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^correct. According to Wikipedia, 350 wasn't the base GP engine until 76, and only in the base J trim. 77 brought the 301 as the base engine.

Pretty cool...sticking to gas though. Both these twins are growing on me more too....

Driven: 2018 Buick Regal Sportback Essence 2.0t (the original review is in this post. Revised reviews are further down, in this post, and in this other post) HIGHS: -Nice understated shape conceals a cleverly integrated hatchback design -'Decent' propulsion from 2.0t engine -Nicely shaped upper dash with touchsreen oriented slightly to driver. Interesting at least from a design standpoint. -Sporting driving position and good room in both rows, mostly, plus the biggest benefit being improved leg room over previous model -Really nice cargo space, with seats up, or seats down, the cargo area of this vehicle and the flexibility of it in a car like this IMO is a major draw -View outside of this vehicle is improved over its platform mate (Malibu, my daily driver) due to the rear door glass being longer and taller. View out the front and rear is essentially the same. -AWD availability is a nice plus, thanks Buick. LOWS: -I can't recall any of the GM vehicles I have driven with this ubiquitous 2.0t engine, where i have actually been wowed or impressed by it. It has decent thrust, but honestly you gotta spool it up a bit, the tranny doesn't respond instantly, it's not a five star smooth tranny, and it's kind of rough and noisy overall as a powertrain (AT LEAST FOR IT'S PRICE / CLASS). I was hoping the 2.0 would make the car match the near luxury description but I don't think it's overall a smooth enough powertrain to meet that claim. It's neither smooth, nor sporting or exciting. And this is with front wheel drive. I will reserve final judgment until i get in the GS with the v6, which is the engine I think most people will really end up liking in this car. -Heavier than it's Malibu platform mate. No doubt acceptable due to the larger engine, but the benefit of the extra weight doesn't manifest itself in any real tangible way anywhere in the ride and drive of the car. -Not really any quieter inside than my Malibu. Strange, because this Buick is supposed to have quiet tuning, and goo in the tires to help make it quieter. The ride isn't really any more plush, either. -Steering is sort of dead and mushy. That's not GERMANIC now, is it. -NEED TO BE ABLE TO TURN OFF THE AUTOSTOP WHEN YOU WANT TO. -Not really much nicer inside than in my Malibu. The lower dash is the same 'less expensive' plastic you see in cheap Chevy's. The door panels are a little nicer, but not that much more. Many switches and buttons are the same. The console is nicer (I don't like the shifter centered in the console now actually, it's quite a reach) I guess...except for cupholders in front of the climate controls. The upper dash material is an upgrade over the Malibu, but it's not a PREMIUM dash material either. -I can't really tell for sure if the seats are better. My Malibu seats are poor. The Regal seats seemed to hug me more, but they still felt thin and insubstantial. The leather quality was slightly better, but still nothing to write home about. -Rear head room suffers a bit with the hatch design. I don't mind the tradeoff personally, but the Malibu retains a bit more headroom, and the Regal TourX really has much more....so get the wagon if rear head room matters. -Sunroof was nice to have considering how bunkerlike the Malibu can feel....but again the hatch design limits the size of the sunroof here compared to the Malibu's BAMR. I can live with the compromise here myself, and again, the wagon will satisfy your urge for BAMR if you need it. I would encourage GM to develop a way to integrate a larger moonroof with the hatch design. I think it could be done, but would require time and money on a redesign effort. -Options / packages on this car are, simply put, stupid. But that merits its own post. At least in this car, the heated steering wheel and leather heated seats were both included. You can actually get this car with heated steering wheel but without heated seats. How f-cked up is that? In 2019, Fusion, Toyota, and others will have things like blind spot and cross path detection as standard equipment. And those are not 'premium' makes. -I'll let others decide if they think the styling is too tepid. I don't mind the understated styling but do admit that the color selections that are available on this car leave me wanting. I like the red on the GS, and the smoked pearl metallic is nice. And Buick seems to think they should charge extra for paint colors when they don't make the ride and drive anything special. -pricing. I think the average nature of this car would be easily forgiven if the pricing were in line with being an average car; not priced for a premium marque. Like the LaCrosse and Envision, it is best to wait out the model year if you are buying and wait for the inevitable 7,000-10,000 or more in discounts...which might bring the pricing in line with what the vehicle really is. You can't say this vehicle is appealing at the prices it is at now. SUMMARY: This probably seems like a negative review, but you should consider it more of underwhelmed and let down. This car as I drove it just doesn't have any kind of endearing personality to speak of! At the end of the day, it took Buick two extra years to bring to the US it's own Malibu clone, which doesn't have much more to show for it.... apart from the clever hatch and base 2.0 engine upgrade over the 1.5. I actually am very curious now to be among the first to try the 2019 Malibu 1.5t + CVT combo. But that's an aside for another discussion. The 2.0 that general motors puts in so many vehicles has never impressed me, and that's due more to it's character than anything. I had hopes this would be the ONE CAR that it would feel sporting in; one that would make the car feel at least a little, like a SPORTS SEDAN. Nope. I will wait with baited breath to someday find a v6 GS to test, as i think it will be the only Regal worth anything. At least worth anything more than just being another option in the midsize, genericar class. And I hope Buick is working on a twin turbo six option as well for the GS (GSX?). I tend to think this car won't move the needle in marketplace excitement until it has a tire shredder under the hood to brag about...The v6 will promise smoother revs and deeper lungs at least......... Still, as a replacement in the bottom end of the Buick lineup for the Verano, I am ok with this. Just please, sex it up!

