By Herb Shuldiner
WardsAuto.com, Mar 19, 2008 11:22 AM
NEW YORK – Flair, grace and elegance mark the history of Buick design, says Edward Welburn, General Motors Corp.’s vice president of global design.
That’s why his youngest designers are eager to work on the brand. “They love designing Buicks,” he says.
At a press conference on the eve of the New York International Auto Show here, Welburn gives a sneak peak at Buick’s latest concept by revealing a partial view of the Invicta that debuts at the Beijing auto show next month.
Welburn declines to say whether the Invicta name will return to Buick after a gap of 45 years as a production model.
But the concept, co-developed by GM studios in North America and China, will influence a future generation of Buicks with its design cues, he promises.
It’s possible the new Invicta will play a similar role to the Velite and Y Job concepts of the past that yielded design inspirations for other models but never went into production. Even so, the past concepts did their job, he says.
Some, but not all, future Buicks will be the same in North America and China. There still will be some models sold exclusively in one region and not the other.
http://wardsauto.com/ar/welburn_buick_rebirth/
WardsAuto.com, Mar 19, 2008 11:22 AM
NEW YORK – Flair, grace and elegance mark the history of Buick design, says Edward Welburn, General Motors Corp.’s vice president of global design.
That’s why his youngest designers are eager to work on the brand. “They love designing Buicks,” he says.
At a press conference on the eve of the New York International Auto Show here, Welburn gives a sneak peak at Buick’s latest concept by revealing a partial view of the Invicta that debuts at the Beijing auto show next month.
Welburn declines to say whether the Invicta name will return to Buick after a gap of 45 years as a production model.
But the concept, co-developed by GM studios in North America and China, will influence a future generation of Buicks with its design cues, he promises.
It’s possible the new Invicta will play a similar role to the Velite and Y Job concepts of the past that yielded design inspirations for other models but never went into production. Even so, the past concepts did their job, he says.
Some, but not all, future Buicks will be the same in North America and China. There still will be some models sold exclusively in one region and not the other.
http://wardsauto.com/ar/welburn_buick_rebirth/