mmarshall

Actually, the new Buick I have on order is a Lacrosse, not a Regal. The Regal is probably somewhat better-built than the Lacrosse (like the Verano, Cascada, and Encore, the Regal is a redone German Opel), but IMO is not as satisfying to drive. The Lacrosse is more of a traditional American-designed Buick....more comfort-oriented (especially with the smaller 18" wheels as opposed to the 20s), and driving it is like piloting a magic carpet.

GM lost its way long before that. IMO, for some 30 years) from the early 1970s to the early 2000s, the company, like the rest of GM (with maybe the 1990-2000 Saturn S-series cars excepted) made what mechanically was junk. The 80s we're especially bad.....quality-wise, some of the worst products in the corporation's history. It's only been recently (since around the 2009 buyout/reorganization) that the corporation (and especially Buick) has really started getting its act together.

This may be unusual for a teen-ager, but I actually became a Buick fan in high school...at a time when most of my friends were into the American muscle-car scene. And, of course, I liked the muscle-cars, too (what American teen-ager of the period didn't LOL). But my first love was big American cruisers.....I had a big Buick Electra 225 in college (used.....I couldn't afford a new one), and loved it. Unfortunately, with the 1970s came an end to the superb GM products of the late 1960s....not to be seen again until the last few years.

That Buick's did you own? Seems like the only ones of the 1980s that anybody wants to talk about were the Grand Nationals / GNX. They were a little too sport-oriented for my tastes.