2011 Buick Regal spied

The Vauxhall Insignia based 2011 Buick Regal spied

The Vauxhall Insignia based 2011 Buick Regal – due to be launched in 2010 as a 2011 model – has been spotted undisguised and posted on Facebook.

It’s surprising where spy pictures of new cars turn up these days. Once upon a time it was persistent guys (and some girls) camped out in areas know to be used by car makers to test new cars. And  that still happens especially in well known climate testing locations and around places like the Nurburgring. But car makers aren’t safe anywhere with their new cars thanks to camera phones, alert bystanders and ‘FaceSpace’.

The image you see above is of the soon to arrive (2010 as a 2011 MY) Buick Regal, which was snapped by a quick-thinking petrol-head and posted on Facebook. So what, you may say, if you’re reading this in the UK. It’s just another Yank-Tank. Well, if you think that you need to think again. The car world is changing and the useless Yank-Tank of old is fast dying. American car makers are looking to build cars equivalent to those made in Europe and Japan. And in essence the Buick Regal is a rebodied Vauxhall Insignia.

Using the Vauxhall / Opel Insignia as the basis for the Buick Regal is a smart move. It’s a very good car and, even though it has been ‘Americanised’ to create the Regal, our guess is that GM will be sensible and keep all the good bits – engines, suspension and gearbox.Which makes the prospect of a ‘Buick Regal VRX’ or ‘Buick Regal GS’ an enticing one.

Which also raises an interesting possibility. Now that the sale by GM to Magna of Opel and Vauxhall is almost done (unless the Euro twits stick their nose in) there is every possibility that we could see the Buick Regal coming to Europe to compete against the Insignia. It seems there is no clause in the Magna deal stopping GM from doing that (although Vauxhall and Opel are being kept out of China and the U.S. in the same deal) so we could see GM back in Europe under one of its home brands.

That would be interesting.