General Motors gives its weakest domestic brand a new compact sedan as another hoped-for sales booster. Excelle is a timely move, but can a gussied-up Chevrolet Cruze help Buick in such a rough-and-tumble market?
What We Know About the 2012 Buick Excelle
Buick will soon offer its first North American compact car since 1997. The move is part of a big shakeup thats been going on at parent General Motors since the automaker emerged from its historic government-brokered bankruptcy in summer 2009.
That swift 40-day court trip cleared much of the companys huge profit-killing debt load and netted a $50 billion taxpayer lifeline. It also forced slimming down to four core domestic brands. Now GM is under pressure to regain public confidence by delivering gotta-have vehicles that will sell well enough for the company to become profitable again and pay back taxpayers. Thats why a new government-vetted board of directors, chaired by former AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre, has been wielding a very big broom lately, cutting needless layers of management, firing old hands with old ideas, spending money to speed-up new-model rollouts, and working to streamline most every other part of the business. Its a tough job, but everything depends on doing it right. As Joseph Phillipi, of the consulting firm Auto Trends, told the New York Times, GM must establish themselves as the benchmark for comparison in each [market class] theyre in, as opposed to following everyone else. Whitacre knows this too. As he recently declared to a group of GM employees, Our mission is to design, build, and sell the worlds best vehicles--a tall order, given recent history.
A top priority for New GM is rebuilding Buick, arguably its weakest domestic nameplate and a symbol of the old companys decades-long slide to money-losing mediocrity. Buick sales have long suffered from the brands geezer image and products appealing mainly to an elderly clientele that continues to diminish. But Buick has also lately been starved for product, and is currently down to just three models. Though the LaCrosse midsize sedan and Lucerne large sedan have barely registered on consumers radar, the new-for-2008 Enclave premium-midsize SUV has been a brisk seller, at least by recent Buick standards. GM hopes to build on that momentum with the redesigned 2010 LaCrosse and a smaller but related new Regal midsize sedan, the first since 2004. The Regal is due to start sale in the second quarter of 2010 as an early 2011 model, initially with one trim level and a single powerteam. More versions are promised for model-year 2012.
The reborn Regal is significant for being a lightly retailored version of the like-named China-market model based on GM Europes new Opel and Vauxhall Insignia, voted 2009 European Car of the Year. Buick still has a golden image in China. In fact, its GM's top-selling brand in what is now the worlds largest auto market, scoring higher volume than it does at home. Selling the Regal in North America makes appealing sense when GM is trying to show some smarts in how it spends taxpayer money.
As it happens, GM China is launching a new version of its Excelle compact car based on the redesigned 2010 Opel and Vauxhall Astra. You can probably guess whats next. Yup, the new Excelle is following the Regal to North America. Buick confirmed it at the 2009 Los Angeles Show Auto. Timing and product details are still to be revealed, but most reports indicate a debut in the first half of calendar 2011. As for name, well stick with Excelle until we hear otherwise.
Theres also no word yet on production venue, but the North American 2012 Buick Excelle is bound to be built locally, not imported from China. The most likely spot is the Lordstown, Ohio plant thats home to the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, as both cars use GMs Delta II platform, a.k.a. Global Compact Vehicle Architecture. Like Cruze, which eventually supplants Cobalt in the bowtie line, the Excelle will be offered only as a 4-door sedan, probably with Buicks now-customary CX, CXL, and CXS model menu. The Astra and China-market Excelle are also sold in hatchback form, but we dont expect that body style in North America.
As you might imagine, the 2012 Buick Excelle is a close dimensional match for the Chevy Cruze and uses many of the same components. The most obvious difference is styling, mildly modified from the China-market design by GMs Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) in Shanghai. Highlights include a large vertical-bar Buick grille, a lower-bodyside blade line inherited from the European Astra, and a specific side-window treatment with a small, fixed triangular pane ahead of the front doors and behind the rear doors. The dashboard and interior appointments are also borrowed from Astra and give the Excelle a slightly richer cabin appearance than Cruze.
Though we cant be certain yet, the 2012 Buick Excelle may mimic the Cruze in powertrain choices. That would mean a base 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine with 136 horsepower and an optional 138-horsepower 1.4-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, each driving the front wheels, of course. Despite its small horsepower advantage over the base engine, the turbo mill delivers 15 more pound-feet of torque--148 versus 123--and at just 1,850 rpm instead of 3,800. Translation: More midrange muscle and stronger acceleration. A 6-speed automatic may be the only transmission, though a 6-speed manual could also be listed, as per Cruze. Motor Trend suggests the Regals 182-horsepower 2.4-liter 4-cylinder will be offered as either a third choice or an option to the turbo unit. That doesnt make good marketing sense to us, but we could be wrong.
We do know from various GM press materials that the 2012 Buick Excelle will share a basic suspension design with Cruze. Its a 4-wheel independent setup with front struts, front anti-roll bar, and a twist-beam rear axle with an added transverse Z-link--actually a Watt linkage--thats claimed to improve both cornering stability and ride comfort. The Excelle chassis may be tuned for a slightly plusher feel than Cruze in line with Buicks near-luxury market positioning. For the same reason, all Excelles should come with 4-wheel disc brakes instead of the rear drums on entry-level Cruzes, plus 17-inch alloy wheels instead of the Chevys base 16-inch steel rims; 18-inch alloys should be optional. ABS, traction control, and an antiskid system will definitely be standard. So, too, GMs OnStar system and power steering with electric assist as a small mpg-booster.
Not surprisingly, the 2012 Buick Excelle will also match the Cruze with no fewer than 10 standard airbags--a major selling point in the compact-car class--including curtain side airbags, front side and rear side airbags, and twin front knee airbags. Other features await confirmation, but the China-market list suggests available leather upholstery, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, wireless cell-phone link, music-player plug-in, navigation system, one or more upgraded audio systems, sunroof, and perhaps front and rear obstacle detection.
In all, the 2012 Buick Excelle amounts to a restyled Chevy Cruze with upscale trim, more standard features, and correspondingly higher prices. Favorable reviews of both the Cruze and Euro-market Astra suggest the baby Buick will be well worth considering, but how much of a lift it can give to this long-struggling GM brand remains to be seen.
A Notable Feature of the 2012 Buick Excelle
The compact-car class is very price and value sensitive, and that pretty much rules out costly high-tech engineering and features. Though the 2012 Buick Excelle will no doubt follow this pattern, our experience with the Chevy Cruze and reviews of the Opel and Vauxhall Astra suggest a thoroughly modern small car with ample people and package space, nimble handling, and possibly class-leading ride comfort.
