Buick Design Will Grow Bolder,GM’s Top Design Exec Says

Buick Design Will Grow Bolder,GM’s Top Design Exec Says

By Dale Buss

Expect future Buick vehicles to rip a big page from the success of the aggressively styled Enclave crossover and move quickly away from design-legacy retreads such as the company's Lucerne and LaCrosse midsize sedans.

Ed Welburn, GM’s vice president of global design, told AutoObserver that Buick is shifting decisively toward “bold” and “dramatic” design statements such as Enclave while still trying to retain some “elegant” and “romantic” elements from its design theme over the previous generation. He said to expect more iterations of the sort of overstated approach used with Enclave, which is distinguished by cues such as big curves in the sheet metal, lots of chrome exterior trim and huge, elongated headlights.

By contrast, Buick’s two other current vehicles, the Lucerne and LaCrosse midsize cars, are largely derivative in design of earlier Buick sedans, though they do present some design departures –- such as the large grille on the LaCrosse. Buick is introducing a next-generation LaCrosse next year.

Welburn and Buick will further tip their hands somewhat about Buick’s emerging design direction at the North American International Auto Show next month in Detroit, with the debut of a new Riviera concept car there and the return of the popular Velite convertible concept car.

Buick previously has pointed to the Velite concept, including its distinctive grille, as a big part of the design inspiration for the brand moving forward, including Enclave.

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.