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Buick execs say the new Rendezvous, which will go on sale next month, will compete with the Lexus RX 300, Acura MDX and Mercedes-Benz ML320. Initial reviews have been mixed.

INDIO — Here, on a dry, windy April night at the Empire Polo Club of all overblown places, Buick is taking its best shot at the future.

General Motors has been here before.

Oldsmobile died trying to re-invent itself from venerable American brand to import fighter. Saturn tried to grow from the friendly maker of small cars into something more and bigger, and has so far failed miserably. Cadillac brought in a luxury sedan from GM-Europe, and buyers sneered. And Pontiac has more than struggled as it tried to enter the hot sport-utility market with its ungainly, over-priced Aztek.

Now it’s Buick’s turn.

The car of choice is the 2002 Rendezvous, which goes on sale next month. We say car because that’s all Buick has sold since 1923, when it last had a truck in its lineup. Today, 79 years later, Buick and truck meet again in the same sentence, and this one’s a sport-utility.

Perhaps this 175-acre, well-manicured polo complex not far from Palm Springs was selected because Buick has such high expectations for the Rendezvous.

This vehicle will bring new buyers to Buick showrooms, people who have never bought a Buick before. They’ll be much younger than those who currently drive around in Regal, Century, LeSabre and Park Avenue sedans. And they’ll pick a Rendezvous over a Lexus RX 300, an Acura MDX and Mercedes-Benz ML320, three luxury SUVs with car-like rides.

That’s what Buick executives say.

“Buick is making a change,” said Jack Bowen, the Rendezvous brand manager.

“Rendezvous is going to set where Buick is headed here for the next five to 10 years,” said Mark Reuss, the GM vehicle line executive for both the Rendezvous and the Pontiac Aztek.

Those two vehicles share many things, including platforms, a 180-horsepower, 3.4-liter V-6 engine and the Versatrak all-wheel-drive system. Both are built at GM’s Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, assembly plant. Both are “pretty risky, segment-busting vehicles,” Reuss said.

But the Aztek, launched in June 2000, has been a colossal failure. Critics panned its tall, boxy silhouette. Priced from $22,000 to $25,000, it was quickly seen as overpriced by buyers who looked at the window stickers of the also-new Ford Escape small SUV and the Chrysler PT Cruiser retro wagon.

Pontiac dealers have sold less than 20,000 Azteks in its first nine months on the market, a far cry from the predicted 75,000 annual sales.

Does Reuss look at the Rendezvous as a second chance for the experiment that started with Aztek? “Absolutely,” he said. “We’re going to make it up here on this as a more mainstream and upscale product that’s going to make us some money and really please the customer.”

Buick has priced the front-wheel-drive Rendezvou s from $24,924 and the all-wheel-drive version from $27,452. That puts it in close proximity of the Toyota Highlander, one likely competitor, and makes it much cheaper than other models that Buick officials mentioned in their presentations. Comparing all-wheel-drive, six-cylinder models, the Rendezvous is $6,918 cheaper than the Acura MDX, $8,253 cheaper than the Lexus RX 300 and $8,348 cheaper than the Mercedes-Benz ML320, according to www.autosite.com.

Bowen noted that neither the Highlander nor the RX 300 have a third row of seats and, while the MDX does, it has much less room than the Rendezvous.

Buick has a realistic chance of nabbing some would-be RX and MDX buyers, Bowen said, because those young professionals will like the vehicle’s function, quality and price.

“It’ll really meet the needs of that younger buyer that Buick so desperately needs to attract,” he said. Today’s Buick buyer is 60 or older. An average Rendezvous buyer will be about 50, he id.

What the Rendezvous offers, said Liz Wetzel, the vehicle’s lead designer, are “the best attributes” of sedans, minivans and SUVs.

From sedans comes a car-like ride and lots of comfort, luxury and high-tech safety features. From minivans comes flexible seating including an optional third-row of seats that makes Rendezvous a seven-passenger vehicle. And from SUVs comes all-wheel-drive, a higher ride height and lots of interior storage room.

How well will the Rendezvous fare? Bowen predicted sales of 30,000 during the remainder of 2001 and “north of 60,000” next year. Reuss said the Mexican factory is flexible enough to produce 80 percent Rendezvous (and 20 percent Aztek) if demand is strong.

Initial reaction has been mixed.

“It does deliver distinctly more car-like ride, handling, and steering than most truck-based sport-utilities — and some car-based ones — but the Rendezvous is still undeniably an SUV,” wrote Michelle Krebs in AMI Auto World Magazine. Lawrence Ulrich in the Detroit Free Press called Buick’s Rendezvous “a confident first step to lure a slightly younger crowd and retool its image as a maker of old-timer sedans,” but he doubted it would attract Lexus, Acura and Mercedes buyers.

Rendezvous ads that will hit TV in June feature star golfer Tiger Woods. “Tiger’s one of the horses we can ride to reach out and become relevant to some of these younger folks,” Bowen said.