http://autoweek.com/cat_print.mv?content_code=09219840

 

Buick, especially their cars, are easily GM's most bland vehicles...

If anything needed a new direction, it was them.

The sad thing is, Olds already made this transition... very well I might add, starting back in 1995 with Aurora.

But, I really think the name OLDsmobile is what hurt Olds... now matter what kind of car they build, everyone would see "OLD"! Remembet the rumors a few years back that GM was playing with the idea of renaming the Oldsmobile division to "Aurora"?!

I guess maybe they can turn Buick into what Olds had become and be more successful with it? ...maybe.

 

I think changing the division's name to Aurora might have helped, but still for some reason Old's sales were so dismal I'm not sure it would haved saved them.

 

The Buick LaCrosse is one of my favorite concepts. I think its probably better that the Y-job grille and portholes didn't make it onto the Regal and LeSabre. I think Buick needs to build the LaCrosse with a V8 and AWD.

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-Joshua
1997 Bright Red T/A WS6 M6
I was thinking dagger. -Steve Nash

 

Buick...yawn....z...zz...oh yeah GNX kicked ***- nothin good since Grand Nationals- - old peoples cars now

[This message has been edited by 305fan (edited July 23, 2002).]

 

It's too bad the Bengal is not going to see the light of day. A few minor touch-ups to that concept and it would've been a winner! Visually anyway. I don't know a lot about the drivetrain but I'm guessing / hoping it was RWD hi-po V6 or better yet V8.

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1982 Recaro Trans Am (Y84), LU5/WS6/CC1/G80/J65/etc. 3,082 orig. miles (7/24/2002) - http://ohok.com/82recaro
1985 Base Firebird, F41/LB8/GU5/etc. CB radio, 142kmiles. http://ohok.com/82recaro/kizzsfb.jpg
1984 Firebird S/E, WS6/LL1/MD8/etc. All original, 102kmiles. Sold 5/02 http://ohok.com/82recaro/kizzsse.jpg

[This message has been edited by kizz (edited July 24, 2002).]

 

Actually if I recall correctly, the Bengal was actually a v6 front driver.

 

I don't know why Oldsmobile had som much trouble I certainly thought they were some of the best looking and most underrated GM vehicles in GM's lineup. I hope it was not the Old, in Oldsmobile. Mr Ransom E. Olds would roll over in his grave if thats what killed the car line.

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2002 Z28 white/neutral A4 3.23
13.33 @ 104.7 - 650 miles
286rwhp/311rwtq - 1300 miles
STOCK for now!
Gone but not forgotten,
1999 Silver SS 6M #3956
1997 Black Z28 A4 3.23
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Ryan S.

 

I agree... but sadly, I really think that might have at least contributed to their problems...

I know they lasted 100 years with that name, but times are different.

 

The problem in the auto industry (also in life in general) is that perception lags reality by at least ten years. Olds made great cars in the sixties and seventies, and that reputation carried them to their most successful sales years in 1984 and 1985, a time when their cars were nothing special. Likewise in the nineties, Olds was making great cars again, but people's minds were still in the eighties, and they thought Oldsmobile produced crap. If GM had've stuck wiht Olds for another six or eight years the sales would've picked up. Unfortunately GM didn't have the time nor money to wait that long.


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2000 Z28, Arctic White, Ebony leather, A4, 2.73, RS-A, 13.3 @ 105.9 stock

 

A Buick lineup with both Bengal and Grand National would be quite impressive. The Bengal is much more attractive than the copy cat Solstice. Grand Nat'l is yet another one of those great models that GM doesnt capitalize on. (Also Stingray, Chevelle, Caprice, El Camino)Instead they will probably spend millions on marketing some new name.

 

whatever happened with the buick blackhawk?
that looked to me to be the makings of a successful niche retro project

 

It was a sort of "going away" project for a chief designer (can't recall his name right away), and was never intended as a production possibility).