General Motors Fans

british_rover

I think Electra would make a great name for a hybrid. Take the Volts driveline and put it in a slightly larger car would be perfect.

imidazol97

>I think Electra would make a great name for a hybrid

That's the best name Idea I've seen!
The numerical suffix could be based on ampere-hours of the battery packs.

Electra 4025

roadburner

My wife still wants a Saab, I'd like to have a SportCombi for my winter car.

fezo

I like that idea with the ampere-hours on the name.

Might be to the next generation what 409 means to ours.

british_rover

Get one now while they are still cheap. You could get 9-3 or 9-5 sportcombis with manual transmissions although they are a little rare. The 9-5 Aero Combi with a 5 speed manual is a very quick big wagon. The five speed is a little notchy though really needs the newer six speed that the 9-3 got.

imidazol97

I never did know what the 225 meant in "Electra 225" on that long, beautiful Buick.

fintail

Length. In feet.

I agree, that would be a great name for a Buick using Volt tech.

Buick had some cool names...bringing them back won't hurt. Everyone doesn't have to abide by the alphanumeric fad.

xrunner2

Name got to start with a "B" not an x. GM has used names of places in Europe for its models for many years. The derivation of the name Chevrolet is Swiss. Bowtie badge of Chevrolet car possibly came from France or Switzerland.

There has got to be a great sounding name of something in France, Switzerland that would sound great, be classy, imply luxury and be elegant. "Buick" has none of these qualities and instead sounds dopey, dorky. Think of names Lexus, Infiniti and Acura as examples of brilliant name branding.

andre1969

Originally the "225" was the length, in inches. However, when the Electra first came out for 1959, I think there was a base Electra and a more upscale Electra 225. I don't know if they did anything to the 225 to make it longer than a base Electra, or if they were both the same length, but Buick chose to capitalize on the length for the 225.

From 1962 onward they called them all Electra 225, and the nicer models would be Electra 225 Limited, Electra 225 Park Ave, etc. In some years, the cars probably were a bit less than 225". In 1961, for example, all of GM's big cars except for Chevy got shrunken a bit, so I'm sure a '61 Electra might've come in around 223-224". And by 1975-76, an Electra 225 was around 233"!

I forget now when they dropped the 225 designation, but I believe it persisted for a few years on the downsized C-body, even though they were "only" around 221" long!

When the shrunken 1985 C-body came out, the terms Electra 300, Electra 380, and Electra 430 were used briefly, in reference to the 3.0 and 3.8 V-6es they used, and the Olds 4.3 Diesel. So you could have cars like an Electra 300 Limited or an Electra 380 Park Avenue, etc. They dropped that 300/380/430 stuff pretty quickly though.

british_rover

I hate the alphanumeric names. I understand why the marketing folks want to use them but they are still dumb.

Buick Electra 230(mpg of course ) :P Sounds good to me.

lemko

Buick is the name of the pre-GM division company's founder David Dunbar Buick.
Chevrolet is the name of early race car driver Louis Chevrolet.

Kirstie_H

A reporter is looking to talk with diehard Chevy fans in the Chicago area. If you are a long-time loyalist, a Chevy collector or have dramatically customized your Chevy, and you live near Chicago, please email pr@edmunds.com no later than February 10, 2010, and provide your daytime phone number and a few words about your passion for the "bow tie" brand.
Thanks,
Jeannine Fallon
Corporate Communications
Edmunds.com

fintail

Unless a company has a history of them (the Germans and Jag, pretty much, along some oddities we don't get), alphanumerics don't work. Switching from word names to numbers and letters looks desperate to my jaded eyes. GM shouldn't do it...it has plenty of good heritage names to use.

tlong

The numerical suffix could be based on ampere-hours of the battery packs.

...or on the number of miles you can go without using the gas engine.... "The Electra 123!".

tlong

Buick had some cool names...bringing them back won't hurt. Everyone doesn't have to abide by the alphanumeric fad.

The Buick...

Ampere
Jolt
Watter
Lectromag
Pulse
Shocker
Static
Bolt
Thunder

british_rover

None of those are as good as Electra.

dieselone

IMO, the name Electra would be fantastic for a volt derived Buick.

british_rover

Yup it would need to be a little larger but only a little.

