NC dealer falsely announces return of Regal Grand National, Regal GNX

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12-02-2014, 06:50 PM

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NC dealer falsely announces return of Regal Grand National, Regal GNX

Filed under: Coupe, Sedan, Performance, Etc., Buick, Weird Car News

Like many new car dealers, Liberty Buick GMC gets so excited about its brands' new wares that it puts out press releases announcing when new models are on the way. That's not typically national news, but the Charlotte, NC store has created a bit of internet hubbub by announcing that it will be "one of the first dealers in the country to offer the Buick Regal GNX," and it's even started to add customers names to a waitlist.

Only one problem: Despite seemingly annual rumors and calls for such a model, Buick hasn't announced any Grand National models at all - let alone a GNX - and no such models are actually in the cards.

The Liberty Buick press release talks in a nostalgic, venerative tone of the original 1982-1987 GN franchise, and goes on to say:

"These returning relics will be based on the highly-acclaimed Alpha vehicle architecture currently used in the Cadillac ATS, 2014 Cadillac CTS, and soon to be in the sixth-generation Chevy Camaro. Alpha is the internal name of a General Motors vehicle architecture engineered to underpin compact and mid-size rear-wheel-drive vehicles."

In the release, Liberty Buick claimed the GN/GNX models would arrive in late 2015, citing a coupe bodystyle, including a rather fantastical-looking GNX rendering from Bestride.com.

Unsurprisingly, none of this is true. Autoblog reached out to Buick for comment about the release, and brand communications manager Nick Richards confirmed that the company had discussed the matter with Liberty Buick representatives. Richards went on to say that the release was wholly incorrect, proclaiming "an agency [for the dealer] picked up a lot of stuff off the internet" and ran with it, including an old Car and Driver story from 2013. The dealership subsequently issued a retraction, with Scott McCorkle, owner of Liberty Buick GMC saying:

"We love the idea of the Buick Regal GNX coming back to our showroom but for now, it's only a concept. Bottom-line, the article was incorrect. Facts were not checked and we sincerely regret releasing the information."

When we posited that perhaps the release was the result of Liberty Buick misinterpreting something about future Regal product in a dealer meeting to Richards, he flatly denied the idea, saying the release was purely the result of "a rogue agency."
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NC dealer falsely announces return of Regal Grand National, Regal GNX originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 02 Dec 2014 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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