GM sells millionth car this year in China and, of course, it's a Buick. Because the Chinese? They love Buicks. [Bloomberg] More »

GM sells millionth car this year in China and, of course, it's a Buick. Because the Chinese? They love Buicks. [Bloomberg] More »

The last time I drove a Buick was in 1959. It was my Dad’s 1956 Buick Century. This is not my old man’s car! What a beauty his was. What a beauty this LaCrosse is! This is a driver’s car!

One of the nice perks of being in the media is at certain times you get to drive a beautiful, and then sometimes a not so beautiful car. Some of them are rocket ships. Some are slugs. Some are actually full blooded racing cars! And some are just a car with an old fashioned, comfortable shoe feel about them. Having said that, I just have to tell you of my not-so-little-perk courtesy of General Motors in Oshawa. Through my good friend Gary Grant, the Garage Guy, I was given a Buick to use while in Toronto and the surrounding area during the Honda Indy weekend. When Gary told me this, I was delighted, but I also thought…a Buick. Was this smart ass trying to tell me I was an old man, which I am, or was he giving me a treat that I did not expect while I was in the big city?

As I said in the lead in, the last time I drove a Buick was in 1959 in Tampa Florida when I was fourteen years old! The only thing these two cars have in common are the four ovals on the fender of the Century, which was a beauty I might add to a fourteen year old and the same now three ovals on the top of the fenders near the hood. All right you wise guys, it does have more in common. It does have four wheels and all the rest…just humour me. As we drove into the GM plant we could see this beautiful red four-door sedan sitting with a ‘Hey! Take me for a ride on a tight winding road buddy and I’ll show you what I’m all about!‘ look on it’s hood. It sat there squat and low. The chrome gleamed and the paint was deep and rich. I could tell this was going to be my type of ride. My first impression wasn’t wrong at all. The moment I sat behind the wheel I had this urge to relax and enjoy the ride, but another part of me was itching to put her deep into a turn and ease the power to her as she came out the other side. I did both. She was stable at all times and a delight in the rain. The car is keyless, in fact as soon as I approached it the doors would automatically unlock! Once behind the wheel I looked for the ignition to start her up and naturally came to a button where the key normally fits. It just said ‘Engine Start/Stop’. I pushed it and bingo. It started. As long as the key is in the car that is how it goes and doesn’t go! I did run into a bit of a problem with this when Gary and I were shooting the Indy race, I dropped him off early so he could go to a meeting. I wanted to go and have a nice sit-down-breakfast as is my want at this time of my life. Problem. Gary had the key. I could not turn the car off once I reached the restaurant as I would not be able to start it again without the key. I did not experiment to see if I could even turn the car off, I just headed for the drive through at the McRonalds down the street and had to make do with their burrito wraps that turned out to be pretty good. I had not been to one of these establishments since my kids watched ‘Super-size Me’. The coffee still sucks.

After the weekend of racing I turned the car north on the 400 to meet my brother in Collingwood. I had not seen him in almost fifteen years and he was in the driveway when I pulled in. “Always trying to impress eh?” He immediately wanted to get behind the wheel! You aren’t insured was all I said to him as he reluctantly got in the right side. We didn’t even go in the house to see his wife! He is a real car nut and he was going to feel this beautiful lady. If he had gotten behind the wheel the tires might have melted. He’s from the hot rod era and knows what the right foot is for. Like I, he loved the car. He marveled as I did at the feel of a true thoroughbred just wanting to be let loose. I showed him the ‘Heads Up’ display that gives the driver important data about the car when you are running. I did not find it distracting at all.

After I left my Brother’s place, I took off the next day for North Bay where I took most of the images you see with this report. My old gang had gathered for a small reunion that turned into a full-on car show. To the last man, and one woman, they poured over the red beauty. Naturally all wanted to drive, but I could not trade that experience for a turn behind the wheel of a beautiful old Austin Healey which was my first love. Taking the car back was not the greatest part of this adventure, in fact I have dropped into my local GM dealer to show the car to my wife who now has a need for a luxury car with a need to perform. The Buick LaCrosse is that car!