Over the last few weeks I keep warming up to the 2017+ LaCrosse with more and more of them hitting the used market. Some are as low as 22-23k. Ones in colors you want plus options you want are tough to find but the main takeaway with the LaCrosse is v6 availability and slightly larger size. It really IMO set up Buick nicely to market the LaCrosse even with sedan sales dwindling, as the Regal is hatch only and is not Buick's entry car. (No longer Verano). The LaCrosse is the only sedan now, and the Impala is becoming familiar and fading. XTS getting put out to pasture. Ford ditching sedans too. So perhaps LaCrosse sales may possibly increase if they appeal to v6 buyers who don't want Impalas and if the prices drop some. The raised console is a problem. It does put the shifter joystick in a good spot but the dash itself could stand to be a bit nicer and the raised console area has some cheapness and such, apart from being too tall. Older buyers still sometimes want bench seats which this car will never have...but buyers like that don't want the intrusiveness of the console they way it is now. Even the new Regal's console is intrusive too. A 2-3 year old LaCrosse in the right color, with the huge moonroof, and maybe AWD for super cheap may be a nice future ride. The styling change affected me but now the new body is growing on me some. Buick doesn't really care if the Regal sells too huge. They would probably prefer the LaCrosse to sell well and just import a set but manageable number of Regals each year since the import them from Germany and now Opel is out of the mix. The Regal is there just to round out the lineup. Not be a huge piece of it. Enclave is Buick's $$$$ car these days. The LaCrosse is for the guy who just got his spouse the Enclave but he wants a Buick too.

The mid to late 70s were high times for personal luxury coupes...GM used the small quarter window on many midsize models in 76-77-Malibu, Monte Carlo, Grand LeMans, Grand Prix, Cutlass Salon and Supreme (not sure if the sloped nose S or 442 was available w it), Century Custom and Regal.

sounds like its too pricey for a lot of the marques. And i do think moving the show to October may help. Apart from that though I wonder if having the show in LA or New York makes the most sense from the world stage aspect. No offense, but Detroit? It's time may have passed.....

Supposedly the next GC is going to be on this stretched Stelvio platform, but I've seen nothing about it. Supposedly due for 2020, but it wouldn't surprise me if it gets delayed again...

It is well past time to break up FCA into two parts: the Italians and the Americans. Sergio can then take FIAT and go home and then Chrysler can get some real leadership.

^ velour = blorf. - - - - - Early ('61-62 I would guess) Lincoln Continental suicide door convert. Med blue, presentable outside, Walmart hubcaps, worn interior. Licensed, in buddy's shop for some sort of work.

'69-70 GPs were either the 400 CI LJ or the 428 ('69) or 455 ('70) SJ. I also don't believe the 350 was available in '69-70, would have to look that up. - - - - - Spotted this year in CA.

Rally wheels. Didn't stop and look, it was up on a hill off of a sloped driveway on a very busy street at rush hour.. The same house had a sharp red w/ woodgrain '72 Caprice Estate wagon for sale last summer IIRC. Edit: found it on Craigslist..i was wrong, it's a '77. They want $8500. T-Tops. https://cleveland.craigslist.org/cto/d/1977-pontiac-grand-prix-lj/6579214918.html

Saw a couple older GM personal luxury coupes this afternoon--a very clean dark green mid 90s Cutlass Supreme in a driveway down the street, guy waxing it...hadn't seen it around, may have been hidden in his garage. Also saw a very clean silver blue w/ white 1/4 top '76 Grand Prix for sale.

Why would they be cleaner? Also, it seems like a wash because the fuel will cost more to get better fuel economy.. they should just make a standard octane for everything. I feel like they were saying with economies of scale with 91 octane that the price would come down some.. okay so I'm assuming it would be priced like mid grade is now.. seems fair enough. So we'll pay $0.15-0.20/gallon more and get up to 11% gains in economy? I'm not seeing the benefit to any party other than the engineers themselves getting to play around more. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I did a little math for my car and over the course of the 15,587 miles I've driven if I got 11% better fuel economy and fuel cost me $0.20/gallon more I would have saved exactly $26.93. $26.93

Ouch, this will hurt them, but it does show that Cadillac built a superior system. for Cadillac!

Did the fuses prior to my appointment time. They didn't work. I took it in and they changed the headlight bulbs. I waited for it and they worked quickly. They also charged me a fair price. Time to wean myself from the dealership for most things. The time has come. Thanks again for the tips. And, hey, I now have an assorted fuse pack for about $4 that I can keep along with my car supplies in the trunk. Let there be light.

Picture is reversed....look at the gas station signs in the background..

Age always plays a factor, but I know from my own 93 Suburban I still have, that once you get about 10 years, the fuses and solid state parts tend to start dying naturally. I have replaced them all on my suburban and everything works like day one, that is not to say that you still might have a bad wire from rubbing and a short is happening or a solder has cracked.

Before automotive fluids were specifically colored, taste testing was required to identify which fluids were spilled in accidents.

Older variation... How many Kennedys and Ted drinks till the room spins.

Q: How many alcoholics does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Two. One to hold it and the other one to keep drinking heavily until the room starts spinning around.

Sooooo... you got your Bolt?

No one cares about this show anymore because Detroit is not the center of the automotive world anymore.

The newest Lacrosse is everything it is supposed to be. Albert likes those also, but they are holding their value better than the '17 Regal. I want to stick around the $25k mark for a used vehicle. The '17 GS can be had with adaptive cruise control and Android Auto and Buick Certified for $25k, so it's really high on the list for me with those killer apps.

I do admit. The hatchback is versatile as well. Wish we could get a GS wagon. I've got to get out and try a new LaCrosse as well. V6...

We were really underwhelmed by the new regal. I have autotrader searches out for Certified '17 GSes instead. Typically finding them for ~$24k with 15k on the odometer.

Probably the only reason to get Buick over Malibu or other car in the segment is to get TourX, not the Sportback