Like your nearest Baskin-Robbins, it seems like there is a car for every person. Nowhere is that more true than in the entry level sport sedan market, where giants like BMW, Audi, and Lexus are taking on freshman entries like that of the Buick Regal. Each vehicle has a unique suite of powertrain options and infotainment systems that follows that brand’s particular philosophy, and therefore, caters to a certain sort of clientele. Thankfully, we’ve recently had some serious seat time in three of the top entries in this segment, and one exciting newcomer.
2011 has been a busy year in the Winding Road offices, with auto shows, new model launches, and the usual comings and goings of the automotive industry filling the virtual pages of our website. Even with all the activity, there has been a near-constant stream of automobiles filtering in and out of our parking lot, giving us no shortage of vehicular material to write about.
A bit of time has passed since the Beast’s rallycross adventure. Truth is, winter has set in through these mid-Michigan parts, and the cold combined with the hustle and bustle of the holidays simply hasn’t left much time for neat-o things to do with the Roadmaster. And then last week the “other” car was sidelined by a disagreement between myself, a deer, and Sir Issac Newton. Yeah, the Beast is a daily driver just like the 1989 SHO was, but I leaned long ago to never fly solo when dabbling with older fixer-uppers. Well, while the insurance company decides what to do with car number one, the old Roadmaster is now well and truly the single vehicle in this household. If you’re curious how that makes me feel, let me sum it up in two words: Just fine.
Ahead of its public debut at the North American International Auto Show next week in Detroit, Buick has announced the 2012 Verano compact luxury sedan.
I expected an old school feel from this 1994 Buick Roadmaster, but it actually is old school. For the folks who’ve never had the chance to drive domestic steel prior to 1978, let me make this live for you. Sit on your legs for a half hour while pounding 10 shots of Johnnie Walker Black on an empty stomach, then stand up, turn your head sideways and try to walk in the general direction of South America. This is what I encountered the first time I intentionally got the Beast a bit squirrelly, and it’s not like a $200 pair of track shoes will help. I’m not a contender for the next round of Formula Drift, but neither am I a stranger to opposite lock; let’s just say I won’t be doing that again outside of a controlled environment, where I can attempt to learn how to speak Beast.
These are exciting times for the Buick brand, ladies and gentlemen
Sometimes, I’m reminded all too clearly just how non-performance oriented the Roadmaster really is. This car is riding on truck tires for crying out loud, and it has enough body roll to be a platform for a Jackass stunt. It doesn’t even have a rear sway bar, but when I romp the gas I remember that many 60’s muscle cars didn’t have sway bars either, and look how much fun they were to drive. That’s been my main lesson from this pivotal getting-to-know-you phase of used car ownership—this will never be a nimble corner carver with a fun powerband, despite a host of handling upgrades available from the Impala/9C1 Caprice enthusiast community. No, it’s a muscle car hidden inside a bathtub, and to make it into anything other than a straight-line fun machine just doesn’t fit the character of this particular Roadmaster.
At this point, some of you might be wondering why a Roadmaster owner would seek out Impala SS enthusiasts for help. Still more of you might be wrestling with the idea of a Buick Roadmaster being anything other than a numb, bloated, long-distance cruiser. It’s true that this car is very much the antithesis of Winding Road, but it does have a rather notable saving grace. Pop the hood, and nestled between the wheel wells sits the same engine that powered the 1994-1996 Impala SS, not to mention the Camaros, Corvettes, and Caprice cop cars of the day. I’m speaking of the 350 cubic-inch LT1 V-8, producing 260 horsepower and enough torque to fog entire neighborhoods with 150-foot burnouts, and that’s without brake-torquing.
We always get a bit excited when we find out that a European car is being rebadged for American consumption. That feeling of excitement quickly dissipates, though, when we look back on the actual history of cars from foreign markets being rebadged in the States. Stories of the Renault/AMC Alliance, Cadillac Catera, and Ford Contour stream back to our consciousness, causing us to drop to our knees and pray that history won’t repeat itself. We had a similar moment when we heard that the Vauxhall/Opel Insignia, the 2009 European Car of the Year, was coming stateside. Thankfully, our fears were unfounded as the Insignia, using the resurrected Regal nameplate, is a homerun for Buick.
We have just taken delivery of Buick’s new Regal. We were lucky enough to get the loaded RL6 package, which features a satellite navigation system, a Harman/Kardon stereo, a sunroof, and Buick’s Comfort and Convenience package for the tidy price of $31,975.
A lot of photons have been shot at General Motors over the past 20 months or so, which I suppose comes with the territory when you run around with government bailout financiers. Beyond the cheap shots and ridiculously impractical advice, two themes seem to stand out and at least resonate a bit:
1. GM needs to build better cars
2. Ford is doing a better job
The Buick LaCrosse is not a driver’s car. If you are looking to tackle your favorite backroads with any measure of enthusiasm, definitely look elsewhere than this car, especially with the four-pot engine. It was not designed with this sort of driving in mind.
Here’s some news that will brighten the day for fans of the three-shielded brand; the Buick Regal GS has been greenlighted for production.
It’s a beautiful day in Southeastern Michigan, and there is a White Diamond Buick Enclave sitting in our sunlit parking lot.
If there’s one car that really speaks to our enthusiast hearts at this year’s Detroit Auto Show, it’s the Buick Regal GS. And while General Motors is technically calling this a show car, we’re pretty much going to assume that it’ll be hitting dealerships within the next year.
The fact that General Motors is finally bringing over the new Opel Insignia (Buick Regal) to the States makes us very happy campers. And now, knowing that a Regal GS is in the works, our interest is more piqued than ever. But hold on just a minute — while the GS might look like an all-American version of the Insignia OPC, it’s been diffused just slightly for Yankee consumption.
Toyota is pleased with its new Sienna minivan, seeing it as a fresh alternative to the dumpy, uncool image usually associated with these oft-ridiculed people-haulers. Winding Road’s Seyth Miersma found out if it lived up to the hype, leaving us to paw through the WR family photo albums for past MPVs that transcend their unflattering stereotypes. Surely, the Sienna wasn’t the first vehicle of its kind to attempt to appeal to the more savvy soccer moms.
On Tuesday, we broke the news that Cadillac would be unveiling an all-new concept car (teaser image shown above), as well as the production-ready CTS-V Coupe at next month’s Detroit Auto Show. And while the details on the V-badged Caddy Coupe are pretty much set in stone, we could only come up with speculation about what the concept car would be.
General Motors has announced that, after a deal to sell the brand to Spyker Cars, Saab will be “wound down.”
The 2010 North American International Auto Show is only a few weeks away, and the final ballots are being tallied for the North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards, one of the most prestigious honors that a U.S.-market car can achieve.