Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Buick, GM, New Car Reviews
A Great Sport Sedan With One Big “But”
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/02/03-2012-buick-regal-gs-review-opt.jpg
Of the remaining General Motors nameplates, Buick is the one that’s most difficult to wrap your mind around. On the one hand, it’s supposed to be a premium brand, but on the other, it’s selling vehicles with sticker prices that tend to start in the $20,000 price range, seemingly encroaching on Chevrolet territory. To wit: The Buick Verano is a bit over $23,000 and the Buick Regal starts just under $28,000, while Chevy sells its Cruze, Malibu and Impala in that same range. Even the Buick LaCrosse, whose price shot up nearly $4,000 this year, starts at $31,045. Indeed, GM must be using a mandoline to price the different versions of its sedans clustered around the $25,000-$30,000 price range.
But it’s over that threshold where things get really perplexing. Because whether we understand GM’s strategy or not, a twenty-some-thousand dollar Buick makes sense. You look at all the boxes you have to tick on a mainstream brand product to get the amenities that Buick offers and you dump that and all the data about the premium competition in a spreadsheet, and you can probably justify a Buick as a wise purchase. If you’re an actuary or an accountant, all the better.
A Regal GS with a $35,310 base price (or an as-tested cost of $38,155 like ours), however, has stepped onto an entirely different playing field, like a junior varsity kid getting bumped up to play on Friday night. This isn’t the sort of car you research over the Internet and lease after a five-minute test drive. It’s purportedly a driver’s car, something to seek out and manhandle. We thus find it rather disingenuous to compare it with cars from Acura and Volvo - the Regal GS is really scrapping with vetted sports sedans like the Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series, and even its kissing-GM-cousin, the larger Cadillac CTS.Continue reading 2012 Buick Regal GS
2012 Buick Regal GS originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1paknrxr7aAwJyCCKpmNiUhrKPg/0/di
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1paknrxr7aAwJyCCKpmNiUhrKPg/1/di
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=ASAGYCkUV7Q:ToZCxHQiW8I:wF9xT3WuBAs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=ASAGYCkUV7Q:ToZCxHQiW8I:V_sGLiPBpWU
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/ASAGYCkUV7Q