A RETURN TO ELEGANCE?(superior automobile design key to attract customers)

Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON

Design, it is often said around Detroit, is the road to recovery for the domestic industry. An automaker with a solid base of loyal customers might get away with a dull design that sells on brand-name reputation alone, but if in trying to overcome a dulled image-or retrieve lost customers-it all has to start with eye-catching design.

To that end, two of Detroit's historic luxury brands rolled out design concepts at the North American International Auto Show striving to restore a sense of luxury and elegance to their marques: The Buick Enclave crossover utility is a thinly veiled preview of a production model coming in 2007, while the Chrysler Imperial concept represents yet another effort to define a halo car for that brand. After this year's round of domestic auto shows ended in April, these concepts were made available to the press in the outdoors for the first time.

The Buick Enclave concept car wasn't running the day we went to drive it, during a short period when it had finished its rounds in auto show displays but had not yet begun touring golf tournaments as it will this summer. A part had broken, and-being a one-off show machine with no parts inventory on hand-it was disabled just long enough to keep us out of the driver's seat.

This was not quite as big a problem as you might imagine. Much as we prefer to see cars in motion, this one isn't really so much a driver's vehicle as one to look at, admire, sit in, talk about. Sure, it's got the "high-feature'' variable valve timing twin-cam 3.6-liter V6 (good for an estimated 270 hp), six-speed automatic and all-wheel drive, but we can wait to experience those in the production models (which will also offer a V8 option).

The point here is the design. Enclave is the design icon for Buicks going forward, and an elegant statement it is, one that has been well-received everywhere it has gone since being revealed at the Detroit show in January. From its dark-nickel-finished waterfall grille, through the portholes on the hood and back to the tailgate proudly emblazoned with the Buick tri-shield, it sets the bar high for a future of Buicks that aim to restore the marque's luster in the near-luxury battleground.

So our disappointment that it wasn't running had more to do with being unable to get it out from under a tent and see daylight reflecting off its surfaces.