The History of the Buick Regal

Over the years, the Buick Regal has featured both turbocharged and supercharged engines, plus a wide variety of body styles.

The only type of Buick Regal you can get now is a used Buick Regal, but the car has an interesting history with models spanning luxury sleds and performance sedans.

1970s: Buick Century Regal Personal Luxury Model

In the 1970s, personal luxury vehicles were all the rage. Buick was somewhat late to the game, but its answer was the Century Regal, an oversized sedan with rear opera windows and exaggerated, swooping body lines. It wasn’t the sportiest version of the Regal, but it did come with a 350 cubic-inch V8 between 1973 and 1975. After that, the oil embargo led to Buick downsizing the engine into a V6.

1980s: Buick Regal On the Map

The Buick Regal cars between 1978 and 1987 were known as the G-Body cars. Compared to previous versions, this era’s Buick Regal was downsized with a standard V6 engine. An optional V8 was present in some of the models. The Regal Sport Coupe had a 3.8-liter turbocharged option, which made it one of the few production cars of the time to have that.

Performance Interlude: Buick Regal Grand National

The Grand National debuted in 1982, but 1984 was the year it became a performance model. The ’84 Buick Regal Grand National sports a 3.8-liter V6 engine making 200 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque. Later versions of the Grand National delivered up to 245 horsepower and 355 pound-feet of torque. This model ran between 1982 and 1987. The ultimate Grand National G-Body was the GNX. An upgraded turbo led to 276 horsepower and 360 pound-feet of torque. Only 547 of these were built.

1990s: Toned Down FWD Regal

For the 1990s, the Buick Regal lost some of its luster with FWD models becoming the norm and the body style being toned way down to staid, neutral lines. There was no turbo during this era between 1988 and 1996. The standard engine was a 2.8-liter V6 and the Gran Sport trim only offered aesthetic changes, but no extra performance. In 1995, a more powerful 3.8-liter V6 finally became available, making 200 horsepower and 225 pound-feet of torque in the final 1996 model year.

Late 90s Through Early 00s

The period between 1997 and 2004 saw the fourth-generation Buick Regal, which included the supercharged Regal GS that made up to 240 horsepower with its V6 engine. Otherwise, the Buick Regal of this era was a four-door sedan that blended in with most other sedans. The main difference was power compared to the previous generation. The Buick Regal was discontinued after the 2004 model year.

2010s: The Regal Returns

The Buick Regal took a five-year hiatus but returned for the 2009 model year. It was strongly similar to the Opel Insignia, a German car sold in the Chinese market before making it to the US. The new Buick Regal offered an optional manual transmission and eventually a turbocharged GS model to help separate it from less exciting stablemates like the Lucerne and LaCrosse.

The Buick Regal managed to survive in the United States for another generation before being discontinued again in 2020. The used Buick Regal GS from the 2020 model year is a solid four-door performance sedan that makes up to 310 horsepower.