Buick Skylark to land in China by 2009

Remember the Buick Skylark? While the car certainly had its day in the pre-Reagan era, the 1980s and 90s did a lot of damage to the nameplate with models that were uninspired in every way (see above). General Motors figures the name's still good in other markets where it never sold the car, and will reportedly be introducing a new Buick Skylark in China by 2009 as a 2010 model. The new Skylark will be based on GM's Delta II platform that will underpin such vehicles as the next-gen Chevy Cobalt, Saturn Astra and Pontiac G6. The baby Buick will replace the Excelle in China, which is a version of the Daewoo Lacetti, a.k.a. the Suzuki Forenza in the U.S.

The new Skylark will be built in China by Shanghai GM, which begs the question of whether or not it will be the first vehicle GM imports from China for sale in the U.S. Who knows how well a Chinese-built Buick would be received in the States? We think the real question is how many small cars does GM need to sell? With three models already planned to utilize the Delta II platform, will a fourth bring us back to those days of regrettable badge engineering? Hopefully not, but we'll have to wait until the Delta II cars begin to break cover before we can know for sure.

[Source: Inside Line]