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Future Vehicles A Vision of Buick's Future...
7 messages, Last post on Feb 24, 2009 at 7:16 AM
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I've recently been thinking about Buick, it's histroy and what direction the brand might take in the next few years. Buick is a very storied brand dating from the early 1900's, and its heyday was in the late 1940's through the early 1970's, when it had a repuation for building stylish, reliable 'banker's hot rods'. But Buick was one of the most tragic victims of 1970's dinosauritis, and though by the beginning of the 1980's Buick had undergone a Kirstie Alley-esque weight loss program, the brand no longer held the clout it once did with the American public. There was a glimmer of hope with the fantastic 1984-1987 Grand National/GNX coupe, but alas GM killed it just as it was catching on and Buick missed a huge marketing oppurtunity. The late 80's and throught the 90's saw Buick producing reliable, functional, fuel effcient but utterly unremarkable cars. After the perky compact Skylark was dropped from the lineup in 1997, Buick maintained a lineup of four sedans for five years. In 2002, the Rendezvous, a crossover and much less homely twin sister to the Pontiac Aztek, joined the lineup. In 2003, Buick further expanded by adding the Rainier, an utterly pointless Envoy/Trailblazer twin which most people have never even heard of. This lineup continued until 2005, when Buick consolidated it's four sedan lineup into a two car lineup; the vanilla bland Century and french vanilla bland Regal became the jaunty LaCrosse, and the jelly bean LeSabre and Park Avenue became the sleek Lucerne. Hope sprung anew that Buick might be unearthing it's sporty roots, but alas, the LaCrosse and Lucerene, though definite steps in the right direction both in their styling, interior quality and driving characteristics, proved to fall short of the expectations of anyone under the age of 55. As a side note, Buick also added it's first minivan, the Terraza, but that was a misstep from day one, and when the Terraza and its other GM brand sisters proved to be uncompetitive, those lame ducks were taken out behind the barn and shot. But as of now, there is a bright light on the horizon for Buick; it is called Enclave. The Enclave replaces the botched Terraza as Buick's people mover and thankfully is one of the few examples of a show car translating to production with the core design and details nearly intact. I have no doubt in my mind that the Enclave is a future design classic. But what about the rest of the Buick lineup? What does the future hold? Ladies and gentlemen of Carspace and the general autmotive community, here is my vision of what the next four years holds for Buick. 2008-2009 model years: Enclave goes on sale in summer of 2007. LaCrosse and Lucerne likely get mid-cycle updates for 2008 model year. Remote possibility that Velite showcar could be made into a production model based on Zeta platform for 2009 model year. Keep your fingers crossed. 2010- This is the year where everything changes. The Lucerne and LaCrosse receive Enclave's elegant styling, switch to the Zeta RWD platform, and hopefully drop the cheesy names (Roadmaster and Invicta would be excellent candidates) and have the same engine/transmission lineup as the G8, the six speed standard across the board, the stick optional on the higher end sport models. It would work something like this: -Base, yet still well equipped models of the Invicta/Roadmaster would be dubbed Touring(LaCrosse/Lucerne CX equivalent) and get the 3.6 liter V6 and body colored exterior trim. The next rung up you would have the luxury tuned models, Invicta/Roadmaster Limited. They also get the 3.6 liter V6, but with more luxury accoutrements and chrome exterior/interior trim pieces(LaCrosse/Lucerne CXL equivalent). Climb another rung and you have your sport models, for which the retro lable 'Ultra' would be resurrected. They would be powered by the high output 6.0 liter V8 and have sport tuned suspensions, aerodynamic bits like a trunk lip spoiler, optional six speed manual transmission swiped from the G8/Camaro, and monochromatic exterior treatment with either a sporty interior with aluminum trim or luxury interior with real wood trim. Lastly, this is probably unlikely, but what if Buick borrowed the Vette's 6.2 liter V8 and stuffed it into the Roadmaster, added some understated bodywork, rims and badging a la Mercedes AMG to distinguish it from the other models, threw in a precision crafted, sport oriented interior, dubbed it 'Wildcat' and created a true 'banker's hot rod' to go toe to toe with the next gen Chrysler 300 SRT-10? The fully loaded price of a Roadmaster Wildcat would probably fall north of $43,000, but if you had a sedan with the elegant styling of the Enclave and powered by the heart of a Corvette that could run with the M5, the S6, the E63 AMG the STS-V while coming in at a bottom line at least 15k and as much as 50k under their prices, it would be a tremendous value with ridiculous sleeper potential. Buick could easily move 5,000 to 10,000 Wildcats a year if they could keep the price under 50k. Bob Lutz has always had a soft spot for a powerful RWD Buick sedan, and if it he gets even an inkling of an indication from the public that they would buy it, he would make sure it would get built. As long as they have access to this excellent Zeta platform, they may as well get as much use out of it as they can. And just for fun, it would be cool to see the Invicta get a station wagon model to compete with the Dodge Magnum. If they did build it, it would HAVE to have a modern Skyview roof as a throwback to the Buick wagons of yore. How cool would that be? 2011 - Enclave gets mid-cycle updates. Fully RWD Buick lineup sells like hotcakes, and Buicks are no longer geriatric pillow soft touring cars; they've returned to the glory days of being 'banker's hot rods' once more. So there you have it, ladies and gentleman. My vision of the future of Buick. Your thoughts and comments are welcome and appreciated. |
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| The Velite is really what Buick needs. The Enclave is a giant step forward, but a coupe/convertible would have people say "wow," that's a Buick? | |
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LaCrosse and Lucerne likely get mid-cycle updates for 2008 model year. Of course, there's the new 2008 Buick LaCrosse Super coming out sometime this fall. It will have the 5.3 V-8 with heavy duty tranny and suspension, just like the Impala and Monte SS cars. I read where Pontiac is discontinuing the Grand Prix GXP.
