No Plans For Buick To Offer Regal TourX Sans Plastic Cladding
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The opinion-splitting off-road plastic cladding found on the 2018 Buick Regal TourX isn’t going anywhere, and Buick has no plans to offer the “crossover” without it.
After many readers expressed interest in a Regal TourX minus the cladding, we decided to simply ask Buick if there’s potential for a Regal TourX option to delete the cladding. The answer? There aren’t any plans for a less-rugged looking Regal TourX.
A Buick spokesperson told GM Authority that the Regal TourX bridges the gap between the brand’s three crossover SUVs and its passenger cars. Additionally, the spokesperson told us Buick “think[s] the design’s right where it needs to be for that mission.”
The 2018 Regal TourX is an imported Opel Insignia Country Tourer, and across the pond, Opel also offers the vehicle in Sports Tourer guise. The Sports Tourer sits lower and does not feature the off-road cladding like the Country Tourer, also known as our Regal TourX. Admittedly, we do like the Sports Tourer with its sleeker style, but Buick’s positioning makes sense to offer the more rugged look.
The brand recently upped its forecast for the Regal TourX and believes half of Regal buyers will opt for the wagon. The other Regal variant, the Sportback, foregoes the sedan’s traditional trunk in favor of a liftback design.
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Mistake.
Make it an Avevir option.
Let the people chose as you have the parts.
Even GMC on the Acadia offers the black cladding and painted cladding.
Anyone familiar with the Opel or Holden versions can see how the cladding mucks up an otherwise brilliant design. Let the customers decide if they want the tacky plastic glue-ons…or not!
Oh, GM I would ask you to make this in a Voltec PHEV variant, but I know you would just ignore the request and suggest I buy a diesel.
No Plug No Sale
I guess I would be better with them if they were more proportional to the height of the vehicle. Around the Wheel Wells these seem even bigger than the ones on the Enclave or Envision….and every pic I can find of the Envision has them as body-colored in addition to being more proportional to the vehicle. Hopefully it does well. It missed my top 10 list when they stated there would be no GS version anyhow.
+1 for Sports Tourer/ GS version of this
Looks good to me…..but I own a Subaru Outback.
I guess this means that the GS model will be for the sedan only.
People are asking for it without cladding. Buick’s response? No, we’re right. Really? How hard would it be to give customers the option? At the very least, offer the cladding in body color.
we totally agree make it an option some of us want a luxury wagon—subaru,vw are not luxury cars at least not in so california
Subaru knows the Outback is not perceived as a luxury wagon, yet they have the wisdom to offer the wheel arch cladding as an option. Dealers in my DFW area tell me they sell more without it than with it.
If Buick offered it as a dealer-installed option, they’d satisfy all those who want it, but not lose out on sales to those who don’t, like me.
Now that is one of many problems with GM these days. We are right and you will take it or leave it as we make it. Why can’t it be an option or specific model with them? They are overly large and “in your face” and quite tacky. And I seriously doubt any customer is going to be fooled by them into thinking this is an off roading SUV and not a wagon. The forced upon the customer stop/start is another thing they do with no defeat button despite most every other manufacturer giving you that.
Hmmm…I thought the cladding was a very big deal on why I would not get this car to replace my current VW wagon. I would love the regular wagon version of this. It’s beautiful and the right size. However, the auto start/stop must be defeatable. If it’s not, the definitely, this is not the car for me. I cannot stand auto start/stop.
Product planning at GM is and always has been very illogical. Many customers want a Sportstourer (station wagon) but GM probably does not want these customers. I am thinking here of many Volvo, BMW, Mercedes and Audi customers who would come to BUICK as new customers, but BUICK and GM do not want to understand this. It’s so easy to develop a BUICK Regal Tourer from the OPEL Insignia Sportstourer.
Order to GM / PSA / OPEL: Develop a special equipment code for the elimination of body kit and TourX suspension. As an additional variant comes then the Buick Regal Tourer as GS with the V6. So Baukasten was once the domain of GM. Currently Staion Wagon are a gap in the market! Start a liberated special series with OPEL Exclusive content in advance.
Should I support you?
I’d love a GS or Avenir version of the Regal “wagon”. I’d settle for head up display and a V6 in the current TourX, but would prefer it without the cladding, or at least in body color. It’s not like these cars don’t already come down the same assembly line as the decladded Opel wagons anyway. I associate unpainted plastic bits with cheapness, not ruggedness as Buick calls it, but then rugged isn’t really a trait that I look for in my cars anyway.
I’m just a normal guy. Give me a regular Regal “WAGON”, 2 wheel drive without cladding and I’d buy one today.
Options_ Paint it or take it off. Wouldn’t stop me from buying one, only the trim upgrades to get the limited options I want are doing that.
If this were offered in a less costly FWD model with a V6 sans cladding I would be first in line.
“New GM” same as “Old GM”.
“We know what is best for our customers regardless if they disagree.”
Evolve, GM, evolve.
If there was a GS / Sports Tourer / Whatever you want to call it I would buy one this summer no questions asked.
As there isn’t one, I’ll probably go with a CPO All Road or something else that isn’t a GM.
Dumb dumb dumb product marketing by GM here
Great idea buick! Pile on more plastic like your dead cousin Pontiac did. I really llike the flow and interior. I’ll give you 30K to make every black exterior piece color matched or make the entire care monochrome.
You are forcing me to go buy a V90 or V60 wagon from Volvo. Why??? I love the overall looks of the Tour
x, but the black plastic cladding is a no-go for me. Give me a GS spec’d TourX and I will order one ASAP!!!
In pictures these plastic pieces look OK, but up close they’re awful. When the car is a few years old they’ll become oxidized and brittle and will really detract from the otherwise good looks of this ride. Deleting them entirely would require a re-worked front & rear bumper. GM is pandering to the truck-centric american market by trying to make a car with practically 0% off-road ability look tougher than it really is.
Intro: I liked it enough that I got one anyway.
That said, the plastic is ugly, and I, like many others, have looked into what exact parts need replacing, to embody the Vauxhall or Opel versions of this car. Not cheap, but possible.
As to the start stop, so many vehicles have this as an option, whether it can be switched on and off, or not. The aftermarket already has solutions, and they aren’t expensive or difficult to install. But why? Why sit and idle when you don’t have to? If it’s a hot day, the car keeps running to keep the a.c. running. In stop and go traffic, the car keeps running anyway. Yes, it’s possible the starter may go out a little sooner, but two bolts and an electrical connection gets you a new starter, so…? Where’s the problem? I for one wanna save as much gas as I can, when I can. And if it starts to bother me, I’ll buy the aftermarket switch to turn it off.