Shanghai Suprise: China’s Glimpse at the Buick Riviera Concept

It would seem that it would take a cold day in Hates for a Buick to grace the digital domain of RideLust. In the past 20 years there has been only one Buick any style whatsoever to invoke some curiosity: the Buick Riviera.  The last Riviera model to be released by Buick was no show stopper or red-light stalker, but it did possess some intriguing design in its shape. However, with Buick’s recent reveal of the new Riviera concept car at the 2007 Shanghai Auto Show in China, there is more innovation on display than on all other current model Buick’s combined.

The Chinese market has become a real boon for the struggling Buick brand, while the average American buyer opts for brands with more pazazz (yep, I said “pazazz”.). That could change if Buick finds a way to span that design crevasse they have found themselves on the wrong side of with the innovative Riviera.

Space Age autos were at one time the norm at auto shows, and have in the past few decades become an often unapplicable description. The Buick Riviera concept seems to redefine if not reassert the term. Even the doors give me an odd Buck Rogers feeling, but in a good way.

Even if the Buick Riviera is a long way from production (if it even gets that far), I hope to see a lot more news about this car in the coming months. If for no other reason than to believe that this aged Auto maker truly has a future. The Buick Riviera might certainly be the right platform upon which to focus that future.

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The Japanese car maker says that the new Prius and Lexus HS250H on display ...

Toyota executives foresee the future of the company engaged in the production of more hybrid and electric cars. They disclose that by the end of 2009, they will release the plug-in version of the Prius. Around 10 more new models of hybrid vehicles will be introduced by 2010. An electric car in 2012.

The concept cars from Toyota are results trying to come up with solutions for possible problems in the future. They talk in reference to the $4 per gallon fuel price last summer and treat it as a preview of what things may come.

An electric car concept, the FT-EV, will be unveiled during the Detroit Auto Show. This vehicle shares the DNA of the iQ which is an urban commuter already on public sale in Japan. The non-electric iQ is said to land to the US soil as a Scion.

The core plan of Toyota on the long run will be to focus on the development of non-plug-in vehicles like the Prius.

Toyota aims to sell a million hybrid cars by early 2010. The Japanese car maker says that the new Prius and Lexus HS250H on display in the Detroit Auto Show is a glimpse of what’s to come in the future.

The company shares information that the new gen Prius will come into production by late 2009 earlier than the plotted 2010 schedule. The new prius will be built to run on a NiMi battery for the hybrid version and lithium-ion cells for the plug in.