Holden, GM’s Australian regional brand, was recently tasked to develop a pair of vehicles that will reportedly be sold exclusively in China. And new developments (or speculation, at the very least) in the project shows that both vehicles will utilize the upcoming Zeta II rear-wheel-drive architecture, and will become new members of the Buick family.
We imagine one model would be the next-generation Park Avenue, which is Buick’s large RWD sedan offering in China. A smaller Zeta II Buick seems like the most obvious guess to us, but there’s currently no word on whether either model is planned for a North American launch. Notably, we’ve been vocal about Buick launching a large RWD model to combat the luxurious Lexus LS here in America since the inception of GM Authority.
However, the whole project itself seems a tad puzzling. While we’re all for a pair of RWD Buicks, we’re not exactly sure what makes the Zeta II architecture a more optimal choice than the more modern Alpha RWD architecture.
Comments
FINALLY! Some real cars! Between these potential Buicks and the rumours of some RWD Chevy sedans, some light at the end of the long dark tunnel of FWD econo-boxes.Buick, and GM in general, needs this to spark some enthusiasm and offer some alternatives to their ever-popular trucks, for those who want some power in a decent-sized RWD car, don’t actually need a truck, but actually enjoy real cars. You will find some of the thought-police patrol on this site that just don’t get this, but fortunately the General seems to really be listening to its true fans. Bravo. And lets keep our fingers crossed!!
I was talking to family and friends about GM for the past few weeks. I asked them what they thought of Buick. Almost all of them said something along the lines of Luxury / Quiet / Comfortable. I also asked what other company comes to mind when they think of Buick. Almost all of them said Lexus a few said Acura. When I asked them what they thought of Buick’s lack of a rear wheel drive cars most of them had no idea what I was talking about lol. The few that did said if they were in the market for a rear wheel drive car they would look at a Cadillac not a Buick. In full disclosure I love rear wheel drive cars. I hate to say this but I don’t think most people looking at Buick care for or even know what rear wheel drive is. I know there will always be people out there that remember the good old days of rear wheel drive Buicks. People that just love rear wheel drive cars but I just don’t see them in large enough numbers to change GM’s mind. At the end of the day if GM does not offer a rear wheel drive Buick in the states I think life will go on. I also think more people that truly love them will buy a Cadillac and what’s so wrong with that? Thanks
Oh agreed. Just like how it’s easy to see that most Lexus customers don’t know which wheels power their vehicles. But there are just certain things that are possible with a RWD chassis that wouldn’t work nearly as well with FWD.
@Mark
I LOVE RWD, and would never think about owning a FWD car for personal use, but then again, I would never own a Buick, RWD or no.
The problems with Buick going rwd are the following:
1. Buick has a reputation/image of “soft” luxury, customers would test drive a Buick, expect the driving dynamics, nvh levels , and feel of a fwd vehicle, but would experience that of a rwd vehicle. without knowledge of either powertrain and its benefits/downsides, they would go test drive a es 300 and consider it to be superior to the Buick, in terms of the characteristics in the vehicle they are looking for in a vehicle.
2. The car would take sales, however small, away from Cadillac
3. It would dilute Buick’s reputation which would confuse customers
4. There are is a extremely small amount of people who want a RWD Buick, I know you do, I know I do, but I know that consumers who are going to buy Buick dont know or care or want RWD. I am not going to be selfish with GM, as I believe you are being, I dont want GM to make the type of car that I want, I want GM to make a car that will be the best for them in terms of sales and profit. And if the type of cars GM should be making for its success and the type of cars from GM you want dont converge, you shouldnt be a GM enthusiast.
You criticize FWD econoboxes, well without them GM would never have recovered from bankruptcy with all of the bailouts in the world. Ever. I dont have any real evidence, but Im sure GM sells 10 fwd “econobox”(cruze, malibu, equinox..etc) for every 1 RWD performance car(camaro, cts, corvette…etc).
BTW, I think the upcoming Chevy SS would be a good car that would fit your needs/wants.
So the people on GMA who don’t share your opinions or belifes are labled as “thought police”?
With that kind of attitude, you find that you’re surrounded by the fuzz.
For just luxury products (excluding hi-po luxury), I doubt buyers really give a damn about the drivewheels.
They’ll know what wheels are spinning in there Lexus when they end up teetering on a median, can’t tell you how many times I have seen a Lexus like this or in a ditch in the winter time; cracks me up every time…
Wait wasn’t the Zeta platform going away??
Would love to see return of rwd full size cars for buick and caddy have a feeling alot will ride on how well the chevy ss is recived by the public
I don’t get you blokes, zeta is getting older, but it’s still a low cost flexible platform. There’s no reason it can’t stay for another 10 years. Hell the v-car platform that underpinned previous Commodores was 30 years old and still outperformed a lot of other rwd chassis. Just keep updating it and stop whinging. It seems just because it wasn’t invented in the US, everyone wants to put shit on it.
“Just keep updating it and stop whinging”
That’s the problem. Ford did the same thing with their Crown Vic, and when the public caught on that they weren’t getting anything new after 5 or so MY’s, just reheats, they left.
Platforms (or then, chassis) can be used to denote how old a car is. When the public gets wind of the age of a platform, it can negitively impact upon the car’s nameplate itself. If the nameplate is consistantly being attached to newer and newer platforms every 5-6 years, then it won’t suffer from the image of being an inferior, old, reheated product.
It’s very costly to keep churing out new platfoms rather than just update every MY, that’s why automakers would sooner just add and delete features every year and call it a day. But over time, increased safety and consumer content demands outstrip the abilities of an older platform, and eventually the car is chronically out of date – and no resonable amount of engineering money can make the car up to date.
The days of getting 30 year or so out of a platform are all but gone. A handful of cars can get away with it, but average Joe public wants the best of the present now, not the best of 30 years ago fluffed up to barely meet the present.
Yep, the Zeta is getting older, that`s why there`s the Zeta II on the horizon. But as we know that GM is very reluctant to bring new cool stuff to the domestic market its future is still unclear.
What I’ve been saying all along to everyone’s negativity. One RWD Buick is not going to hurt anything. Now, of only we could get one!!!
Grawdaddy; Ford should have developed a new crown vic platform/ updated the vehicle you make good points, for Buick to utilize a modern rear drive platform is a great idea. I hope we can see the fruits of this and continue to see the Buick renaissance completed…
Ford could have made a brand spakin’ new Crown Vic riding on a new platform. Although from Ford persepctive, they’d have to make a slew of varrations from that platform to offset the R&D costs.
But from the old Panther chassis, you’re using hardpoints from 30 years ago. Many are easy to work with, others not so much, and thus requires Ford to be innovative, or neglectful of content that would appear in a new (old) Crown Vic.
I think a RWD buick sadan is a good idea I think thay should build a zeta-ii large sadan as the flagship above the lacrosse.
that would be the buick roadmaster. If you remember in the 90s along side with the chevy caprice was the buick roadmaster. same thing here rwd 5.7l buick. all leads to roadmaster