(Photos by Dave Nutting) – Buick fans, it’s time to tell your friends that “Going Fast with Class” is back! After seven days and seven hundred-plus miles behind the wheel of a 2012 Buick Regal GS, I came away both impressed and relieved. I was impressed with the overall quality of the car, the refinement it exuded, the style and the performance. I was relieved that the car lived up to my expectations and that it didn’t fall into any of the historical traps American cars like this have fallen into over the past 20-odd years. The 2012 Buick Regal GS is more than equipped to stand up to and trade blows with the Audi A4, Lexus IS250, Acura TSX and, in my opinion, a base 3 Series BMW. It really is that good.

[divider]

Some Background

It may seem weird that I chose a Buick Regal GS as a car to be reviewed by BangShift—but it really isn’t. In my mind, this car is the proverbial adrenaline-shot-to-the-heart of Buick here in the USA. Yes, Buicks have been selling like free beer over in China, but let’s be honest: The brand has not aged all that gracefully here at home. Once you get past the 1987 Buick Grand National, there are few performance bright spots, a lot of cars aimed at old people and very little for drivers who happen to be fans of a performance experience in the Buick lineup. This car is a throwback in many ways. Like the Buicks of the 1960s we all adore, it has sexy styling, enough luxury to make you feel like somebody behind the wheel and performance that makes it a riot to drive—three major attributes that were missing from the Buick product line for many years. It’s a revival of all the good stuff we love about Buick, and it’s a judo chop to the nards of the imports that have long dominated the sport touring sedan category. BangShift approved!

We all love a good comeback story, especially when it involves an American brand as the protagonist. Buick is the oldest living American car marque, and, for a while, it appeared to be headed down a dead-end road where the target customer was someone living in a retirement village. Thankfully, there is new life and new direction. This GS is proof of that.

[divider]

Styling

If you’re a savvy BangShifter, you already know that the Buick Regal is a mildly altered version of the Opel Insignia. The two cars share most elements, both on the surface and underneath. The front and rear of the GS is more aggressive in styling than the standard Regal, with a larger front fascia that features two large fang-shaped ducts. Out back there’s a small spoiler, twin exhaust outlets and a subtle but cool GS badge.

One of the things I really like from the styling aspect of this car are the curves. From the nose to the bulging fenders and wheel openings, over the arch of the roof and ending up in the rear, this car is not the typical angular shape that’s so dominant these days. This is proof that you can have nice taut lines on a car without having it look like the whole design department was working with an Etch A Sketch to draw the thing.

Playing into the styling are the big 20-inch wheels our car was equipped with. There are a lot of places where 20-inch wheels don’t look all that good, but on the GS they’re as right as rain. They fill the wheel wells perfectly and look spot-on with the “Carbon Black” paint our tester wore. Their multi-spoke design is aggressive and sporty but not over-the-top or gaudy, maintaining the same level of refinement as the rest of the car.

The Regal GS has chrome accents on the door handles, around the windows and across the trunk to draw your eye around the car. As a fan of classic cars, I love chrome, but any more of it on this sedan would look weird and gaudy. What’s there works and is just right for this body. There’s a nice scallop in the front doors that breaks up the side of the car and adds some nice depth to the whole package. The scallop works to accentuate the bulging fenders, exaggerating them and providing a dramatic effect. There’s no denying the Regal’s European roots when it comes to the styling elements of the car, and that’s okay with me. I loved gawking at it.

[divider]

Interior

While General Motors has taken a lot of arrows in the derriere over the years with respect to interiors, my quiver was empty once I climbed into the GS. All the interior surfaces the driver interacts with feel substantial, genuine and rich. The wheel is a thick-rimmed, leather-wrapped piece with a cool flat bottom that’s both racy and helpful for ingress and egress for people with larger or longer legs. The shifter feels rock solid. The high-quality leather seats are well bolstered in both the side and hip area—and they’re heated, which is a great function for cold mornings.

Technology-wise, the GS is right there where it needs to be. There’s a large center-mounted screen in the dash that serves as the control center for the radio, navigation, etc. It operates as both a touch screen and as a dial that can be turned and clicked to navigate between the radio bands and navigation. It took me only a day to get a handle on the proper usage of the knob, and that was with no user-manual training, just by playing around.

The dash itself has a speedo and tach, along with a fuel gauge and temp gauge. Would I like more than that? Hell, yeah! But the typical buyer of this car probably isn’t interested in more than the most basic engine vital signs. There’s also an LED screen inset into the dash, right in front of the driver. This screen can be toggled through several settings, ranging from a digital speedo to a fuel-economy monitor and oil-life meter. Interestingly, it also informs the driver of potential hazards. On cold mornings it told me to be cautious of ice because the temperature was low enough for ice to form. It also serves as the screen for the parking assist. Essentially, the screen tells you how close you are to hitting an object, such as a parked car or a child. This is a cool function.

