Invicta or LaCrosse

Invicta or LaCrosse, what should Buick call its new Epsilon?

Filed under: Car News, Motor City Blogman, Buick, Sedans

DETROIT - General Motors previewed its Beijing auto show "concept" Monday; the Buick Invicta sedan.

The Invicta is said to hint at the next-generation LaCrosse, which will be built off the second-generation Epsilon (Chevy Malibu/Pontiac G6/Saturn Aura/Saab 9-3) platform, but really, what showgoers will see Saturday is pretty much the real car.

Its styling, says GM interior design chief Dave Lyon, will feature modern interpretations of the Buick portholes (or "ventiports" as they were called in the '50s) and the "sweepspear," the asymmetric v-shaped profile accent found on many of the brand's cars in the '50s and '60s.

With the Invicta, Buick designers have taken last year's Riviera concept even further, Lyon says, making "a very aggressive, very chic four-door concept with a low roofline.

" You may also read that to mean there's no Buick coupe in the cards. The division's biggest market, China, (where most Buick owners ride in the back seat) is even more adverse to two-door models than is the U.S. As for the "low roofline," it's mostly a visual trick, made possible by a high beltline. Think front-drive, midsize version of the Chrysler 300.

The good news is that this will make for a stylish front-drive midsize car, intended to take advantage of the momentum begun with the Enclave crossover-utility vehicle. The interior also will pick up some of the themes the Riviera concept set, like ambient lighting.

Lyon describes it as evoking calm and quiet. "It'll lower your blood-pressure," he says.

It's the Riviera concept made into a real, marketable car.

And while GM design chief Ed Welburn hinted at Shanghai last year that Buick might consider a halo coupe, it doesn't look like something that will happen anytime soon.

With Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealerships here undergoing consolidation, Buick can make do with three models; the Invicta/LaCrosse, the Enclave and (I hope a rear-drive) Lucerne replacement.

Buick sold 332,000 cars in China in 2007, up nine percent over '06. That includes the Excelle, a rebadged Daewoo not sold here. Buick sold just 185,791 in the U.S. last year, despite the Enclave's success. That's down from 240,657, due in part to GM's walking away from the fleet/rental business.

As for the name, I like "Invicta" better than "LaCrosse." It's an untarnished name, used from the 1959 to '63 model years on the Century replacement.

While the latest Centurys apparently were named for the average age of their buyers, it was Buick's hot-rod model in the late '30s and from 1954 to 1958. It used the Special's A-body, with the biggest, most powerful engine from the Roadmaster under the hood.

It would be a good name on a stylish, powerful-looking replacement for the LaCrosse. And as far as I know, Buick wouldn't have to rebadge it for the Canadian market.

In mid-century terms, the new LaCrosse fits into the Buick lineup roughly where the Special/Century (later, LeSabre/Invicta) was. A rear-drive Lucerne should fit where the Super and Roadmaster, and later the Electra and Electra 225 were in the post-modern period.
GM has an opportunity to better separate its divisions with cars like the Epsilon LaCrosse replacement. The automaker's marketing geniuses like to describe the Buick's "quiet luxury," as a differentiator from the Chevy Malibu's "value statement" or the Pontiac G6's "sporty excitement.

" Press them on any real mechanical or content differences, and GM marketing will probably tell you that you'll be able to buy any of them for the same base price. Pontiac buyers simply won't mix with the Buick buyers in the same dealerships, they say.

That's bull. Many GM buyers like to shop any of the "middle" divisions, as long as they're not Chevys or Cadillacs. The Epsilon LaCrosse should not only be a quieter, somewhat softer car than the Epsilon G6, it should also be a step up in base price, with more standard equipment and more optional equipment, kind of like the Lexus ES 350 to the Toyota Camry.

GM is in the unenviable position of having to survive and eventually thrive with shrinking market share in a more competitive market and retain its eight U.S. market divisions (to avoid more problems with its dealerships). Having real -- not marketspeak --