When General Motors sold the Vauxhall and Opel brands to the PSA Group, we knew it would only be a matter of time before it started to impact the Buick brand. You see, the 2020 Buick Regal is little more than a rebadged Opel Insignia and following the 2020 model year, it will no longer be sold in the United States. The Australian version, the Holden Commodore, also met the same fate.

But even though the Regal met its end in the US, the Opel Insignia is still kicking. In fact, Opel has just revealed a facelift at the 2020 Brussels Motor Show, showing a new range of engines and a sporty GSi variant. This is the sexy Buick wagon we never deserved to have in the US.

The GS was the highest-performing version of the Regal we received in the US, powered by a GM V6 producing 310 horsepower. Enthusiasts wanted the GS to be a modern-day successor to the Regal Grand National and by that measure, it was a complete failure.

In the same breath, the Buick Regal TourX was one of the few affordable station wagons we could actually buy in the US. But in order to appeal to crossover fans, Buick only offered it with body cladding and a mile suspension lift. As evidenced by sales, the body cladding and lift kit weren't enough to appeal to wagon-hating Americans. It was never offered with the more powerful V6 either, just a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder producing 250 hp going out through a nine-speed automatic.

This new Opel Insignia GSi may not be the return of the Grand National some had hoped for, but at least it pairs the sporty styling of the Regal GS with the sexy wagon body style sans cladding. Power in the GSi comes from a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder producing 230 hp but a range of three- and four-cylinder engines are also available in the Insignia range. The GSi is sadly automatic-only but other versions of the Insignia can be had with a six-speed manual. It may not be perfect, but the Opel Insignia GSi is the beautiful Buick wagon that wasn't meant to be in the US.