I transported my kids around town all week, and they had plenty of room, even in their car seats. I also transported a few full-grown humanoids back there, and everyone was comfortable and quite impressed with the quality of the interior. My father-in-law, who is well over six feet, fit nicely into the passenger seat with a passenger in the rear.

The Harman Kardon stereo is quite nice and withstood a few high-decibel blasts when good tunes came flowing over the Sirius/XM satellite radio. I wish I could say that I was more of an audiophile, but I’m not. The radio sounded great to my ears.

For buyers of cars in this segment, image is a major concern. That being said, anyone who climbs into this car for the first time will be impressed, be they business clients, a hot date or some guy you work with that rolls around in an Audi A4. Several of the people got into this car during the week I had it were completely blown away that they were in the Buick. I heard that many times both on the styling front and the interior.

[divider]

The Driving Experience

This is obviously the part you’ve been waiting for and it was the part I certainly enjoyed the most during my week with the car! To review, this car is powered by a 270hp turbocharged 2.0L four cylinder engine. That engine is backed with a 6-speed manual transmission and this is a front wheel drive car.

The six speed is a major talking point about the car. People are freaking out because it is a Buick with a stick, but frankly it is a non-story. If they had rolled this car out with an automatic (one is coming this year) it would have invalidated the whole car. If you are going to build a sport sedan and not lead with a stick shift, you’re doing it wrong. Thankfully, someone, somewhere, in the GM power structure had the balls to stand up for this transmission and have the GS begin life as a manual transmission offering only. That’s a sign that there are finally people in seats of power at GM who get it.

The transmission itself is great. The shifter is substantial feeling and the throws are nice. They aren’t super short, but you aren’t rowing a Kenworth either. I ripped through the gears about a hundred times over the course of the week and the throws were plenty fine for me!

The engine is a great piece. Yes, it is only 2.0L, but that turbo makes fantastic use of all the available 120ci. Don’t get hung up on the 270hp number. While it is impressive, the 295 ft/lbs of torque that live in a super fat and flat band are where the bread is buttered in this package. The awesome mid range torque is what makes the car so fun.

This is not a drag strip wonder. GM says that it will go 15.2 seconds in the quarter mile and I believe it. My local strip is closed until April so there was no drag testing done with this car. It does not plant you in the seat in first gear, but what it does is pull like a little freight train through second, third, fourth, and fifth. On a road trip to Maine with my family, I was able to climb all the hills and complete virtually all the passes I made on the highway in sixth gear.

The fun begins in the car right around 2,000 RPM. From the cabin you can hear the turbo start to spool up and the wall of torque comes up behind you and accelerates the car in a swift but really liner fashion. Powering off the corners in this thing is a total riot, but not as fun as diving into the corners in the first place.

The test car we had was equipped with Blizzak snow tires, which was kind of a bummer but also another way the car validated itself. Long story short, the car was far better than the tires. I had tons of fun throwing this car through corners all week but nowhere near as much as I would have had without the damned snow tires! The best thing I can say about the car is that it was far, far better than the tires. With high performance radials, the GS would really be something to slice and dice with.

One of the things I paid very close attention to was the adjustable suspension options. You can select three different ride types. The first is what I would call “normal” and in this mode the car handles flat and feels like any other decent modern sedan. Stepping up, you can click the “Sport” button on the dash and stiffen things up by about 20%. That makes things a little more responsive and tight, but the button we lived in all week was the “GS” mode button. Pressing that one gets you another 20% stiffness, higher effort steering, and the most driver feedback the car will offer.

This is not a gimmick. You can really feel the differences between each of the settings. Although the GS mode is the stiffest of them all, I drove the car for the vast majority of the week with that activated and that was over the awful, rutted, pot hole filled New England cow paths I travel. Not once did I feel like I was harming the car, and although I certainly could feel the bumps, it was not anywhere near close to a “harsh” ride.

I was ultimately left wondering what this car is really capable of with good performance tires on it. The Blizzak’s did their job and for snow tires could be pushed, but they’re weak sauce when compared to a proper performance radial.

The brakes on the car are exceptional. These are retina-detaching stoppers. The big Brembos up front combined with the sizable rotors and calipers out back haul this thing down in just over 100 ft from 60mph. Again, the snow tires,  not being as grippy as high performance radials reduced this somewhat, but the fact is, everyone who rode in the car was pretty blown away by how bad ass the brakes are. Bottom line? If the thing stops like this with snows on it, normal tires will launch any non-belted passenger right though the windshield!

