Category Archives: Buick

2016 Buick Cascada Convertible

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Jack Snell, Flickr Creative Commons

2016 will see the introduction of the first new convertible in Buick’s storied line in twenty five years: the 2016 Buick Cascada. Needless to say the Cascada will incorporate 21st century engineering and styling to make it a stand out vehicle for all occasions. One of the innovations supplied with the Cascada is the spring-loaded, pyrotechnically-activated roll bars behind the front seats which are linked to the air bag system that are designed to protect the occupants in rollover situations.

According to Buick.com:

“The Cascada’s strategically reinforced body structure supports the roll bar system and is the foundation for the car’s strength and responsive driving experience. Elements include:

  • A-pillars featuring press-hardened steel in the inner structures and reinforced with high-strength, hot-rolled and cold-bent tubes within the pillars
  • Reinforced rocker panels with increased cross section
  • Underbody reinforcements including X-braces, V-braces and additional brackets
  • A reinforced “torsion box” bulkhead behind the rear seats that incorporates the pop-up roll bars

As a result of the structure’s rigidity, engineers were able to tune the suspension and steering systems with a high degree of precision, because they didn’t have to compensate for chassis flex.”

 

The roll bar system and the retractable roof are also designed in such a way that both the lines of the car are uninterrupted as well as trunk and storage space are largely unaffected. The individual rear seats also fold out of the way allowing up to 13.4 cubic feet of storage when the top is up, that space is reduced to 9.8 cubic feet when the top is stowed. Also, the top is stowed under a hard cover and can be lowered in 17 seconds at speeds up to 31 mph.

Other features include a 200hp engine, Lane Departure Warning, Rear Park Assist, and the rear view camera. The 2016 Buick Cascada convertible will be an exciting new vehicle for all driving scenarios!

 

2016 Enclave Comes With Streaming!

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James, Flcikr Creative Commons

Holy Family Vacation Batman! Buick has just announced that their 2016 model year Enclaves will feature OnStar’s 4G LTE Connectivity!  What this means is this will be a major upgrade in connectivity for families on the go. The 4G LTE comes with a Wi-Fi Hotspot that will support up to 7 devices simultaneously. Let’s face it folks, those days of license plate bingo, and the endless “Are we there yet?” questions are fading into a thing of the past. You see more and more cars on the road where everyone is on their device of choice, and now they’ll be able to connect on the road as well.

And now a little about 4G LTE. It is rated as the fastest and most up-to-date mobile network, and is advertised as being 10x faster than 3G and 100x faster than previous versions of OnStar service. As an added benefit, OnStar provides broader, wider-ranging coverage for smartphones than they can currently achieve through their cellular networks. Not only will you be able to stream on the go, but OnStar’s RemoteLink Mobile App will allow you to control several vehicle functions from your phone!  You’ll be able to send it directions and access information on the vehicle as well!

You’ll get 6 months of service as a standard, with an opt-in feature called FamilyLink which will allow you to receive vehicle position alerts, check location of the vehicle online, as well as stay connected with your loved ones while they’re on the road. If you choose the five year OnStar Basic plan, it comes with OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics which conducts monthly tests of all your vehicle’s systems and provides an alert if maintenance is needed. Also included is the RemoteLink Key Fob Service which will allow you to lock or unlock the doors, start the engine, honk the horn, turn on/off the lights from your phone anywhere you have a data connection! It’s a killer option.

Buick, the Twin Wasp, and the B-24 Liberator

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David Foster, Flickr Creative Commons

Not many of you may know, but Buick built over 74,000 Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp radial engines for the Army Air Corps during WWII. These engines were air cooled, 14 cylinder (two rows of 7), and ranged between the 800 hp of the -1’s to 1350hp of the -94’s. They were called the Twin Wasp because the original Pratt & Whitney Wasp series of engines were single row radial engines, meaning that had one row of cylinders radiating from around the crankshaft.

The official name was the P&W R-1830, denoting a Radial engine of 1830 cubic inches. They were mounted to the two most produced US aircraft of the entire war: the Consolidated B-24 Liberator which mounted four Twin Wasps, and the Douglas DC-3/C-47 which mounted two. The high production numbers of those two aircraft caused the R-1830 to be the most widely produced aircraft engine in history with a total production run above 173,000!

