It was Halloween of last year, and neither a trick nor treat for fans
of GM’s “Driving Excitement” brand, Pontiac. You can’t have
excitement without risk, and risk was something GM just couldn’t
afford. That’s why they killed Pontiac on that fateful All Saints’ Eve,
letting almost all traces of fun drain out of their brand. Yes, they
had the immortal Corvette, and yes, the Camaro was still transforming
into a giant robot and blowing up entire metropolitan counties, but if
you wanted a practical, four seat car that didn’t cost a kidney, GM
couldn’t help you.
Today, a visit to the Pontiac website will reveal a sad and desolate
place, an abandoned amusement park, silent and overgrown. But at its
foot is an ad for another brand, one that seems an unlikely protagonist
to take up Pontiac’s fallen mantle of Excitement--an octogenarian by
the name of Buick.
When I was in high school, I knew Buicks as troublesome road hogs.
They were driven either by geriatrics who didn’t seem to understand the
concept of a minimum speed limit, or by their adolescent grandchildren,
who didn’t seem to understand the concept of a turn signal. Usually
the former sat at the head of a 50 mph traffic jam on the highway. But this wasn’t always the case. There was a year called 1970, and
there was a Buick called the GSX Stage 1. Its 455 V8 put down 360 hp,
and it had a sharky
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Motor Trend claimed it was the fastest muscle car they’d tested yet,
and this was at the height of the muscle car era. And the latter half
of the next decade saw the turbocharged Grand National and the GNX, the
final iteration of which occurred for 1987 and sported “276” hp. (This
was an under-rating, and the actual figure is known to be much higher.)
Since this power came from a boosted V6, the weight was relatively
low. It has since become a popular
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As the ‘90s rolled in, Oldsmobile began to roll out, foisting their
aging customer base on Buick. Thus tamed, Buick churned out cars like
the 6
th generation Century, named for the memory span of its buyers.
But now that Pontiac is dead, and GM is riding on the federal government on their feet again, Buick seems to have remembered its roots as a brand.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]I first saw the new Regal on TV. I happened to be at Buffalo Wild
Wings and looked up at one of the 867 flat screens on the walls to see a
rather attractive sedan carving down a country road. Its driver was
throwing around an actual stick shift (yes, they still exist), and it
had a turbo. At the end of the spot, the Triple Shield flashed across
the screen, and I about dropped my parmesan garlic. Buick was marketing
excitement?
The car in question was the Regal CXL Turbo. It has a little 2 liter
straight 4 turbocharged to a beautiful 220 hp. And you can get it with
a
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That was last year. This year, there’s the Regal GS. It first
appeared as a concept at the 2010 North American International Auto Show
in Detroit. Basically a rebadge of GM’s awesomely awesome Euro-spec
Opel Insignia, it came fitted with
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and 255 hp. The production version, sadly, has lost the AWD along the
way, but has gained an extra 15 hp. And, since Opel Insignia wagons
with Buick badges have been spotted tooling around Detroit as lately as
last week, a
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] version is heavily rumored.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] can’t be far behind if GM aims it at the Acura TSX Sport Wagon, which
still doesn’t offer the feature. We can only hope Buick realizes that
wagon people are also manual people. Make it a stick, guys. The GS
goes on sale later this year.
Somehow, when we were all eating our wings and lamenting the loss of
Pontiac, Buick got exciting. In my opinion, this is exactly what GM
needs. Seen too long as a boring, pragmatic, government agency that
happens to produce two sports cars, they’re finally building rides for
the mom and dad who like to drive. Who would have thought they would
come from Grandpa’s brand?
Andy Sheehan is a staff writer for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and just spent a buck twenty-five on a Hostess snack from the vending machine.
Subject: 220hp, 6spd Buick?! 
Thu Jul 07, 2011 7:35 pm