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Replying to: jpstax1 (Mar 07, 2007 8:23 am) The 2010' model year should bring us the Buick Velite Sedan, and I would naturally assume a Convertible will be launched at the same time or in the spring of 2010 as a 2011 model. The convertible is just a logical guess. The Velite Sedan, was on again until Lutz, pushed the pause button again because of CAFE increases proposed by Congress. I think that issue could make or break the Velite. I do have a logical solution and that problem and that is make the 2-Mode hybrid standard.  The RWD Lucerne, should see production in MY 2011 with most likely a "ULTRA V8" and the Cadillac DTS should be bigger yet and have RWD also. I personally feel these cars are so important to GM, that Lutz, is playing head games with the american people to get sympathy. I can understand why he is doing it as what other choice does he got ? We americans want our engines powerful and want our cars solid in feel. It adds weight but we love our cabins in our luxury cars super quiet. I'm one of those types and I'm against the CAFE standards until we get this alternative energy programs implemented. You can increase the emissions and fuel economy standards without building the infrastructure to support it. Rocky |
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When will see the next LaCrosse on Epsilon II? Will it be unveiled in Detroit in January, or will we see the Riviera? |
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Currently GM has an insurmountable challenge and a stable of brands that have lost their identity, Toyota is more successful with three brands than GM is with their 12 different brands, a clear sign of the times that change and consolidation is inevitable, below listed are the American/international brands owned by GM as well as a strategy to consolidate and help the company to survive in a rapidly changing business market. Below suggestions for merging entire brands into one entity, and reinvigorating certain brands under an international moniker could stave off bankruptcy and give gm the jolt it needs to become relevant in the auto market once again. Daewoo/Holden/Pontiac merge into Holden Brand (3 Brands become 1 brand) These three brands currently sell similar products. Take three regional players and merge them together under the strongest brand which is Holden. This would introduce a new player to the U.S. market and give the former Pontiac brand more vehicles and a new purpose. The internationalization of the auto market requires that these type of brand-mergers become a reality. GMC and Chevrolet merge into Chevrolet Brand (2 brands become 1 brand) most GMC and Chevrolet Vehicles overlap and are essentially rebadged copies, make it easier and consolidate into the stronger Chevrolet Brand. Hummer and Saab sold either jointly or separately to a private equity firm or other automaker. (2 brands divested) Hummer and Saab both require huge sums of investment in their product lines, it makes the most sense to sell these two brands either together or separately at market value. Opel/Vauxhall/Saturn merge to form Opel (3 brands become 1 brand) All of these brands essentially sell similar products. Take these three regional brands and form a strong international player under the Opel brand name. Saturn as a brand in the U.S. has no relevance but the opel logo and insignia could reinvigorate the entire company and product line. * Possible that Buick as a brand could also be dissolved as they only sell three different vehicles and do not have a strong presence in their operating market. I could see this brand being totally phased out by 2020, the other GM brands would more than make up for the loss in product/branding. This would also allow GM to focus on the core Cadillac/Chevrolet brands and their newly minted international brands of Holden and Opel Goals: Reduce duplicative brand management Reduce duplicative factories producing the same cars under different brand names. Create strong global players in the automotive business, no more regional brands for GM Realize economies of scale from consolidation of brand management, advertising, dealership networks. The above mentioned steps seek to consolidate the GM brand network and dealer network into a more nimble organization. These mergers of core brands eliminate costly dealer-lawsuits from shuttering a brand, while being able to invest in our core surviving brands. The steps outlined above are far overdue and could be the jolt GM needs in order to reinvigorate their core business. The above outlined plan takes 10 brands and marketing strategies and whittles them down to 3 global brands. The surviving names will be able to receive more attention and investment from GM and will be able to produce more relevant products. By merging brands and product lines the cost to GM can be drastically slashed since most brands carry similar products under different brand names. The surviving corporate brands would be Buick,Chevrolet, Holden, Opel, and Cadillac, a drastic and necessary shift in response to market realities. I believe the plan put forth is the best way forward for GM and allows it to realize its many core strengths and keep their most prestigious brands. By cutting the brand and dealership network and merging divisions significant synergies and cost savings can be formed it also allows GM to better respond to market shifts and changes in consumer tastes. This way forward plan seems as though the least harsh and one that could provide the quickest results to the company. This brand consolidation will streamline the entire company allow GM to get rid of non-core factories and duplicative management for its stable of 12 brands and allow the company to better focus on core brands. Toyota does with three brands, what GM attempts to do with 12. GM needs to keep 4 to 5 core brands and then heavily invest in creating a full line up for each of their strength brands. 2-4 good cars per brand does not do well anymore. This is not the 1950’s and GM’s dated brand strategy must go. There will be immediate and long terms savings goals from factory/management consolidation of these many brands. Since a lot of the brand consolidation mentioned revolves around brands that each sell the same products under different brand name banners the consolidation should be common sense and is long overdue. In addition to those mentioned steps GM must go through its line up and cut underperformers from production, do you really need 5 types of GMC Yukon’s to choose from? A faster switch to flex fuel automobiles and hybrid power trains will lift the company and boost sales, but GM must also cut most of its behemoth SUVs from the lineup to focus on fuel efficient crossovers. The changes we have experienced with gas prices and the automotive market are here to stay, it is time GM realized that. I believe if all of the consolidation steps above are taken and GM invests in those core brands and introduces new products while streamlining factories and duplicative management that they will ultimately become a stronger corporation than even Toyota is today. |
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