Custom 1972 Boat Tail Riviera Project on 2040-cars

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2025 Buick Enclave changes trim names and pricing

Buick loves to fiddle with its trim names. In 2020, the Enclave offered Base, Essence, Premium and Avenir trims. Two years later, the trim steps went Preferred, Essence, Premium and Avenir. Two years later, in 2022, only Essence, Premium, and Avenir remained. And the 2025 Enclave has done another presto change-o, with Essense becoming Preferred, and Premium switching to Sport Touring. And while we knew that, what we didn't know were the prices for these reshuffled trims, which GM Authority sniffed out. MSRPs for the 2025 Enclave after the $1,395 destination charge, and their differences from 2024, are: Preferred: $46,395 ($1,100) Sport Touring: $48,795 (New trim) Avenir:  $59,395 ($500) These are all front-drivers, sending power to the rear wheels adds $2,000 to the price.  The Sport Touring costs $2,490 more than the entry-level Preferred, nearly 40% more than the current option price. Also, since it's a spiffier version of the Preferred, the Sport Touring is $3,800 less than the current middle trim, the 2024 Enclave Premium.     Mechanically, the Enclave gets the same turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder as the Acadia and Traverse as its sole engine option. Output comes to 328 horsepower and 326 pound-feet of torque, sent through an eight-speed automatic. Towing capacity is 5,000 pounds,  All Enclaves except the Avenir get a standard 30-inch instrument and infotainment display, floating center console, adjustable ambient lighting, wireless device charging and a 12-speaker. The range-topper takes the sound system to 16 speakers, adds a panoramic sunroof, front seat ventilation and massage function, rear seat heating, a head-up display, plus adaptive shocks working larger 22-inch wheels. The Sport Touring (ST), as one might expect, adopts black trim, including in the grille, and black 20-inch wheels.  Buick added standard ADAS perks like automatic emergency braking with intersection support, blind-spot monitoring with steering assist, plus lane-keep assist as standard. And Super Cruise will be an option. All told, it's a healthy improvement in features for relatively small price increases.

GM reports third straight sales drop in China in 2020

BEIJING — General Motors' vehicle sales in China fell 6.2% in 2020, as the U.S. automaker suffered a prolonged slowdown in the world's biggest auto market. GM, China's second biggest foreign automaker, delivered 2.9 million vehicles in the country last year, the company said on Wednesday, for a third straight decline in annual sales. But sales have been recovering in the second half of last year, up 12% between July and September and 14% in the final three months. GM has a Shanghai-based joint venture with SAIC Motor, in which the Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicle brands are made. It also has another Liuzhou-based venture, with SAIC and Guangxi Automobile Group, in which they make no-frills minivans and have started to make higher-end cars. Sales of its Buick brand grew 4% on the year and Wuling rose 9%, the statement said. Luxury brand Cadillac's sales increased 8%. Sales of GM's more affordable Baojun brand dropped 33% last year, while sales of its mass-market Chevrolet tumbled 30%. GM's delivery of 2.9 million vehicles in China follows 3.09 million vehicles in 2019, 3.65 million vehicles in 2018, and 4.04 million in 2017, for a three-year decrease of 28%.

Junkyard Gem: 1956 Buick Special 4-Door Sedan

Buick was flying high in the middle 1950s, with an all-time sales record of nearly 800,000 cars sold for the 1955 model year alone. Buick stood proud in third place for new-car sales in the United States for 1955 and 1956, behind only Chevrolet and Ford. At this time, both Oldsmobile and Buick built cars on the GM B Platform, with the Buick being the swankier and more prestigious of the two. Here's one of those Buicks, found in a Denver self-service boneyard recently. The list price of this car was $2,416, or about $27,505 in 2023 dollars. Located one step down on the GM Ladder of Success, the 1956 Olds 88 sedan started at $2,226 ($25,342 now). The Oldsmobile had a 324-cubic-inch (5.3-liter) Rocket V8 rated at 230 horsepower, which was serious stuff for 1956. This 322-cubic-inch Buick Nailhead V8 made ten fewer horses for 1956, but it would be bored and stroked out to 364 cubes for 1957 (and was all about land-yacht torque, in any case). A three-on-the-tree manual transmission was standard equipment on the 1956 Buick Special, but this one has the $204 Dynaflow automatic transmission ($2,332 in today's money). The Dynaflow usually gets called a two-speed, but it drove like more of a very inefficient (yet smooth) CVT that had two manually-selected ranges. This car spent too many decades outdoors to have any chance of a restoration. As often happens with cars stored in fields in rural Colorado, someone used this Buick for target practice. The bullet holes look like little VentiPorts. Does the '56 Buick go? Va-va-va-voom!