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10 Reasons Buick And GMC Are On Cruise Control Right Now

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#1 ·
10 Reasons Buick And GMC Are On Cruise Control Right Now
Forbes.com
Dale Buss
9/01/2014

The feel-good automotive story of the year is emerging from the unlikeliest of brands at the unlikeliest of companies. Buick and GMC are keeping General Motors' GM +0.35% head above water and providing the only solid performances as the company endures an annus horribilis over the recall fiasco.

When GM reports sales this week, look for Buick and GMC to continue to lead its charts. Buick sales were up a robust 12 percent for the year through July, while GMC sales rose 8 percent for the year. They’re the only GM brands in the United States that are managed together.

“We’ve got a wonderful convergence of elements right now, all working together — and hence, our sales gains,” Tony DiSalle, marketing vice president for Buick and GMC, told me.

Meanwhile, other GM brand-management teams have been struggling. Chevrolet sales were up by only 2 percent for the year through July, which is actually pretty good considering that the Chevy brand and products have taken the brunt of blame in the 54 separate recall campaigns that have affected as many as 26 million GM vehicles this year. The biggest focus of the ugliest chapter in this saga, the ignition-switch recalls, has been the now-defunct Chevrolet Cobalt.

Continues at link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/dalebus...on-cruise-control-right-now/?partner=yahootix
 
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#2 ·
The article makes it sound like there are stand alone Buick-GMC dealers, are there really many of them? I haven't seen any. They also make it sound like they know how much Buick and GMC contribute to the bottom line, I don't think anyone but GM knows that and they don't tell anyone.....

And not to be negative, but I wonder how much has to do with the market overall being up, though impossible to know. But overall they both have a great lineup, so I suspect having a good lineup in a good market makes for a winning combination.
 
#3 ·
Buick is GM's welfare division - babies from different daddies and not a coherent strategy as to what it is. If the division were to be just Opel with a rebadge, that would be just fine - but the rest of the ugly step sisters by other divisions are a mess - they are bloated and dumpy with interiors assembled by throwing everything that is available and nothing works. And that Urano is just a disaster - it is hideous - chrome eyelashes and other gimmicks from the JC Whitney catalog just distract. The Buick AMC Encore is really awful - it is not roomy and it seems like a Korean Buick. The Enclave is a dinosaur from a different era and really needs to be replaced by the new Chinese mid-sized one. Then the Enclave needs to be redesigned into something that doesn't look so lumpy.
 
#7 ·
Thanks - yes, that is what I'm talking about. Once you have the normal Chevy, Buick, GMC & Cadillac dealer is a Cadillac buyer going to have any better of an experience than a Chevy buyer? Other than my dealer making a few pricing "mistakes" I had a nice experience at my dealer when buying by ATS, but I don't see anything that was any different than the person buying a Spark right next to me. Not sure if I have better access to loaner cars, etc. though. One was offered to me while I was getting an oil change.
 
#6 ·
Locally, we have a Buick-GMC dealer which has been around a long time. That's common. We also have a Chevy-Buick dealership not too far away which seems like an odd combo.

Buick is moving in the right direction and the Cascadia should boost it's image. GMC has been a bit neglected IMO. Yes, they're doing well but I think they have close to Jeep brand potential.

It's a bit ironic considering many folk advocated for the New GM to be only Chevy-Cadillac.
 
#8 ·
Yes, they're doing well but I think they have close to Jeep brand potential.
I agree. So does anyone know what, if any, kind of new product GMC is getting, or has planned, beyond product refreshes?
 
#10 ·
Around Cleveland, OH there are several Buick-GMC dealerships. They either used to be Pontiac, Pontiac-GMC, or Buick alone. Most are middle of the road in terms of age, size, modern amenities, etc. Not embarassing but not the large lavish dealerships that have become popular in the past couple decades.
 
#11 ·
We used to have an Olds/Cadillac/GMC dealer here that did very well. Ironically, when GM bought him out and closed Olds, he bought a Honda franchise (with GM's money). Then, when GM moved his GMC franchise down the road to the Buick dealer, he closed the Cadillac shop, and became a Mazda dealer. GM lost a great dealer in those consolidations.

The Buick/GMC dealer down the road was pretty well-regarded, but now they have been purchased by the Chevy dealer who is not well-regarded. Instead of 3 GM dealers, where 2 were very good to excellent, you now have 2 stores that are mediocre at best, and no one selling Cadillacs. So, count me as one who's not a huge fan of this whole channel commonization thing...
 
