Tweet 2013 Buick Enclave. All photos by Randy Stern A Victory & Reseda review of the 2013 Buick Enclave This was where Buick's reboot began. After a decade of offering Rendezvous, Rainiers and Terrazas, General Motors' premium brand needed a perfect mix of all three to stay in the game. More so, GM needed to …
Tweet It was good to not have to travel for this one… Actually, that is not true. If I had the chance, I would have flown off to New York to attend the media days of the auto show at the Javits Center. Anything not to deal with my so-called day job would be a …
TweetIt was great to be back in Detroit. It was in 2006 when I first visited the Motor City. It welcomed me with a trove of history unlike any city I had planned to visit. Despite some bright spots, the Detroit was still trying to find itself. The city felt knocked down with neighborhoods too …
TweetA Victory & Reseda review of the 2012 Buick Regal eAssist There is nothing like recalling past triumphs. At this year's Chicago Auto Show, I had the great opportunity to present the 2011 Vehicle of the Year award to Tony DiSalle, Vice President of Marketing for Buick and GMC. The Buick Regal won this award …
The one vehicle that was introduced during my senior year in high school played a significant part in my life. It helped shape the first 11 years of my driving life. It's timing could not be any better.
Just like my first car – it was from General Motors.
While the clock continued to tick for the end of 1981, GM indicated that they weren't finished with their flood of new products. Their next step was to introduce a line of mid-sized sedans aimed to eventually replace its already-downsized rear-drive models. The old A-Bodies were GM's bread-and-butter. The Oldsmobile Cutlass lineup was the best selling passenger car in the USA. To replace it would affect sales of the entire company.
The plan was to retain the old rear-drive A-Bodies, but rename them as the G-Cars. That meant a consolidation of several lines across the board. The Buick Century sedan took the Regal name, while all rear-drive Cutlasses were known as Supremes. Pontiac was left without a full-sized car in the USA, so the former Grand LeMans became the Bonneville Model G.
The new A-Bodies rolled out on extended front-drive platforms that appeared to be better executed than the X-Cars. Buick's Century name appeared on their new front-drive mid-sizer, while Oldsmobile adopted the Cutlass name by adding Ciera at the end. Chevrolet introduced their A-Body as the Celebrity, while Pontiac simply used a numeric nomenclature on theirs: The 6000.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I do have some favorites amongst what I have experienced at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show.
I am certain that this would turn into another Five Favorites article where I bold the names of five specific automobiles; go into a brief explanation why they’re significant and so forth. No. There were many vehicles I spend time checking out inside and out that only four stood out amongst the multitude in the North and South Halls of McCormick Place.
If this was any other year, I'd be happy to celebrate my birthday on Super Bowl Sunday.
Not this year, I'm afraid. It is not because the Minnesota Vikings went into complete retrograde. Just my interest in the National Football League waned severely this year, thanks to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the constant frustration with the state of cultural relations with most major professional sports leagues.
Frankly, I could care less who is playing in this year's Super Bowl. If it is your team that will be on the field inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis – good luck!
Still, football was one of sports for the longest time. I recalled some memories from the game – in attendance, of course. In some cases, they involved automobiles.
On this special Super Bowl/birthday edition of Five Favorites, let me log back into time to see what crazy automobile-related events transpired around the pigskin and the 100-yard field.
It was tough picking just nine from a plethora of debuts from the North American International Auto Show. Detroit yielded plenty of excitement, tempered with some criticism. I, for one, had my share of concerns and quandaries.
It was also tough to stay balanced here.
The annual sales figures are in! I could recount which vehicles were the best sellers in the nation, but I’d rather concentrate on how last year’s main vehicle review subjects fared in 2011. Also, I try to analyze how each vehicle could fare in the coming year.
On some level, Victory & Reseda provides some form of consumer information for the weary automobile shopper. At least I try to advise the interested car buyer whether a specific vehicle reviewed on here is worth cutting a check or not. It is not the main reason why I do this site, but it is something that is a byproduct of the work I put into this spot on the interwebs.