2008 Buick Enclave

Big things are about to start happening at Buick. We've all heard those words before, and they sounded like a load of marketing hooey at the launches of Buick's me-too truck, minivan, and midsize sedan. Our eyes rolled a little less when we heard the same pitch at the Lucerne launch, though even that car was built on hand-me-down platform architecture. The crossover 'ute pictured here will be the first Buick built on a new platform designed from the ground up to achieve the division's new goal: Get the under-60 set to U-turn out of the Lexus dealer's driveway and into the one bearing the tri-shield. But Buick didn't get exclusive dibs on the new Lambda architecture, so can we trust GM to really differentiate the new Enclave from its Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia siblings?

The answer is yes, providing 90 percent of what you see in this Detroit-show-starring driveable concept car survives to production, as all company reps insist.

To begin with, the three vehicles look nothing alike. The Saturn has a vaguely Asian aspect to it, smoothly flanked with prominent fender flares and an oversize Sky-style grille, and the GMC will appear way more rugged and trucklike. Exterior designer Ariel Choi says the Enclave is sculpted "to remind one of a beautiful golf course--nothing flat or level, yet conservative." Yeah, okay, Buick needs all the mileage it can get out of its investment in Tiger Woods. Many details are reinterpreted from the striking Velite convertible concept, like the portholes on the hood, chrome flourishes all around the car, and the oval-shaped black-chrome waterfall grille that appears to cascade from the plane of the hood down toward the bumper. Choi admits seeking influence outside the studio, often from architecture, and he credits the success of the final shape (what you see is what you'll get, except on smaller 18 to 20-inch wheels and with a dual sunroof in place of the full-length bronzed-glass roof) to a team of mostly under-30 designers and gifted clay sculptors.

The Rendezvous minivan-cum-'ute that the Enclave will ultimately supplant was designed in a dedicated Buick studio, while these three crossover triplets were penned in the Lambda architecture studio, so that all the designers could see the direction each brand was heading and ensure there were no inadvertent similarities.

Buick's Lambdan is by far the most curvaceous and carlike, and it wears the dressiest jewelry, starting with the headlamps. The main high-intensity-discharge projector lenses are ringed in blue, and the barrels for the inner high-beam projectors seem to have faceted sapphires stuck to them. Add to these the wide chrome rings around the side glass and the taillamps, plus chrome wheels and door handles, and the message is clear: This ain't no Chevontiac or Toyonda. Perhaps Choi's greatest stylistic triumph was shrinking the visual mass of what is in fact a big honkin' 'ute (it's as long and wide as a Chevy Tahoe, but six inches lower).