1990 Buick Reatta 2-door Coupe With Only 52,000 Miles !! on 2040-cars

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Buick Avista concept is 'buildable', but not a priority

Buick could build the striking Avista concept that debuted at the Detroit Auto Show, though it's not a top priority, the brand's top executive said Tuesday in New York. "The reaction's been so great, we'll try to run the numbers and see if there's a business case," said Duncan Aldred, Buick vice president of sales, service, and marketing. Buick will show the Avista in red this week at the New York Auto Show as a followup to its Detroit debut. Buick actually built two prototypes, which are being used to promote the brand's performance potential at auto shows around the world this year. "It's very buildable," Aldred told reporters after the reveal of the reveal of the 2017 Encore small crossover before the New York Auto Show. "Ultimately, it comes down to priorities." He added, "We'd love to do it. We could do it, but [there's] lots of things we'd love to do... Nothing to confirm or deny." The Avista concept suggests a sports car with a twin-turbo V6 with 400 horsepower put to the rear wheels. The two-door followed another impressive Buick concept, the Avenir, which was four-door styling exercise from the 2015 Detroit show. Though the Avista remains on the minds of enthusiasts – helped in part by Buick – the priorities for the brand are crossovers. The Avista offers style, but the freshened Encore is the substance for Buick in New York, which along with the Envision, launches this year into the red-hot utility segment. The new Cascada convertible and redesigned LaCrosse also are joining Buick's lineup this year. While the Avista is doable, the brand clearly has other priorities ahead of it. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 2006 Buick Lucerne CXL

When The General's Buick Division axed the LeSabre and Park Avenue names in 2005 (after 46 and 30 years, respectively, though the Park Avenue returned a few years later in China), the replacement top-of-the-line Buick sedan became the new Lucerne. It wasn't the Buick with the biggest price tag that year— those honors went to the Terraza minivan and Rainier SUV— but it became the flag-bearer for a bloodline of cushy, prestigious Buick sedans that stretched all the way back to the early days of the American auto industry. Lucerne sales for the 2006 and 2007 model years went pretty well, and now enough time has passed that some of these cars are showing up in the self-service car boneyards I frequent. Here's a first-year example with the optional Northstar V8 engine, found in a Northern California yard last summer. Plenty of American cars have been named after cities in Italy, France, and Spain, but the Lucerne is the only one I can think of that bears the name of a Swiss city (to be fair, the entire Chevrolet Division is named after a Swiss man, so Switzerland didn't really get shortchanged by The General in the naming department). CXL was the Lucerne's mid-grade trim level, sandwiched between the CX and CSX. The high-zoot Lucerne CSX got the 4.6-liter Northstar as standard equipment, but this quad-cam V8 and its 279 horses cost extra on the CXL. The base engine for the CX and CXL was the good old 3.8-liter pushrod Buick V6, rated at 197 horsepower. No US-market 2006 Buick could be purchased new with a manual transmission; this car has a four-speed automatic. In a Buick tradition stretching back to the late 1940s, this car boasts flashy "Ventiports" on the fenders. In past years, the number of ports on each side designated the car's intended swank level; starting with the Lucerne, they indicated the number of engine cylinders. So, when you're crawling around your local Ewe Pullet and looking for Northstars, seek out the Lucernes with the four-hole Ventiports. "Leather-appointed" power bucket seats and "wood-toned" trim were standard on the CXL, as well as an MP3-capable CD player with six speakers. By 2006, most American vehicle shoppers seeking something big and luxurious chose trucks and truck-like machines, but the market still supported quite a few sedan models such as the Lucerne. Most US-market GM vehicles got these little square "Mark of Excellence" fender badges during the late 2000s.

GM laying off more than 4,000 workers Monday morning

According to reports from Automotive News, The Detroit News, and CNN, General Motors plans to begin laying off more than 4,000 salaried workers starting Monday morning. In a statement to AN, a spokesperson for the automaker said, "We are not confirming timing. Our employees are our priority. We will communicate with them first." We've been expecting layoffs at General Motors since November, 2018. At the time, the Detroit-based automaker announced it would seek to shed 8,100 salaried employees, shut down five assembly plants in North America, and kill off several slow-selling models. One month earlier, GM offered buyout packages to 18,000 workers and said it would seek to cut its global workforce by 25 percent. A spokesperson said at the time the moves were "proactive steps to get ahead of the curve by accelerating our efforts to address overall business performance." The cost-cutting moves are expected to save GM up to $2.5 billion in 2019 and as much as $6 billion by 2020. David Kudla, CEO and chief investment strategist of Mainstay Capital Management, referred to the impending culling as "Black Monday" and told The Detroit News that the layoffs would begin around 7:30 a.m. and continue in waves throughout the coming days and weeks. GM plans to deliver on its fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 earnings report on Wednesday. President Donald Trump plans to deliver the annual State of the Union address a day earlier on Tuesday. We expect to hear plenty more from both sides over the next several days.