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Buick shows a few interesting concepts in Shanghai. One, a business MPV attracted the interest on GM’s competition at Toyota. Soon-to-be Toyota chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada came for a quick visit, eyed the prototype for a few seconds, and left.
He completely ignored the China-designed Buick Riviera concept.
23 Comments on “Shanghai Auto Show: Buick MPV Attracts Interest In High Places...”
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There was no picture, so I left before even eyeing it.
.
It sure looks like a GL8 II (“Business Luxury Edition”), the second-gen model launched in 2010.
Don’t know why Toyota executives would be interested in that, though.
They should be interested in what the competition is doing.
They need to observe, buy, and drive the competition’s vehicles whenever they can – so that they know where the goalposts are.
Assuming that they intend to win by building a better product – unfortunately building good products isn’t the only way to make money….
Absolutely they should be interested. But the GL II has been available at the Buick dealerships for more than two years already.
Unless it’s not the GL II at all, and something new instead. But we need Bertel to clarify that for us.
I can’t find any circa-2013 image results for “Buick MPV.” Can TTAC or the Best and Brightest provide any more details about the mystery vehicle that Uchiyamada found so interesting?
It seems like they had a ‘Business concept’ variant of their GL8 minivan back in April of 2009.
That Buick has like no chance at all of being built. It’s a gorgeous car but it would end up being ridiculously expensive and radically altered to be street legal.
I don’t think it was supposed to have a chance of being built.
It’s to attract interest.
They did a Riviera concept in 2007. Now there’s another one? GM needs to stop teasing me and build the thing already!!!
When I read “high places” I assumed Chinese Government officials. Buick is the largest brand in the worlds largest auto market. Toyota is a bit player in China, where auto sales are expected to double in the next decade. No surprise Toyota’s charman wanted to check the competitors product out. Why he wanted to see something that is uglier than a 2001 Sienna is still a mystery. Probably was just checking out the booth babes.
Buick the largest brand in China? Who are you kidding? Buick sold 700K units in China, nothing to scoff at, but that’s 100K less than Toyota, and Volkswagen brand sold over 2M cars.
was Reuss involved? it’s as ugly as an Aztek. anyone who likes this abomination has no clue about what a Buick is.
何もガラガラ以来
どのように彼はそのオフを引っ張ったのですか？
BMWは方法を知りません。我々はどのように知りません。
Don’t you love it that whenever there’s an old top suit he’s always surrounded by some young’uns who look like they’re there to lick off any dirty surfaces their always so funny boss my touch? Must be a catamite thing.
When Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan goes to the NAIAS in Detroit, he travels with two plainclothes Michigan State Police troopers and a single aide. It’s a much smaller entourage than you’ll see with someone like Carlos Ghosn or Dan Akerson. On the other hand, when the heads of the US EPA, DOT, Commerce or Treasury visit the NAIAS, they have even larger entourages than corporate heads do.
@Marcelo
In 58 years of fairly voracious reading and in spite of a decent formal education, I had never encountered the word catamite. So I googled it.
Wish I hadn’t.
oh, this article was just an excuse to use the word. Derek used it a couple of days ago and i had to do like you. I was just consolidating my new knowledge. Never know when it could come in handy.
it is hard to understand for me “Buick” love of chinese people…
Buick got there when the alternatives were Communist built garbage and Volkswagens. That’s what’s called managing expectations. It will take quite a while for the Chinese to collectively understand that Buicks are nothing special.
I disagree. It didn’t take them very long to figure out that Toyotas were nothing special.
It’s heritage. The last Emperor of China, Puyi, owned a Buick. So did Sun Yat-sen, a Chinese nationalist who is revered by both Communist and anti-Communist Chinese as the founding father of modern China. And Chiang Kai-shek, a Chinese nationalist and anti-Communist. And Zhou Enlai, a very high ranking Communist.
China is the opposite of Western culture in that they respect their elders and focus on their well being. having an older client base and persona isn’t a negative in the Middle Kingdom.