Buick began building the engines at a government owned plant in Melrose Park, just west of Chicago, IL. The engines Buick built were exclusively for use on the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber, and comprised 43% of total 1830 production! Over 18,000 B-24’s were built during the course of the war and were flown in every theater of that conflict. The B-24 had a fairly long post-war career as well being used to haul freight, aerial mapping (pre-satellites baby!), as well as flying suppression of wildfires by the naval variant (PB4Y Privateer) all the way into 2002!

Buick’s Twin Wasp engines are STILL out there in the world 70 years later, hauling freight in the US, Central America, South America, Alaska, Africa, Asia, and anywhere  that the old DC-3 is still operating. Who wold have thought that a product built and delivered for wartime would have such a long and successful peacetime career?

Buick’s Apple CarPlay

smoothgroover22, Flickr Creative Commons
smoothgroover22, Flickr Creative Commons

Buick has just announced at the C3 Connected Car Conference in New York that in 2016 all models of the Buick Regal and Lacrosse will be offered with Apple CarPlay, which will integrate smartphone technology through Buick’s IntelliLink System. This will allows hands-free voice communication, text communication, navigation, as well as entertainment options to be displayed on the eight inch IntelliLink panel.

“Buick understands the importance of connectivity integration in everyday life and this new connection technology provides drivers with a smart and simple way to have all the conveniences of their mobile devices safely at their fingertips,” said Duncan Aldred, vice president of Buick. “It’s another step in building and implementing technology that consistently puts our customers first.”

Apple CarPlay allows iPhone features to be displayed on the eight inch (diagonal) screen for quicker safer access during driving and can either be accessed by touchscreen or by voice vis Siri. There are also steering wheel mounted buttons to assist in interacting with this innovative technology. The goal of course maintaining connectivity in the vehicle in the safest, and most situationally aware capacity possible.

We’ve all seen the statistics for distracted driving-caused accidents, and the fact of the matter is the world is not becoming less connected. So Buick and Apple are striving to allow you to be connected, and at the same time focused on the task at hand which is arriving to your destination safely and ready to go.

From a more recreational standpoint, the interconnectivity of your iPhone with Buick’s ApplePlay technology will allow you to have hands free navigation service where ever you may wish to drive. Won’t it be nice to be able to drive through Yellowstone or Yosemite without worrying about getting lost and wasting precious vacation time worrying about getting to your destination?

Buick and ApplePlay at your service.

The Early Buicks

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John Lloyd, Flickr Creative Commons

Buick started building cars at the turn of the last century. The whole world was changing back then. For the first time in mankind’s history, speed over the ground was increasing Since the dawn of time man could only move over the Earth as fast as hist feet, or the feet of animals could carry him, but at the end of the 1800’s steam engines had overtaken wind or animal power, and the trains where the speed demons of the era. However, as the 1800’s came to a close and the 20th century was born, speed was the word of the day. Distance over time.

The mad dash to go hither and thither in less and less time drove manufacturers to invest the money into developing lighter and more efficient ways of powering vehicles, and in May 1903 a man from Angus, Scotland named David Buick opened his doors in Detroit in 1899 and founded what is currently North America’s oldest automobile manufacturer, and by 1905 Buick was offering quality cars priced for the average middle class American.

The Model B was Buick’s first widely available model and period advertising states that is “The Car Of Quality” which features a two cylinder opposed engine of 21hp, as well as a two speed transmission featuring both forward AND reverse gears! Furthermore this automobile is listed as operating comfortably from 4 to 25 mph with the high-speed clutch in, and was advertised as being “simple in control”.

Prior to the introduction of the Model B in 1905, only 40 Buicks in total had ever been built, but 1906 saw a production of 1600 cars, and over 4500 built in 1907, proving that Buick was supplying a quality and in-demand product that was attainable by a wide array of customers despite changing owners and moving the entire factory from Detroit to Flint, MI. A remarkable feat even by today’s standards.

Fastest Buick Ever?

