Buick kills Regal and TourX, goes SUV only

In reply to Duke & Vigo:

It's not the concept of a 4 cylinder turbo, it's the actual delivery of it.  I test drove turbocharged 4 bangers before I bought my 3 and manufacturers can bloviate all they want about "No Turbo Lag" but non-linear power delivery is still a thing.  And the more a transmission has to hunt around for its powerband, the worse its going to be.  I've driven a bunch of rental cars over the past couple of years, and pretty much the best combination still seems to be an N/A V6 of moderate displacement and an automatic transmission.  In the dismal, bleak hellscape of a future where manual transmissions are extinct, anyway.  

So, no, most buyers don't care at all what's under the hood, but I could definitely see them caring how it works. 

And I'm saying that the power delivery of the turbo / twincharged 2.0 4 cylinders in the Volvos we recently bought is better than it is in either the Ecoboost 6 Fusion Sport or the 3 liter V6 in the TLX, even though it absolutely shouldn't be on paper.

Admittedly, I have not driven GM's turbo 2.0.

Duke said:

And I'm saying that the power delivery of the turbo / twincharged 2.0 4 cylinders in the Volvos we recently bought is better than it is in either the Ecoboost 6 Fusion Sport or the 3 liter V6 in the TLX, even though it absolutely shouldn't be on paper.

Admittedly, I have not driven GM's turbo 2.0.

 

But a friend with a new V6tt Ecoorboost Fusion says the old school inline turbo six in my Volvo provides a better power delivery.  I've no experience of the twin charged Volvo 4's though, I aimed for the straight six T6 with Polestar purposfully.

In reply to Duke :

And, admittedly, I have not driven the Volvo 4 bangers.  So we're even.  

Sorry to see them go. Currently own a '16 AWD Regal Premium II, one of the best DD's in over 40 years of driving. 

Adrian_Thompson said:

I don't get the hate.  Car companies make what people want to buy and people buy what they want.  What's wrong with that?  It's always been the same.  I swear if upright cars had been popular 50 years ago and sedans were the rage now enthusiasts would be bitching that manufacturers had stopped making practical cars and were obsessed with these useless low cars.

I'm going to disagree with you there. A majority of the population will buy what commercials and groupthink tell them to buy. My soon to be ex-wife would only want Subaru crossovers because her friends, family, and "we love animals" advertising told her to. Not even a thought to cross-shop anything else on the market for a similar price not to mention even considering function. Now she's stuck with one of the new Crosstreks that has a faulty engine and a CVT that like's to do the cha-cha slide before it decides to lunge forward. 

Adrian_Thompson said:

The cache of Buick in China isn't just that it's seen as a successful American brand, it's also as when China started opening up Buicks were favored by party members, so the brand has it's local cache.  As the Chinese market is larger than the US market in vehicle sales I'd say it appears to be a great move by GM.

China is a weird weird state. You have to own a license plate before you can purchase a car. In some areas you have to apply to a lottery to purchase a plate, then, go purchase your vehicle. 

Keith Tanner said:

Adrian_Thompson said:

Are there figures for wagon sales in Canada Vs the S?  I've noticed several times that VW and Volvo wagons seem massively popular over there still.  When we drove through Ontario to pick up my V60 wagon we stopped over night in Niagara and we parked my wife's Mini Clubman (Mini Wagon) between two VW Wagons with an Audi wagon next to them.  When was the last time you saw 4 wagons in a row in the US?

I haven't seen specific sales figures - but yes, Canadians buy more wagons and more manual transmissions than Americans. I know the 1991 Passat wagon came with a stick in Canada and not in the US.  When the Sportwagen was discontinued earlier this year, VW Canada basically said "we know you're going to keep building them until the end of the years, send us all of them!"

Best selling car in Canada is the Honda Civic. Best selling car in the US is a RAV4, with the Honda 6th (I am ignoring pickup trucks in both cases). Surprisingly different markets.

https://driving.ca/ford/f-150/features/feature-story/canadas-10-best-selling-vehicles-in-2019s-first-three-quarters

here is Canada's top 10 just like the states the big 3 trucks are the king of sales here aswell. However the civic is barely ahead of the rav4 now and losing sales.

That article confirms - best selling car in Canada is the Honda Civic and that's been true for 22 years. In the US, it's 6th. I am ignoring pickup trucks in both cases.

Keith Tanner said:

That article confirms - best selling car in Canada is the Honda Civic and that's been true for 22 years. In the US, it's 6th. I am ignoring pickup trucks in both cases.

Yes but probably not for much longer the civic only sold 128 more cars then the RAV4.

Streetwiseguy said:

I was a bit disappointed, as I scanned back over this thread.  I was almost back at the beginning, and I thought I could be the first to say,"Wait, they still make Buicks?".  But there it was, in all it's troll-ey glory.  Me sad.  Me like trolling.

It's not like they weren't anything but rebadged Opels anyway.

9In reply to pointofdeparture :

Reading through this thread brings to mind the rental SUV I had a couple of weeks ago.

I requested a compact. Instead, I was assigned a Volvo XC90 T6.

What a beast- turbocharged and supercharged, with four driven, steamroller-sized wheels to put all that power to the ground. Real ebony trim adorns the doors and dash.

A lot went into this vehicle, but I had no idea what was under the hood or whether that wood was real until I looked it up on my phone while stuck behind a coupon-obsessed biddy at Kroger. I didn't even have it anymore by then.

Maybe it's arbitrary, but a vehicle of that form factor will never excite me. Had I been given a sedan with all those features to drive, I would have been showing it off. Done doughnuts on the neighbor's lawn, etc.

Conversely, the people buying these things have no idea what a turbo, supercharger, or likely even AWD is. You could put a 3.8L V6 with throttle-body ignition and pushrods in it and they'd be none the wiser.

Such a wasted oportunity each of those things is.

b13990 said:

Conversely, the people buying these things have no idea what a turbo, supercharger, or likely even AWD is.

Eh...  A lot of people seem to know (or think) that turbo = more power.  I've heard a few people talk about their new Civic as being fast because it's got a turbo.  Or they think that having a turbo means their car is better than someone else's, even if the other car makes more power. 

Everybody knows adding the word "TURBO" to anything makes it cooler!