July's Concept Of the Month: Buick Centieme

[BigAls87Z28]

GM Inside News's Concept of the Month for June, 2007 is the Buick Centieme!
By BigAls87Z28
www.GMInsidenews.com




This month, we are looking not to far back to the Buick Centieme concept. This vehicle is clearly the originator of the Buick Enclave, which is arguably the only dynamite product Buick has in its showrooms. The Enclave is getting such great success that I believe that for this month we will pay homage to its starting point, the Buick Centieme.

In 2003, Buick celebrated is 100 years in the automotive world. GM and Buick wanted to celebrate this by showing a car that looked towards the future, and to gain customers that were not as old as the company itself! The word "crossover" was just hitting the scene, making a vehicle that was not as tall as an SUV, but did not sacrifice room. A vehicle that looked better then a boring minivan, yet did not sacrifice functionality. Something that combined the best of both worlds of a mid size SUV's utility and an Minivans functionality. This idea of a crossover was just being explored, and Buick went this direction for its Centieme concept.




The Centieme has a very sleek, coupe like profile, giving it a very cool look to a tall wagon. The traditional chrome waterfall grill is center stage on a very smooth hood, and on each side are very angular and jewel-like headlights. The rest of the body is very smooth has a pretty aggressive stance with its wheels pushed to the corners to help increase interior space. Heading inside, there is extensive use of soft leather and wood trim. The dash board stretches from door to door displaying the instrument panel. The brushed aluminum gauges pop out from a beautiful wood veneer, which sit between a polished grate type surfaces giving it a contemporary yet retro look. The hand stitched leather surfaces on the dash as well as on the steering wheel look great along with wooden accents. The car has three rows of buckets, in which the last row has electric folding seats to increase cargo space in a snap.

As you get towards the back end of the car, you can see two oval exhaust tips which indicate that the car is packing some power, and the tips do not lie. Pushing the fumes out the rear is a 400hp twin-turbo V6 mated to a four speed automatic with paddle shifters. All this was controlled by an Versatrak on-demand all-wheel drive system that would help give the driver grip and control of this potent power train in all situations. At each corner sat big 22 inch wheels with low profile rubber on them, adding to the appearance of the vehicle as well as giving it a bit of flash.

No doubt that this vehicle set the stage for the highly anticipated Buick Enclave, which has earned some great reviews for its design, performance, quality and luxury in the past few months. This vehicle is set to do what Buick has wanted to do for a while, change is demographic and attract some younger buyers. This car was designed to go after the luxury cross over market big time, offering a potent engine, a modern six speed automatic transmission connected to either a front wheel or all wheel system with Stabilitrak and tons of other safety features that bring the vehicle ahead of the competition. Let’s hope that Enclave signals a resurgence in Buick, and let’s hope that we see some other former Buick concepts come to life.

[Shotgun]

Great find! You can definately see a lot of it in the Enclave. It's good to see Buick finally getting some GOOD attention from more than just GM fans. Hope the trend to "bring Buick back" will continue.

[Dirk Wiggler]

And the Enclave looks even better!

I'd definitely buy an Enclave as the family car-- and I'm only 33. The Buick team has done an amazing job.

[digonline]

Oh good grief, that rolling pantload looks like the egg that silly putty came in. If GM made that it would help to reserve Buick's spot in future Orphan Car Shows alongside Olds.

[ponchoman49]

Too bad they didn't keep the chrome bodyside molding from the concept as that would have spruced up the side of the Enclave as it looks too much like the bland Hyundai Vericruz.

[Hurricane]

Great looking concept vehicle!

[CobaltSScrazy]

i actually like the enclaves looks better. it looks more styled and together and detailed.

CobaltSScrazy

[CADILLACSIXTEEN]

Originally Posted by ponchoman49

Too bad they didn't keep the chrome bodyside molding from the concept as that would have spruced up the side of the Enclave as it looks too much like the bland Hyundai Vericruz.

I think the door molding on the Centieme is actually body color, but appears to be chrome....regardless, i think the side of the Enclave would look too busy with a chrome strip.... it looks good the way it is.

[PeterPuck]

I'm not a fan of that concept. It does look like the silly putty egg, haha.


But who knew that such a fine car could evolve from something like it? I guess this is what concepts are meant to do: create a starting point and experiment with design cues. In this case, it did its job well.

[Driveshaft]

Interesting to see the lines in the body carry over to the production Enclave. I certainly have high hopes for Buick and hope the rest of GM's brands, likewise, can get in touch with their niches once again.

[Rick 2000]

That concept make me sick it is soooooo ugly .

[keine Lust]

Wow, the centieme is ugly but the enclave is a beautiful car.
The concept even has the same rims, but know 22 and how about the twin turbo v6 pushing out 400hp what happend to that moter.
Why not use that in the CTS-V and using twin-turbo their is hardly any turbo laggg.
The centieme has one ugly front end.

[rsbaker]

Its amazing how close Enclave stayed to the Centieme Concept. Almost every single design theme has been retained.

[kendo26]

The Enclave is better looking, but the Centieme's grille is close to what the '05-'07 Lacrosse has.

[kenman923]

Definitely a close resemblance to the Enclave.