It seems there is an intriguing vehicle sitting within the walls of the General Motors design studio in Warren, Michigan. According to Motor Trend, and insider has tipped that a four-door coupe version of the striking Buick Avista exists, and it’s currently being considered for production.
The Avista concept was produced on a mix of Alpha and Omega architecture bones, but this four-door coupe would likely use the Alpha platform wholly. The business case really opens up by stretching the platform and adding an extra set of doors, too.
Buick would receive an exclusive, halo vehicle to likely replace the Cascada in the future, and the market segment opens up considerably when branding the Avista as a four-door coupe, rater than a two-door sports coupe. And four-door coupes are all the rage, despite being the bane of oxymoronic.
Buick chief, Duncan Aldred, has already gone on the record to state he has been surprised at the reaction the Avista has received through the auto show circuit, and that the brand would take a closer look into a production variant. Although it wouldn’t remain entirely true to the concept, the possibilities are promising for an engaging, utterly enthusiast driven Buick knowing how well the Alpha platform performs, and what powertrains could plug into such a car.
Not only that, but it would be quite easy to turn this Buick show stopper into an Opel, Vauxhall and Holden. And global sales are the second key for a vehicle like this to succeed.
Comments
I expect with the reaction to the two RWD cars they have had they will come up with something based on these show cars at some point if the business case can be made and an existing platform could be adapted.
I would warn we will not get an identical car to either models as one they are show cars and two changes will have to be made as neither were finished production models.
The key to a 4 door Buick Avista production is a business case for a Cadillac, Opel and Holden version.
Good. I think Aldred can do it. After all, Cadillac’s design language doesn’t lend itself well to execute a proper four-door coupe, but a nice, swoopy Buick? Definitely.
And Buick, HIDE THE REAR DOOR HANDLES. It would look MUCH more convincing.
I thought I read before that Alpha couldn’t support left hand drive which is why the camaro isn’t going to Australia. I could be wrong.
I will tell you this much, the Coupe version is the first american car I’ve ever been remotely impressed with. Screw 4-door family crap. The 2+2 Coupe would turn heads and give the European’s something to worry about. This car shares more with the Porsche Caymen than the crap that rolls out of Japan these days. It’s time to bring back real styling, colors (real colors), bold statements, and performance. Bring out the coupe with a 6 speed manual with AWD and you will scare even Audi. Do it, and stop it with the family wagon, grampa’s car image.
The Chinese don’t buy coupes so there are zero chance that this car will be a coupe. What China wants, China gets and screw the Americans… Lol
The truth is few Americans buy coupes either.
Name one coupe that sells more than 100K units other than the Camaro or Mustang here in America in recent history?
The Scion Toyota is struggling,. Cadillac , Audi, Benz, Hyundai and others all offer coupes and they sell much less than 100K units. Some have a hard time selling 30K units.
Even trucks today few are sold standard cab.
Which is unfortunate. There’s a #savethemanuals campaign, but maybe there should be a #savethe2door campaign.
It will be next Buick Regal saloon, you will see. Monza concept is for Insignia B preview, and Avista is for Regal or further development of design seen on Monza, and closer to production body of Insignia/Regal twins.
Logic is the possible reason for a Buick Avista 4-door coupe instead of a 2-door because coupes despite their excitement do not translate to sales.. a perfect example is 2nd generation Cadillac CTS as sales numbers for the 2-door coupe did not really match the excitement of it’s introduction and is reason why Cadillac decided not to build a coupe for the current 3rd generation CTS.
Exactly! it is sad to day but while many clamor for a coupe so few buy them outside a Camaro or Mustang.
GM has to maximize the profits here to make money and the two extra doors may do it. I hate to see it but I understand it.
Bold statements often do not pay the bills.
As for the other statement the Alpha at this time is not a RHD car. That could change but I expect not till Cadillac redesigns the Alpha or replaces it.
What exactly is a 4-door coupe? Does that imply that the car keeps a sporty coupe-like appearance, but provides sedan convenience? Does it also imply that, despite having 4 doors, there’s limited rear leg room? If that’s the case, there are quite a few cars out there today that fit that bill.
The Avista is a beautiful concept. As a consumer, I would be far more likely to purchase a 4-door variant. As the article implies, I love the appearance of coupes, but they’re not practical for a family.
I will just add that I hate it when auto manufacturers dumb down the appearance of their 4-door variants and sport-up their 2-door siblings… Those of us with kids want our cars to look good too you know! A perfect example is the Honda Accord.
Yes it is a coupe like appearance with a low sleek roof and often a shorter wheel base. This gives you the stunning looks but still have a back door and leg room so the car is still fully functional to more people.
This is a way to really sell this to make a business case. As it is now it appears there will not be an Alpha Chevy SS replacement but this could fill that price gap and more making the Business case more appealing.
