BUICK news from the General

[jdodman]

NOTE the twin turbo 400 hp 6 cylinder in this article...

> Buick to revamp whole lineup
> New cars to compete with Lexus, Lincoln
> April 13, 2004
> FREE PRESS STAFF and NEWS SERVICES
> NEW YORK -- General Motors Corp. will replace Buick's entire lineup by
> 2007 or 2008 as the automaker seeks to put its No. 2 premium brand on
> better footing against Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus and Ford Motor Co.'s
> Lincoln.
> The Regal and Century sedans will be replaced by the LaCrosse, with a
> replacement for the LeSabre coming next year, Robert Lutz, GM's vice
> chairman for product development, said in New York last week.
> The Park Avenue name will be parked, industry publication Automotive News
> reports.
> Despite top-notch quality and reliability ratings from Consumer Reports
> magazine and J.D. Power & Associates and a worldwide reputation for
> prestige, Buick is struggling in America.
> Indeed, the current annual sales volume of about 340,000 is less than half
> the 900,000 cars Buick sold at its peak, in 1984. Another challenge: The
> average age of Buick buyers is 67; only the recent addition of truck-based
> models has begun to attract younger buyers.
> The situation in Buick's home market is one Lutz intends to remedy, in
> part by establishing a new design direction for the brand.
> Anne Asensio, the French-born head of advanced concept design at GM, is in
> charge of the latest effort at giving Buick a new look.
> The direction proposed by Asensio takes form in the Velite (pronounced
> vuh-LEET), a concept vehicle unveiled last week at the New York
> International Auto Show. This four-seat, rear-wheel-drive convertible
> suggests a broadened viewpoint for future Buick designs. "It builds on
> American heritage but for a global market," she said.
> While Cadillac, Chevrolet and Pontiac have signaled new design directions
> with striking concepts that became production cars -- the XLR, SSR and
> Solstice, respectively -- Buick's efforts at designing a winning "halo
> car" and new design language have repeatedly come to grief. Buick's dream
> cars have tended to be bulbous and chunky, often rote repetitions of the
> waterfall grille and porthole hood trim that are the most obvious Buick
> "brand cues," as designers call them.
> The Velite is more promising. At their best, Buicks are big American cars
> that still deliver smooth power from brawny engines and silky-smooth
> automatic transmissions. They are boulevard cruisers. In that tradition,
> the Velite offers an experimental 400-horsepower, twin-turbocharged V6
> under its forward-opening hood.
> The car's exterior was shaped by Tom Peters, who designed the Cadillac
> XLR, and Sang Yup Lee. It is a Buick-big car, a convertible that seats
> four. With 21-inch wheels in the rear (20 in the front), the Velite is a
> Buick concept with a noble stance, powerful and poised. The car is painted
> a color that Buick calls dark tarnished bronze metallic.
> The car's name can be traced back to Napoleon, who in 1804 swelled the
> ranks of his army with an elite class of soldiers called the Velites. "The
> Velite is the advance guard, dashing head, with the rest of the Buick
> offensive to follow," Asensio said.
> The designers have avoided a literal reiteration of Buick's signature
> design cues. The grille brings complex and visually engaging changes to
> the Buick waterfall. The portholes are linked in a subtle echo of the
> shapes of the stacked headlights, which use a new combination of halogen
> lamps and focusing lenses that GM calls X-beam.
> The rear deck narrows to a central V, recalling boattail designs of the
> 1930s. The taillights are flush like those of the Y-Job, a 1938 Buick
> concept from legendary designer Harley Earl.
> The heritage cues of Buick's earlier concepts skipped the creased,
> tailored period of great 1960s models like the Electra and, above all, the
> classic '63 Riviera. But "the Velite has an edge to it," Peters said.
>