Regal Wins High Praise from Wall Street Journal

An article form the Wall Street Journal.

SEAT MAY 29, 2010 Confession: The Regal's a Pretty Great Car

Love the bailout or hate it, GM has a success in its Europe-derived Buick sedan; an automotive Zelig

By DAN NEIL

It gives me no joy to write this. I know it will upset a lot of readers, and that's never pleasant. So I might as well come right out and say it: The new Buick Regal is a really nice car.

If you regard the federal government's taking a majority stake in General Motors in 2009 as an unforgivable overreach by the Socialist in Chief Obama, a political payoff to the United Auto Workers, a fleecing of the taxpayer, etc., nothing would conform to that narrative better than a ugly, spastic Buick Regal. After all, the government can't do anything right, can it?

Unfortunately for you—and fortunately for the rest of us, who want the company to succeed and in so succeeding make taxpayers whole on their investment—the post-bankruptcy, fed-owned GM is gaining altitude. The company posted a healthy Q1 profit; global sales are rebounding; GM is a fraction of its former, overgrown self; the board and most of the executive management has been replaced; the UAW has been given a pretty good haircut; the electric Chevy Volt is on track to be released on time, as promised. Hundreds of thousands of auto-industry jobs were preserved in the past year. If GM had gone into liquidation—remember, there was no financing available for a conventional Chapter 11 bankruptcy—GM's collapse would have acted like a black hole, further destabilizing the economy and obliterating the value of car companies and suppliers around it.

I'm not saying it was pretty. So little of summer '09 was. And I'm not predicting that taxpayers will absolutely break even. I am saying the alternative would have been far worse.

Why, Martha, can't this guy keep politics out of car reviews? Because car building, and car buying, is inherently political. I've received dozens of purple-faced emails in the past year declaring "I'll never by another GM because of [circle one] a) the bailout, b) Obama, c) the UAW...." That's perfectly legitimate. Consumers vote with their dollars, and as much as we'd like the universe of commerce to operate outside the gravity of ideology, it doesn't.

So while I understand this is a season of deep discontent with big-G government, with respect I invite you to consider the possibility that Government Motors will actually build some fine cars.

The Regal has been a kind of automotive Zelig, everywhere you look in the GM bailout. Development of this global, midsize, front-drive platform (Epsilon II) was begun at GM's Opel operations in Russelsheim, Germany, in 2004. It was intended to be the next-generation Saturn Aura for North America but when the money-losing Saturn division went away in the reorganization plan of 2009, GM quickly rebadged the car—known as the Opel Insignia in Europe—as a Buick. It's also built and sold as a Buick in China, where it's been a huge success (Buick's ascendance in the Chinese market is the main reason GM kept the division and dumped, say, Pontiac).

Meanwhile, as GM was lurching toward bankruptcy in the spring 2009, it put Opel up for sale, which would have been a monstrous mistake, given the division's role in global product development. But by November, the board of the new GM—made up mostly of Obama Administration appointees—wisely decided to hang on to Opel.

All of which led to the Opel Insignia/Buick Regal's arriving on our shores this month. How is it? Well, it's kind of terrific. Thick-shouldered, wide, with a graceful canopy (and a Hofmeister kink positively stolen from BMW) and about as nice a front end as can be managed with Buick's fussy waterfall grille, the Regal's look is competent and substantial, with the kind of sporty visual amplitude you'd expect of a Autobahn-bred car. I really like the hockey-stick-shaped accent line in the fuselage. This car nicely bottles pride of ownership.

The base model, the CXL, is powered by a direct-injection, 2.4-liter, 182-hp four cylinder and six-speed automatic with manual-shift mode. Amenities include heated leather seats, OnStar and Bluetooth. Price: $26,995. For $2,500 more ($29,495) Buick will throw in its 2.0-liter, 220-hp turbocharged Ecotec four cylinder, 19-inch wheels and what GM calls Interactive Drive Control, which includes Sport and Touring modes for suspension, throttle response, steering, etc. The highway fuel economy for the nonturbo is 30 mpg, while the turbo returns 29 mpg.


The Buick Regal is a nut-and-bolt clone of the Opel Insignia, which was Europe's Car of the Year in 2009. A half-foot shorter than the LaCrosse (also Insignia-based) the Regal feels like it should be pounding around the Périphérique instead of muddling through California freeway traffic. Taut and torquey, with bankable style and features, the Buick hands it to its intended competitor, the Acura TSX.

The Benefits of Bailout

Prebankruptcy GM's list of problems was long and stubborn. High pension and health-insurance liabilities, a vastly overgrown, insupportable corporate structure, and then the crisis in auto sales, which plunged them below their inflated break-even sales volume. But its biggest problem, many would argue, was a self-inflicted wound called product. The company is still a long way from healthy, but only the most ideologically driven naysayer could drive the Regal and conclude the company's products aren't coming back.

Buick execs have confirmed a yet-hotter edition of the car, the Regal GS—dredging up the old Gran Sport name—will hit the market next year. That car will have a high-output turbo engine (255 hp), six-speed manual transmission, all-wheel drive, limited-slip differential, knotty Brembo brakes, the whole smash.

I spent most of a day this week thumping a well-equipped turbo model (about $35,000) through the hills east of San Diego and came away deeply impressed, if not quite panting with desire. For starters, the interior is excellent, easily the equal of the Hyundai Sonata or Acura TSX, which bracket the Buick in price. The Regal's central console, with flush-faced, soft-touch buttons arranged in intuitive geometry, is impeccable. Between the seats of my tester was a multifunction rotary control, a la BMW's iDrive, that worked beautifully. The seats are comfortable, supportive and well contoured. The sight lines are right. The wind management and soundproofing have been sweated over, to good effect.

And, best of all, the car handles like a European sport sedan. Think, not BMW, but perhaps Peugeot or Renault. With the adaptive suspension switched to Sport mode, the Regal's ride is firm but compliant, with a nice evenness while cornering. Lift off the throttle, hit the brakes and take a big chop and the wheel and the car turns in confidently. Pitch and body roll is well modulated. The 19-inch tires serve up loads of lateral grip. This is actually a pretty amusing car to abuse.

My only complaint—and, I gather, it was a common one—was that the speed-sensitive steering felt a little spooky. The steering had a deep self-centering inclination and tended to waver a bit as steering angles increased. It didn't really inspire a lot of go-fast confidence. Buick's engineering staff promised the steering calibration would be tweaked to correct.

Also, deep under the hood, there was a little bit of off-throttle chuff, a rather rude sound caused by back pressure in the turbo. Again, the Buick lab-coats said they were on it.

It's no secret that Buick is chasing younger buyers (voters?) and—the product guys having delivered—it's now up to the marketing guys to reach the very elusive, brand-agnostic Gen Y. I've got no insight on that question. But I do think that Regal is the just sort of product people hoped GM would produce post-bankruptcy. And here it is. Bit by bit, GM is pulling itself together. Politics aside, that's good for all of us.