Right now there are some rumors floating around about a possible Buick Regal wagon for 2018. I know we all love wagons here and want more of them, but I wouldn’t get too worked up just yet.
On a forum discussion in GM Inside News, a commenter who appears to have some kind of dealership connection claimed to drop some knowledge about a sweet, sweet wagon making its way back into our beloved clutches:
Like most wagon fans, I was pretty excited about this. On the surface, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched; the Regal is based on the European Insignia that already has a wagon version known as the Insignia Sports Tourer. It’s not like GM would be building a wagon from the ground up. A simple badge swap is presumably all it would take to make the Insignia Sports Tourer ready for America.
We did some due diligence, of course, and we reached out to GM about the rumor. Their official comment regarding the forum post was “we consider that story speculation and can’t comment on future product plans,” which is what they would say.
I have some serious doubts, however, that a Regal wagon would make it Stateside anyway for a few reasons. The obvious one is Americans don’t really buy wagons, especially ones that are not called the Subaru Outback.
The last time GM offered us a wagon, the Cadillac CTS, it didn’t do so well. We can live out our fantasies of everyone driving around in some sweet, sweet CTS-V wagons, but the fact remains that despite all the magazine covers and sick V8 wagon burnouts, the regular CTS long-roof was not a sales success.
Couple that with the fact that Buick has a hard enough time as it is selling the sedan version of the Regal. Buick Regal sales peaked in 2011 with 40,000 units, according to GoodCarBadCar.net. That’s hardly impressive given how popular the entry-level compact luxury sedan segment is.
In 2015, only 19,504 people plunked down some dough for the “European” Buick.
The reason BMW can justify throwing us a bone with the 3-series wagon is because they sell about 100,000 sedans a year. The cost of federalizing the F31 can easily be absorbed into the massive profits from the 3-series range. But I just have a hard time believing that Buick is that desperate for wagon customers that they would invest the money in federalizing a wagon version of a car that is barely a blip within its segment.
Look, I want a Buick wagon to happen as much as you do, especially if it will come in GS form with a stick and all-wheel-drive. But Buick already killed the 3-pedal option for the entire Regal line including the GS. So ask yourself this and then put yourself in the shoes of a GM brand manager, would you really spend over $35,000 on a front-wheel-drive Buick wagon with an automatic?