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Automotive News & Views The Rebirth of Buick.........
417 messages, Last post on Nov 19, 2009 at 8:10 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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OK,OK, I'll take a kick at the cat: With the success of the Enclave, and positive buzz over the 2010 Lacrosse, and an apparent mating of NA Buick with China's Buick (though not meaning Chinese built Buick's coming here) style wise, is this the rebirth of the US's second oldest remaining nameplate???
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Sep 19, 2008 2:33 pm)
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Replying to: bumpy (Sep 19, 2008 4:18 pm) The buzz is also that this "Chinese" styling is to be the future face of Buick here in America. Lucerne replacement is still a couple years away. The question is going forward, will the "new GM way of thinking" and these new vehicles coming out of that be able to pull Buick out of it's sales malaise??? |
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The answer is maybe or probably, IF the new designs replace the frumpy image with a good dose of cool factor. To me, Buick's post war zenith was the '55 model year, when you could be proud to drive a Buick, and the Century, especially, was cool. Some subsequent model years were also good. For example, for '63, when the Riviera was introduced, and again in '67, '69, '78, and '85, Buick fulfilled its mission of delivering substantial, comfortable, upper mid-range to luxury cars, in my opinion. Although The '78 and '85 large body Buicks were down-sized, they were roomy, comfortable, premium cars. However, despite some promising ralleyes, Buick never regained the cache' it had in the '40s (the '49 Roadmaster was drop dead gorgeous) through mid-'50s. The brand may have come close to regaining its glory some years, but then fell back, in years '57 and '58, for example. Like other domestics, quality problems played a major role in Buick's decline in the '70s and '80s, and the brand never regained traction. Let's hope the next generation LaCrosse demonstrates that the Enclave wasn't just an aberration. |
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Sep 19, 2008 2:33 pm) |
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Well, you make some good points, dtownfb. I guess we'll have to wait and see whether Buick can change its image fairly quickly. As a premium brand, it doesn't have to attract the below 30 crowd, but it certainly must appeal to the late 30s and older crowd, instead of only (with few exceptions) the 55+ motorists. I don't know for sure, but I imagine one of the objectives of the Buick Reatta was to pull younger people into the showroom, but it failed to do that. I think the Reatta was nicely styled, but its driving dynamics weren't sporty enough. It should have offered a supercharged version with a tight suspension and a 5-speed manual, a Reatta "Grand National" or "GNX." That may have helped, and may have saved the Reatta. |
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Sep 21, 2008 3:34 pm)
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Sep 21, 2008 3:34 pm) GM has too many brands. They can't afford to keep them all and support them properly.
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Replying to: dtownfb (Sep 21, 2008 4:55 pm) http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/19/spy-shotss-2010-buick-lacrosse-little-camo-pl- us-interior/ The Lucerne outsells the Avalon. The current Lacrosse has been saddled with "looks like a 2nd gen Taurus" The Aura's biggest hurdle is that there are only 500 dealerships in the country. I doubt Traverse shoppers will be cross shopping the Enclave. 2 different price ranges. If the Enclave was too expensive, then the Acadia would drown out it's sales, which it doesn't
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side by side:  Taurus  2005 LaCrosse Really. They're not THAT similar!
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