale of Opel, GM’s most European-infused brand on this side of the Atlantic is operating business as usual.
Buick, which is GM’s second-largest brand globally by volume behind Chevrolet, has product in the wings, including the largely rumored but unconfirmed Buick Regal, based on the recently revealed Opel Insignia.
Buick sees no problem with that.
“Our priorities for the brand haven’t changed since Monday,” a Buick spokesperson told TTAC on Wednesday. “It is business as usual until/if something is finalized.”
What is business as usual?
Regardless of an Opel-PSA deal, one debut from Buick will remain unaffected: the next-generation Buick Enclave. While GM has updated all the Enclave’s platform mates in recent months, Buick’s entry has yet to show its sheetmetal to the public, and that reveal is likely safe thanks to its local production and its separation from Opel. The three-row Enclave is rumored to get a New York reveal in April.
The situation is different for the Buick Regal.
While its reveal, similarly rumored for New York, won’t likely be threatened by a purchase of Opel by PSA, it’s been long assumed GM would move Regal production to Germany and away from its Oshawa plant. Should a deal go through, Oshawa still may not be able to keep the model, as Regal production could join Malibu at GM’s Fairfax Assembly facility in Kansas City, Missouri.
And that’s assuming GM bothers.
After its 40,144-unit high mark in 2011, under half that many Regals — just 19,833 units — found homes in America in 2016. If anything, it would make more sense for Regal to become Buick’s second Chinese import, as it sold 69,300 units there in 2016.
“If anything, it would make more sense for Regal to become Buick’s second Chinese import”
Bingo, my man. Expect every nonEnclave Buick to be coming from China in the next 4 years.
Nah I wager that the brand new Lacrosse will stick around and be built here for at least the rest of this generation. The Impala will switch from Super Epsilon to the P2XX platform (as the Lacrosse is on now) when it gets redesigned (supposedly 2018 MY).
That Red, White, and Blue badge is calling me. Real honest to gosh color in the badging of a modern vehicle.
Just saw a national commercial for their midsizer CUV and its got a 5k rebate on it…I imagine this was the only way to sell it.
The Chinese must come to their senses at some point.
The `new` Regal would supposedly fix the biggest problems that kept people from buying them:
1) It was overweight
2) It was underpowered
3) The backseat had little leg room, like the previous Malibu and the ATS.
It actually hasn’t been underpowered for the last several model years as the turbo engine became standard with 259 HP or thereabouts. Other two points were fair though the rear seat room was workable. Biggest problem was the pricing.
Power that is only available past 5,000 rpms, hardly every stoplight occurence. The 295 lb-ft from the 2.0T beats all 3.5/3.6 V6″s that are naturally aspirated.
I won’t gush what happens when the turbocharged ecu is tuned by some like Trifecta. :)
Only 69K Regal sales in China last year? And yet the Verano is the one they killed. Look at the sales for the Buick Excelle (aka Verano) in China for the past 5 years:
http://carsalesbase.com/china-car-sales-data/buick/buick-excelle-xtgt/
Excelle XT/GT
2016 370,375
2015 290,213
2014 246,305
2013 204,274
2012 173,312
2011 134,800
2010 81,652
Any auto maker would kill for sales and year-over-year increases like that!
It made no sense to me when I heard GM was putting the Verano out to pasture. Not sure what they are thinking.
The US made Verano was killed for the North American market. The next gen Model is made in and for China. The low volume here killed the car.
…and Acura still sells the ILX.
Given the current sales number, would the actual Buick buyers in NA even notice if Regal is killed altogether? It may make sense to further consolidate the sedan line to a single model of LaCrosse.
Trim the line-up to an easy to choose choice of Encore (sm), Envision (med), Enclave (lg), and LaCrosse (sedan holdouts). Any other non-mainstream niche preferences (RWD sports sedan, coupe, wagon, BOF SUV, etc.) can be taken care of by Johan’s Cadillac.