Buick Taking Bolder Design Approach

DETROIT – Expect bolder designs from Buick, potentially as early as the middle of next year, as the General Motors brand seeks to carve a deeper niche for itself in the premium segment.

“We want to have the warmest, inviting designs,” says Buick design chief Dave Lyon.

Buick LaCrosse GL concept embodies brand’s design direction.

Buick designers will put an emphasis on richer colors, alternative fabrics and more daring trim pieces, drawing on elements of the natural world, architecture, food and music.

The 108-year-old brand is undergoing a product and sales renaissance.

Buick has added six new models, including hybrid and high-performance variants, in the past two years. Deliveries in the U.S. are up 19.9% through October, according to WardsAuto data, outpacing an industry up 10%.

However, knowing that Buick sells cars in volume, the new levels of expression will come in spoonfuls, not bucketfuls, Lyon says.

“Look at the marketplace right now; there’s a lot of black, gray and beige,” he says.

“And people make those decisions for some very good reasons. Resale value is a big one, but Buick wants to step away from that, and you do not have to be a fashionista to appreciate it.”

The Buick LaCrosse GL concept car, which GM will unveil at this week’s Los Angeles Auto Show, embodies the brand’s creative direction.

GM calls the exterior paint of the LaCrosse “cabernet red” and its depth features glints running through the color palette. Pirelli performance tires skin 20-in. (50.8 cm) satin-finished wheels. Brushed and tinted chrome, instead of the usual high-polished variety, trim the door handles, deck lid, grille and greenhouse.

Inside, designers heaped on the style, with dark cocoa-brown and caramel choccachino leather seats meant to recall windswept dunes. A suede headliner also receives the latte-inspired choccachino, and Lyon promises it will come to production soon.

Swirling woodgrains occupying the steering wheel, dash trim and shifter owe inspiration to a Gibson Les Paul guitar.

An ice-blue stitch in the French seam draws from Buick’s now-trademark ambient and instrument-panel lighting, while storage compartments are flocked to emphasize the notion no corner of the car was overlooked.

“This is the look we want to develop for the future of Buick – rich, seasonal, and inviting, with an emphasis on refinement and sophistication,” says Magdalena Kokoszynska, creative designer for the LaCrosse GL.

Lyon says the design should speak to Buick customers: people who would rather spend their money on entertaining family or enjoying a gourmet meal than on flashier, more ephemeral extravagances.

“Some of the best moments of your life – we are trying to capture those, boil them down and bring them to you visually,” he says during a sneak peek of the LaCrosse GL here ahead of its debut.

Some elements of the LaCrosse GL could make into its production namesake as early as next spring as mid-model-year enhancements.

Other elements already are in production, such as the choccachino leather seats in the new-for-’12 Buick Verano. The upscale seats can be ordered without charge when customers purchase a premium exterior paint, and Lyon says that’s exactly how other LaCrosse GL elements will be packaged.

Buick also shows journalists several interior bucks highlighting future design considerations, with some featuring plum-colored leather and jet-black trim pieces.

One leather-wrapped center console receives a laser-etched leaf pattern Lyon considers a personal favorite.

“I can’t wait to get this into production,” he says.

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