#12 ·
Buick has MOJO--Chevy/Cadillac do not. It also doesn't help Cadillac that they are in many cases paired up with Chevrolet. It's almost like Hyundai selling the Elantra and the Equos on the same floor... You can't sell Cadillac with Chevy or any other GM brand in my opinion.
 
#13 ·
Big Buick/GMC dealership here is brand spankin' new. Very nice.
They bought an old Pontiac/Buick/GMC/Cadillac dealership and tore it down.

Cadillac dealership is also new, stand alone. Dealer sells Subaru/Volvo in a separate building.
 
#15 · (Edited)
The Buick/GMC stores around here are stand alone dealerships... My buddy's store just had their building updated to the current GM/Buick/GMC specs and it looks fantastic! That store always did well in its location, back to when it was an Oldsmobile/Pontiac dealership when it opened in the 1960's.

Ironically, they bought the rights to the Buick franchise from an automall in the mid-1990's, where it was sold alongside Chevrolets, but didn't do well. Buick generated a tidy profit for them almost immediately in their location, and continues to do well today. They added GMC at the time, at the request of GM, which turned out to be a goldmine for their location with the popularity of trucks and suv's in the late 1990's all the way through to today. Pontiacs continued to be their best sellers until the brand's demise, but GMC sales paid the bills and then some...
 
#41 ·
I agree, and that is how it was drawn up, all 3 brands under one roof, each with 3 or 4 non-equivalent models.

..........................imagine if Chevy was allowed to sell upper end products in the Buick/GMC level (like ford/Chrysler do) and then would Chevy be "flat"?
I believe Part of Chevy and Caddy's "issues" is having to PROTECT Buick/GMC's sales performance and EX chevy having to "forgo" features offered on the competition so GMC can have "some" of them IE auto 4WD on the Colorado and a "premium" engine in the Cruze
As good as Buick/GMC is for GM, its not without a down-side, you can bet if Buick/GMC didn't exist, Chevrolet and Cadillac would have some of the products so obviously missing from their offerings.


GM is under utilizing the Denali brand by playing safe. Denali could bring in lots of dough if they gave it some more upscale product
Because a Yukon XL Denali starting at $69,375 is too cheap!? What are you then going to give GMC, that you are not giving to Cadillac, its a zero sum game, things that bolster Buick/GMC are some of the same things that are holding Chevrolet and Cadillac back.

-----------------------

Regarding both GMC and Buick being up this year, most of it boils down to 2 things; a much better supply of Encore's, which has not restricted sales like it did in 2013, and the new ugly Silverado lost some sales to the less-ugly Sierra.
 
#18 ·
This article is a poster child for why you need to be careful about speaking in percentages.

Chevrolet delivered 3x the vehicles of Buick and GMC in July. An 8% increase in Chevrolet sales is a much bigger number than in Buick sales. These numbers also don't account for new model releases when compared to last year. The old Yukon had been around a while and a lot of people went from the old one to the new right off the bat.
 
#19 · (Edited)
where I live there is a Chevy dealer and across the street there is Buick/GMC/Caddy both of the dealers are about the same size and look to do similar business judging by crowds when there and out towards my friends farm there is a rural Pontiac/Buick/GMC dealer that HAD to PICK UP Chevy to stay open and is strong NOW because of Chevy
on the Other side of town there is a "truck centre" / Chevy dealer and the "truck centre" sells GMC 2 to 1 on ANY other brand according to the sales rep

and people were campaigning for GM to get rid of Buick and GMC.
imagine if Chevy was allowed to sell upper end products in the Buick/GMC level (like ford/Chrysler do) and then would Chevy be "flat"?
I believe Part of Chevy and Caddy's "issues" is having to PROTECT Buick/GMC's sales performance and EX chevy having to "forgo" features offered on the competition so GMC can have "some" of them IE auto 4WD on the Colorado and a "premium" engine in the Cruze
 
#28 ·
imagine if Chevy was allowed to sell upper end products in the Buick/GMC level (like ford/Chrysler do) and then would Chevy be "flat"?
I believe Part of Chevy and Caddy's "issues" is having to PROTECT Buick/GMC's sales performance and EX chevy having to "forgo" features offered on the competition so GMC can have "some" of them IE auto 4WD on the Colorado and a "premium" engine in the Cruze
What you are stating here is part of the GM self imposed nonsense, where they limit certain brands to protect others... That is, Chevy and Cadillac don't really have to limit their offerings to create a "false" mid-range sales channel. It follows the ridiculous, albeit prevalent within the RenCen, idea that Chevrolet, Buick/GMC, and Cadillac buyers are all the same people. That if they don't buy a Chevrolet, they'll buy a GMC instead, or if not a Cadillac, they'll buy a Buick. It's a truly absurd notion...

