Does anyone have a Buick Regal TourX here?

daytonaer said:

 

Same old GM interior. Would be an nice interior if you didn't know VW and Honda put car interiors together for similar price points.  It is nice until you drive the competition back to back. There is plenty of room (actually, this wagon is sized perfectly) and the seats are comfortable. But the volvo v60 seats are exponentially more comfortable. The perceived lack of quality and fit and finish is difficult to describe, its not one or 2 little nit-picky things, its just a consistent difference in quality from how the interior is designed, to how it fits together and of what materials are used. Again, it's not bad, it's just that the competition does such a better job at that price point. 

" and thoroughly disappointed with the fit and finish overall.

Exactly how I felt after I test drove it. Which is why I am looking at CPO E350 Wagon to likely replace my TSX.

einy said:

Quick look at the Buick dealer on Northeast side of Cincinnati's web page shows 9 in stock with pricing advertised online at $7k - $8k off of list plus whatever you can negotiate beyond that starting point discount.  Must not be moving very briskly I'd hazard to guess.  Still have not seen one on the road yet around here.

Good to hear they are finally putting some decent discounts on them, but it’s too late for me.  Early in the year, they wanted to hold the line on the prices pretty good.  That, combined with having to pay an extra 7K or so to get heated seats (top trim only) turned me off of them.

so nobody has bought one here then. Let us make opinionated comments further without hands on experience! (aside from auto show touch and grabs)

Well, unlike most folks on here I've actually owned a modern Buick. I had a 2011 Regal GS manual for a year or so and it was overall pretty terrible. I guess I didn't get a real sense of it when I test drove it or maybe I was just enamored with the looks (it just really looked good, people came up to me at stoplights and remarked on it), but the thing was an awful driving car. It really wasn't good at doing anything at all. Laggy turbo power everywhere. Sixth gear was useless. You couldn't accelerate up a hill in sixth if you were going less than 85mph. It also couldn't put the power down when it did come on. Wheel hop everywhere.

In 1st gear in traffic it was awful. The car just could not be driven slowly. You had to ride the clutch constantly in 1st to go slow. It was either get right to 15mph or ride the clutch. I'm probably a dummy for buying a manual Buick in the first place.

The interior ended up not pleasing me either. The drivers seat was uncomfortable for long trips and the leather was more like vinyl. Yeah, I probably should have figured that last part out before I bought.

The car came with summer Pirellis that were noisy to the point that I had to dump them for a different tire. They had a harmonic vibration at around 65mph that just would not go away and GM would not replace the tires even though the dealer heard the noise. They considered it normal for that tire.

If I hadn't gotten it for a bunch of money off invoice I'd probably have been stuck with that boat anchor, but I traded it on a Ford Focus ST which was a much better car all around.

Reading the C&D take on the Tour X, it pretty much sounds similar to the experience I had with my car.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2018-buick-regal-tourx-test-review

The thing looks good, but drives like crap and the excuse is that they are making a better one next year. Yeah, they said stuff like that about the Regal GS since 2011 was the first year. It hasn't really happened. The only thing they did was drop the manual entirely.

My wife and I own a 2014 Regal.  It is her DD but I drive it when we travel.  It is a really good touring car.  Comfortable seats, lots of amenities, good road manners and quiet interior.  No issues at all to require a return visit to the dealer.  I agree with the laggy turbo and the transmission/turbo combination doesn't quite deliver as expected when you try hooning on it.  At 50k miles, no other complaints, but I'll keep my Si for my DD.

New England is an "intended market" for cars like the TourX, and so far, I've seen exactly one of them: a dealer demo that is seemingly permanently parked in a failing suburban Boston shopping mall. I think the dealer forgot it's in there, as there are fingerprints and nastiness all over the thing every time I've seen it. It has been there for almost a year now. I have not seen a single one on the road. I still haven't seen a Regal Sportback or whatever the new Regal is called on the road either. 

If they can't sell them around here, where everyone has some sort of AWD/4WD thing in the driveway, something is definitely wrong. 

I like it.  I just built one on the website in bright red with all the options I could be interested in for $40k.  

Harvey said:

Well, unlike most folks on here I've actually owned a modern Buick. I had a 2011 Regal GS manual for a year or so and it was overall pretty terrible. I guess I didn't get a real sense of it when I test drove it or maybe I was just enamored with the looks (it just really looked good, people came up to me at stoplights and remarked on it), but the thing was an awful driving car. It really wasn't good at doing anything at all. Laggy turbo power everywhere. Sixth gear was useless. You couldn't accelerate up a hill in sixth if you were going less than 85mph. It also couldn't put the power down when it did come on. Wheel hop everywhere.

In 1st gear in traffic it was awful. The car just could not be driven slowly. You had to ride the clutch constantly in 1st to go slow. It was either get right to 15mph or ride the clutch. I'm probably a dummy for buying a manual Buick in the first place.

