A Buick GL8 Century Avenir MPV, as seen in the Chinese capital Beijing in 2024. The enormous people carrier looked great in white, with its extra large bling-bling grille and boomerang-shaped headlights.
The Buick GL8 is a China-only MPV, made locally at SAIC-GM. Buick sells three generations of the GL8 at the same time. Selling multiple generations of the same car alongside each other is quite common at Chinese-foreign joint ventures. Once, there were four generations of Hyundai Elantra.
From right to left: The Buick GL8, a continuation of the second-generation GL8, which was launched in 2010. The Buick GL8 ES, a continuation of the third generation Buick GL8, which was launched in 2016. And finally, the Buick GL8 Century, the all-new fourth-generation Buick GL8. Picture via Buick’s China website.
The car we have here today is the top-spec Buick GL8 Century Avenir. This model is loaded with luxury and bling. Buick sells the Avenir with seven six, or four seats. The four-seat version has a giant screen in the middle. The Avenir comes with special ‘handwritten’ badges on the front doors and on the back. Buick also uses the Avenir name for a top-spec version of the Buick LaCrosse sedan.
The interior is very nice, with endless space and cushy white leather seats. This is a six-seat version but the rear windows were too dark to take a proper picture. The color scheme is light. Chinese consumers don’t like dark interiors. The centerpiece of the dashboard is a 30-inch 6K one-piece screen, digitally divided into an instrument panel and an infotainment system. The steering wheel has a sporty thick rim.
The GL8 Century is a large car and it doesn’t want to hide that. It was designed to impress, with that shiny grille, huge light units, and a shipload of chrome. Size: 5230/1980/1867, 3130, with a 2300 kilo curb weight.
The Buick GL8 Century is powered by a 2.0 turbo + 48V powertrain. Output is 237 hp and 350 Nm. The engine is mated to a nine-speed automatic, sending horses to the front wheels. The top speed is 195 km/h, 0-100 takes 10.3 seconds, and fuel consumption is a steep 8.65 liter per 100 kilometers.
Characters: 上汽通用, Shàngqì Tōngyòng, SAIC-GM. The price range of the Buick GL8 Century is 469.900 to 689.900 yuan, or $64.4K to $94.6K.
The front design is very complex. It has a lip in the lower bumper, then comes the grille, then another shiny strip flanked by the headlights, and finally the new Buick logo on the hood.
A cool car for sure but the GL8 Century faces increasing competition from modern MPVs by Chinese brands, with advanced EV and PHEV powertrains, and most of those are cheaper too. Buick better have an EV version ready soon, or the GL8 Century will lose out soon. And it was only launched in 2022.