Today’s cool car in China is this pretty Buick Sail SR-V, which I saw at a car market in east Beijing in September 2019. The SR-V looked great in red, and still had its original stickers and wheel covers.
About Buick in China
Buick entered China in 1999, under the wings of the Shanghai-GM joint venture (now SAIC-GM). Buick’s first model in China was the Buick New Century sedan. In the early 2000s, Buick became a very successful brand in China, selling a broad lineup of MPVs, sedans, SUVs, and small budget cars. Buick was regularly a top 5 brand!
Sadly, in the late 2010s, sales started to drop due to a lack of new models and NEVs. Nowadays, the Buick brand hovers around the 25th place, but the new Electra-line seems to catch on, so perhaps Buick will be back on top one day.
The Buick Sail SR-V
The Buick Sail SR-V is a small station wagon, based on the Opel Corsa Caravan. Shanghai-GM also produced the Buick Sail sedan, which in turn was based on the Opel Corsa sedan.
Production of the Sail SR-V lasted from 2001 to 2004. It looked incredibly cool, especially in this bright red factory color. The darkened windows and the roof rails were standard, too, but the wind deflectors at the front window are an aftermarket accessory.
Stickers were cool in those days, and the wagon had these wild S-RV stickers in a racy font that didn’t match any other font on the car. It also had Z-shaped stickers on the rear doors.
The interior of the Buick Sail SR-V
The interior of the Buick Sail and Sail SR-V was a little more luxurious than that of the Opel Corsa, with nicer trim and fake-leather seats. The cabin of the car in the photos is well-preserved. The owner added fancy seat covers, an aftermarket radio, and a lucky charm hanging from the mirror.
The seat cover on the bench needs a little adjustment; the original beige color is clearly visible here. For such a small car, leg room wasn’t all that bad. At the time, the Sail SR-V was a popular family car, and why not? Cheap to buy, cheap to run, enough space for 3, and a large 378-liter luggage compartment.
Specifications of the Buick SR-V
Rear windshield wiper looks a little sad…
Buick offered the Sail SR-V with 3 engines: 1.2, 1.4, or 1.6, mated to a five-speed manual or a five-speed automatic. Today’s car has the 1.6 under the hood, mated to the manual ‘box. Note the engine badge on the right side, with the SC trim-level badge. Output was 90 hp and 128 Nm, good for a 165 km/h top speed and a 0-100 acceleration time of 12.7 seconds.
SGM7160 is an official government-assigned manufacturing code belonging to Shanghai-GM. SGM: Represents the manufacturer, Shanghai General Motors. 7: Designates the vehicle type as a passenger car. 16: Indicates a 1.6-liter engine displacement. 0: Represents the specific design iteration or generation. Until the late 2000s, these designations were obligatory – they had to be on the car – visible and in full. Today, this is only required for commercial vehicles.
The beautiful Sail badge, with an A shaped like a boat’s sail, and the · on the i shaped like a flag. So much creativity at General Motors for a simple badge; it is truly amazing. The Chinese name for the Sail was 赛欧 (Sài’ōu).
Price and legacy
In 2004, the Buick Sail SR-V SC 1.6 manual sold for 74.800 yuan, and that translates into about $9,040 USD in 2004 value. That was a sweet deal! In 2005, GM launched a rebranding operation, and the Buick Sail became the Chevrolet Sail. Production lasted until 2009. After that, Chevrolet launched two more generations of Sail-named cars in China, until it withdrew the name in 2023.
Today, the original Buick Sail sedan and Buick Sail SR-V wagon have become quite rare, due to a lack of new parts and ever-stricter emission tests. That’s a big shame, because they were good cars for the masses that did almost everything right. There is still a huge market for this kind of entry-level car, but the Chinese brands have taken it over completely.
Opel designed really nice mirror assemblies – also see the Opel Vectra.
I see no rust while Corsas of the same model usually are badly damaged by tinworm here in Europe.