2012 Buick Regal eAssist - Instrumented Test - Car and Driver (blog)
Since 1973, the Buick Regal has taken the form of landau-roofed barge, square-jawed personal coupe, bad-ass muscle car, shark-nosed jellybean, forgettable sedan (more than once), and, as it sits in Buick showrooms today, Opel-derived near-luxury... For 2012, the 270-hp Regal GS adds “competent sports sedan” to that list, and Buick wouldn’t mind if the Regal eAssist were described as a “high-tech fuel sipper. The Regal eAssist features active grille shutters, underbody aerodynamics, and the light electrification of the base Regal’s 2. 4-liter direct-injected four-cylinder. ) It intends to make the Regal a little bit quicker and some 25 percent more fuel efficient, which translates to EPA fuel-economy figures of 25 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway. 1 seconds to 60 mph, the eAssist is 0. 6 second quicker off the line than the last non-turbo Regal we tested. Its 30-to-50-mph passing time of 4. 4 seconds and 50-to-70-mph time of 6. 4 seconds are 0. 2 and 0. 4 second better, as well. We noted that light pedal application usually isn’t enough to rouse the electric motor, but once tapped, it effectively brings the naturally aspirated Regal from slow to, well, less slow. Source: www.caranddriver.com