Hell, how about one for each division. Monte Carlo SS, Riviera T-Type, Eldorado Touring Coupe. I’m not even sure if I’m being sarcastic.
I loved the Riviera back in the day. That design kept my interest as long as any other I’ve known.
IMHO a 4 door coupe version of the Avista Concept makes business sense. Enough different from the Camaro and the ATS sedan/coupe to establish it’s own market. I absolutely love my 2013 ATS going into my 4th year of ownership. Remains fresh looking and drives wonderfully. I’ve looked over the new Camaro and truly like it. Yet the interior’s so intimate. It’s all performance but not especially practical though. Perhaps in convertible form it’ll seem to open up. I really like the totally automatic convertible top. You can actually walk out, start the engine and lower the top remotely. Now that makes a statement. Make mine in Pearl with the brown canvas top and brown/tan leather interior – RS edition.
My dealer has 1 of 49 ATS-V coupes in the Limited Edition Frost White. But. The sticker? $81,000. They’ve had it well over a month. Must be hand washed only, etc. Gotta be a collector and I’m not. The Mercedes dealer also shows a mat black SL550 Mille Miglie edition. It’s $125,000, again hand wash and all that. Very striking though with a black leather interior trimmed in lipstick red. I’ll pass on those mat exterior finish.
What?! The matte finishes are amazing. Subaru was showing a concept car at the Chicago Auto Show in a matte-metallic blue. It was an amazing color. The ATS white is also gorgeous. If I was wiling to drop that kind of cash on a small car, I would be okay with hand washing.
Look, this is really easy. Build the thing as close as possible to what we saw at the CAS, put a Riviera badge on it, and tool up to handle 200K – 300K in sales per year. I’d take one in a heartbeat.
If only it was that easy.
200K-300K???????
Production of this car would be about 2/3 of the Camaro at 50K- 75K per year at best in this price segment.
Yeah, even 50k and the GM execs would be dancing on their board room table.
I would say they would need 50K to even get meeting for a buisness case.
The Camaro has to target 100K now so you can figure it from there and it is one of the best selling Coupes out.
200K-300K are Camry numbers and not even realistic.
One has to recall the CTS coupe. As cool as it was they struggled volume wise and only the ultra high price keep them profitable. Buick can not relay on high prices. Even the ATS coupe is a rare sight on the road today.
People want style but they also want utility. Most the market is made up of just consumers that think cars are appliances. They want utility before anything else. How else do you explain all the Chrysler Mini Van Sales?
The Enthusiast is a minority in today’s market. People today are not in love with their cars. If you do not believe it just look at how they care and treat them. Most lease and few wash them. Just so little pride in ownership anymore.
I get people getting critical because I keep my cars clean and detailed. They do not understand that I own my cars and get top dollar when I sell and often sell them in one day.
Besides I enjoy doing it.
Go ahead, put 4 doors, an auto slushbox, longer wheelbase and soften up the styling not to offend anyone and no one will buy it. Or you can be bold and change the image of the Buick brand to one which is desirable and aspirational.
Want to have people scream about Buick from the rooftops?
Build the exact concept car in the picture and put an LT4 in it exclusively and give a choice of transmissions from the Corvette offering. This will blow everybody’s mind and will be talked about for decades to come. No other marketing will be required.
If only that was possible. Remember this was a show car with a printed interior.
Show cars look good but you will have to change things no matter how you try. It will need a B pillar and change some other things as they are just not real world.
Show cars make for issues in the real world. Adjust a seat in the SSR. Open the door to reach the buttons. Flexible frame and other issues. The last gen Camaro well they kept the interior of the show car. Well that was something they should have changed as many hated the interior. That was one area they really addressed in the new Camaro.
The auto Trannys are going to be the norm and to be honest they are faster now than the manuals. Now if you like shifting that is fine as I love it too but the argument about a slush box is no longer in play.
There is just a lot more to building a car and investing several billions of dollars into a car. When it is your ass on the line you have to look at more than just do it like things.
My heart is with the Avista as it is with many in GM but I also know the other things they have to consider.
Why do you have to be so pragmatic? 🙂
It’s a concept car to inspire us to dream a little. I think it would be possible for them to preserve much of this design as they move into production. I do think that 4-doors would be required for the volumes they need, per your examples of the CTS-V coupe. Even then they could capture this design to a great extent. Remember the gen 5 Camaro concept? They took that through production with great success and made me a believer.
Well It is just a response to those who think you can just take a car and make it even as a show car and not pay a price for it.
Show cars are great and I love seeing them but often they leave you with a car with issues that would not have been if they fixed the problems before production.
