The Crank: Buick needs to believe in its own brand

By John LeBlanc So there I was in Vancouver, recent home of some world class winter athletes, and without a bit of irony hanging in the air, General Motors Canada was pitching its new 2011 Buick Regal, the latest in a lineup that now has to live up to the brand’s “A new class of world class” tagline.

Now, if you haven’t been paying attention, Buick has gone global. Although its Enclave SUV and soon-to-retire Lucerne full-size sedan are homegrown, last year’s LaCrosse was designed in and for the Asian market (i.e. China is Buick’s biggest market.) And this here new Regal is really a German Opel Insignia, while next year’s Volkswagen Jetta-fighting compact sedan will have an Opel Astra platform, already on sale in Asia as the Excelle.

But back to the matter at hand: In Europe, this year’s Regal/Insignia midsize sedan competes against the Ford Mondeo, Honda Accord and VW Passat. On our shores, it goes up against Acura's version of the Euro Accord (the TSX,) Lincoln MKZ, Mazda6, Suzuki Kizashi and Passat 2.0T. And after a few hundred kilometres in the top-line, just-under $35k Regal CXL Turbo, it would be my pick above any of the aforementioned as an entry-level sports sedan. It certainly lives up to the brand’s new aspirational tagline.

Although there are no five-door versions of the Insignia heading our way (yet), there’s more Regal goodness coming. A six-speed manual will be available next spring, and an even higher performing Regal GS has been confirmed—all good news for a brand that needs to win back import buyers.

Having said that, Buick also offers lesser Regals. And this is where the brand’s new “A new class of world class” positioning goes a bit sideways for me. Under the CXL Turbo, there’s also the $3k-cheaper regular CXL, which gets a non-blown four-cylinder found in other GM products. Except for the lack of response when pushed, there’s inherently nothing wrong with the mill—especially if you were coming from the last Regal, a car that would finish out of the running against any kind of world class competition. But it doesn't match up to the rest of the Regal's inherently good road manners. We were also told that an even lower end (i.e. less expensive) CX Regal would arrive next year—with cloth seats!

Now I get that Buicks in the past have been bought on price alone. And it must be tough turning away those returning customers who were quite happy with less-than-world-class cars in the past, or that in some towns, the only GM franchise may be a Buick-GMC shop, with no down-market Chevrolet offerings.

But think about this: If I want to get cloth seats in an Acura TSX, I’ll just have to move down to a Honda Accord. Or if I want less performance in my Infiniti, I can trot on over to a Nissan dealership. So, in a perfect world, if I can’t afford “A new class of world class,” which the Regal CXL Turbo clearly is, then there’s always a Chevy Malibu, right?

Do you think that Buick needs to still cater to its older buyers?

Or do you think that with products like the excellent new Regal (in Turbo trim, at least), it can bring import buyers into its showrooms?

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