The interior ended up not pleasing me either. The drivers seat was uncomfortable for long trips and the leather was more like vinyl. Yeah, I probably should have figured that last part out before I bought.

The car came with summer Pirellis that were noisy to the point that I had to dump them for a different tire. They had a harmonic vibration at around 65mph that just would not go away and GM would not replace the tires even though the dealer heard the noise. They considered it normal for that tire.

If I hadn't gotten it for a bunch of money off invoice I'd probably have been stuck with that boat anchor, but I traded it on a Ford Focus ST which was a much better car all around.

Reading the C&D take on the Tour X, it pretty much sounds similar to the experience I had with my car.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2018-buick-regal-tourx-test-review

The thing looks good, but drives like crap and the excuse is that they are making a better one next year. Yeah, they said stuff like that about the Regal GS since 2011 was the first year. It hasn't really happened. The only thing they did was drop the manual entirely.

It has that opel interior that I hate, I had an insignia wagon turbo diesel rental car for one of my trips to Germany and I loved the styling of it and it rode really nice (only had a few thousand miles on it anyways) but the interior controls/HVAC controls were so clunky and hard to use it was a distraction on the road!

Tony Sestito said:

New England is an "intended market" for cars like the TourX, and so far, I've seen exactly one of them: a dealer demo that is seemingly permanently parked in a failing suburban Boston shopping mall. I think the dealer forgot it's in there, as there are fingerprints and nastiness all over the thing every time I've seen it. It has been there for almost a year now. I have not seen a single one on the road. I still haven't seen a Regal Sportback or whatever the new Regal is called on the road either. 

If they can't sell them around here, where everyone has some sort of AWD/4WD thing in the driveway, something is definitely wrong. 

I think they screwed up by (1) not advertising it and (2) pricing it too high. But of course, this is classic GM: they don't know how to market anything (I guess now you could say they don't know how to market anything except trucks).  What they missed is that wagons are popular only with millennial urbanites, who either want a Subaru (not going to conquest them) or a European car, or old-money rich boomer east-coast suburbanites, who want an E-Class wagon (again, not going to conquest them, except maybe with a Yukon Denali).

In my neighborhood, I see a zillion Outbacks and VW Alltracks and Volvo wagons and a few E-Class wagons, not to mention older wagons of all stripes and not one but two new Volvo V90 wagons, which had to be special ordered.  I would have thought that people around here would buy the TourX, but it was really expensive for what it was. GM sees Buick as a premium brand, which may have been true in 1970, but today, it's a forgotten/old-person's brand. Zero cache, maybe even negative, which is why it might have some hipster cred.

Oh, and as mentioned before, to get heated seats you had to move up to a higher trim level. Everyone around here wants heated seats. That will put you up to a $36k MSRP TourX. An Outback with heated seats is $29k MSRP, and a Golf wagon with heated seats is $28k MSRP. 

My wife has a Buick Encore, which is their best selling vehicle.  For $25K, the interior is much better than what you can get from any other tiny CUV.  Its a great little vehicle so far. 

I looked at the Regal Wagon while at the dealer and the nearly $50K price for a loaded model was a shocker.  I hate the faux off-road stuff they added to it and wasn't seeing much to convince me it was better than spending the same $$$ on an SUV.  I looked again when the interwebz said they were trying to get rid of them, but the big discounts are not in my area apparently.  Bottom line, they are not making what I really want: 

I considered them last year, but at the time they weren't discounting them at the time and they only seemed to have premium models on the lot.  I didn't even bother with a test-drive or in-person inspection since they were way over budget for me.  Sounds like Buick has gotten serious about selling through some inventory, as it looks like $8k to $10k discount may be possible.  

My parents were also considering one...but Buick wouldn't release any towing information.  The Opel version had a relatively small tow rating, and Buick didn't certify anything for the US (last I checked).

The VW Alltrack and Volvo V60 are quite a bit smaller, at least in appearance.  

Check to see if there is any repair history on TrueDelta.  I was considering a used Regal GS (6MT) at one point and they had numerous expensive repair issues that scared me away.  

Someone at my office has an Audi allroad...it looks really nice.  Larger than my Alltrack...and probably 2x more expensive...and no manual transmission.

Why are we not talking about this? same 50k price tag 

I saw my first one on the road last night. I blame this thread. It looked good though!

Despite the mediocre ratings, I'd look at one if I were car shopping right now. Some local dealers have several on their lots and discounted $10K. One of these things for $27K starts looking pretty appealing.

DeadSkunk said:

Despite the mediocre ratings, I'd look at one if I were car shopping right now. Some local dealers have several on their lots and discounted $10K. One of these things for $27K starts looking pretty appealing.

