GM has big plans for ‘core’ Buick brand

One year after the decision to make Buick one of its “core” brands — along with Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac — parent General Motors is confirming two new products for its junior luxury brand and a possible second model for its forthcoming Regal sedan.

In addition to the 2011 Regal sports sedan coming this fall, a compact sedan and a crossover based on the new subcompact Chevrolet Aveo platform will be wearing Buick badges in the near future.

The small Buick sedan is essentially a restyled version of the European Opel Astra. The name Excelle has been bandied about when it arrives in North America next year as a 2012 model.

The small Buick crossover — expected one year later — will more than likely share its major components with a GMC model, based on the Graphite concept car from this year’s Detroit auto show.

“While no product names or exact timing details have been announced, buyers will expect to see these new Buicks in showrooms in the next few years,” said Buick in a release.

The other unconfirmed new Buick may be another body style for the Regal.

The Regal’s German platform-mate, the Opel Insignia, is available as either a five-door hatchback or a station wagon. Buick sales and marketing manager Craig Bierley recently told Autoblog that instead of the wagon, what’s more likely to make it here is the five-door.

Unrepaired Toyotas still out there

Seemingly, Japan’s Toyota has learned its lessons from its recent recall crisis by quickly correcting the problematic stability control system in its 2010 Lexus GX 460 SUV, causing the U.S. magazine Consumer Reports to revoke its “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” designation.

However, the automaker still has its work cut out in getting millions of potentially dangerous vehicles fixed.

According to Toyota, only 3.2 million of its many recall notices have been fulfilled. The problem is, that still leaves about 4.6 million more of the recalled Toyotas out there that have yet to be repaired.

Broken down, that works out to only 1.6 million Toyotas fixed to address sticking accelerator pedals, 1.5 million for floor-mat pedal entrapment, and 115,000 program updates to the anti-lock brake systems in certain 2010 Prius and Lexus models.

In Canada, Toyota’s numbers are significantly better.

According to released information, 225,924 cars of the 268,908 of the vehicles recalled for potential sticking accelerator pedals have been fixed.

And 4,633 of the 5,610 2010 Prius and Lexus HS 250h cars that needed software updates to the ABS have been repaired.

High-performance cars buck the trend

With even more draconian fuel economy and tailpipe emissions regulations on the horizon, and a global economy that’s still in the recovery room, you would think the market for ultra-expensive, ultra-high performance cars would be dead.

A recent raft of new super sports cars announcements, however, seems to be ignoring those challenges.

For instance, the new 2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS is being hailed by its maker as “the most powerful street-legal Porsche of all time.”

To back the German automaker’s boast, the rear-wheel-drive sports car delivers 620 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque from its twin-turbocharged 3,6-litre flat-six cylinder engine. Apparently, 0-100 km/h will only take 3.5 seconds and it will eventually get to a 330 km/h top-speed.

Limited to a maximum of just 500 units worldwide, the latest ultimate 911 goes on sale this October in Canada starting at $297,000.

In another “best of its kind” announcement, Britain’s Aston Martin confirmed that its V12 Vantage — “the most potent production sports car in the marque’s 96-year history” – would be made available in North America later this year.

Based on the entry-level V8 Vantage two-seater, the V12 model comes with a version of the engines found in larger Aston GTs. In the Vantage, the 6.0-litre V12 makes 510 hp and 420 lb ft with a top speed of 305 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of 4.2 seconds.

Aston says the V12 Vantage is available to order now with deliveries starting this fall, and prices to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Although the regular model hasn’t gone on sale yet, Toyota’s Lexus has announced a new Nürburgring Package for its LF-A super car.

With the original LF-A already limited to only 500 examples in the next two years of production, there will be only 50 examples of the 2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition 003.

Performance improvements include 10 more horsepower from the 4.8L V10 engine (now 562 hp), and the gear-shift time from the sequential autobox has been reduced by 0.05 seconds to only 0.15 seconds.

The Nürburgring Package will add $70,000 U.S. to the original LF-A’s $375,000 U.S. price.

Saab may return to Canada

It’s been quite an eventful 12 months for the Swedish automaker Saab.

After being abandoned by its parent company since 1990, General Motors, and eventually sold off to Dutch super car maker Spyker this February, the brand’s future in Canada has been very unclear.

But a recent announcement may see the return of Saab in time for the 2011 model year.

In a joint release from Saab Cars North America and California-based International Fleet Sales, an “import and distribution infrastructure” for Saab cars in Canada is in “development.”

Founded in 1999, IFS exports General Motors vehicles plus parts and service, as well as Blue Bird Bus and Volvo Trucks North America. Its U.S. office handles Central and South America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and now potentially Canada, while its Netherlands office supports sales in Europe.

IFS’s previous Saab experience was exporting Saab 9-7X SUVs to Europe and the Middle East.

The plan is to start selling 2011 Saabs (the 9-3 sedan, convertible and wagon and new Saab 9-3X crossover as well as the new 9-5 sedan) “late this fall” at an as-yet-undisclosed number of Canadian Saab retailers.

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