Buick Riviera concept. Click image to enlarge |
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Buick Riviera concept
Detroit, Michigan - The Buick Riviera, a concept car designed to showcase Buick's new global design direction, will make its North American debut at the Buick stand during the North American International Auto Show.
Unveiled at China's Auto Shanghai 2007, the front-wheel drive Riviera concept was developed with global design input by the Pan Asian Technical Automotive Center, a design and engineering joint venture between GM and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), headquartered in Shanghai.
"We said last year the Riviera concept made us realize how small the world was - it's not east, it's not west. It's Buick," said Ed Welburn, vice president, GM Global Design. "The reaction to the car around the globe proved that to be very much the case."
The Riviera is engineered to accommodate a new hybrid system that will go into production this year at Shanghai GM, GM's joint venture with SAIC. The Riviera marks the return of the nameplate, after an eight-year hiatus; between 1963 and 1999, the company sold more than 1.1 Riveras in the U.S.
"The Riviera concept, with its tightly-stretched carbon fibre body panels, combination of positive and negative curves, strong front and rear identities and gull-wing doors, captures the essence of Buick classics, while presenting a thoroughly 21st century design," said Welburn. "It certainly lives up to the nameplate's reputation for bold design. The Riviera communicates the global design vocabulary of the Buick brand and sets the stage for General Motors' design, engineering and manufacturing centres to work together on the next generation of Buick midsize luxury cars."
