NEW YORK -- General Motors Corp. will replace Buick's entire lineup by 2007 or 2008 as the automaker seeks to put its No. 2 premium brand on better footing against Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus and Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln.
The Regal and Century sedans will be replaced by the LaCrosse, with a replacement for the LeSabre coming next year, Robert Lutz, GM's vice chairman for product development, said in New York last week.
The Park Avenue name will be parked, industry publication Automotive News reports.
Despite top-notch quality and reliability ratings from Consumer Reports magazine and J.D. Power & Associates and a worldwide reputation for prestige, Buick is struggling in America.
Indeed, the current annual sales volume of about 340,000 is less than half the 900,000 cars Buick sold at its peak, in 1984. Another challenge: The average age of Buick buyers is 67; only the recent addition of truck-based models has begun to attract younger buyers.
The situation in Buick's home market is one Lutz intends to remedy, in part by establishing a new design direction for the brand.
Anne Asensio, the French-born head of advanced concept design at GM, is in charge of the latest effort at giving Buick a new look.
The direction proposed by Asensio takes form in the Velite (pronounced vuh-LEET), a concept vehicle unveiled last week at the New York International Auto Show. This four-seat, rear-wheel-drive convertible suggests a broadened viewpoint for future Buick designs. "It builds on American heritage but for a global market," she said.
While Cadillac, Chevrolet and Pontiac have signaled new design directions with striking concepts that became production cars -- the XLR, SSR and Solstice, respectively -- Buick's efforts at designing a winning "halo car" and new design language have repeatedly come to grief. Buick's dream cars have tended to be bulbous and chunky, often rote repetitions of the waterfall grille and porthole hood trim that are the most obvious Buick "brand cues," as designers call them.
The Velite is more promising. At their best, Buicks are big American cars that still deliver smooth power from brawny engines and silky-smooth automatic transmissions. They are boulevard cruisers. In that tradition, the Velite offers an experimental 400-horsepower, twin-turbocharged V6 under its forward-opening hood.
The car's exterior was shaped by Tom Peters, who designed the Cadillac XLR, and Sang Yup Lee. It is a Buick-big car, a convertible that seats four. With 21-inch wheels in the rear (20 in the front), the Velite is a Buick concept with a noble stance, powerful and poised. The car is painted a color that Buick calls dark tarnished bronze metallic.
The car's name can be traced back to Napoleon, who in 1804 swelled the ranks of his army with an elite class of soldiers called the Velites. "The Velite is the advance guard, dashing head, with the rest of the Buick offensive to follow," Asensio said.
Full Aritcle
The Regal and Century sedans will be replaced by the LaCrosse, with a replacement for the LeSabre coming next year, Robert Lutz, GM's vice chairman for product development, said in New York last week.
The Park Avenue name will be parked, industry publication Automotive News reports.
Despite top-notch quality and reliability ratings from Consumer Reports magazine and J.D. Power & Associates and a worldwide reputation for prestige, Buick is struggling in America.
Indeed, the current annual sales volume of about 340,000 is less than half the 900,000 cars Buick sold at its peak, in 1984. Another challenge: The average age of Buick buyers is 67; only the recent addition of truck-based models has begun to attract younger buyers.
The situation in Buick's home market is one Lutz intends to remedy, in part by establishing a new design direction for the brand.
Anne Asensio, the French-born head of advanced concept design at GM, is in charge of the latest effort at giving Buick a new look.
The direction proposed by Asensio takes form in the Velite (pronounced vuh-LEET), a concept vehicle unveiled last week at the New York International Auto Show. This four-seat, rear-wheel-drive convertible suggests a broadened viewpoint for future Buick designs. "It builds on American heritage but for a global market," she said.
While Cadillac, Chevrolet and Pontiac have signaled new design directions with striking concepts that became production cars -- the XLR, SSR and Solstice, respectively -- Buick's efforts at designing a winning "halo car" and new design language have repeatedly come to grief. Buick's dream cars have tended to be bulbous and chunky, often rote repetitions of the waterfall grille and porthole hood trim that are the most obvious Buick "brand cues," as designers call them.
The Velite is more promising. At their best, Buicks are big American cars that still deliver smooth power from brawny engines and silky-smooth automatic transmissions. They are boulevard cruisers. In that tradition, the Velite offers an experimental 400-horsepower, twin-turbocharged V6 under its forward-opening hood.
The car's exterior was shaped by Tom Peters, who designed the Cadillac XLR, and Sang Yup Lee. It is a Buick-big car, a convertible that seats four. With 21-inch wheels in the rear (20 in the front), the Velite is a Buick concept with a noble stance, powerful and poised. The car is painted a color that Buick calls dark tarnished bronze metallic.
The car's name can be traced back to Napoleon, who in 1804 swelled the ranks of his army with an elite class of soldiers called the Velites. "The Velite is the advance guard, dashing head, with the rest of the Buick offensive to follow," Asensio said.
Full Aritcle
