Car Throttle

Auto enthusiasts and members of the press often have a desire to see European models brought over to the United States. With General Motors deciding to keep Opel in the corporate stable, the Opel Insignia is being brought over as the Buick Regal. Needless to say, it has garnered a lot of attention, with questions about a sport wagon variant and a GS performance model that was shown at the North American International Auto Show (shown below). The Regal is a unique situation for Buick - the car is being produced in Europe and that brings up the situation with fluctuating currency exchange rates. Especially with non-luxury models, this makes it harder to turn a profit.  For this reason, many manufacturers are moving production to the United

The new Buick Regal has definitely succeeded in getting Buick back in the news. Enthusiasts are excited about the possibility of potential performance GNX models, a sportwagon and a manual transmission. It seems as if you can check the last one off of your list. Jalopnik reports that Buick's chief engineer, Jim Frederico, told assembled journalists at a Regal ride-and-drive that the manual transmission will be an option available on the car a few months from launch. Given all the press the launch has received, I'm sure they will be dragging out these launches in order to continue with the widespread coverage. This comes as very good news for Buick. An affordable European-sports sedan available with a manual transmission seems like a very attractive proposition.

Buick has been dominating headlines lately - and thankfully, it is for all the right reasons. The introduction of the Buick Regal is a welcome change for the brand. The Regal is sourced from General Motors' Opel, which was just announced that GM would be keeping. In typical fashion for those in the automotive blogosphere, we're always looking forward to the next thing - particularly when it comes to performance. The standard Opel Insignia has been brought over as the Regal, but Opel also has the OPC (Opel Performance Center) performance model that many are pining for. Speculation about future Regal models has mainly centered around bringing that model over here as the Regal GNX. Car & Driver talked to Bob Lutz about this possibility at

Another rumor that's been flying around for some has been confirmed: Buick is bringing back the Regal nameplate in America, and it will be a North American version of Europe's Opel Insignia. The Regal has been a well regarded name within Buick for quite some time, and making a U.S. version of an Opel also fits in with GM's penchant for sharing platforms and saving money. But there's some other interesting twists and turns here. The word is that the US-spec Buick Regal will be identical to the Chinese market version of the same car, and the Chinese version is based on the European Opel Insignia. Wait, they sell a Buck Regal in China but not here, you ask? Indeed they do. That's one of the