2012 Buick Regal Preview

The 2012 Buick Regal is expected to take to the highways in the second half of 2011. The automotive press got their first up-close look at the sports sedan on November 4, 2010, on the eve of its official debut at the South Florida International Auto Show. As expected, there was very little change in body style from the 2011 model that won raves for its European-influenced design. The Regal is patterned after the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia and except for the Buick grille, looks very similar.

History

High-performance Buick models were around in the 1960s when GS stood for Gran Sport, but by the time that Buick retired the Regal name in 2004, its retirement was a fulfillment of the image the old car had acquired: a car for retirement age drivers. All of that changed when a born again Buick Regal concept car was shown at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. When the Regal was reintroduced at Buick dealerships in 2011, most road testers expressed surprise, very pleasant surprise. Typical comments concurred with this quote from Road and Track: "The Regal was balanced, confidence-inspiring and fun to drive."

Performance

New and improved over the previous Regal, which was introduced only in the CXL premium trim level, is the Regal GS. This level offers a turbocharged 2L engine with higher horsepower than before and an impressive 295 lb.-ft. of torque. The Interactive Drive Control System that allows a driver to adjust suspension settings and change steering sensitivity comes standard.

Characteristics

As part of Buick Regal's brand transformation back to high performance, the designers have equipped the sports sedan with a manual six-speed transmission. This offers a promise of doing zero to sixty in less than seven seconds. At this point, adding any automatic transmission option remains in the "thinking about it for mid-year" state. The interior offers an appropriately sporty dashboard configuration. The ride is comfortable and quiet.

Safety Features

Buick Regal garnered the honor of being named a Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety the very first year it was reintroduced, after beating competitors like Lexus IS and Infiniti G35/G37 in rear crash tests. In addition to keeping the winning crash-test features, the 2012 Regal has OnStar, multiple airbags, stability control, antilock braking, tire monitoring and ignition disabling.

How the 2012 Buick Regal Compares to Other Cars

The Regal competes with other 4-cylinder sport sedans like the Audi A4 and the Acura TSX.