Buick Riviera
GM recently figured out that different parts of the world like different slices of Americana, and perhaps these areas are where it can get the best ideas to reinvigorate its brands all over the globe, even in the U.S. General Motors originally introduced the Buick Riviera concept at the Shanghai Motor Show and says this is the look of Buick’s new global design direction.
Yes, that means future U.S. Buicks will start to look like this. We’ve already seen enlarged grilles on the 2008 Lucerne and LaCrosse, as well as on the upcoming Enclave crossover. Now, GM’s Asian design studio will take the reins of the future of Buick’s style, with a catchy blurb from a GM exec: It’s not East, not West … it’s Buick.
As for the Riviera, it looks a little too compact for American tastes. The last Riviera rolled off the line in 1999, and even if it didn’t enjoy the mass popularity then that it did in its heyday, it always maintained a look disinct from the competition. The concept features a new hybrid powertrain that will end up in a future production car — although probably not the Riviera — to debut in China prior to the 2008 Olympics.