What would a 2011 Buick Roadmaster look like? Top Gear USA takes a crack at it

General Motors has made some excellent cars over the course of its hundred-plus years of existence. As we're all painfully aware, though, it's also produced some horribly bad cars. It's debatable as to when GM's fortunes really turned south, but many critics point to the early 1970s, when a series of poor decisions led to the automaker's eventual near demise in 2009.

And so it's fitting that, when tasked with choosing cars from GM's often illustrious, often horrendous lifetime, the crew from Top Gear USA chose three models built between the early '70s and the late '90s as examples of what the modern-day GM should consider reviving: a 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass, a mid-'80s Pontiac Fiero and a late-'90s Buick Roadmaster wagon. Interestingly enough, only one of those brands is still in existence...

After putting the three machines through a battery of tests, a clear winner was crowned, and it's probably not the vehicle you were expecting. The car that General Motors should reintroduce: the Buick Roadmaster station wagon. Here at this link you'll find the complete episode, where you can see what led up to the surprising conclusion (hint: it involved steep inclines, eggs and a few thousand gallons of water – challenges that should be familiar to Top Gear UK followers).

What we're most interested in, though, is the show's rendering of what a 2011 Buick Roadmaster might look like. We like the basics – a big pushrod V8 engine up front, six-speed manual transmission, rear-wheel drive, a cavernous interior with seating for you and your seven closest friends and their stuff, and, of course, portholes and Buick's signature 'sweep-spear' profile design language. Okay, maybe we can do without the vinyl wood siding... but maybe not. See for yourself in our image gallery below.

[Source: Top Gear USA]