[box_dark] The Photog’s Impression – Typically we use a “chase car” for these features: One of the Bangshift ReplayXD cameras is attached for video, and Brian is hanging out of the back of the car like a madman taking pictures.

For this feature, I was given the opportunity by a trusting (unsuspecting?) relative of mine to borrow his 2011 Subaru STI as a chase car, given that on paper it matched up reasonably well with the Regal: Both have 6 speed transmissions, Brembo brakes, similar peak torque output at a hair over 290 ft/lbs, and are in roughly the same price range (About $35,000). Granted, the STI does have AWD and more horsepower among other differences, but I won’t get more into those details as this isn’t meant to be a shootout between the two.

Driving the two back-to-back really highlights what GM was trying to achieve with the Regal: Driving the Subaru requires full concentration, as I’m convinced that the car was designed to actively attempt to kill the driver if he diverts his attention to do such mundane tasks as turning on the heat or changing the radio station.

In contrast, the Regal isn’t quite as high-strung, which I consider a good thing in a luxury sports sedan: The car corners with ease, even on the less-than-grippy snow tires that GM provided, and yet I was able to have a conversation with Brian about the big torque push that starts at 2000 RPMs while working through the gears (Brian at one point even gave me grief for tapping the brakes while taking a sharp right at “slightly above the speed limit”). I also had time to admire the soft-touch materials used for the interior, something which impressed me as I grew up riding around in domestic vehicles with interiors seemingly made of the same hard plastic as the Legos that I played with as a kid. The Sat Nav and radio controls have a mixed touch screen and BMW iDrive-esque control setup, the ebrake is electronic, the suspension is driver-controllable…All really neat stuff! Did I mention it looks great too?

Strangely enough, my one issue with the Regal is the attribute I was just praising: When you want to really have some fun with the car, it’s not high-strung ENOUGH: Downshifting into the powerband and punching the throttle in the Regal results in smooth and steady acceleration, but without any of the drama that lets you know that you’re rapidly approaching a speeding ticket. Meanwhile, doing the same in the STI results in more drama than a high school prom; The Subaru lets you know that it’s pissed off and that same 290 ft/lbs of torque hits you like the car was just rear-ended by a truck. Not to say the lack of drama in the Regal is really a BAD thing; It’s just a different interpretation of a turbo car that favors refinement over brute power.

I’m still rooting for GM to release a “Grand National” version of the Regal with the 325 HP turbo V6 and AWD that is offered in the Regal’s European counterpart, the Opel Insignia OPC, as the additional power and traction would raise the currently offered Regal to a level that would definitely be worthy of the hallowed nameplate (And awesome “turbo 6” badging). Make it happen! Please? – Dave Nutting[/box_dark]

[divider]

Practical stuff

Getting down to the nuts and bolts on the 2012 Regal GS, I got 22mpg over the course of 700 miles of mixed driving. I was certainly not easy on the car and the more I drove it, the more I liked it. With a more conservative driving style and with a week that consisted of more highway driving, I am sure that number could come up a couple mpg to the 25-26mpg range. Not exceptional numbers, but certainly nothing to be ashamed of.

The car is vault-like with respect to interior noise. Even with the snow tires, we had a nice quiet ride and road noise was at an absolute minimum. As mentioned, you can hear the turbo working (it is mounted right in front of the firewall) and the motor can be heard when you start to really lay into it, but both the turbo an engine sounds are refined and nice as opposed to being buzzy and annoying.

There are plenty of cup holders and storage space in the car. Traveling with kids means that this type of thing is a requirement and the GS held all of our junk in the cabin with room to spare.

The same goes with the trunk. On our weekend sojourn to Maine we loaded the “boot” as the English folks would say with a massive suitcase, big cooler, computer bags, kids back packs, and camera equipment with no sweat. The trunk space was pretty impressive when you consider the overall size of the car.

Our tested was priced at $38,350. The options we had were the high performance stereo and navigation ($1,145), power sunroof ($1,000), 20″ wheels ($700.00), and Carbon Black Metallic paint ($195.00).

[divider]

Bottom Line – 

This is the best Buick to hit the American market in 25 years, bar none. It stands up to all of the competition in the market segment and is superior to almost all of it. It is a car that Buick not only had to sell here in America but had to do it in the right manner as to both appeal to those buyers who had not thought of buying a Buick before and those who wanted to love it but were wary to get their hopes up. This is a great way to start the ascent of Buick back into the hearts and minds of younger buyers looking to own a fun car that they can be proud of and that their co workers and friends can be envious of.

The best thing I can say is that I didn’t want to give it back!

Scroll down for BangShift video of the 2012 Buick Regal GS!

Gallery Link: