The 2011 Buick GL8







I found this interesting, a Buick minivan just for China. Why not just sell them the Enclave?

IMO that minivan looks a lot better than any minivan being sold here now. I wonder how well the GL8 would sell here?

 

Well, 1st, Mini-vans are used for executive use in China. They don't really provide the family hauler role that they play here.

2nd, The GL8 is just an updated version of the U-body minivan... so this is a vastly updated Terazza.

3rd It's a 4-cylinder

4th it offers more versatility than the Enclave which is a big plus for the Chinese market.

 

I guess we'll see soon enough...


I do prefer the Buick though.

 

Yea, sorry, the Oddy just looks disjointed.

 

Please keep the god awful U-bodies as far from the U.S. as possible!

 

Buick has absolutely NOTHING that looks even remotely interesting to me, including this thing.

 

Actually it has the 3.0L DI V6 mated to a 6-speed auto, and the 2.4 Ecotech is available with the 6-speed too.




I did a little research, apparently this thing is a huge seller in China.

 

I'm in China right now on business and we've gotten hauled around in a GL8 with the 3.0 since we've been here.

Looks just like the one in this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_GL8

I'll post up a picture of the one we're in later. There's a big snowstorm in Jiangyin (big for here) and the thing is filthy at the moment.

 

Holy crap is that really the new Odyssey? That is AWFUL!!!

 

The Buick van is much nicer than the Honda van.

GM does sell the Enclave in China. http://www.buick.com.cn/Enclave/index.aspx

 

That thing pulls off the "lightning bolt" rear glass kickdown WAY better than does the Odyssey. The Odyssey looks sharp up front and up to the back of the sliding doors, but then it just falls apart. The lightning bolt is too abrupt, and it makes the rear look like it was cut off another vehicle and pasted to the Odyssey (something I hadn't noticed until my brother mentioned it at the auto show, and now I can't UNsee it). Even worse, Honda STILL refuses to hide the sliding door track, which is absolutely absurd. The Chrysler vans (and now the Sienna) do this, and they look 100X better in that area.

If that Buick is an updated version of the previous GM vans, they did a FANTASTIC job disguising it. The styling is very handsome, and the interior is super sharp as well. They ought to think about bringing those things back if they can make 'em look like that. The downside is that the U-bodies were narrower than the not-so-minivans of the competition, and result of sharing the body with Europe for a while back when the first gen Venture came out. Still, they'd probably sell a few of 'em here, and it would re-establish a presence until a new, more competitively sized van could come out. (They really ought to drop the name minivan these days and just call them vans; except for the Mazda 5 and the upcoming Ford C-max, that is...)

 

How much does fuel cost in China?

 

I like the way the Buick looks. I don't know what's going on at Honda. The Odyssey looks disjointed from the side as does the crosstour.

 

Anybody who compares the GL8 to that new Odyssey has jumped off the deep end.

The GL8 would sell great here to luxury companies who deal with airport traffic and other luxury travel clients.

 

Right now it's 7 RMB per liter. Adjusted to gallons and USD that makes it about $4 a gallon.