[Adfunk Auto] Photo Gallery: Buick

[Muhammad]

Buick

Buick is a brand of automobile built in the United States, Canada, and China by General Motors Corporation. Buicks are sold in North America, China, the CIS countries, and the Middle East. The name is pronounced "BYOO-ick" (IPA 'bjuIk).


History

Buick originated as an independent motor car manufacturer, the Buick Motor Company, incorporated on May 19, 1903 by David Dunbar Buick (who invented the overhead valve engine on which the company's success was based) in Flint, Michigan. In 1904 the struggling company was taken over by James Whiting, who brought in William C. Durant to manage his new acquisition. Buick himself unwisely sold his stock for a small sum at his departure, and died in very modest circumstances forty years later.

Durant was a natural, however, and Buick soon became the largest car maker in America. Using the profits from this, Durant embarked on a series of several dozen corporate acquisitions, calling his new mega-corporation General Motors.

At first, the different manufacturers who comprised General Motors competed against each other, but Durant put a stop to that. He wanted each General Motors division to target one class of buyer, and in his new scheme Buick was near the top—only the luxurious Cadillac brand had more prestige.

In 1929, the marque launched the Marquette designed to help bridge the price gap between Buick and Oldsmobile, however the Marquette was discontinued in 1930.

Even today, Buick retains that position in the GM lineup. The ideal Buick customer was comfortably off; possibly not quite rich enough to afford a Cadillac or not desiring the ostentation of one, but definitely in the market for a car a cut above the norm.

Speculation [1] exists, however, as to whether GM will repeat its termination of the Oldsmobile by eliminating the Buick brand in order to further cut costs, following the temporary suspension of GM's planned Zeta project to develop new rear wheel drive cars which would have fit the Buick market niche [2], and the consolidation of Buick, Pontiac, and GMC trucks into a single dealer franchise, which would make it simple to eliminate the Buick brand without leaving any dealers with no product. However, with the development of the Zeta platform apparently still ongoing (including the development of the 2006 VE Holden Commodore), it may be likely that Buick will survive still.
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Distinguishing features

Buick's emblem consists of three shields, each bisected diagonally to the right by a straight line, the shields arranged touching each other in a left-diagonal pattern, inside a circle. If represented in color, the leftmost shield is red, the middle white, and the rightmost blue, although white is sometimes represented by light gray. This design was adopted in 1959 and represents the three models that comprised the lineup that year—LeSabre, Invicta, and Electra. The shields are adopted from the shield of the Buick family crest, which in modified form had been used on Buicks since the 30s. A version of the traditional crest appeared on Electras through the 70s.

A traditional Buick styling cue dating to 1949 is a series of three or four portholes or vents on the front fender behind the front wheels. The source of this design feature was a custom car (one not made by Buick), which in addition had a flashing light within each hole, each synchronized with a specific spark plug - a feature not used by Buick. These were originally called Ventiports (later just portholes), and have appeared sporadically on several models since, as nonfunctional ornamentation. Lower cost models were equipped with three portholes, while higher cost models came with four; when the number of portholes was standardized across the entire model line, buyers of the higher cost models complained bitterly that they felt shortchanged. The number of holes did not refer to the number of cylinders in the engine. As of 2003 they have been re-introduced on the Buick Park Avenue. The Park Avenue is gone, but Buick salvaged the portholes as they appear on their new Lucerne, which is coming soon.

Another styling cue during the 1940s - 1970s was the "sweep-side", a curved line running the length of the car. In the earlier cars, this was a chrome-plated rub strip which, after it passed the front wheel, gently curved down nearly to the rocker panel just before the rear wheel, and then curved around the rear wheel in a quarter of a circle to go straight back to the tail-light. During the 1950s, the form of the Buick tail-lights were a tier of small circular bullet-shaped ones. The one styling cue from the 1940s which has most often reappeared is for the grille to be a horizontal oval with many thin vertical chromed ribs bulging forward.

The Buick V8 engine, nicknamed the "nailhead", became popular with hot-rodders in the 1950s and 1960s, because the vertical attachment of the valve covers, in contrast to the angled attachment of other V-8 engines, enabled the engine to fit into smaller spaces while maintaining easy access for maintenance.
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Geographical distribution

Unlike some of GM's other brands, Buicks are not marketed globally, although in the early years of the marque Buick had a substantial export presence. In pre-World War II China, for example, one in five cars were Buicks.

Currently most Buick sales are restricted to the United States and Canada. One exception is Israel, where the Buick LeSabre and Buick Rendezvous are imported. In addition, Buicks used to be sold throughout the Middle East until the Buick Roadmaster was discontinued.

Since 1999, a Chinese version of the Buick Century/Regal has been produced and sold in China under Shanghai GM and has proven to be popular among upscale, professional families, establishing Buick as GM's most popular brand in China. In addition, Buick of China also sells the subcompact Sail, sourced from GM's Asian operations and based on the Opel Corsa B, the compact Excelle, based on the Daewoo Lacetti/Nubira, and a modified version of the Venture/Montana/Silhouette/Sintra minivan named the GL8. In June, 2005, Buick announced that it will buld a car named the Buick Royaum in Australia for export to China, based on the Holden Statesman and Caprice luxury cars. Buick has stated that it expects China to become its second largest market.

In December 2004, General Motors signed a memorandum of understanding with Yulon, a firm based in Taiwan, for the licensed manufacture of Buick vehicles there.
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Buick models

* Buick Apollo (1971 - 1975)
* Buick Allure (2005 - Current, Canada Only)
* Buick Caballero
* Buick Centurion (1971 - 1973)
* Buick Century (1936 - 1942, 1954 - 1958, 1973 - 2005)
* Buick Eight
* Buick Electra (1959 - 1990)
* Buick Estate
* Buick Excelle (2003 - Current, rebadged Daewoo Nubira)
* Buick GL8 (2000 - Current)
* Buick Grand National
* Buick Gran Sport
* Buick GSX
* Buick Invicta (1959 - 1964)
* Buick LaCrosse (2005 - Current)
* Buick LeSabre (1959 - Current)
* Buick Limited
* Buick Lucerne
* Buick Park Avenue (1991 - Current)
* Buick Rainier (2004 - Current)
* Buick Reatta (1988 - 1991)
* Buick Regal (1973 - 2004)
* Buick Rendezvous (2001 - Current)
* Buick Riviera (1962 - 1999)
* Buick Roadmaster (1936 - 1958, 1991 - 1996)
* Buick Royaum (2005 - Current)
* Buick Skyhawk (1975 - 1989)
* Buick Skylark (1953 - 1954, 1961 - 1998)
* Buick Somerset (1985 - 1987)
* Buick Special (1936 - 1958, 1961 - 1962)
* Buick Sport Wagon
* Buick Super
* Buick Terraza (2004 - Current)
* Buick Wildcat (1962 - 1970)



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Posted by Muhammad to Adfunk Auto at 10/24/2005 12:46:00 AM