Is GM Courting Trouble with the New Buick Regal?

Last week, General Motors made it official: The Buick Regal will return to the U.S. market as a 2011 model, built off the same platform that now underpins the Opel Insignia and the current Chinese-market Regal (pictured left). But I'm not going to take the "badge-engineering is bad" route today — I think the new Regal will likely be on the "good" side of the platform-sharing equation. Instead, I'll just bring up my usual concerns about General Motors reinventing the wheel — or, in this case, reinventing the same worn-out spare tire that I thought was dumped with the old GM.

Because the real question here isn't so much "will people buy the new Regal?" It's more "are there enough U.S. buyers to support a Buick division that will be selling four different sedans?"

There's already the top-of-the-line Buick Lucerne and the much-improved Buick LaCrosse, the Regal would be the third sedan, and a Buick-ified version of the Chevrolet Cruze is also expected. And each offering will ever-so-gradually shade into the next.

For example, there's been a lot of news around the fact that the LaCrosse will eventually be offered with a four-cylinder engine. While it remains to be seen if GM can position this as a fuel-efficiency advantage, there are those — myself included — who worry that a four-cylinder LaCrosse will be a bit too far down-market for GM's "American Lexus" division. Remember, we're talking about a naturally aspirated four-cylinder powerplant towing around two tons of Buick, not some sophisticated turbo four driving a lithe Eurosedan.

Now, the Regal will holster a four-cylinder, but it will be a significantly smaller car than the LaCrosse and won't lead to the same kind of cognitive dissonance. On the other hand, the Regal also will offer the same V6 currently standard on the LaCrosse, and it might give drivers the chance to get the LaCrosse's high-performance six-cylinder engine as an option. If that happens, Buick will essentially be offering the same car in two relatively similar sizes, inevitably leading to some serious intra-Buick competition.

Plus, the same kind of thing will happen where the LaCrosse and Lucerne overlap, as well as where the Regal and that small Buick sedan will compete in the coming years. With Chevrolet being counted on to achieve 70 percent of GM's future sales, and GMC and Cadillac out to get their share of buyers, I think Buick's pie will have to be cut into some awfully thin slices to support six products.

It's a frustrating situation that's made even more frustrating when you contrast what GM is doing with Buick with what the General is doing with vehicles like, say, that Chevrolet Cruze (pictured near right).

Because it's now coming out that GM will play the XFE card — one of my favorite memes — with the Cruze. The automaker has put some former members of its Performance Division to work in developing a special high-mileage version of the Cruze, with a goal of pushing its highway fuel economy to 44 mpg. This is exactly the kind of progressive, proactive effort that nearly every automaker should be working on. Although, yes, tweaking the Cruze for better city numbers might better align with consumer preferences.

I also have to point out that the Cruze will be relying on the type of high-tech turbocharged four-cylinder engine that will be sorely missing from the four-cylinder LaCrosse. I know this particular powerplant is too small for the Buick, but, again, the situation shows the schizophrenic nature of GM's thinking: Shouldn't the company's American Lexus brand follow the same approach to powertrain technology as found in its more mainstream brand?

That would help Buick fend off the non-GM, non-Lexus competition, too. I'm thinking here of vehicles like the upcoming Kia Cadenza. This will be yet another semi-sporty, semi-premium sedan in an already crowded segment, but the Korean entry will have a few built-in advantages.

This will include, naturally, price. The Cadenza is slated to take the place of the current Kia flagship, the Amanti, although with a slightly lower MSRP — sound familiar? In addition to an attractive price point, the vehicle will benefit from the Korean OEM's current momentum and ever-increasing style and quality, and I'm sure the up-level models will look quite good to a fair number of potential Buick Regal intenders.

Of course, the Cadenza will be carrying some burdens of its own, as the Korean contingent tries to maintain some amount of product differentiation between its Kia and Hyundai divisions. In fact, despite the Cadenza and the (Hyundai) Sonata, I think things may already be getting a bit out of tune for the Korean OEM. But you'll have to check in tomorrow to see what I mean.

Select photos via General Motors