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Rex Gray, Flikr Creative Commons

(WARNING! This intro is tongue-in-cheek)There was a time in America when manufacturers built what folks called “muscle cars”. Decades-long arguments have raged ever since, over this one or that one, which was faster, which was cooler, which was the easiest to modify. You know, gearhead stuff. The kind of subject that makes the wife/girlfriend’s eye glaze over more or less instantaneously.

Well it all sort of came to a head back in 1984. You see there was this magazine called “Popular & Performance Car Review” which published a list of “Fifty Fastest Musclecars”. Now where that particular list created a massive uproar among the gearhead community was in listing the 1970 Buick Skylark Gran Sport Stage 1 as the third fastest musclecar behind the 1966 Shelby Cobra 427, and the 1966 Corvette 427.

The Hemi/MOPAR crowd was fit to be tied. They all started hollaring about how everybody knows that Buick stands for “Big Ugly Import Car Killer” and that the only folks that drove a Buick anyway were all sucking back the Geritol and looking for a place to cash their Social Security checks. The Buick community of course started singing the Etta James hit “At Last” and high-fiving each other because there it was in print that the Buick’s weren’t just grandma’s grocery getter.

To settle all the hubbub, the editor of Popular & Performance Car Review arranged to have a 1/4 mile race between a ’70 Buick GS Stage 1 and ’70 Plymouth GTX a at the Gainesville Raceway. The Buick ran at 12.30 and the Plymouth at 13.03. Much like in politics, all the race did was increase the hubbub and harumphing. One side accused the other of running high performance parts and special motors, the other side was shaking it’s head and saying “Nope”. And like the western TV shows of old, the Buick gunslinger was the fastest draw in the west and was repeatedly challenged to a duel to find out who was faster. That day in 1985 however, the 1970 Buick Skylark Gran Sport Stage 1 was the fastest musclecar on the track.

Buick Regal, NASCAR Champion

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Kazuma JP, Flikr Creative Commons

I remember watching stock car races on TV with my granddad and uncle at my grandparent’s house back in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  The races were popular, but not the spectacle that they are now. It seems like ESPN started broadcasting them on the new “cable TV” in 1980 or ’81, but we were still watching them on NBC SportsWorld, because the only racing you could get on CBS WIde World Of Sports back then was Grand Prix.

In the 1981 Winston Cup season for example, you saw Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison trading victories back and forth with an occasional Richard Petty or Cale Yarborough upset. The funny thing about that ’81 season though…it was dominated by the Buick Regal! What set the Regal apart from the Pontiac Grand Prix, the Chrysler Imperial, the Ford Thunderbird, the Chevy Monte Carlo, and the Olds Cutlass which are the other makes and models raced that year, was pure aerodynamics.

GM had dictated that all it’s cars in the series would be powered by the Chevy 358 small block, so the only way for the Buick Regal to set itself apart from the herd, apart from the nut behind the wheel, was in airflow. The Regal featured a fairly raked windshield, the double sloped grill, and smooth side panels all the way down the car. The combination of smooth airflow over the body, the 358 under the hood, stunningly good handling on the track, and a talented butt in the seat, brought home 12 wins and 21 finishes in the top five, and even more Regals in the top 10, across the 30 race season.

Darrell Waltrip won the Winston Cup championship in a Buick, Bobby Allison came in second in a Buick, Harry Grant came in third in a Buick, Terry Labonte came in fourth in a Buick, Ricky Rudd came sixth in a Buick, and even The King, Mr Richard Petty placed 8th in his only season driving Buicks.

So when you see that beat up Buick Regal driving down the street, remember this: it may be 34 years since the Regal’s heyday but there my friend, goes a former thoroughbred.

 

Buick Built The World’s Fastest…

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…TANK! Yes indeed, Buick was the sole builder of the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer which was introduced as a prototype at the battle of Anzio in Italy early in January of 1944, but it wasn’t until the invasion of France that the M18’s really hit their stride. The Hellcat had the distinction of being the fastest tank in the world until the turbine powered M1 Abrams was introduced in 1980. That’s 36 YEARS of being the fastest armor on tracks!

