2006 Buick Lucerne Cxl on 2040-cars

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NC dealer falsely announces return of Regal Grand National, Regal GNX

Like many new car dealers, Liberty Buick GMC gets so excited about its brands' new wares that it puts out press releases announcing when new models are on the way. That's not typically national news, but the Charlotte, NC store has created a bit of internet hubbub by announcing that it will be "one of the first dealers in the country to offer the Buick Regal GNX," and it's even started to add customers names to a waitlist. Only one problem: Despite seemingly annual rumors and calls for such a model, Buick hasn't announced any Grand National models at all – let alone a GNX – and no such models are actually in the cards. The Liberty Buick press release talks in a nostalgic, venerative tone of the original 1982-1987 GN franchise, and goes on to say: "These returning relics will be based on the highly-acclaimed Alpha vehicle architecture currently used in the Cadillac ATS, 2014 Cadillac CTS, and soon to be in the sixth-generation Chevy Camaro. Alpha is the internal name of a General Motors vehicle architecture engineered to underpin compact and mid-size rear-wheel-drive vehicles." In the release, Liberty Buick claimed the GN/GNX models would arrive in late 2015, citing a coupe bodystyle, including a rather fantastical-looking GNX rendering from Bestride.com. Unsurprisingly, none of this is true. Autoblog reached out to Buick for comment about the release, and brand communications manager Nick Richards confirmed that the company had discussed the matter with Liberty Buick representatives. Richards went on to say that the release was wholly incorrect, proclaiming "an agency [for the dealer] picked up a lot of stuff off the internet" and ran with it, including an old Car and Driver story from 2013. The dealership subsequently issued a retraction, with Scott McCorkle, owner of Liberty Buick GMC saying: "We love the idea of the Buick Regal GNX coming back to our showroom but for now, it's only a concept. Bottom-line, the article was incorrect.

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!

Buick Encore, Chevy Trax reportedly dead after 2022

The Buick Encore will not get an encore, and the Chevrolet Trax is dead in its tracks. Separate unverified reports say the two crossovers, which are essentially identical underneath the sheetmetal, will retire at the end of the 2022 model year without being directly replaced. Citing anonymous sources, enthusiast website GM Authority wrote that production of the Encore and the Trax is scheduled to end in the third quarter of 2022. Both models are manufactured in Bupyeong-gu, South Korea, and General Motors will reportedly use the extra production capacity to build more examples of the Trailblazer, which outsold the Encore and the Trax combined by a significant margin in 2021. General Motors hasn't commented on the report, but we wouldn't be surprised if the end is indeed near for the Encore and the Trax. Buick released the Encore for the 2013 model year, and Chevrolet launched the Trax for 2015, but the model made its debut as the Opel Mokka in 2012. It's at the end of its life cycle, and sales figures reflect this: 20,072 units of the Encore were sold in America in 2021, a drop of 52% compared to 2020, while 42,590 examples of the Trax found a home, a 60% decline. It's further proof that Americans don't like small cars. Viewed in that light, the decision not to replace either crossover makes perfect sense. If the report is accurate, the Encore GX (which is not related to the Encore in any way) will enter the 2023 model year as Buick's entry-level model. The situation is a little more complicated at Chevrolet: The pocket-sized Spark is on its way out in 2022 as well, meaning that the Trailblazer will become the entry point into the range. It's a different story in Europe: Opel, which is now part of the Stellantis group, released the second-generation Mokka in June 2020.