Buick Avista Concept

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

This is a really smart looking Coupe. Although based on the same platform as the Camaro, its is much better looking. Having seen the Camaro up close I find it is much bigger than it needs to be. The Avista concept is far closer to my taste in cars.

 

 

 

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

OH... I like the looks of this vehicle.

It appears to me, with Pontiac gone, GM has untied Buick's hands from building "super car sedans".

 

I predict they will go from concept to production with this. It is historically a direction Buick as always been very good at.

That being, building very good driving luxury sedans, that can comfortably carry 4 adults equipped with fire breathing corvette stomping performance characteristics.

Historically these were the Buick GS stage 4 and the Grand National. Both of these luxury sedans were significantly faster than corvettes of the same model year.

Chevrolet prefers superchargers.

Buick prefers turbochargers.

 

I predict this sedan will be available in the future, and they will offer a fire breathing twin turbo version that keeps the Corvette Z07 honest.

From a practical point of view, it is unlikely they will exceed the performance characteristics of the corvette in today's world, but it will be very close to the same performance at a much lower price in a car that can

carry 4 adults comfortably. This has been Buick's trademark in performance cars and the Avista looks like the base chassis of a "super car sedan" to me.

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

Oh... I just realized some may wonder why I believe this is the chassis of their next super-car?

 

Any time the designers bring the "D-pillar" all the way back to a point behind the rear axle, they are building the chassis to absorb and remain rigid with a tremendous

amount of torque on it. This chassis design is meant to encase an engine with an enormous amount of torque/HP available.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I dont remember if its in the video but I read somewhere that the concept car has a twin turbo V6 producing about 400 hp.

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

That sounds like their "Buick Stage 4 engine" package which can be purchased from them. There were quite a few of those dropped into Grand Nationals. It would make sense they drop that into such a concept car.

I think for production, it would likely come with something around 300 ~350HP as standard engine with a couple of upgrade options on the engine/drive train. If GM has finally turned them loose again, it would not surprise me to seem them offer a specialized low production 600+HP version. They have the expertise to make that kind of HP reliably that also provide great fuel economy if you do not hammer the accelerator. They do know how to make great touring sedans, that have super car capabilities in HP and handling when GM corporate allows them to build them.

 

The only thing that may block this would be Cadillac now... The Altavista would compete directly with the Cadillac CTS... That could be a show stopper for Buick if past history is an indicator. I hope GM stops this internal regulating bullshit and loosens the reigns a bit on all of their car companies. The fact is Buick is far better at building luxury high performance sedans than Cadillac...and Cadillac knows this... so they are likely to complain bitterly. Cadillac's expertise is building big luxurious highway boats.... not high performance touring sedans.

 

But I think GM would end up with a better line of Luxury Sedans with near world wide appeal in looks, handling, HP, efficiency, safety, etc. IF they have in fact turned Buick loose finally. Buick had a long history of doing this well so we know they can do it and it would force Cadillac/others to step up a little I think.

 

The Altavista already is better looking than the Cadillac CTS in my opinion... the technology (especially high performance related tech) & execution of that technology will be better in the Buick also based on my experience. That was always what I experienced in the past between these two makers when driving their counterparts.