Over 2500 M18’s were built, with every single one built by Buick. They saw service all through the European theater from January 1944 until the end of the war, as well as on mainland China and throughout the Pacific, although with the lack of Japanese armor the M18’s were more used as direct fire support for the infantry in demolishing bunkers and as mobile armored shields.

Now a word about their speed. They were the only tank in any army to be able to reach up to 57mph. They achieved this by sacrificing weight in armor, meaning they were sitting ducks in a stand-and-fight slugging match with other tanks. Where they absolutely shined was in fast hit-and-run ambushes where they could use their speed to outmaneuver slower German tanks and bring the M18’s stout 76mm cannon to bear very successfully against enemy tanks lightly armored sides and rear.

After the war they remained in service, and saw action in the Korean conflict. The Yugoslavian army used them after they were refurbished by Brown and Root in the 1950’s and even saw service in the 1990’s during the Croation/Serbian/Bosnian/Hertzogovinian wars. I mean, Venezuela STILL has 75 M18’s in service or reserve!

Ask any engineer, it’s hard to beat a winning power/weight ratio. With it’s 450hp radial aircraft engine, brilliant suspension system designed by Buick, and the lowered weight of less armor than it’s counterparts the M10 and M36, the M18 was the sportiest vehicle on tracks. Heck, it’s still the sportiest thing on two tracks powered by a reciprocating engine! I dare say the M18 has a chance to see it’s 100th birthday and still see examples in operational condition, a very big tribute to the men and women at Buick who designed and built the Hellcat as well as the men who served inside them.

Buick Leads In National Customer Service Index Study

378046_299892470038888_1645320118_nWell, Buick has done it for a second consecutive year. It has been released that Buick ranks at the top in customer service and dealer satisfaction. Of course, we’re not really surprised. Check out the Press Release.

DETROIT – According to the customers surveyed in the J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI), Buick ranks tops among 20 mass-market brands for the second consecutive year in dealer service satisfaction.

The study measures service satisfaction among owners and lessees of 1- to 5-year-old vehicles in the United States. The CSI focuses on five service areas, with service quality most heavily weighted, and followed by service initiation, service advisor, service facility and vehicle pick-up.

“Superior reliability, quality and customer service is core to every model we bring to market,” said Duncan Aldred, vice president of Buick. “Leading the market in service satisfaction demonstrates that we and our dealers continue to deliver on that commitment.”

Buick is an international modern luxury brand offering vehicles with sculpted designs, luxurious interiors and thoughtful personal technologies, along with responsive-yet-efficient performance. Buick is attracting new customers with its portfolio of award-winning luxury models in North America and China. Learn more about Buick cars and crossovers at www.buick.com, on Twitter @buick, on Instragram, on Pinterest or at www.facebook.com/buick

Come and see what all the excitement is about at Freeman Grapevine. Judge our service for yourself and let us know what you think. We really do value our customer’s opinions. If you’ve already shopped here, well, you already know how well we treat our customers.

Buick Ranks High in Benchmark Dependability Study

© General Motors.
© General Motors.

(This article was originally published on Buick.com)

Brand moves up three spots to 2nd overall

DETROIT – Buick today was recognized as one of the most dependable brands in the J.D. Power 2015 Vehicle Dependability StudySM and improved to second overall, from fifth last year, outperforming many luxury makes.

The 2015 study tracks 2012 model year vehicles in the third year of ownership. According to the study, Buick was 34 percent more reliable than industry average.

Driving the brand’s overall gains, the Buick LaCrosse was recognized as J.D. Power’s segment leader in the Large Car segment. And the Buick Enclave was ranked second in the Midsize SUV segment.

“Buick’s ranking is a testament to the fact that we on the leading edge of reliability, quality and customer service,” said Duncan Aldred, vice president of Buick. “More and more customers are visiting the Buick showroom because we put these values at the core of every model we bring to the market.”

The 2014 Buick Encore ranked highest in the Sub-Compact SUV segment in both the J.D. Power 2013 and 2014 Initial Quality StudiesSM. This award also complements Buick’s recognition as the highest-ranking mass-market brand for customer satisfaction with dealer service, according to the J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Customer Service Index StudySM.