Topic: New Allure/LaCrosse

[Ex-airbalancer]

It is a Canadian base forum, if you quoting US # state that

[safristi]

Read a semi_humorous review about GM....................."It's a Health/Pension scheme Company with 800,000 Retirees /Pensioners and 200,000 Workers pretending to be an AUTO Company".................

[Mitlov]

Tiger Woods, hippest of many sports atheletes, couldn't convince anyone not resident in mainland China that Buick was cool. 

That's because they didn't have any decent products at the time.  That's changing.  There's nothing wrong with the Tiger Woods commercials.  They just needed a decent product behind the ads, which up until the Enclave (and now this) they didn't have.

[KRS]

and to think I almost missed this idiot convention 

  Yes we'd hate to start the convention with out our most prominent member. 

  http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/84/84530/sales_production/Deliveries%20November%202008.pdf

  If you look over the gm sales figures for all US deliveries in November, in the link above, you will find that the Malibu is the only GM Passenger car with an increase over last November's sales and only the CTS, Vibe and Malibu's are showing yearly increases over last year. In the face of the uninspiring previous generation of Malibu, which had to make a lot of people look else where, the reports of GM possibly going bankrupt and the fact that a lot of the American public seem to still want larger cars as seen by the fact that the Impala, even with a 43.7 % drop in November sales from last year still outsold the Malibu, and it's hardly surprising that people aren't rushing to the Malibu at the same rate as Accords yet. If their hadn't been all the talk of GM going Bankrupt I would've bet the Malibu would have been far closer to the Honda accord sales figure. To approach Toyota's Numbers there is no Doubt that years of poorly designed indifferently built garbage must be overcome and it will take years to repair that bad image.

    Rebuilding a reputation takes time and the increase in Malibu sales over last November in the lousy market makes me think they are finally on the right track and as long as GM has put decent quality components in it, in three years from now the Malibu will have gone a long way to repair the Chevrolet brand image, just as the CTS is doing much to cement Cadillac's image of again building good Cars. Whether GM will have three years or not is another matter

  Now Buick the brand this threads about. I'm afraid it's far to late to repair and revitalize them even with perfect products. If you were to take the Corvette and rebadge it as a buick I believe in the first year the 6 they would sale would all be to 80+ year olds. it would take 10 years GM can't afford to change the image they now have. it would have to be far better for them to cut their losses and put the resources in an area which can help them survive
 

[LeftLand]

Mitlov, I agree with you 100% that there needs to be a car between Chevy and Cadillac, but I agree with the others that it shouldn’t be named Buiick.  No matter how good a car they build, the name is synonymous with very old people, and younger generations won’t give it a look, even when they get old too.  I know you are able to look past the brand to the actual car (a pragmatic and logical view), but most won’t and that’s the problem.  As for Tiger, that sponsorship deal ended a few weeks ago.

Having said that, I admit I have no idea what the name should be.  Nothing they have now does it, and it would be daunting to start a new one.  It’s just another corner they’ve backed themselves into.

[Honda Owner]

For what it is worth, I see a resurgent US auto industry, if this is possible, with a merger of Chrysler and GM.

Chevrolet: Cruz, Malibu, Astra, Corsa, Caravan.

Cadillac: Luxury stuff.

GMC: Trucks, SUVs.

Jeep: Wrangler.

Any way you look at the equation, there are going to be many, many plants close, at least thirty in North America.

[Mitlov]

Mitlov, I agree with you 100% that there needs to be a car between Chevy and Cadillac, but I agree with the others that it shouldn’t be named Buick.  No matter how good a car they build, the name is synonymous with very old people, and younger generations won’t give it a look, even when they get old too.  I know you are able to look past the brand to the actual car (a pragmatic and logical view), but most won’t and that’s the problem.  As for Tiger, that sponsorship deal ended a few weeks ago.

Having said that, I admit I have no idea what the name should be.  Nothing they have now does it, and it would be daunting to start a new one.  It’s just another corner they’ve backed themselves into.

