Made in China: Buick Riviera concept coming to Detroit
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GM officially announced today what had been rumored for some time, that the Buick Riviera concept will be part of its 2008 Detroit Auto Show presence, where it will make its first appearance on North American soil. The front-drive gullwing-door coupe was first unveiled at last April at the Shanghai Auto show.
The Riviera was designed in China by the Shanghai-based Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, a joint venture between GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. It was designed to accommodate a new hybrid system that goes on sale in some Chinese-market Buicks shortly before the Beijing Olympics this summer. However, the Espilon platform-based car's primary purpose is to serve as showcase for Buick's new design direction, elements which, such as the "waterfall" grille can already been seen in the Enclave crossover.
The Riviera was received well in China and GM is undoubtedly eager to see what North America thinks and a production model is not out of the realm of possibility. Expect much of the Riviera (and Enclave) in the next-generation LaCrosse and Lucerne as GM tries to build on the popularity of the Enclave and revitalize the brand.
It's worth pointing out that Buick enjoys incredible popularity that it can only dream of in the U.S. In fact, China recently surpassed the U.S. as Buick's biggest market despite the much smaller size of the market there as a whole.
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