Catch you in the Esses, Allan de la Plante.

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, China, Technology, GM

Let's try this again, shall we? General Motors has announced that it will jump back into the mild hybrid game by the third quarter of 2011. Larry Nitz, the company's director of hybrid and electric powertrain engineering, made the announcement at a seminar in Traverse City, Michigan, though he declined to comment on exactly which models would get the fuel-saving tech next year. Nitz did say that at least one American model and one Chinese model would be a mild hybrid by the end of 2011, which leads us to believe that the tech will work its way into the Buick lineup.

GM walked away from mild hybrids after Saturn was sent to the company's scrap heap. At the time, both the Chevrolet Malibu and the Saturn Vue wore the tech, but with the Vue out of the picture, the company couldn't justify the cost of investing in the drivetrains. Unlike a full hybrid, mild-hybrid vehicles can't cruise along on just electric power. Instead, the system allows the gasoline engine to shut off when the vehicle is stopped. The electric motor then starts the engine again when the accelerator pedal is depressed.

If we were guessing, we'd say that GM will debut the rebirth of the tech on the Buick LaCrosse - a model that has enjoyed equal success in China and has the potential to revitalize the brand in the U.S.

[Source: Autoweek]

Report: General Motors bringing back mild hybrids next year originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Car Buying, Etc., Buick, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Nissan, Suzuki

We all know the typical sales winners of the automotive universe. Come hell or high water, Honda Civics and Toyota Camrys will still float off of the lot. Granted, that's good news for most automakers, but at the same time, there's a wealth of under-appreciated models languishing under the beady eyes of inflatable gorillas across the country. The good people of Edmunds have taken it upon themselves to wrangle up a top 10 list of those long forgotten winners and filed them under the collective banner of "Dark-Horse" candidates. Sexy.

We're absolutely down with cars like the 2010 Buick Lacrosse, 2010 Suzuki Kizashi and the 2010 Hyundai Genesis, but the 2010 Nissan Versa has us scratching our heads. While the car is a perfectly decent little compact, the market is awash with other excellent options. Need proof? Look no further than another Edmunds Dark-Horse selection, the 2011 Ford Fiesta. We suppose that with all the hype surrounding the new Blue Oval hatchback that it can't as easily be considered a forgotten option, at least at this point. Hop the jump for the full press blast and check the gallery below for the top picks.



[Source: Edmunds]

Continue reading Edmunds compiles top ten 'Dark-Horse' list of worthy overlooked vehicles

Edmunds compiles top ten 'Dark-Horse' list of worthy overlooked vehicles originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: China, Buick

Buick Back?

Later this month I'll be heading out to San Diego to get my first ride in the new Buick Regal. It's a trip I'm looking forward to, something I couldn't have said about most of the Buick product previews I've attended over the course of my 30 years on the auto beat.

Let's face it: Since the days of the classic Riviera, the long-struggling General Motors division didn't have a lot to offer other than "badge-engineered" products that appealed to a limited core audience of aging Buick buyers. One GM wag once suggested that the average age of the division's buyers was "nearly dead." And as that audience steadily dwindled, so was Buick.

Consider that over the quarter century from 1984 to 2009, Buick sales plunged nearly 90% from 941,611 to just 102,300 and you understand why so many industry analysts began urging GM to abandon the Buick brand long before last year's bankruptcy. Yet when the ashes of the century-old automaker rose like a phoenix last July, Buick remained among the four surviving North American "core" brands.

To understand why, I just need to talk with an old friend, Al Abramson, a long-time dealer in Asian art, jewelry and antiques, and one of the first Westerners to go behind the so-called Bamboo Curtain after the fateful meeting between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong.

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Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com, and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.

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Continue reading TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein

TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 10 May 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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