I think you could still get by with four seats though. A luxury four seater with good Buick styling, and hey I think some of the Buick styling is good now, good gas mileage and a bit more premium to go with the premium price.

Yeah I can see them selling a good number of those.

tlong

Switching from word names to numbers and letters looks desperate to my jaded eyes. GM shouldn't do it...it has plenty of good heritage names to use.

I'd disagree. My hypothesis is that there are a lot more potential customers who DON'T like GM than there are who long for past GM names (especially Buick as the demographic is very old). Move the old reminders out of the way and come up with some new names that provide an impression that GM and Buick are "really different now". That's also why I would support GM renaming the entire corporation, even a slight variation to distance them from the GM pre-bankruptcy. If you already like Buick you aren't going to not buy if the vehicle name changes. If you don't like Buick you don't want anything to do with a say... Park Avenue (which screams "old people" to many), but a much more modern car with a totally new name may interest them.

cooterbfd

".....I like thin leather driving gloves."

No need. the leather is grippy enough, AND.......it comes with a heated steering wheel!!! :P

cooterbfd

THAT is an adorable picture of an adorable dog!!!!!!

cooterbfd

That baby Buick is a little small, but I think Invicta would be perfect for it. If the French Canadians weren't so perverted, they coul've used the Lacrosse name up there all along and called this one the Allure.

fintail

As time moves on, are potential customers even going to be old enough to remember the old names? Names like Centurion, Wildcat, etc are really in the past now.

imidazol97

The Electra name trascends the connotations for some from past Buick names.

Centurion seems okay to me. And I think younger demographics would accept it.

I wonder if they could call the new Buick Avatar.

tlong

As time moves on, are potential customers even going to be old enough to remember the old names? Names like Centurion, Wildcat, etc are really in the past now.

Agree on the really old names. I hadn't seen those, so if I haven't heard of them, most younger adults would not have, and there would not be any baggage.

andre1969

Agree on the really old names. I hadn't seen those, so if I haven't heard of them, most younger adults would not have, and there would not be any baggage.

I think some of those really old names though, like "Special", "Super", and "Roadmaster", NEED to stay in the past. I know this is politically incorrect, but when I hear "special", the first thing I think of is handicapped, mentally impaired, etc. "Super" just seems like a silly thing to name a car these days. It might have made sense in the 1950's as car names were evolving...in those days it was the Buick brand itself that was most important, not the model names so much. They were still evolving from the old simple trim levels like "Custom", "Deluxe", etc. "Roadmaster" also made sense back in the 1950's, when that car truly was a master of the road. It was a prestige car, the finest Buick had to offer, and back in the 1950's that really meant something.

"Centurion" might actually go over pretty well these days, in lieu of Battlestar Galactica and its revivals. Hey, on that note, maybe they could resurrect "Apollo"!

"Skylark" just sounds too quaint and nostalgic, but I think "Skyhawk" is a cool name, even if the cars it was applied to usually weren't. LeSabre and Century are good names I think, but are just too recent in buyers' memories. And as has been said before, "Park Ave" sounds kinda stuffy. I'll admit it. I drive a Park Ave, yet even I'll admit the name sounds kinda stuffy!

"Wildcat" actually is a cool name, but unfortunately the first image it conjures up to me is this roller coaster at Cedar Point in Ohio that broke down several times while I was out there last year, leaving some riders stranded! But, if it's any consolation, it's a German design! :P And the sucker dates back to the 1970's, so IMO it has a right to break down from time to time...

imidazol97

>at Cedar Point in Ohio

You were at Cedar Point in Ohio? Did you go to Middle Bass Island while you were there?

fintail

I agree with Andre above about the names. Some like Roadmaster, Skylark, Century aren't too appealing...but some of the other names are. They are cooler than either an alphanumeric or some made up wimpy sounding name.

andre1969

You were at Cedar Point in Ohio? Did you go to Middle Bass Island while you were there?

Nah, we just went out solely for the amusement park. I'd love to see other parts of the state sometime though. I'm sure there's plenty to do, but we just did this as a Saturday-Monday trip. I do remember driving past the Lordstown Ohio Cobalt/G5 plant and seeing that big "The Cruze is Coming" poster on the side.

roadburner

I remember a quote from a 60's Car and Driver road test:
"The Buick Special Deluxe is neither."