In a shocking act of de-fugging, Buick (or should I say GM) is killing off two of it’s siblings. Actually - you might not have been aware there were two. The Rainier and Rendezvous look so similar you might have thought they were the same car.
Strangely though, Buick is keeping the Terraza "crossover" minivan. Cause you know - when I think American luxury I picture a minivan. Not only that, it no longer has a car that even resembles an SUV (well - Terraza looks like a Minivan pretending to be an SUV), which is strange given their popularity in this day of high gas prices.
The Rainier is a clone of the Chevy Trailblazer, GMC Envoy and the Saab 9-7X (and the also dead Oldsmobile Bravada). The Rendezvous is based on a modified platform that is used by the Terazza/SV6/Uplander/Relay, and is shared with the Aztec and Vue.
For those of you unfamiliar with the above: the Rainier is on top, followed by the Rendezvous with the Terraza last.
1 comment:
Bean, GM is really messed up these days! It looks like they're trying to kill off Buick now. Then Pontiac will be next. Then it'll just be Chevrolet and Cadillac. Too many of the compact Chevrolets are Daewoos and Opels, and they don't have any honest-to-goodness full-frame, RWD units anymore unless you go to Tahoes.
I may be old-school, but when GM had Novas, Chevelles, and Impalas as their base cars for all 4 Divisions, they sold every one of 'em that they could PAINT.
WHAT was BROKEN with THAT??? Technology and transmissions could have easily gotten the fuel economy numbers way up on all of those, nowadays. Suspension modifications, likewise, would improve handling quality. The ride quality is there because of a longer wheelbase.
I'm not saying go back to carburetors and point-triggered ignitions (although I could live with that), but applying what is known today towards those base cars would work well, I believe!
Look at how popular older Impalas, Cutlasses, MonteCarlos, Regals and such are today! People are shovelling wads of loot into refurbishing those instead of buying something new. Even though those oldies get craptastic fuel economy, people will nearly kill to get one! Plus, they are HAPPY with them... Does that say something???
If they REALLY want to be daring, they might want to try THAT radical approach. Who knows??? They might even make a tidy PROFIT!!! But, that's just my opinion.
Post a Comment