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Automotive News & Views The Rebirth of Buick.........
421 messages, Last post on Nov 27, 2009 at 3:10 PM
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Replying to: lemko (Sep 26, 2008 8:46 am) |
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Replying to: nippononly (Sep 25, 2008 8:28 pm) |
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so from cooter, I hear Buick's mission is to be "Understated luxury, just a notch below Cadillac." From lemko, I hear something similar, but a whole lot more specific: "Buick means a solid, durable, reliable, stately, conservative, sensible, understated, and luxurious car just a notch below Cadillac" Do you feel that the Lacrosse meets all aspects of that definition? I don't find much luxury to be in evidence in that model. Beyond that, I can give it most of what lemko said, except in times of $4 gas I think "sensible" is in jeopardy when the most frugal engine available in a 5-seat car is a 22-24 mpg V-6. In the larger picture, this is a pretty narrow niche folks are drawing for Buick. Is there even space in the market for this tiny little niche? Sales would seem to suggest otherwise. |
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I tried to find Buick's mission statement, but couldn't. In the past, though, I read descriptions that use some of the adjectives lemko used. In fairness to Buick, there hasn't been much time to recalibrate that brand's mission statement since gasoline prices went from moderate to ~$4. As the products are redesigned to reflect the reality of expensive oil, Buick will have to modify its mission statement, even as its positioning in the marketplace, above Chevy, Pontiac and Saturn, and a notch below Cadillac, remains the same. It seems to me that, price-wise (but not market niche-wise), Buick competes with Saab in the GM hierarchy. It'll be difficult for GM to keep all of its brands.
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Sep 26, 2008 9:26 am) Mercury is at death's door, everyone but Ford seems to know this. It's less clear how much money could potentially be saved by letting it go to its grave naturally. Chrysler is more of a mixed bag, but that is an extremely troubled automaker overall. It seems to me you could have some swish trim lines of the larger cars and crossovers in the Chevy line, and eliminate Buick without much fuss. Having a whole separate brand for this narrow piece of the automotive spectrum is weighing down GM with extra costs it really doesn't need to have. |
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Replying to: nippononly (Sep 26, 2008 9:02 am) |
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Replying to: nippononly (Sep 26, 2008 9:02 am) Now??? Not really. I think if we rewind about 10 years to see where Buick was you'll find that they had 4 solid pre luxury sedans, and a personal luxury coupe. As Olds got phased out, Buick picked up their minivan and SUV, plus picked up an Aztek based CUV. Eventually, they consolidated their 4 sedans to the 2 we see today, and 2 "SUV"s to 1, and dropped the minivan. The biggest problem is, the 2 sedans are based on the old W and G archetecture, while everybody else in the GM lineup gets the new latin named archetectures. THAT probably has more to do with the sales slides than anything. Can Buick survive??? I see no reason why not, ESPECIALLY when married with the Pontiac and GMC nameplates, provided the finished product is as good as the Enclave is. Let's take the mid sized GM sedans for example: Malibu, G6, Lacrosse, Aura, and CTS. Now, if we take the Aura and aim it towards imports like the Passat that puts it in a slightly different category. Next, line up the sedans in order of price: Malibu, $18-24K. G6, $20-26K Lacrosse, $23-30K, and CTS, $30-38K. Then, based on the materials used, HP outputs, options available, etc., you could have 4 viable sedans that are priced accordingly yet don't step on one another toes. For example, leather (or at least a high quality cloth) could be standard on the Buick. Not as high quality as Caddy, but better that that in a high end Malibu. If you want to gear the Chevy and Pontiac towards younger buyers, how about free OnStar for qualifying college students while in college??? I don't mean to stereotype, but the same could be offered in Caddys for say AARP members. Maybe a built in mp-3 player standard in the Chevy and Pontiac, but a built in 6 disc player in the Buick and Caddy. The bottom line is, whatever they do, IF the products coming forward are likeable like the Malibu and CTS are, and are marketed well, they will do fine.
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Check out the retail prices for these USED Enclaves, some with as many as 22,000 miles: http://www.cars.com/go/search/search_results.jsp?ct=564&tracktype=usedcc&searchT- ype=21&cid=&dlid=&dgid=&amid=&cname=&mdnm=Enclave&mknm=Buick&rd=10000&ddrd=&zc=0- 2809&makeid=7&modelid=8771&pageNumber=&numResultsPerPage=50&largeNumResultsPerPa- ge=0&sortorder=descending&sortfield=PRICE%20descending&certifiedOnly=false&crite- ria=K-|E-|M-_7_|D-_8771_|N-N|R-10000|I-1,7|P-PRICE%20descending|Q-descending|Z-0- 2809&aff=national |
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| http://www.edmunds.com/apps/nvc/edmunds/VehicleComparison?styleid=101035082&styl- eid=101006933&styleid=101037439&styleid=100975629&maxvehicles=5&refid=&op=3&tab=- specs | |
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Replying to: nippononly (Sep 26, 2008 9:02 am) |
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