Would more European Opels make you buy more Buicks?

Story by John LeBlanc As its traditional customers fade away, General Motors' demi-luxury brand Buick is looking for new ways to bring in younger buyers. One is the consolidation of GM’s European Opel products with Buicks currently sold in North America and China. In a Reuters interview with GM executives at last week’s Frankfurt auto show, the American automaker said its working towards Opel having more influence on new Buick models. The report says that unlike GM’s plans to make its Chevrolet and Cadillac brand distinct and separate, it wants to cover global markets with a combined Opel/Buick effort. And like its rivals at the Volkswagen Group, Toyota, Ford and Renault-Nissan, GM wants to cut its product development time and costs while at the same time offer more vehicles in more markets.The idea is Opel-badged vehicles would be built and sold mainly in Europe and Buick versions would be built and sold primarily in North America and China. Already, Buick and Opel share a lot. The Canadian-market Buick Encore comact crossover and Regal sports sedan are ostensibly the same respective vehicles as the Opel Mokka and Insignia. While the Buick Verano is built on the same platform as the Opel Astra sedan. Already in the works, Buick is planning an all-new compact crossover (the Envision, due in 2015) that will also be sold in Europe as the Opel Angara. And if GM goes ahead with its consolidation plans, Canadians could see European-Opels like the Mini-me Adam city car (seen above), Cascada convertible or even the just-released Insignia Country Tourer (seen below) sold here as Buicks. What do you MSN Autos Canada readers think? Would having more Opel-sourced Buicks make the GM brand more palatable to import-brand loyalists? Or is the Buick brand doomed to the same fate as the long-gone Plymouth and Oldsmobile marques? Source: Automotive News

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