Things are Super for GM

Looks like GM is planning to go back to basics, reviving the "Super" title, first released in 1940. The new models that will bear the Super badging will be the 2008 Buick Lucerne and the LaCrosse. This revival attempt comes after several attempts over the years with other Buick brand names like the Century, Special and Skylark.

“The Super name emphasizes Buick luxury, power and performance,” describes it, Buick General Manager Steve Shannon. “We’re taking a great name from our heritage to designate the most premium cars we have ever offered.” Premium or no premium, the Buick LaCrosee will hit dealerships in the summer and the only detail known so far is that it will have a 5.3 liter V8 engine, developing 300 horsepower.

A Buick historian puts it this way: “The name Super, evoking the glamour and elegance of rail travel of the late ‘30s, harks back to a time when America was on the upswing, having weathered the trials of the Great Depression, but had not seen the horrors of a second world war that was on the horizon.”

The Super variant of the Lucerne sedan will have a 4.6 liter Northstar V8 engine which develops 292 horsepower. Maybe this time GM will keep the Super brand in production a little bit longer than they did last time, when Super models were produced from 1940 to 1958 ( 1943 to 1945 being left out because they were war years).