WARREN, MI – Buick’s next-generation Regal is revealed here, including a new wagon version dubbed the Regal TourX.
“This is something we’ve wanted for years,” Mark Reuss, president-General Motors North America, says of the forthcoming all-wheel-drive Buick wagon.
What makes this the right time to pull the trigger on the wagon, a version of the Opel Insignia Sports Tourer, is the popularity of similar offerings from rivals Subaru and Volvo, Reuss says at the automaker’s Design Dome here.
GM has more capacity than those brands to meet demand, he says, while declining to reveal annual U.S. sales targets for the Regal TourX. Volume potential is unclear, Reuss says, because Buick never has sold a wagon like this one before.
The Regal Sportback and TourX will be assembled at Opel’s Russelsheim, Germany, plant.
Duncan Aldred, Buick and GMC’s global vice president, says Buick will be fine despite the sale of Opel to France’s PSA.
“Today, Buick stands tall on its own. The sale of Opel will have no impact,” he says.
Reuss sees station-wagon and utility-vehicle owners as prime conquest targets for the TourX. “I think we’re going to get some buyers out of SUVs, particularly with an AWD system.”
AWD is standard on the Regal wagon, with twin clutches shifting power between axles as needed.
The standard and only powertrain is a 2.0L turbocharged 4-cyl. mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. The engine makes 250 hp and 295 lb.-ft. (400 Nm) of torque.
The TourX has an extra 3-ins. (76 mm) of ground clearance compared with the Regal Sportback 5-door also shown here, as well as more durable fascia and fender moldings, standard roof rails and an active-hood pedestrian-protection system, a Buick first. A power liftgate with a lamp to illuminate the ground below is available.
The TourX is 3.4 ins. longer than the Sportback 5-door, which boasts a coupe-style roofline and double the cargo capacity of the ’17 Regal sedan.
It uses the same 2.0L turbo I-4 as the TourX, but also offers a front-wheel drive layout. In FWD models, horsepower remains the same (250 hp) as in AWD models, but torque drops to 260 lb.-ft. (353 Nm) from 295 lb.-ft.
Available on the Sportback is a 40/20/40 split rear seat, new tire insulation to reduce road noise on FWD models and a 5-link rear suspension on AWD models.
Both the Sportback and TourX are equipped with OnStar 4G LTE WiFi. A 7-in. (18-cm) infotainment screen is standard on the Sportback 5-door and TourX and Preferred grades of the wagon. An 8-in. (20-cm) screen is available on both cars.
Reuss dismisses the sky-is-falling view for cars in the U.S., noting the midsize group where the Regal lives still is the third-largest U.S. new-vehicle segment, despite the growing popularity of CUVs.
“It’s not like nobody buys (midsize cars),” he says. “There are still sales to be had out there. The way to get to them (is)…you have to get noticed, and to get noticed you have to stand out.”
He believes the Sportback and TourX do that thanks to their “sculptural” design cues borrowed from the Avenir and Avista concepts.
Aldred notes Buick will announce details of its upcoming Avenir sub-brand next week at the 2017 New York auto show, as well as reveal a new Enclave CUV.
“The best Buicks that have ever been made are being made now,” says Reuss, who spent time at the former Buick City manufacturing complex in Flint, MI, before rising through GM’s executive ranks.
WardsAuto data shows that since its reintroduction to the Buick lineup in 2010, Regal’s best year was 2011, when U.S. sales peaked at 40,144. Last year deliveries stood at 19,833, up slightly from 2015’s 19,504, taking an 8% share in WardsAuto’s Upper Middle Car segment. The No.1-seller in the group was Toyota’s Prius, with 116,180 2016 deliveries.
Regal sales through March are down 40.3%, far exceeding the brand’s overall 7.5% decline.
But better days are ahead, says Aldred, who points out Buick will have the industry’s youngest lineup in the fourth quarter, when all of its models will have been redone or refreshed within the past 21 months.
The Regal Sportback and TourX go on sale in Q4 in the U.S.
