Tuesday, December 17, 2013
The New Buick and why I Love it
Buicks of the past have always been about comfort, quietness, and a requirement that either this is your first high school car or youre over the age of 55. Buicks in the past were designed with performance in mind. Case and point the Buick Regal Grand National that has a place in muscle car history. Most modern Buicks were designed simply to ride nicely and be laid out simple enough as not to confuse its aging clientele.
After GM filed for Bankruptcy in 2009 the philosophy changed at Buick and the focus became a younger, sleeker, and more technologically savvy generation of buyers who want a car they can cruise the country in but this time truly enjoy that drive from point A to point B. When Buick launched the second generation Lacrosse in 2009 as a 2010 model was when I seriously began to look at Buicks for the first time in my life, it was aggressively styled, modern, yet still had a nice air of class to it that I could appreciate.
For 2011 the Buick Regal based on the Opel Insignia a german mid-sized sedan was launched and at this point I realized that through the new Buick I could buy a German luxury sedan without the nasty mark up. When I first sat in the vehicle my first impression was thoroughly German with a clean, sleek, and purposefully laid out dash. Im a conservative in terms of what I look for in a personal car and this shift from wavy simple dash design to a clean Germanic technological technological technological was certainly a game changer for me.
The upcoming Buick Verano which is based on the Opel Astra as well as a counterpart in the very successful Buick China fleet offers a very exciting proposition to a young buyer like myself. For the first time Buick is going to be offering a compact sedan that will offer a step up in refinement for a reasonable price; my best guess is pricing will be similar to a Chevrolet Cruze LTZ, that still offers a manual transmission, and a focus on a new group of buyers who want features and comforts without having to own a mid-size or a full size sedan to get it.
Buick and General Motors are also looking to decrease the environmental impact and the fuel economy of their latest vehicles with a new system called eAsisst. Using a small 115V lithium ion battery and a 15kW induction electric motor mated to the current 2.4L directed injection 4-cyl engine GM engineers say that this will increase fuel economy by 25% or 26/37 on the EPA scale for the 2012 Regal. Another key feature to this is the system will be available with no increase in price over the power-train power-train it replaces. I see this as a realization of the importance of hybrid technology to get the most out of every drop of fuel.
Buick of the past were something I wouldnt bat an eye at let alone want to buy for myself. The Buick of today offers sport, technology, and soon mild electrification that creates a perfect trifecta of what I look for in a new car. Im very excited to see the future of Buick and if they stay on this path of developing a complete package of comfort, sport, technology, and fuel efficiency I believe that I will one day be a Buick owner.
[Media Source: GM Inside News: http://media.gm.com ]
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