Never mind the Buick Avista will not reach production, let’s continue to talk about the statement piece the car is at present. Buick continues to highlight the craftsmanship that has gone into the concept for good reasons: even without production intent, it has gotten a lot of people to take another look at the brand.
Buick Creative Designers and sculptors take us through the process of how the idea of the Buick Avista came to become a full-size clay model, and eventually a true concept vehicle. Particularly, the team highlights the door shapes here. The challenge was to evoke the long, flowing lines from the artistic sketches without making the lines look as if they are sagging on the door panel. A bit of Grecian influence was put into place to help keep things flowing, drawing the eye from one end, to the next.
The creative designers applaud the clay sculpting team for bringing their mere sketch to life, saying they only make it better. Check it out for yourself right up above.
Comments
I really dont care what Buick has to say about the Avista. Build it or keep your mouth shut about it.
Buick’ s been around since 1899. And all these years later GM is barely doing anything to keep it relevant in North America.
Chevyman it’s a damn shame GM isn’t doing something with Buick here ….I’ve been hearing so much about white space….yawn.
nothing’s gonna change.
#Savage
Why do GM get us excited with the beautiful Buicks concepts models two years in a row at NAAS and disappoint us by not building an auto on that scale.
Buick isn’t going to change.
it’s going be a bunch of CUV’s and a few Sedan’s.
how bout a Roadster, a hatch, a SPort coupe….wake me when Buick joins Saturn, Hummer & Oldsmobile in the afterlife in North America.
Avista Buzz creates an opposite effect: A car this beautiful makes LaCrosse look like a Yugo! This may be the most important car GM has done in a decade. An entire design language could be built around it. (Cadillac needs a new design ethos).
These two guys should be put in charge of Buick. In turn, these cars should be sokd in Europe as Opel much like Hyundai did with Genesis.
When Buick/GM builds it, then tell me all about it’s inception to production. Otherwise, I could care less what Buick/Gm says about this concept as it’s a BS tease and major fail on the part of Buick’s/GM’s management. ‘Nuff said.
I watched this but knowing that Buick is not doing anything I barely cared what those nerds had to say.
Let’s just move on from Buick. So it’s basically Chevrolet or Cadillac for any cars that will be worthwhile.
You have to keep in mind that Show Car means the car is meant for the show and most seldom make production and if they do make production they were already based on a model already set for production in the first place.
Other than being on a Alpha platform to get this on the stage at Detroit and on or off the Semi at other shows very little of this car is production capable.
Most show cars never make production and if they do you end up with a car that was already based on a production car that had just some tricks added to make it a show car.
Having seen this one in person you may be mad now but you would be more upset if it made production because it would change much to make it legal for the road and regulations.
I am just happy to know that the folks who made this are now the ones working on future product and that is an indicator for some of the things we may see.
Reality is this was not a car that could make production as seen plain and simple. Most of you would have been pissed off when it sported a B pillar, smaller wheels and brakes, sitting higher, a different interior, changes to the bumper and hood height.
Harley Earls Y Job while it did not make production it was indicator of some of the thing to come. Same for all the Motorama cars.
I sure did see it at the Auto SHow.
It sounds to me that a bunch of ppl on here posting are tired of Buick in general; not just about the Avista not being made….
There is a B pillar on the Camaro, not too sure how a similar one on the Avista would “piss ppl off”?
I think the question to Buick, if not the Avista..WHATTA YOU GOT??? SHOW US SOMETHING! Put something interesting in your line up.
Buick needs to shake it’s lameness.
Well the issue is GM has a hell of a mess to clean up and it was not one that would be done in a short period of time.
Chevy is the #1 priority. Buick China was number #2 and then Cadillac and the rest of GM.
Then you add in the failure of Chevy Europe and then reinstatement of Opel as the main core along now with adding Holden in has set back their programs 5 years min.
Even the people at Buick are tired of waiting but they at least understand in more detail the delays and the time it takes to develop product.
The Avista was their card that they played showing what they can do and some of the things to expect at some point.
Mostly done IMO to gauge public reaction and plan for future Buick products and their design elements I’d guess. I like the car but needless to say coupes are not where the market is going and it DID create a lot of buzz.
“Other than being on the alpha platform” lol yea only the most expensive part of designing a car.
You tend to forget that the car is engineered to use the platform and that is where the cost is.
