Buick Regal Based on Opel Insignia Launched in China

Shanghai GM launches the Buick Regal, based on GM Europe's Opel Insignia
by Alex Ricciuti
November 4, 2008 3:13 PM
Filed Under: American, Asian, Buick, Opel

The Buick Regal has come a long way from its purely Detroit roots. It's now a Chinese-made model coming to that market by way of Opel, GM's European brand.

Shanghai GM is a joint-venture between GM and SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), and GM executives made the choice of bringing the Opel Insignia to China as a Buick instead of an Opel since Buick is considered a more popular brand there.

There are a few stylistic re-touches on the outside to give the Insignia more of a Buick look but under the hood are two standard GM 4 cylinder gasoline engines (diesels are not yet a go in China). The 2.4 liter is a naturally aspirated, modest power plant with only 165 hp. The 2.0 liter turbo-charged offers a livelier 217 hp for this relatively larger vehicle.

Interior design is where GM makes this a Buick and the pics reveal where this car distinguishes itself from the Opel.

 

Source: Carscoop.blogspot.net
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Comments

Why that, the chinaese can't stand Opel, or what?

by Motor_Yakuza | November 4, 2008 3:29 PM
No, they just seem to really like re-hashed Opels badged as Buicks more, plus this car was always going to become a Saturn, Chevrolet, Opel, Vauxhall, Holden and maybe in some form a SAAB 9-3 or Cadillac, eventually.

by dom6698 | November 4, 2008 4:01 PM
And GM wonder why their products are not regarded as top of the line.. Badge engineering? Still? In 2009? They might sell a few more cars in China, but they put me off ever wanting to buy one of their cars, despite the fact that the Insignia is appealing! Wake up GM, it's time to die..

by dorkington | November 4, 2008 4:11 PM
Would you suggest that they design a whole new car for this market when no form of this car exist in China. I have no problem with Badge engineering as long as its done in different parts of the world where your not going to see the same car twice with a different logo. By your logic every country should have its completely different set of cars from any one manufacturer which makes no sense and would cost a lot of money. Its a completely different market calm down

by gmfan09 | November 4, 2008 8:54 PM
i notice that there are not many chinese characters inside the car. is that normal?

by coopergt | November 4, 2008 4:23 PM
yes, that is normal.

by pscs | November 4, 2008 5:47 PM
it's a nice car, I'd buy it if it were cheaper than its competitors. I'm impressed by the number of changes they've done to make it different from it's clones sold elsewhere in Europe, US, wherever as oppose to just 100% badge engineering (replacing the badges themselves).

Although I know Buick is more appealing in China, I think it's time to kill off some of their brands now and just stick to Opel (they're German -- for some reason German cars are more popular where I live) instead of Buick or whatever badge they can stick on. It's now time to do that -- especially where they can cut down costs at making these models "slightly" different from the same vehicles -- at at time now with the economy like this...

and lastly, I just HATE these Asian car catalogue photo shoots -- there must somehow be a photo of a car with 1 side chopped off, and the cut off sheet metal covered up, and 100 somehow "semi-transparent" airbags exploded out simultaneously... gosh. this is so over the top.

by pscs | November 4, 2008 5:54 PM
sorry. "it's clones" should be "its clones".

by pscs | November 4, 2008 5:56 PM
Damn you, GM. How much more stupid can you become? It is already an eye-catching car under Insignia badge. Why are you killing that, instead of making Insignia a world wide known brand like Passat etc? Stupid, stupid...

by trailer | November 4, 2008 8:49 PM
Because China knows and Buys plenty of Buicks. Not Opels. Really lets try and use our logic here people. People in China aren't going to care if the Buick Regal is called the Insignia in Europe.

by gmfan09 | November 4, 2008 8:57 PM
My only complaint is why aren't Buicks this nice in America?

by gmfan09 | November 4, 2008 9:27 PM
come on guys... yes, it is another case of badge engineering from gm... but wouldnt it be great to have an appealing, sporty midsize from buick like that on the american market too?

by politz | November 4, 2008 9:46 PM
In China, Shanghai GM changes Chevrolet to be a low-class brand,Buick to be a intermediate brand,Cadillac to be a high-class brand...in order to manage the brands easily, they change the logo...and in China , Opel is managed as an imported brand with Astra,Vectra...

by Rembo | November 23, 2008 5:35 PM

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