Buick

Chinese-Designed Buick Concept Is Stunning!

A recent trip to the Cleveland International Auto Show over the weekend gave me a chance to see a concept that I didn’t know existed. After being able to stand there and lay my eyes on it, I felt very lucky to see a piece of automotive art.

This concept, called the Buick Riviera Concept, was designed in China by the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center for the 2007 Auto Shanghai. According to a General Motors press release, the Riviera concept was designed and developed with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) to showcase a new hybrid system built specifically for the Chinese market.

But that doesn’t matter to us, now does it? What we care about are those looks!

The Riviera Concept, with its carbon-fiber body, is stunning. The taut, yet aggressive front end gives the car a look of both class and power. Those headlamps are my favorite part of the design, with their tiny LED lamps and how they seem to be pulled back along the top of fenders give the whole front end a sinister look.

The overall profile of the car is very reminiscent of a Honda CRX, with a slightly round, smoother-flowing and more masculine look. The long hood and a very short overhang in the rear belie the fact that this car is much larger than it seems. However, the car looks well-proportioned from every angle:

The rear has a very pronounced bumper that feed into large rear fender flares. The location of the angular tailpipes in the middle of the bumper helps to break up what would be a very large and uninspiring rear end.

Flip open the ultra cool gull wing doors and slide in to the futuristic interior. Instantly, you are surrounded by baby blue Alcantara, cream-colored leather and chrome. The lone dash gauge and center stack controls are both functional and artistic in their formation. In an interior created to calm and relax, designers wired the entire interior (as well as both exterior badges and under the doors) with a soft blue lighting that matches the rest of the interior. It’s a place most people wouldn’t mind spending time.

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