The Truly Global GM: One and a Half Years Later

[Ming]

Nice to have some back-up Cliveh (ha), and welcome to GMI!

Buick's sales were seriously down last month (February), and I think something drastic is in order. Buick is like an old man on his death bed yearning for a transfusion of young blood. Even the awesome looking Enclave will be hard pressed to fix the bind Buick is in when the Acadia will be on sale on the same BPG lots. I think an inexpensive "barely lux" car for Buick is just the ticket, but it goes against what's been the "stay the course" mentality for Buick for so long that my idea is bound to ruffle some feathers. And the Korean origin is sure to make some neck veins pop.

Besides, most enthusiasts here would rather see the return of something big and charismatic like the Grand National, but a niche car like that might just turn out to be the last hurrah for the brand as it slips further into Mercury like irrelevancy. Remember the Marauder... Sometimes I think there would be people that would want just that --- "Buick can die an honorable death and I can buy my new Grand National while preserving good memories of the Buick of yesteryear."

My solution is the anti-nostalgia choice. And maybe it too would fail, but at least Buick would have tried something radical. Add to the Tosca this other possibility:

[Elk]

I got a better plan. Let’s replace Saturn’s line up with these Daewoo’s everybody thinks are so great and use the money saved to give Buick a Epsilon based car with a Lexus level interior.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by Elk

I got a better plan. Let’s replace Saturn’s line up with these Daewoo’s everybody thinks are so great and use the money saved to give Buick a Epsilon based car with a Lexus level interior.

Aside from being generally bitter and sarcastic, I don't see your point. Replace the word Daewoo with Opel in your sentence and it makes more sense, but I'm sure you know they're already doing that to an extent.

In the end, a little dig here at the Daewoos isn't helping GM or Buick any. When was the last time you saw a Buick that differed vastly from any of its GM-Detroit stablemates Chevy & Pontiac making a "Lexus Like" (current, not 5 years ago) interior? I'm trying to think of one.

Terraza? LeSabre? Rainier? LaCrosse? Lucerne might be a good example, but just the fact that they cut the Bonneville shouldn't count in its favor - if the Bonnie was still around I'd bet it would be very similar in quality to the Buick offering.

I'm not saying it can't be done. I don't trust that it would be done. Burn me twice, that kind of thing. To your and my frustration, GM in Detroit always seems to cut corners when it comes to Buick, at least during the product debut period. Look at the Rendezvous. What a cheeseball interior it had in the first year. The Enclave is great, but then GM sabotages its success by putting a mechanical twin in the GMC showroom next door.

Give GM execs the green light to Buick-ize the next Malibu and it will be disappointing. I can pretty much guarantee it based on what they've done up until now with Buick models.

The reason? The Detroit execs and beancounters who make these decisions must not drive Buicks, or must not care. They think they know what "Buick Buyers" want, and that means tweaking a Chevy or Pontiac a bit to make it look a bit more upscale.

Basically the Ford --> Mercury strategy that works so well (ahem).

For instance, the stunningly rich LaCrosse interior compared to the 2006 Impala. I'm just not seeing a huge reason for the Ep. II New Malibu Buick equivalent to exist except for nostalgia, status quo, and "its how its always been". Oh, and its cheap to do it that way.




Even an Enclave to Acadia comparison won't help if the Pontiac G6 gets an upgrade a year after the Buick Epsilon II comes out. Pontiac is sure to get something very similar, and like the Acadia, will be sold on the same lots as the Buick twin.

[Porkfriedrice]

hmm may not be the best place, but i just thought, all this money poured into a car like the new malibu, but whats it for? I understand America is a huge market and such, but i havnt heard any plans to export this model, and even if we do, it wont fit in with what we sell in the rest of the world (as chevys, which are predominitly daewoo sourced vehicles) and im not sure how you could fix that, because the face is also distictly (north american) Chevy. (in america we're getting chrome framed double ports, elsewheres its a chrome bar in an otherwise generic grill) How is this Global thinking?

[Ming]

I tend to agree on the Malibu. It seems to run counter to the "Global Chevrolet" initiative. Even the HHR is being exported to Chevrolet of Europe, but the Malibu? We'll see.

[Ming]

As for the Tosca, now that we know that Suzuki is bringing it over as the next Verona, obviously Buick can't just pull a re-grille job. So for now I'll table that idea. So how about the Taiwanese Excelle with the Euro IV emissions compliant Diesel engine going into the European Chevrolet Lacetti...?

[dygituljunky]

Excellent article, Ming.

One thing that can make globalization work and make brands work is to give, for example, the Tosca a very Buick face for sale as a base-level Buick.

I happen to agree that the Tosca's front-end is ugly, as is. But I also see the potential for the body/platform to provide a low cost profitable entry level Buick. Just as the W-bodies are re-shelled to create brand identity and create some distinction between products, the Tosca shell could be modified to produce a more Buick appearance.

I know that this solution adds cost, but so does trying to sell a design deemed by many to be ugly. Furthermore, it's costly in terms of brand identity to introduce a vehicle to the line which does not fit with the brand image.

--EDIT--

That Taiwanese Buick Excelle provides some very sexy design elements. It looks much better than the North American bubbly Buicks... Those design elements could be stretched across the brand, proviing a clear family image that actually looks good!

[Ming]

Originally Posted by dygituljunky

Excellent article, Ming.

One thing that can make globalization work and make brands work is to give, for example, the Tosca a very Buick face for sale as a base-level Buick.

Thanks dygituljunky. Now that Suzuki appears to be introducing the Tosca pretty much as-is with a new grille & "S" emblem, Buick would indeed need to give the Tosca the same kind of treatment that the Taiwanese gave the Excelle.