Yeah, that was my general opinion when I looked at them earlier this year, but I ended up buying a new car in June, so I should be out of the market for quite a while.  The TourX would have been a decent enough commuter, and probably an awesome road trip car and parts hauler.

fidelity101 said:

Why are we not talking about this? same 50k price tag 

Starting price is in the low $50K range.  Add some options and it'll be into the 60's pretty quick.

I've "built" a fairly basic V90 (non-XC without the ugly cladding) and a FWD version with a handful of options was $53K.

Unfortunately, the Maple Brown Metallic looks crappy online, but I love it in person.

In reply to Ian F :

I had a maple brown s90 rental car this summer. Beautiful car! Beautiful interior and great infotainment.

The driver "safety" nannies were unbelievably intrusive to the point of being dangerous, like the time the computer tried to steer me off the road. It made what was otherwise a boring driver into a terrible one. I'd never buy one of those cars!

I don’t unreservedly rely on Consumer Reports reliability info, but their data on recent Volvos gives me great pause.  A V60 is off the table until more data comes in. Shame, it looks great. I really want to see what the TourX is all about. Did it get the new transmission for 2019?

conesare2seconds said:

I don’t unreservedly rely on Consumer Reports reliability info, but their data on recent Volvos gives me great pause.  A V60 is off the table until more data comes in. Shame, it looks great. I really want to see what the TourX is all about. Did it get the new transmission for 2019?

What information have you seen on the v/s60's? They have been selling in the US since 2015.

I'm shopping right now and will be buying in the next few months, I'm looking at the 2015-2018 v60's, I know the 2019 s60's are being built in the US, I am assuming they will make the v60's here too. 

I have been unable to find any crash data on the tour-x, if it is close enough to the opel wagon Euro NCAP ratings are pretty good, but not anywhere near v60 good.  This probably will end up as the deciding factor for me.

From what I can find the tour-x with the 8 speed automatic is the aisin dual clutch unit, it is listed on the 2019 models. GM said they are developing a 9 speed auto to replace it. 

Like has been mentioned before, trim groups are a turn off on the tourx. I want a power passenger seat, heated seats are nice. The local dealer has a '18 with a power passenger seat and no sunroof (also leather, premium stereo) and it is discounted to $30,500 It is listed $8000 off sticker.  18 v60's are showing up used for 26k or so.

The v60 is much smaller than the buick. In the tourx I can move the driver seat so far back that I have to stretch to reach the pedals. If I adjust the seat to my comfort (I'm 6'1") I can fit a rear-facing infant seat directly behind. In the V60, the front seat has to be moved up a bit to fit the car seat directly behind, its actually quite cramped. 

i wish more people were buying the v90 in non-cross country trim. It is a stunning wagon. The price point means I will look at used in a few years, I just wish they weren't importing mostly cross countrys. The used market will be slim. 

In reply to daytonaer :

IIHS has the tourx as top rating in all crash categories. it doesn't get a top safety pick due to it's relative lack of nannies. Volvos obviously have all the nannies.

Read the comments on the Tourx.

In December my lease was up on the 2016 Subaru Outback. It was a decent car but like any vehicle had its cons.

Living in northern Ohio it gets cold.

The 4 cylinder boxer engine would not warm up with good heat until 10 to 15 miles. Very noisy engine, but over all not bad. Got 33 to 35 mpg. Just very cold natured.

So I drove the Tourx Essence fully loaded with options.

Oh my. What a difference in ride, so much more power with the turbo, great heat and 37 mpg highway at 5000 miles.

Heres the big difference, the German suspension and handling are very close to our Mercedes C300. German cars are solid to drive their high speed highways.

Absolutely love the car. Yes its leased for the 4 year warranty term.

Agree on the interior. Could be a little nicer, but having owned several MBs. Thats German. Not as flashy.

Lastly. Look at the MB wagon picture and compare it to the Tourx. Very similiar looks. Get great positive comments.

It's different, not many around and I had enough SUVs. This has over 70 cu ft of cargo space which we needed.

Just my opinion.

Take a drive

Regards

I read through the whole thread for a second time. I'd like to have one of these, but I'm in a much different financial segment.

If I leave out Subaru and the European lines, the $10,000 and down cash buyer like me really doesn't have any options for manual wagons.

BTW, someone raced one of these at an autocross here recently. Good looking car.

In reply to Pupper01 :

this whole post just smacks of... sockpuppet

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

In reply to Pupper01 :

this whole post just smacks of... sockpuppet

Oh, I just learned a new use of that word! And yes, I agree with you.

Earlier in this thread I commented about not having seen any of these in this area, which is pure "look what new car I got" land. 

I actually have seen several of them since then, including one today (in white) which looks just as good in person as in photos. Cosmetically GM nailed it - can't say about the interior. ...