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Auto Motor und Sport calls the new Opel Zafira Touring Concept an “Oasis,” but could it be the “Baby Enclave” that’s been rumored for some time? The short answer is “no,” as the next Buick MPV will be a full class smaller than this Opel Astra-based compact 7-seater, based on the next Aveo platform and boasting suicide doors. But with gas prices rising, and CAFE standards possibly headed towards 60+ MPG, there’s certainly a chance that the next-gen Zafira could eventually end up in the US with Buick badges.
It feels like the early 1980s. Anyone else get this vibe? You know, the clawing desperately with brand-destroying minicars?
Very skeptical about this one-world automotive tack. I think customers will be loathe to catch on and it’ll be more expensive than it’s worth.
I guess we (and they) will see how the Fiesta sales go.
CAFE is pure evil. so worthless.
Jerome10 +1 on CAFE being evil.
I’d respectfully disagree with the “evil” label. “Imperfect”, certainly, “annoying to automakers and some enthusiasts”, definitely, but the American auto industry has proven time and again that they aren’t willing to put in the hours necessary to make their fleets more efficient. Not on their own.
Oil demand is going to keep rising as developing countries keep developing. Gas supplies will be stretched, perhaps initially only in speculators’ heads, but eventually for real. Cars should be as efficient as they can be, I say, without hurting other qualities.
CAFE is why we have automakers struggling hard and innovating to make huge (relative to the eighties) cars like the Cruze, Focus, and Elantra get up to 40 mpg. That’s money originally meant for gas, back in the driver’s pocket.
CAFE isn’t the best solution – not by a long shot. But if you don’t nudge the industry at least somewhat to design more efficient cars, they’ll just keep selling unnecessarily inefficient cars to the ignorant automotive masses – simply because they can.
Muammar Qaddafi….now he’s evil.
Philadlj, CAFE does very little to put Americans on track to use less fossil fuel. Before CAFE, about 20% of light vehicles sold were “light” trucks; now its over 50%. That 50% figure dipped slightly in 2008 when gasoline prices soared, but now that the prices are a bit lower and people have gotten used to them, “light” trucks are back to more than 50% of the mix. Note that “light” is a government designation–the average “light” vehicle now weighs in at more than 4000 pounds. The newest CAFE rules are going to push people into larger wheelbase “light” trucks and then all the way into “medium” trucks like the F350. Perhaps Ford will even bring back the Excursion to circumvent CAFE.
Consuming less fuel is also about driving less. If CAFE were actually successful and people were forced to drive efficient vehicles while fuel prices are low, they will continue to adopt habits and lifestyles that are even more driving-centric. During the 30+ years of CAFE, there has been a steady increase in per-capita miles driven, with a trend of people moving into the suburbs and exurbs, where low population density won’t support mass transit and so driving 30 or more miles is the only way to get to jobs.
Even with the significantly higher CAFE requirements that are coming, I’ll bet that in 10 years we will see that any overall decrease in oil consumption (if any) is explained by high unemployment and high fuel prices and has nothing to do with CAFE.
Yup, CAFE is evil. And importing most your oil isn’t.
During the 30+ years of CAFE, there has been a steady increase in per-capita miles driven, with a trend of people moving into the suburbs and exurbs, where low population density won’t support mass transit and so driving 30 or more miles is the only way to get to jobs.
I highly doubt that it has much to do with CAFE than with the rising cost of housing and lack of new houses in urban area. People don’t move farther because they want to drive more in bad traffic. They move farther because all the affordable new houses are far away.
Since no one else has mentioned the fact that a tax on gasoline or petroluem imports (with a corresponding reduction in income tax) would make so much more sense than CAFE, consider it mentioned now. While we’re at it, I’d like a pony.
I really like the interior in this car.
This is how little I understand automotive marketing these days. What does a drunken yuppie slut who has clearly fallen down and is calling for help to get her into her new Buick have to do with ANYTHING as it relates to why I would buy this car? Oh, and is that an IPad on the floor next to her? Of course! Anything to subliminally scream HIP!
Bosh and balderdash…
Buick Fit.
More like Buick5
Look at all that leg………..room.
GM doesn’t sell Opels badged as Opels in the US, so I don’t mind them affixing Buick badges to Opels. Buick clearly isn’t going anywhere, they might as well give Buick some unique models the other US GM brands don’t have.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just offer the Insignia (Regal) wagon and make a Verano hatchback instead of bringing over a whole new crop of vehicles?
Or, are wagons another “Cadillac only” thing?
As the Terrain shows, Wagons are a GMC thing.
If you are using a female model, don’t be cheap and hire a more attractive looking one.
surround it with all the pretty girls in the world and that thing is still UGLY.
So it’s selling point will be that it makes less-attractive models prettier by comparison?