Photo: Buick China
Back when Louis Chevrolet was just a racing driver for Buick, the premium brand in the General Motors portfolio wasn't as watered down as it is as of late. If badge engineering is the name of the game for the marque at the moment, one can only wonder how it has come to this from the carmaker that introduced turn signal lights as a standard feature back in 1939.
For real! Joseph Bell patented a lighting device that flashed in the late 1930s, after which Buick applied much the same recipe on their 1939 Century model. Although the industry’s first-ever standard blinkers were part of the trunk assembly (not incorporated in the taillight clusters), Buick steadily lost its flair and specialness over the years, which is a big shame.
I don’t really mind that the entire 2015 model year Buick lineup is made up of badge engineered Opel and Chevrolet cars. What truly bothers me is how a brand as American as Buick focuses on China more than on the U.S. of A. because the Chinese are just crazy for cars wearing the trademark waterfall grille. After the long-awaited Envision crossover was unveiled in the Asian country last year, the marque is now preparing to take the veils off a major overhaul of the China-only Excelle.
The image above is a teaser shot of what’s coming this March online and in the flesh this April at the Shanghai Auto Show. It’s hard to tell whether this is the hatchback 2015 Buick Excelle XT or the sedan variant, which will be known as the Excelle GT, but those headlights and the front fascia’s proportions appear very similar to the outgoing Opel Astra (J).
Another question left unanswered by the cryptic release and Google Translate’s lack of Chinese understating is whether the 2015 Buick Excelle is merely a facelift or an all-new model altogether. If it’s all-new, then what we’re looking at is a posher variant of the 2016 Chevrolet Cruze, a model that incidentally debuted in China way before the US consumer will get to see it displayed at dealers.
I don’t really mind that the entire 2015 model year Buick lineup is made up of badge engineered Opel and Chevrolet cars. What truly bothers me is how a brand as American as Buick focuses on China more than on the U.S. of A. because the Chinese are just crazy for cars wearing the trademark waterfall grille. After the long-awaited Envision crossover was unveiled in the Asian country last year, the marque is now preparing to take the veils off a major overhaul of the China-only Excelle.
The image above is a teaser shot of what’s coming this March online and in the flesh this April at the Shanghai Auto Show. It’s hard to tell whether this is the hatchback 2015 Buick Excelle XT or the sedan variant, which will be known as the Excelle GT, but those headlights and the front fascia’s proportions appear very similar to the outgoing Opel Astra (J).
Another question left unanswered by the cryptic release and Google Translate’s lack of Chinese understating is whether the 2015 Buick Excelle is merely a facelift or an all-new model altogether. If it’s all-new, then what we’re looking at is a posher variant of the 2016 Chevrolet Cruze, a model that incidentally debuted in China way before the US consumer will get to see it displayed at dealers.
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