The last gen Camaro was one of the few that did not have major issue but even it suffered from poor sight lines and the dash, steering wheel and shifter were all carried over per orders by GM even though some on the Camaro team wanted to change them to a more useful design. They did make it a priority to fix the interior on the new car and it shows.
Automakers got in a mode for a while where they made production cars show cars with a few changes. Some people got used to that and that did work. But to make a non production cars production takes some real work.
In the case here the B pillar has about a 90% chance of being installed. Side crash standards are hard to pass with out it. To do it with out it you gain weight like a Benz or Bentley coupe.
Dreams are fine but you still have to look at questions of to build or not to build with the same eyes as a MFG has to when you need to answer the question will it be built. If not then we get post complaining well they changed it or I can’t see out of it etc.
Not trying to be a downer here but one has to keep the dreams and reality separated
My dream is they build this car as it is with AWD and 700 HP and no b pillar but that is not going to happen.
But dreams are crushed often by cost, profits and regulations.
The four door Buick Avista Coupe would be Buick’s trip back to the big time in North America. An Avista 4 Door Coupe would allow Buick to compete with the high priced Mercedes 550 CLS and comparable Audi’s. I don’t know if 50-60K units a year is feasible in year one but it definitely would be attainable in model year two as impressed non GM customers discovered Buick’s true Halo vehicle. The four door Avista Coupe concept reminds me (for the first time in three decades) of the excitement that the Buick Rivieras generated when I was very young.
Scott, I so agree. I believe GM will find a way to use the Avista Concept in a real production model. All the basic stuff exists already. Using the “alpha” platform they simply create a different body style and use existing powertrain components. Just pull all the right pieces together and make money. Recall “Riviera” and make the correct statement. And use the TT3.0. Leave the 6.2 to the Camaro where it belongs. I continue to believe the Camaro 2.0T/6 speed manual turns out to be the big deal. Eat up the road with a bottom dollar coupe. After market’s gonna go nuts over it. I promise.
Further. Cadillac needs extra exterior “jewelry” on their CTS and ATS models. I added a few pieces thru CarID and made a major difference. Plus a set of TSW wheels and Vogue tires. I know. “Old school”. But guys. I get compliments every damned day. Makes me very careful to keep it clean and shined up. The one year only Glacier Blue works, I tell you. By the way, those Vogue’s worked great in the heavy snow we had right after Christmas.
I wonder? Has Lincoln found a sweet spot? The redo MKZ and new Continental really are gorgeous. I agree with a point. Not every luxury vehicle buyer has any concern about FWD-RWD-AWD. They want a comfortable, handsome, beautifully appointed vehicle. And don’t get a damn about 0 to 60 etc. This might just be where Buick gets it’s spot.
I fully expect that Buick would use a 3.0 TT V6 here as Turbo is a part of their heritage.
The 2.0 Camaro is going to be a great car for the money but GM has their work cut out to promote and market this car. Too many people really have no clue what a 2.0 can do. I own one with a tune and know in RWD it must be amazing.
The big wheels and tires are going to have to be limited as Cadillac is trying to go smaller. They want to reduce the unspung weight for better ride and handling. Wheel that large are added weight and do little to help tuning of the ride and performance. They for sure look good but they only want big enough to cover the brakes.
Note improvement of handling in all their models since the smaller wheels arrived.
Lincoln will improve and they are now head to head with Buick. This is who Buick should be watching and that is why an Alpha could really set Buick apart since Lincoln at this time offers no RWD option.
If a 4-door coupe design is what it takes to get the Avista in production, GO FOR IT! GM/Buick needs it like tomorrow, not in 3 years to replace the Cascada! GM needs to work on shortening its process time to get concept cars into production. If time to market is too long, you can’t compete in a global market. GM has to stop raising the hopes of the buying public and then disappointing us with long delays and cars with neutered designs and engineering. C’mon, GM, the public wants ROI on its investment and show that you can produce results.
There’s no such thing as a “four door coupe”, just a less practical sedan. Sorry, but the appeal of the Avista (for me) is the two door coupe setup. Add two more doors to the equation, and you have a sedan with an impractical back seat, in which case I just opt for the more practical sedan I’d buy anyway. If they were able to keep the hardtop setup with four doors, it might get me interested though.
There are fake convertibles so why not 4 door coupes.
The point is while it is more impractical than the sedan it is more practical than a coupe to many buyers.
Where there’s a will there’s a way. 🙂
I think they are making things far too complicated. Too many specialized vehicles instead of a line of vehicles. I say…. make the coupe(based on Camaro/ATS coupe), make the 4 door coupe and make a real sedan (based on ATS-L). This thing is so good looking it could be all of these things. Everything up front can be the exact same. I’d buy the sedan because I have 4 people to tote everywhere I go. If It was just me and the wife, I’d buy the coupe.
“You will get four doors whether you like it or not.” GM Mantra.