Imagine you’re living in another dimension where General Motors decided to keep the Holden brand alive in Australia and the Opel Insignia-based ZB Commodore is still in market.
Now take a look at the pictures accompanying this story and that’s more than likely the car that would currently be gracing Holden showrooms across the country.
That’s because, despite GM’s sale of Opel to PSA Group in 2017 and the German brand’s transition to Stellantis four years later (in the PSA - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles merger), the Insignia-based car lives on as the Buick Regal in China.
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And that inter-dimensional Commodore has just received what would surely have been the evergreen Holden’s final facelift.
SAIC General Motors is enjoying ongoing success with the Buick brand in the Chinese domestic market with the Regal serving as “a mid-to-high-end car with super driving value”.
A 2024 facelift introduced a new grille and bumper treatment to freshen up the car’s look, although its 2018 origins are still clear.
But headline news is this month’s introduction of a GS ‘Gran Sport’ high-performance version of the four-door, five-seater.
However, rather than the up to 7.5-litre (455ci) V8 engines powering Buick GS muscle cars of the 1960s and early ‘70s, the new Regal offers a 176kW/350Nm version of the ‘Ecotec’ 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine driving the front wheels through a nine-speed auto transmission.
Externally the GS sports an ‘Obsidian Black’ grille with cells arranged “in a three-dimensional matrix” and a "fang blade” across its centre. There’s also a black “Tail Wing” spoiler across the boot lid and GS badging front and rear.
Underneath the skin the Regal GS’s suspension has been given “European-style sports chassis tuning” and upgraded Brembo brakes are standard, but there are no changes to the interior.
Interestingly, owners of 2024 and onwards model Regals will be able to retrofit their car with a GS upgrade kit.
SAIC GM says it has sold more than 1.8 million Buick Regals in China over multiple generations and more than two decades on sale. But Holden devotees can only dream of the Holden Commodore GS that could have been.
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