CHICAGO AUTO SHOW
Design exec eyes flagship Buick coupe
Rick Kranz
Automotive News -- February 15, 2010 - 12:01 am ET

CHICAGO -- General Motors is considering adding a coupe to Buick's lineup.

"Buick definitely needs more product in the pipeline," John Cafaro, director of design for Buick and Chevrolet, said in an interview last week at the Chicago Auto Show.

"My role is really being a zealot for getting Buick more youthful, more spirited and probing ideas [for] coupes, more expressive vehicles. That is really my job."

So far, five models -- all sedans and crossovers -- have been approved for Buick. The redesigned LaCrosse went on sale last fall. The 2011 Regal sedan goes on sale this spring. A small, unnamed sedan that will share a vehicle platform with the Chevrolet Cruze goes on sale in 2011. The Lucerne will be dropped in a year or so.

Buick also has the Enclave large crossover. A small unnamed crossover will arrive either late this year or sometime next year.

Cafaro said Buick is developing an image and determining what models need to be added to the product line.

"Buick is kind of going through what Cadillac went through" when it reinvented itself, he said. "Cadillac said: 'What we are doing is not working. Our customers are dying off. We have to carve a new image.' That is where Buick is right now."

Cafaro said a coupe would make a statement for Buick, "and a statement means it is going to be the flagship. All the design cues and everything would drive themselves down into all Buicks.

"A coupe is definitely where you say, 'I'm back.' "

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...#ixzz0fjWcLhWF

 

NOW IT WOULD BE A TRAVESTY IF BUICK CAME OUT WITH A COUPE BEFORE LEXUS (please no one lecture on the 1g SC which is dead or the IS-C).

 

Are you serious?

Buick had several coupes in it's history. Riviera, Regal and Skylark just to name a few. What point are you trying to make? Sounds like you're trying to start trouble.

 

and this beauty.
The Buick Reatta.

 

Rather than a flagship sedan, a coupe is kind of around the lines that Infiniti was thinking about going for...a lower-volume 'flagship' with 2 doors.

I agree that Lexus should come out with more coupes as well. Not more 'flagship coupes' - Lexus already has a supercar...rather, a 1SC successor tops my list...along with a IS coupe.

 

A Buick coupe; interesting. I wonder who the target demographic of this car is.

 

At first glance, I'm liking the idea.

 

Not bad. I like the idea of Buick reinventing itself. My first car was a Buick (not by choice, really) and soon became known as the "couch on wheels" by my friends.

 

Looks like a rounded Cadillac coupe - the SLR or whatever it's called.

 

Yes I know Buick had coupes before Lexus was even created but that was decades ago. More recently Buick has been a senior brand with nothing but big heavy sedans. As we all know this is quickly changing, but my point was that Lexus a true luxury brand has no coupes and hasn't had one in a decade while Buick a tier two senior brand will probably have a coupe...

+1

 

Yeah, I went through that nonsense as a teen-ager, too, with some fun-poking kids, although most of my friends liked me anyhow, no matter what I drove. I had two used Buicks before age 20.....one BY choice, and the other because it was a cream puff of a used car and a tough deal to pass up. I liked them both, but the first one a lot more, even though it wasn't in as good as condition as the second. I wasn't all soft, luxury cars, though....had a sporty Plymouth Barracuda as well.

While Buicks and young people generally don't mix well (except, perhaps for the 60's-vintage GS350/400 and the 80's-vintage Grand National), you and I (and others) are examples of why it is not as rare to see young people in Buicks as many think....and another friend of mine had a big Olds 88, another car that was considered "Grandpa" back then.

 

The Reatta was not a conventional coupe, but a two-seater. It was, also, mechanically, very unreliable.....just like many late 1980's GM cars.

 

Convertible is even better. That concept looks very nice. BUILD IT DAMN IT!

I'm getting tired of Buick saying they need to target younger customers because their current base is literally getting old and dying off. The Enclave looks good and the new crop of sedans is nice, but nothing screams youthful like a small or mid-size coupe.

Build something that can compete with the looks of a 3-series coupe and you might bring someone under 60 into the showroom.

 

The Riviera nameplate, as I see it, would probably the be the best name to bring back for a new coupe/flagship, if they are going to use a retro name. 60's vintage Rivieras, particularly the '63-'67 models, were considered the best competitors to Ford's four-seater T-Bird; even more than the high-performance Pontiac Grand Grix. The classic boat-tail models of the early 70's, though not as well-built as the 60's and somewhat cheaper inside, were the most visually stunning ones.



The Riviera nameplate was also brought back for a while in the 1990's, but, by then, was nowhere near the same car.

 

I'd like to see them bring back the Electra (or Roadmaster) nameplates, too....perhaps on the basic Lucerne platform. The plush, comfortable Electra was always one of my favorite big Buicks. They came in 2-door coupes (the thread title), 4-door pillarless hardtops, and 4-door sedans.