Buick Musings, and Then There Was the Excelle

My grandmother regularly purchased and drove new Buick automobiles even though she certainly could have afforded a Cadillac if she so chose. To her, a Buick had enough luxury in it without flaunting personal wealth, something that this Quaker bred woman was loathe to do.

Today, Buick soldiers on as the brand just below Cadillac, a line of premium vehicles that has diminished in popularity in the US, but has reached meteoric proportions in the People's Republic of China. Yes, in China of all places the Buick name has gained a solid footing, so much so that is by far General Motors' most popular brand, selling twice as many Buicks there than in America.

Buick's popularity in the US is understandable, but why China? Well, you have to go back nearly one hundred years during the reign of the emperors in the Forbidden Kingdom. Cars were new to the world at the time and both the last emperor and the first leader of modern China owned Buicks. Though decades of communist rule stamped out most Western practices and traditions, the quasi-capitalistic Chinese state of today has once again embraced all things global, uncovering the early interest in the Buick brand.

Due to the popularity of Buick in China, GM has bolstered the brand considerably by offering several more Buick models there than the three models sold in the US. While the American market has the LaCrosse, Lucerne, and Enclave, China sells several different models which are essentially rebadged versions of other GM products from Daewoo, Opel, Holden, and elsewhere. This year, Buick also began to export to China from the US its big Enclave crossover in a bid to expand its Chinese line up.

Of the cars sold in China, are there any that can also be sold in the US? One model that has gotten a lot of attention this year is the Excelle, a compact sedan that is smaller than the LaCrosse, the smallest of the two sedans currently offered by Buick (Lucerne being the other one). The current iteration of the Excelle is based on a Daewoo platform and sold throughout Asia and other parts of the world as Daewoo, Holden, Chevrolet, and even Suzuki models. Powered by small four cylinder gas engines with a displacement between 1.4L and 2.0L, the Excelle could be just the type of model fuel conscious Buick buyers would consider buying, provided that the quality and luxury levels were there.

Beginning with the 2009 model year, a new Excelle is being sold overseas, a vastly improved model that has sweeping lines and unmistakable Buick features including the signature fascia and ornamental portholes. That model has fueled recent rumors that GM would make the Excelle available stateside, whether imported from China or built in a US factory remains unknown, but is a distinct possibility nonetheless.

Powered by 1.6L or 1.8L four cylinder engines, the Excelle would certainly be the smallest Buick sold stateside in quite some time. Likely, if GM chose to bring the car to the US, it would be mated to a six-speed automatic transmission to help it achieve superior fuel economy. Perhaps GM would even consider offering a six-speed manual transmission to broaden the car's appeal to a younger generation. Easily, a compact Buick should get about 35 mpg, a figure which would help GM meet more stringent federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements.

If my grandmother were alive today, I doubt that she would choose a car as small as the Excelle, given her larger car tastes. But, if GM manages to offer this car stateside with a level of quality and luxury that Buick drivers expect, the Excelle could once again bolster the brand's image and be a hit with American drivers eager to enjoy compact luxury car driving.