Here's another idea.  Call the new cars "Opels" (pretty neat name, huh?  I thought of it myself) and instead of shutting down Buick dealerships and Saturn dealerships, require that both dealerships change their name to "Opel."  Don't sell stripper models that would compete directly with Chevy.  

For half of consumers, the name would be a clean slate.  For the other half, they'd either know "it's some sort of German brand" or "ooh, they make nice cars."  Build the cars here in North America, but to Opel specifications in terms of suspension tuning, bodywork, and interior design and materials.  Offer the above-mentioned direct-inject i4 and v6 where applicable, as well as the more North-America-friendly engine options from Europe (i.e., no 1.6 liter naturally-aspirated fours in midsize sedans).

[Honda Owner]

Buick dealerships and Saturn dealerships, require that both dealerships change their name to "Opel."

GM tired that in the 1970s with the Buick-Opel and it was complete failure. They tried it recently with Saturn and then, yet again, started competing with itself by offering the same models at other GM stores.

GM needs to close at least half of its stores and factories if it has any hope of survival.

[ArticSteve]

It is a Canadian base forum, if you quoting US # state that

Is that the best ya got ?   Those were very insightful sales figures you posted to analyze sales data between the competing brands in an effort to support Mitlov's claim that: the new Malibu, and I'm seeing it all over the place (in the USA ) 

But, Mitlov certainly appreciated it. 

Thank you for some real numbers, AirBalancer.   


Yes we'd hate to start the convention with out our most prominent member.   

and I do appreciate that, sincerely. 

[Ex-airbalancer]

Just stating the facts
I see a lot of Malibu down here

[barrie1]

We see alot of Buicks being driven by youg folks in my area as well as the Malibu's of course. I see the CTS is the highest retail selling used car in the Kelley Bluebook for Used cars. They seem to retain a great protion of their value year after year. Much higher then Toyota for that matter. 

[Honda Owner]

Barrie, you are totally wrong, as usual. The best retained value brands are:

1       Infiniti G37   Coupe sport   
2.   Jeep Wrangler   Sahara (2-door)
3.   BMW 3 Series   328i convertible
4.   Toyota Tacoma   Double-cab PreRunner V-6
5.   Porsche 911   Carrera coupe
6.   Honda Civic   Si sedan   
7.   Mini Cooper   S convertible
8.   Ford Mustang   GT Premium coupe
9.   Honda CR-V   EX   
10.   Subaru Impreza   2.5i sedan   

Where is GM?

A 2005 CTS has a resale value of $12,290 - $13,260. It sold new in 2005 for $45,000. Do you really consider this good resale?

[Allen]

Caddies are known to have one of the worst retained vlaues of premium cars

[DockMan]

I had a buick regal GS back in the day. Nice and quick with the supercharged engine. Drove like a ferry boat though. I took so much flack from the guys at work for driving a buick. "Nice Car, Got a Werther's for me Grandpa?", "Hey, My Dad has a regal". There is quite the stigma attached to it.

[toolatecrew]

I had a buick regal GS back in the day. Nice and quick with the supercharged engine. Drove like a ferry boat though. I took so much flack from the guys at work for driving a buick. "Nice Car, Got a Werther's for me Grandpa?", "Hey, My Dad has a regal". There is quite the stigma attached to it.

But now is the perfect time to embark on an expensive and long transformation to remove the stigma that the Buick brand has maintained for more than a decade right?

I mean why focus in on 2 sucesseful well known top selling brands like Cehv and Caddy when you can spend time effort and $ trying to change the image of the lowest selling brand in your stable right?

[safristi]

Dockman nice Circa 1900 knickers...................

[Mitlov]

Caddies are known to have one of the worst retained vlaues of premium cars

And if that continues to hold true, the second-gen CTS is going to be a smoking good used deal 

Anyway, after reflecting that roughly half of Lexus's models are tarted-up Toyotas, I agree that GM could put all of these models under the Cadillac brand, eliminating the need for a third brand.  Heck, Caddy's already starting down this route.  Of course there's always the Escalade, but now the second-generation SRX will be based on the new Vue (Opel Antara), not the CTS like the first-gen was.

So I think GM should keep this interior and these drivetrains, but sell it as the second-gen Cadillac BLS.