Loads of manufacturers focus on developing cars for the Chinese market that the rest of the world never sees. Take for example the BMW 1 Series Sedan - built for China, but we'll only see the 2 Series Gran Coupe arrive in the USA. So while scouring the internet to see what new models have been released in China generally leads us to find cool cars that have no relevance for the US, Autoweek.nl has uncovered leaked images from China of what is quite likely going to be the 2020 or 2021 Regal GS sedan. It's not surprising for the leak to come from China, after all, China is Buick's biggest market.
Three images of the facelifted Regal Sedan have been sourced from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and while they aren't particularly high in quality, they do show us a hint of what changes are likely to affect the American model. The main change is that the styling seems to have taken a number of design cues from the new Opel Corsa subcompact hatchback. Opel was formerly owned by General Motors before being sold off to the PSA Group a few years back, and while Opel is no longer a GM company, a number of the current Buick products are essentially rebadged Opels.
The Regal, for example, is essentially a rebadged Opel insignia, albeit with slightly different powertrains for the US. We've seen the Insignia facelift testing in Europe before, but this is the first time we've seen an uncamouflaged facelift.
Ultimately, the design changes come down to revised front and rear fascias, new headlights that mimic Opel's latest designs, and a new trapezoidal tailpipe design. These design changes are likely to be mirrored across the Regal lineup, seeing changes for the Regal Sportback and TourX, as well as the sportier Regal GS sedan. However, there is a danger that the updated Regal might not even reach the United States. Sales have dwindled for the mid-sized offering, with only 8,849 units sold in the first nine months of 2019. We've already seen Buick drop the Opel-based Cascada from its line-up, so the Regal could be next.
Buick will be focusing more on crossovers going forward, with a compact Encore GX arriving in 2020, while a new three-row crossover is expected to borrow underpinnings from the Cadillac XT6 and GMC Acadia.