When GM was in its heyday (Post WWII-1972), they let the Divisions go at it, offer most anything they wanted, and in turn this caused a lot of internal competition that was very good for the company and the consumers. Though the landscape is different now with so many other offerings in the U.S. mainstream market, GM would be wise to allow the Divisions be run as such and cause more internal competition. Let a Chevrolet be all that it can be, or a Buick. The market will ultimately decide whether a $30k Cruze or a $45-$50k Riviera is viable.

Stop hamstringing yourself and the company will ultimately grow. Buick & GMC will have no problem in the general marketplace if Chevrolet and Cadillac expanded their offerings, both models and feature-wise. They simply attract a different clientele altogether...
 
#22 ·
I think they have the Denali design / features / price pegged just right Don't want to be more on top of Cadillac than it already is. GMC sells a ton of them right now and I wouldn't mess with the formula.
Dallas not a hot bed of domestics and GM in particular but GMC / Buick are the exception. Enclaves, Sierra, Acadia and Yukon Denalis are everywhere. Even Terrain is strong here.
 
#24 ·
IMHO the LAST thing GM needs to do is create MORE NICHE products and requiring MORE "protection" from the BRAND that will ALWAYS OUTSELL it not to mention the increase in R/D costs and marketing costs along with LOWER chevy sales to offset there badly needed Engineering
I believe right now GM has to many brands lined up in a "ladder" system and Buick/GMC "A" need to find there OWN niche and allow Chevy to offer there own TAKE on Denalli/Platinum
and ONLY then will Chevy and GM CO start actually getting bigger/better
 
#23 ·
The Buick/GMC dealers are fairly common around here. One family dealer in particular has had an interesting history. Originally it was just Pontiac going back to around the 1950's (maybe earlier). The sometime in the 1970's it added GMC. In the early 1980's it added a Subaru franchise. The dealer then wanted to add Buick in the 1990's, but GM said no unless they sold their Subaru franchise. The dealer complied, and it moved across the freeway. Then GM killed Pontiac and the dealer was down to Buick/GMC so now it added a Kia franchise but is not in the same building (down the freeway frontage a bit).
 
#26 ·
It is.... unfortunately the 'other' "10" reasons that under pin the story both happy and ..... sad.

As in - we will throw away xxx xxxxxx to hit that bankster subscribed "10 %".
 
#37 ·
GM shouldn't and probably can't fill all product niches, just because another brand sells something successfully, like the Toyota truck pictured above, doesn't mean GM should or even can sell the same.

Look at Toyota and Nissan trying to penetrate the large truck segment, they have failed though they had credible entries. Honda hasn't even tried fielding a real truck and same with all other brands. Many other brands have tried to compete in the Prius segment, but so far no other brand has done all that well to make a dent in the Prius lineup. Maybach couldn't crack the uber-luxury segment and so on....

I'm not saying that GM shouldn't explore new segments, such as a GMC Grand Cherokee equivalent, etc., but just because GM can build something doesn't mean they should, and just because they can build a credible competitor doesn't mean people will buy it. Why buy a GMC Jeep knock-off when you can buy the real thing? Cracking a new segment isn't all that easy, GM doesn't have infinite resources so they must pick and choose very carefully what new segments they wish to enter. Right now they are focusing their resources on Cadillac cracking the modern luxury segment.
 
#43 ·
Maybach was botched, it was clearly an S Class. GM has the Volt, if they stay the course and follow through with improvements, the Volt is going to be formidably in 4 generations. The Prius is in its what generation now? 5th? I think... or 4th.. so its a matter of not thinking you can build Rome in one day.

As for the Japanese trying to play in trucks, they simply do not have the resources and the engineering muscle to play in the segment. If Toyota took all the engineers and money that any of the Detroit folks pour into trucks, their balance sheet would not look nearly as Rosy.

so in many ways we are saying the same thing, you do not need to increase brands, they have Holden, Vauxhall, Opel and other brands that are not in North America. Its a question of looking where you can play and play well in the segment.

Its a question of looking carefully at segments they can go into with relative low cost and make some money, and if they are low volume, well, do the costing of the entire program on a global basis, not regional. Why else do they have super computers if not for this sort of thing?
 
#40 ·
#46 ·
Buick-GMC dealers are definitely a normal thing; there are many of them in Michigan. Notably, several of the ones I am aware of were originally Oldsmobile dealers, then Olds-GMC, followed by Pontiac-Buick-GMC, and now just Buick-GMC.
 
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