Lost in last week's GM product news was a spicy morsel from the Detroit News. According to Scott Burgess, GM's "Maximum" Bob Lutz confirmed Buick will reveal the Regal this year as a rebadged Opel Insignia. But whither the GNX?
We already knew the Opel Insignia's being rebadged as a Buick Regal for the Chinese market (shown above is the 2009 version), but if Burgess' quotes from Lutz are correct, it means the rumors — and previous off the record quotes from "nameless GM executives" — of the Insignia being rebadged as a Regal for the U.S. market are true. It also explains why outlets have spotted the Chinese Regal being tested on American soil.
Lutz claimed the new Regal will be introduced later this year. Our bet is the LA Auto Show if GM sticks to that timetable — which places the Regal at exactly the right place for a 2012 model year and showing up on dealer lots in 2011.
Susan Docherty, GM's vice president of Buick and GMC claims she expects Buick "to continue to draw younger buyers with new compacts and midsize sedans." The only way we can think of that would draw youngsters back to the Buick brand is if they offer some kind of high-horsepower sedan that'll reinvite press outlets to make comparisons between it and a car for Darth Vader. Can someone say GNX? We know we can.
[Autoblog]