Just look the ATS and Camaro and most of the suspension and other bits will not transfer over. The cars have different wheel bases and widths. Each has to be tunes and engineered for their own use.
There are many parts on the Cadillac not on the Camaro.
Then you have to engineer the body to work on that platform. If you really want to do it with no B pillar more weight, cost and engineering would be needed.
You want a back seat that is usable well get ready to re engineer it too for someone over 5/10.
Crash ability both the front and back will have to be changed as the show car will not work as shown.
All the Alpha is giving you is the hard points and the rear member at best and some basic suspension layout for the front.
The car is flexible but that does not mean it share a lot.
It’s obvious that Buick has new blood in their design team.. as it’s not your ‘grandfather’ who designed the Avenir or Avista; but apparently.. despite Mary Barra being General Motors’ CEO, there are still a handful of grandfathers on the board that is keeping the Avenir and Avista from getting to the showroom. GM stockholders should ask why isn’t great looking cars like the Avista not being built for the showroom especially as retooling cost is minimal since like the Camaro and ATS, the Avista would be sharing an existing platform.
Well if it were only as easy as you make it.
The fact is you can not just plop this car on the Alpha. You do understand the Alpha is a platform but it is engineered to each model. Few parts are interchangeable between the ATS and Camaro.
Most of the old guard is gone now and Mary and Mark are in control. But they too have to be responsible that if they invest a couple billion into a car they will make it back with profits.
Here you have a coupe that would sell in the 50K unit range at best and at the price it is at the profits would be marginal.
Coupes are a hard sell and if you don’t believe it look at any coupe not a Camaro and Mustang and just see how few are sold that cost less than $100K.
I am sorry but reality sucks sometimes.
It’s unfortunate that the coupe is vanishing from the market place.
The car enthusiast is disappearing and/or does not have the means available to buy the coupe/performance/sport/grand touring type autos.
I am not too sure even how many coupe Cruzes (if manufactured) would even sell. Young adults do not mind driving a sedan.
GM has some coupes but not a compact one for CHevy. (Camaro is close to the size of a compact but you know what I’m getting at)
GM has a decent amount (Camaro, Cadillac ATS & ELR, Buick Cascada, Vette) but there isn’t an entry level coupe no longer.
Scott3 there is not too many coupes in the entire market place. reality is sad!
I love the coupe but you are right it is a hard sell.
I made an effort to get into any and all coupes I could. Head room is to the point 5/10 is the limit.
I could ride in the back of a 5th gen Camaro but in the 6th gen my head is into the head liner. Same in the Challenger and the Mustang accept in it my head was hitting the rear window.
ATS I was hitting headliner.
Only in the BMW and Benz did I find any head room.
Before the back seat worked in a pinch if you needed it and now you really can’t use it for an adult anymore.
The new smaller coupes are struggling. Hyundai is struggling, The Subaru and now Toyota are struggling below expectations.
The Camaro and Mustang are the only two that really can pull volume and get the pass.
There are some more expensive coupes but they can get away with lower volumes due to the high prices.
It is like here the enthusiast all say build it but in the real world we are such a small part of it.
The last CTS coupe was something like 27% of production? Not good enough to recover cost to make it.
People today choose function over design. How else do you explain some of the cars sold today. You have a Hyundai with 3 doors and the ever present mini van that has no style what so ever. The CUV’s try but most have the same egg shape.
Like I said reality sucks because it does.
The market has changed and not for the better for the enthusiast. We can hope it comes back but I am not holding my breath.
The reality is the odds this Buick would not look like the show car because it is not a real car here. Then making it a coupe would lose more interest and then we are left with a car that would sell in small numbers like the ATS does at a lower price making it tough to make a profit.
I wish most of you were correct in your thinking but there is just so much more to this than just build it.
much of Buicks production cars don’t look like real cars….they look like want to be old peoples BACK TO THE FUTURE 2 cars….maybe the future is now LOL.
Note you will see a red Avista at NYC soon. It is identical other than the color.
Buick has said they will continue to look a this car as they could make one but they need to make a business case on it. The case will be around how many they can sell, how much it will cost and how much would it cost to make it into a real production car. The volume of sales would be a real sticking point vs the cost of turning it into a real car.
Also could it be built on the Camaro and Cadillac line? Odds are yes and that could help.
Keep in mind if they go production the many changes I outlined would need to be done and it may 4-5 years before it would go into production once approved. Sorry it takes that lone even on a pre existing platform.