124 Spider

Make
Fiat
Segment
Compact

We want Buick to be cool. GM's "not quite a luxury" brand has shown it can produce some stunning concepts with the Avista and Avenir. However, the only thing Buick seems to be pumping out these days are moderately rebadged Chevys and Opels. If GM wants the Buick brand to be taken seriously, it better start making some more interesting cars. Sure you can get the Regal GS, (a rebadged Insignia), but no one seems to even know about that car. A flagship model like the Avista or Avenir would create interest in the Buick brand, so why hasn't Buick built either?

Buick has stated that the public reaction for the Avista was not great enough to warrant production. Sorry, but we simply do not believe that. GM actually produced something that looks like it could compete with an S-Class Coupe. Does Buick really expect us to believe that the public reaction wasn't good enough? We get that building either of these cars on a RWD platform would be expensive, but GM needs to mimic what it is doing with Cadillac. Cadillac will be introducing its flagship model, the CT6. This shows that GM is ready to put Cadillac in the same territory as the well-established Germans. Until Buick pulls a similar move, it will always be considered in the shadow of more established luxury manufacturers.

Even if Buick didn't want to invest in an all-new platform for these Buick models, using Cadillac's Omega platform could help to lower costs. Moving on from a flagship, Buick could benefit from having a "gentleman's sports car." The Buick Grand National used to be the muscle car for a slightly more mature person. Buick has reportedly flirted with the idea of reviving the Grand National name with a new coupe based on the Cadillac ATS' Alpha platform. By offering a turbocharged V6 this new Grand National would stay true to the original and bring younger customers to the brand. Even offering a less expensive, naturally aspirated version couldn't hurt. We would just like to see something exciting come from Buick.

Although we may not love the fact that most new Buicks are simply rebadged Opel products, there are some good opportunities that GM has missed. If the Buick brand is simply going to borrow cars from the European Opel brand, why not bring more unique models to the US? The Insignia is offered with a 320 hp 2.8-liter twin-turbo V6. Does GM really think that we wouldn't want a Grand National Coupe with that engine? You may not think that Buick will ever be a cool brand, and with the people who run it, that may be true. If we ran Buick, we would definitely be building some cooler cars.