Buick Encore News

The 36-year-old Metro Detroit resident purchased a 2013 Buick Regal Turbo last year based on its performance and looks, without necessarily considering the brand's image or heritage.

No, I'm not talking about a Mel Gibson/Lee Marvin blood-spattered revenge epic .

Buick dealers still salivating over the Riviera concept that General Motors unveiled at last month's Shanghai auto show should take a deep breath: There's little chance that the flashy coupe will ever grace a Buick showroom.

May 3, 2013: General Motors won nine Vincentric 2013 Best Fleet Value in America awards, the most of any manufacturer.

While the smallish X1 shares its platform with the X3 crossover, itself already a scaled-down version of the popular X5, the X1 indeed does look like it's a bigger machine that's been chopped off at the knees - in as pleasant a way as possible.

Buick's new Encore sub-micro hatchback/crossover invites a lot of questions. First of all, what is it? Well, it's an answer to a question asked by buyers in China, where Buick thrives.

Unlike its parent company Honda's oddball Shanghai reveals, Acura's lone debut was neither strange nor particularly bad-looking. Instead, Acura's Concept SUV-X is a rather sharp little SUV that the brand intends to build and sell in China within three years.