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Buick to add more GS models?

Buick may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of performance automobiles, but fans of the brand know what letters to look for. If you believe the reports, there's a new GNX and Grand National on the way, but in the meantime, Buick may offer more GS models to fill the void.
Currently, the Regal is the only model available as a GS (pictured above), packing the same 259-horsepower turbo four as the Regal Turbo but enhanced with key suspension, brakes and rolling-stock upgrades. As Car and Driver notes, similar upgrades could easily be applied to the Verano and LaCrosse, although maybe not the Encore or Enclave crossovers. Of course, Buick would still have to steer clear of Cadillac's Vsport line, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a little room to play.

Buick applies the GS treatment to an electric Electra

A sporty Buick in the 21st century? A contradiction, some might think. But the product planners at Buick — usually the most conservative brand in General MotorsÂ’ stable — apparently think otherwise. Earlier this month, GM filed an application with the United States Patent office for the Electra GS nameplate, pairing the “Gran Sport” badge with a name that dates back to the first Electra model that debuted more than six decades ago. GM showed an Electra EV concept in 2020 in China and a sleek Buick Electra-X concept SUV this summer. As part of its plans to go to a fully electric lineup by 2030, Buick announced in June that an electric Electra — nice fit, no? — would be shown later this year and released in 2024. The addition of the prestigious Gran Sport badge refers back to the Buick muscle cars of the mid-Sixties, including the Skylark GS and the Riviera GS. It since has been applied to other Buicks, including the Regal GS. The brand has also indicated that it will launch at least two electric SUVs next year, but that plan might not entice some dealers to continue to sell and service Buicks: GM last month said it would offer dealerships in the United States buyouts if they balked at investing in the considerable upgrades required to service EVs. “Not everyone necessarily wants to make that journey, depending on where theyÂ’re located or the level of expenditure that the transition will demand,” Buick Global Vice President Duncan Aldred told the Wall Street Journal. “So if they want to exit the Buick franchise, then we will give them monetary assistance to do so.”       

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.