1971 Buick Skylark on 2040-cars

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2020 Buick Encore, Encore GX set for Shanghai debut

Buick says it will debut the all-new 2020 Encore small crossover and new-for-China Encore GX compact crossover at the Buick Brand Night April 15 in Shanghai on the eve of Auto Shanghai 2019. They'll join the updated 2020 LaCrosse and LaCrosse Avenir sedans, which GM is discontinuing here in the U.S. Buick released a darkened teaser image of both vehicles in rear three-quarters view, though it's a little hard to tell which is which (we're going with the GX being the one on the right). It suggests the Encore gets more streamlined taillights that taper along the rear liftback, with some redesigned creases on the door panels and haunches. The latter don't appear to be present on the Encore GX, which Buick says is a new addition to the model series in China. Both will be offered with GM's new nine-speed Hydra-Matic and continuously variable transmissions, plus what Buick says will be "enhanced connectivity," including new technologies. They'll join the Envision and Enclave for China, which is Buick's largest market. First introduced in 2013, The Encore was last refreshed for 2017. It has been the top-selling Buick model in the U.S. for the past 3 years, with 93,073 sold last year, up 5.7% from 2017.

Buick and Bar Refaeli teach in-car yoga

We're not sure which make or model you'd most readily associate with yoga. You'd probably see a fair few Mercedes convertibles, VW Beetles, and assorted minivans and crossovers outside your typical American yoga studio. But not to be left out of the contorting action, Buick is out to link itself to the age-old practice with these latest videos. They feature, as you can see, the ever lithe and supple Bar Rafaeli, clad in spandex, stretching and contorting herself inside and out of a Buick Verano. Which is really all you should need to know, but there's a little more to the clip above (and the behind-the-scenes video below) than eye candy. Choreographed by yoga guru Chad Dennis, the idea behind the video – cleverly entitled The Body Shop – is to show drivers, in as artful and visually pleasing a way as possible, how to limber up their body, mind, and soul in preparation for (or recovery from) a long drive. It also serves to promote the brand's new 24 Hours of Happiness test drive program that lets prospective buyers take a Buick home and try it out for a day before buying. And if nothing else, it aptly demonstrates that Buick has excellent taste – or at least as good as Sports Illustrated that gave the Israeli model her first big break, Leonardo DiCaprio whom she dates for several years, and the dozens of fashion labels, jewelry brands, and magazines for which she's posed in recent years.

Junkyard Gem: 1988 Buick LeSabre Custom Sedan

The General's Buick Division began selling LeSabres for the 1959 model year, when it greeted the world with a cat-eyed face and razor-sharp tailfins, and the LeSabre rolled on the full-sized, rear-wheel-drive B Platform (best-known for underpinning the Chevrolet Impala and Caprice) all the way through 1985. For 1986, the LeSabre went to the front-wheel-drive H Platform, shedding a few hundred pounds and a half-foot of wheelbase, yet gaining interior room in the process. After that, every LeSabre ever made had a V6 engine driving the front wheels, all the way to the end in 2005. Here's one of those early H-Body LeSabres, found in a Denver-area self-service yard in incredibly clean condition. Some Buicks and Oldsmobiles of the mid-to-late 1980s (the ones on brand-new platforms) had six-digit odometers, which is the reason I was able to see that a discarded '86 Olds Calais with crazy customizing touches had better than 360,000 miles on the clock. This car just barely squeezed past 100,000 miles … and that's a higher number than I expected to see after glancing at the body and interior. Just look at that upholstery! There are no rips, and the only stains appear to have occurred after arrival in the junkyard ecosystem. I think we're looking at a one-owner car that was given meticulous care and was driven only to (a nearby) church on Sundays. Though the HRC sticker and Autobot badge seem out of place on an original-owner Buick that rolled out of the showroom 34 years ago. Perhaps the car was handed down from Owner #1 to a grandchild. This is the most high-zoot radio Buick would sell you in a 1988 LeSabre, complete with Dolby, auto-reverse cassette player, and scan/seek modes on the radio. The price tag on this? 282 bucks, or about 720 inflation-shrunk frogskins today; not cheap, but necessary to do justice to the hit songs of the day. If you wanted a factory CD player in a new LeSabre, you had to wait another year or two. Pollard Brothers Motors is still around, on the other side of the Continental Divide from the Denver region. Power came from an EFI-equipped Buick 3.8-liter V6, rated at 150 horsepower. The only transmission available was a four-speed automatic. Except for some dents that almost certainly happened at the junkyard, the paint and body look gorgeous. Problem is, H-Body LeSabres don't have an enthusiast following, and car shoppers looking for daily drivers tend to shy away from sedans this old.