Gee Dad... Another Gran Sport? Really?

My grandfather on my mother's side was a Buick man. In his 88 years- I think he owned only one other kind of car, a blue, '76 Pontiac Catalina- a car he bought because I think my father got involved and persuaded him to another one of the General's mid-seventies treasures- (everyone was tired of his Buicks....) but for much of his adult life- from during WWII when he started driving till his death in 2001- he had about a dozen different Buicks.

I think he liked Buicks because they were the closest thing to a Packard- his father's, my great-grandfather's choice of car.

Cadillacs were just too flashy, and God-forbid he would make my grandmother happy with notions of keeping-up with the Jones'.

He'd chant an old Buick tag-line "Gee Dad... Another Buick," and while I haven't the time to affirm it- I think it was an old national (or maybe local?) Buick marketing by-line- touting the stalwart, sensible and value-packed Buick brand.

Anyway- I like Buicks- if only for family tradition. I'm working on doing a true car-by-car comparison between the Buick Lucern/Lacrosse to the similar Lexus. The mass-media has done it- but what does the mass-media know?

And I'm finding it very funny how the newer Buick offerings are going, or gunning head-to-head with those from Lexus. Gone are those cheesy commercials featuring a ghostly Harley Earl, tipping his fedora asking "are you ready for a real car?"

Take the new Buick Regal- just hitting showrooms around this time- they'd like you to compare it to the Lexus IS, BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Stiff, proven competition if you ask me.
GM is advertising "may the best car win..." and personally, I'd like to think Buick can- but in the compact sedan segment- it's a very sensitive, visible segment of automobiles. Then again, as in every other segment- Buick is offering a similar car at over $5,000-less in base MSRP- that's real money at most any segment, size and price point.

Younger people looking to "step-up" look to this segment for an heir of exclusivity, a product that can give a hint of brand recognition, performance and a good amount of value in an easy-to-swallow size.

Buick is even hinting at a GS, or Gran Sport version- with a turbocharged four-cylinder, racing inspired faring, stiffer suspension and brakes, a six-speed, all-wheel-drive... And a performance heritage- the Gran Sport name made famous back in the 60's... When Buicks, well... were Buicks. And the only real performance competition came in the form of Chevys Super Sports, Oldsmobile 442s, Pontiac GTOs, and other Buicks too, of course.

GM is inferring 0-60 sprints in "under 6-seconds," but in my opinion, they're going to have to do better than that. Much better- the import, small luxury sports sedan crowds are fans of numbers, facts, notions that may or may not be true.

These days the number is somewhere in the low-5 second range if they want to woo the BMW crowd. They're hinting a 200-horse, four-banger turbocharged engine too- again- add another two cylinders and a hundred horses- then talk to the BMW guys...

I'm warmed to see the return of the Gran Sport name... Or the notion of the name in an era when, while everything may be better technically and just as nice relatively- it's just not the same.

Could have been better or worse... They could have re-vamped and re-introduced the T-Type, their weak and all-but forgotten effort in sporting-up the Buick line in the 1980's.

Maybe in another twenty years- in 2031.