2010 Buick Enclave

Luxury crossovers are all the rage these days as minivans and large SUVs fall out of favor with car shoppers, and with the 2010 Buick Enclave, Cars.com editor Kelsey Mays can kind of see why. The Enclave combines good utility with luxurious trappings at a competitive price. In his full review, Mays explains how the Enclave hits the sweet spot on entry-level luxury, and why you might not miss a minivan’s space.

Review: 2011 Buick Regal Turbo

Since the launch of the Enclave in 2007, Buick has repeatedly touted a decline in average buyer age that still has yet to push the brand’s demographics into the fat sections of America’s population pyramid. Though the year-old LaCrosse appears to be helping Buick’s central PR narrative, even it is, at best, not your grandfather’s Buick. Despite a brand heritage based on a traditional, suburban American image whose fading appeal is evidenced in Buick’s pre-Enclave demographics, the long-term health of GM’s entry-luxury (or “premium,” to use GM-speak) marque depends on continued progress away from the “blue hair” image it has earned over the past several decades.

It should come as no surprise then, that the 2011 Regal is the most substantive break from Buick’s past to date. And no wonder: born in Germany as the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia, the Regal is as traditionally American as a Kraftwerk album. In Europe, the Insignia is sold as fashion-forward competitor in the mass-market, midsized segment. In the context of a Buick that still offers a taste of the geriatric image it’s desperate to escape in the H-Body Lucerne, the Regal is unapolgetically marketed as a sports sedan. And until a recently-approved high-performance GS version arrives, the 220 horsepower Turbo version is the bellweather for both the Regal’s sporting pretensions and Buick’s desire to attract a new kind of buyer.

The decision to launch the Regal on 200 miles of twisting road east of San Diego, California is testament to just how much Buick believes in the Regal’s sporting credentials. And this was no mirror-smooth, touring course either. Tight hairpins, deep compressions, nasty potholes and impossibly narrow, rough roads left the Regal no opportunity to fake the funk. Nausea-control armbands left in each Regal’s center console weren’t just for show either: several of Buick’s reps were looking decidedly green around the gills at the stops between driving stages.

And no wonder. The Regal Turbo we tested proved not only to be the best-handling Buick ever (damning with faint praise, to be sure), but also an accomplished athlete by any standard. The Regal Turbo is by far the most enthusiast-oriented application of GM’s Epsilon II platform to date, and was, throughout the test, a poised and willing dance partner. The front-drive chassis provided considerable grip through fast sweepers, performed sharp direction changes with aplomb and carried its 3,600 pound claimed curb weight with unexpected grace. And though a far cry from the squishy, all-day touring comfort that previously defined Buick chassis and suspension setups, it never felt overly harsh or hard-core. Even fitted with optional 19 inch wheels (reminiscent of the Jaguar XF’s), the ride remained impressively smooth.

Of course, on the kind of roads that one finds in the hill country east of San Diego, a well-settled chassis alone isn’t enough to deliver true enthusiast performance. The loaded Turbo model we drove was equipped with an active damping system that will be optional on Turbo models when they arrive at dealer lots later this year. With this option comes the choice of three modes, Normal, Touring and Sport, selectable with buttons on the instrument panel. According to the engineers responsible for developing the Regal Turbo, the car itself will even choose between the different modes based on its analysis of real-time telemetric data. With Sport mode engaged, the difference in suspension, steering and drivetrain settings were immediately noticeable, and is clearly responsible for many of the superlatives in this review. Because Sport mode is self-activating, however, it’s hard to say how a Turbo model without active damping would perform, and its advantages are based on an imperfect comparison to the 2.4 liter, normally-aspirated base Regal with 18 inch rims.

The 2011 Buick Regal begins sales in the US

The first 2011 Buick Regal was sold just outside of Chicago. The car was not even on the Woody Buick GMC dealership lot for 24 hours yet. The proud new owner of the Regal is a 44 year old executive at a manufacturing company in the Chicago area.

“The Regal is a superb car to drive on the road, with more of a European feel than any other car we looked at,” said the new owner. “My 15 year-old daughter has already said she wants to take the car to college with her in a few years.”

The new Regal owner traded in a 2007 Saturn Outlook and stated that the Regal offered all the right features in the right size. He also looked at the Toyota Camry and Audi A4, but decided on the Regal because it had all the amenities of a premium vehicle without the costly price tag.

2012 Buick Compact Crossover Rendered

Last week, Buick confirmed that two new models will be joining its lineup next year, but while patent sketches were available for the new compact sedan, no pictures exist of the new 2012 Buick compact crossover. Using what little information there is to go off of, Autotropolis has come up with a best guess design for the upcoming crossover that may or may not go by the name Buick Encore. This rendering is based off previous reports, known facts and recent spy photos.

What is known about the new crossover is that it will use the same General Motors Theta platform as the GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox and it will not resemble the now-extinct Saturn VUE. Instead of making the same rebadging mistakes it had in the past, GM will give the new crossover a styling that is said to resemble a baby Buick Enclave. The fastest and easiest way for GM to accommodate both of these is to use an existing design, so GM will likely turn to the Chevrolet Captiva body design which is a Theta-derived compact crossover available in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

For a styling to go up against luxury crossovers like the Lexus RX, the new Buick crossover will likely get a very distinguishable exterior design including Buick signature cues like the large waterfall grille and the hood-mounted portholes. Spy shots recently surfaced on the Internet showing what looks like a Captiva driving around with a camouflaged front end meaning that most of the changes will be made up front. One thing that is sure to be present on the new Buick crossover is plenty of exterior chrome.

Like the sister Theta platform vehicles, the new Buick crossover will likely be powered by the existing engines on the platform which include the 2.4-liter inline-four and the 3.0-liter direct-injected V-6 with both available in front- or all-wheel drive. The fuel-efficient inline-four is capable of 32 miles per gallon on the highway, while the V-6 delivers 264 horsepower and a respectable 25 mpg on the highway.