Now, if you haven’t been paying attention, Buick has gone global. Although its Enclave SUV and soon-to-retire Lucerne full-size sedan are homegrown, last year’s LaCrosse was designed in and for the Asian market (i.e. China is Buick’s biggest market.) And this here new Regal is really a German Opel Insignia, while next year’s Volkswagen Jetta-fighting compact sedan will have an Opel Astra platform, already on sale in Asia as the Excelle.

But back to the matter at hand: In Europe, this year’s Regal/Insignia midsize sedan competes against the Ford Mondeo, Honda Accord and VW Passat. On our shores, it goes up against Acura's version of the Euro Accord (the TSX,) Lincoln MKZ, Mazda6, Suzuki Kizashi and Passat 2.0T. And after a few hundred kilometres in the top-line, just-under $35k Regal CXL Turbo, it would be my pick above any of the aforementioned as an entry-level sports sedan. It certainly lives up to the brand’s new aspirational tagline.

Although there are no five-door versions of the Insignia heading our way (yet), there’s more Regal goodness coming. A six-speed manual will be available next spring, and an even higher performing Regal GS has been confirmed—all good news for a brand that needs to win back import buyers.

Having said that, Buick also offers lesser Regals. And this is where the brand’s new “A new class of world class” positioning  goes a bit sideways for me.

Under the CXL Turbo, there’s also the $3k-cheaper regular CXL, which gets a non-blown four-cylinder found in other GM products. Except for the lack of response when pushed, there’s inherently nothing wrong with the mill—especially if you were coming from the last Regal, a car that would finish out of the running against any kind of world class competition. But it doesn't match up to the rest of the Regal's inherently good road manners.

We were also told that an even lower end (i.e. less expensive) CX Regal would arrive next year—with cloth seats!

Now I get that Buicks in the past have been bought on price alone. And it must be tough turning away those returning customers who were quite happy with less-than-world-class cars in the past, or that in some towns, the only GM franchise may be a Buick-GMC shop, with no down-market Chevrolet offerings.

But think about this: If I want to get cloth seats in an Acura TSX, I’ll just have to move down to a Honda Accord. Or if I want less performance in my Infiniti, I can trot on over to a Nissan dealership. So, in a perfect world, if I can’t afford “A new class of world class,” which the Regal CXL Turbo clearly is, then there’s always a Chevy Malibu, right?

Do you think that Buick needs to still cater to its older buyers?

Or do you think that with products like the excellent new Regal (in Turbo trim, at least), it can bring import buyers into its showrooms?

Built by GM’s Chinese joint venture—Shanghai GM—the 2011 Buick Excelle GT compact sedan (above) will be available in China with either a 108 hp 1.8-litre four or 181 hp 1.6-litre turbo four. The sedan joins an existing five-door hatchback model.

In regards to meeting Buick’s previous small car standards, the Excelle should be an improvement.

The last Buick compact was the 1989 Skyhawk (left), a badge-engineered Chevy Cavalier that started life as a badge-engineered Chevy Vega in 1974 (right)—two of the hoariest, most dreadful platforms ever to emerge from Detroit, and a big reason why Honda Civics, Toyota Corollas and Mazda3s rule the top of the Canadian sales charts today.

But I digress...

Without a bit of irony, in the U.S., the original Skyhawk replaced the imported Opel Manta. And this latest small Buick, like the majority of the current sedans, shares a lot with its European cousins.

While previous Skyhawks were available in a variety of body styles, from two-door hatchbacks to station wagons, the Excelle is strictly a five-passenger, four-door sedan. Underneath, the Excelle’s nuts and bolts comes from GM’s global compact platform that supports the Opel Astra, as well as the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze sedan coming to Canada this fall.

But here’s the rub: Will GM do enough to differentiate the Excelle—or whatever it’s going to be called here in Canada—from the mainstream Cruze?

Will it offer enough powertrain or feature differentiation over the Chevy to take on the likes of other premium compact sedans like the new 2011 VW Jetta, Acura CSX, or Volvo S40?

Or is the small Buick simply a way to keep all those former Pontiac dealers happy who don’t have a Sunfire to sell anymore?

[Source: CarScoop]