"Baby Enclave", "Baby LaCrosse" Confirmed for Buick

GM showed dealers both small-scale upcoming Buick products.

Source: GMI

GMI has been told that the "Baby Enclave" is going to be based on the Gamma II platform that will underpin the next-generation Chevrolet Aveo and is similar in size to that of the Nissan Rogue. An independent source of GMI's also confirmed this evening that the GM Executive Committee has approved the Gamma II Buick crossover.

Back on August 10th General Motors invited a swarm of Twitter users and bloggers to the GM Design Dome to preview essentially every future product that GM has coming. Of course the Twitter users that were there at the time were tweeting about the products as they saw them. Of which, we heard about three Buick's. The first was the Regal, which GMI has extensively uncovered over the last two days and the other two were more hush-hush. One was asmall car and the other another crossover.

As everyone knows by now, GMC-Buick dealerships were invited to Detroit for a meeting with GMC-Buick management regarding the new products that both brands will be getting going forward. Aside from the Regal dealerships were shown the other two new Buick's. The first was a small car based on the Delta II compact car platform. Two dealerships that attended the event have told GMI that the car looked like a "baby LaCrosse" from a design perspective. The dealerships were not told what the small car will be named, however rumors have surfaced on the web that the small car will be named "Verano." GMI has confirmed with the U.S. Trademark office that General Motors Company has issued a trademark for "Buick Verano" back on May 20, 2009. Production for the car is slated to begin sometime in 2011.

The other future Buick shown to dealerships was the now-famous "Baby Enclave." The dealerships GMI has talked with stated that GMC-Buick management were calling the vehicle the baby Enclave as well. The vehicle is expected to be on the TE platform, which currently underpins the Cadillac SRX. It is also suspected that a clay model of this vehicle was shown in the background of GM's May the best car win commercial featuring Chairman Ed Whitacre. Like with the small car, the baby Enclave has been rumored to end up with the name "Encore." That name would certainly fit with it's big brother, the Enclave. Like with the Verano name, GMI did confirm with the U.S. Trademark office that GM has filed a trademark for the name "Buick Encore" on June 8, 2009. The baby Enclave is expected sometime in 2012.

It is important to note that the names for the two new Buick's have not been finalized as of yet. GM did not even tell the dealerships the speculated names, however GMI is fairly confident the names will be finalized based on sources we have talked to.

 Link: www.gminsidenews.com