Though the newish Buick Enclave has received plenty of accolades, it's the right vehicle at the wrong time for GM's smallest brand. The other two vehicles in Buick's lineup – the LaCrosse mid-size sedan and Lucerne large sedan – might better appeal to gas-conscious buyers than a large CUV, but they're far from leaders in their segment. A new LaCrosse, however, will reportedly be arriving as a 2010 model. Car and Driver just published these spy shots of a pre-production model caught with its camouflage pants down, and they reveal its design will borrow heavily from the Invicta Concept that was revealed at this year's Beijing Motor Show. That's not a bad thing, as the Invicta is a fetching sedan that went over well with the Chinese crowds. And while we could be mislead by the grainy quality of these spy shots, we swear there are two rows of portholes on the hood.
The '10 LaCrosse will likely arrive atop GM's Epsilon II platform that also underpins the upcoming Insignia and will next find its way to the '11 Saturn Aura and '12 Chevy Malibu. Engine choices are anyone's guess, but don't expect another V8 Super model. We guess the next-gen LaCrosse will get a smattering of four- and six-cylinder engines, the smaller of which could employ turbocharging and direct injection. Also check out C&D's pics of the new LaCrosse interior, which looks like a smaller version of a Cadillac CTS interior. Since we know have pictorial evidence of preproduction prototypes this far along, it's safe to assume that Buick will debut the 2010 LaCrosse during the upcoming auto show season.
In addition to getting the coolest Buicks which are not available in America, individuals in China are about to get the best vehicle that Buick has to offer in the States. In a deal which was initially inked ten months ago, the attractive Enclave CUV, built at GM's Lansing Delta Township assembly plant, is headed for China. The U.S. assembled 'utes will make their way by means of Shanghai GM. The exportation of the Enclave to China is only surprising in that it took so long for the General to get the model there in the first place. After all, Buick sells more vehicles in China than anywhere else in the world, with the nation consuming over half of all Buicks worldwide. We can only hope that Shanghai GM returns the favor and sends some of its best designs our way... and soon.
Autoblog reader Mike dropped us a note the other day to let us he had spotted this car tooling around in Troy MI. Being a vigilant Autoblog reader he had a camera handy and snapped off a series of photos. Mike was unable to identify the car in question, but we've seen this machine before. It's the next generation Buick LaCrosse although it's not known if GM will retain that branding. The new Buick is built on GM's Epsilon II platform which is shared with the new Opel Insignia.
The Buick Reatta a design flop? That's what a University of Michigan professor told The Wall Street Journal recently. Really? The Reatta is the one car that he could find to pick on as an automotive design flop? Sure, the high-tech coupe was overweight and underpowered, overpriced and under-appreciated. But a design flop? I think most of us would agree there are uglier, slower, more poorly-made cars in the history of automobiles. Our Dan Roth even called it a Future Classic not too long ago.
The story is part of a larger collection of design studies that looks at everything from blue jeans to concrete saws. One other automotive element of the series is a gushing story and video about Buick's Invicta concept car. If the piece is to be believed, the LaCrosse that may be based on the Invicta, will surely never make it onto a list of design flops.
So by that logic, fake, plastic portholes insure design success, but sexy, restrained style doesn't.
The current Buick Lucerne shares its underpinnings with both the Cadillac DTS and the Chevrolet Impala, but all three vehicles are set to go their separate ways when they're refreshed in a couple years. Last month we told you that the Impala was staying FWD, and now Motor Trend is reporting that the Lucerne could still receive RWD, but it won't be as big as the DTS/STS replacement. GM is looking into the feasibility of producing a smaller Lucerne that will ride on a wheelbase several inches shorter than the 118.5-inch spread slated for the future Caddy.
The move to shrink the Lucerne will have a lot to do with stricter CAFE standards in the years ahead. MT wisely points out the fact that the Pontiac G8, which already sits on a smaller Zeta platform, shows that RWD isn't always a fuel drain. The current Lucerne is pulled with the front wheels, and gets 16/25 with the ancient 3.8-liter V6 and 15/22 with the 4.6-liter Northstar, while the smaller G8 achieves 17/25 with the 3.6-liter unit and 15/25 from the tried and true 6.0-liter pushrod. Besides the smaller Zeta's fuel economy advantages, downsizing the Buick helps keep the Caddy exclusive over the more pedestrian Lucerne.
GM Vice Chairman Bob "Maximum" Lutz published a new post today on the corporate GM Fastlane Blog that addresses the automaker's newest concept that debuted recently at Auto China 2008 in Beijing: the Invicta. The concept heavily hints at what the next-generation Buick LaCrosse will look like, but Bob points out that the global architecture underpinning the vehicle will be the basis of new cars for Chevy, Saab, Opel/Vauxhall and more. In the past, we would've expected those accompanying models to be rebadged versions with different grilles, headlights and taillights, but Bob explains how GM's new global platform sharing process is different than the rebadging of old. In a nutshell, he says that the money saved from sharing common platforms see will be put into making everything that customer's will see - exterior and interior design, specifically - completely different. While it's great to hear Bob talk about how GM finally "gets it" when it comes to producing common products across an empire of brands, it's something that other automakers like VW/Audi have been doing for years while the General kept feeding us "triplets" of every model it made. So kudos to GM for finally getting it, but it took 'em long enough.
General Motors is on a campaign to streamline and cut through red tape, and to that end is changing the management structure of its brands. As of June 1, GM is establishing four new "brand czars" who will have increased control over their products and be responsible for their divisions' successes and failures. Pontiac-Buick-GMC, Cadillac-HUMMER-Saab, Chevrolet and Saturn will each be accountable to a new brand chief, who in turn will report to the corporate VP of sales, service and marketing. The positions, which will all be vice-president-level appointments (except for Saturn, whose brand czar will coordinate with Opel), will have increased input into the overall process from product development through sales.
The new brand czars will replace the five regional general managers that have acted until now as an insulator between the brands and its dealers. Insiders are hailing the move as a positive step, helping General Motors to streamline its bureaucracy.
We don't normally cover every little change an automaker makes to its lineup as the model year clicks over, but General Motors has some significant features it's adding for 2009 that shouldn't fall through the cracks. For one, Bluetooth will finally become available on nearly all of GM's cars and trucks. For the longest time, only the Cadillac STS was available with Bluetooth phone integration, which ends with MY2009. Second, the six-speed automatic transmission that before was not widely available in the General's half-ton trucks and SUVs has spread like wildfire across the GMT900 lineup and will now be standard or optional in such vehicles as the Avalanche, Silverado and Sierra 1500, Suburban, Yukon and Yukon XL. Curiously, though, it's still not available on the Tahoe.
Other items of note include a new 6-speed automatic for the Pontiac G6 to replace its underwhelming 4-speed, the replacement of GM's 3.6L V6 in the GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook with the direct-inject version that will bump power up to 290 hp, and finally a new four-cylinder base model for the uplevel Malibu LTZ that features the the 2.4L four-cylinder ECOTEC engine paired with a six-speed automatic.
During a pre-Beijing Motor Show conference call today, Buick provided some more hints about the new Invicta concept that it will reveal this weekend in China. We've had a couple of teases about what to expect and won't actually be seeing any detailed images until Saturday, but what we do know now is that the Invicta (from the Latin for 'Invincible') is a four-door coupe following the current trend started by Mercedes with the sleek and sexy CLS. According to Buick designer Dave Lyons, getting a coupe to look great is easy, but the four-door layout is something that holds more market appeal. The Invicta picks up where last year's Riviera concept left off and extends that design language. It continues with what he called the "Sweep Spear" curve over the rear fender. On the inside, the cooperating design teams in Michigan and Shanghai worked to create an environment that is both functional and a reported work of art, and the driving environment is meant to impart a feeling of calm and quietness to help reduce blood pressure. Also, in spite of the low roof-line, the designers tried not to compromise rear room like in other four-door coupes. Unfortunately, at this point all we can say is, "We'll be the judge of that!" Based on the description given by GM today, the Invicta looks very promising and we will likely see hints of the next generation Lucerne in this car. But until we actually see it, it's all just hyperbole.
General Motors has been enjoying some serious success in China with its range of Buick models, and it hopes to continue that trend with the unveiling of the Invicta concept at the Auto China show in Beijing. We've already seen one teaser shot of the Invicta in profile and this newest image (on the right) gives a faint hint of the front end. We messed with the image in Photoshop to draw out some of the fascia's details, but the only thing that's really obvious is the swooping, Saab-esque headlamps and the kinked beltline originally seen in the profile shot above.
The Auto China show is right around the corner, so look for a full report in just over a week's time. Hit the jump to view the unmolested teaser.
