Buick No Longer Taking Backseat to Opel

Edmunds.com

Buick No Longer Taking Backseat to Opel

Buick will have a voice in vehicle development instead of taking a back seat to Opel, according to a new GM strategy set for implementation in about two years.

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jeffinoh

GM promised to send Opels here as Saturns. Then Saturn was gone. Pontiac headed in the direction of Holden's sleeker lines, then it was gone. Buick considered bringing great cars like the GTC and the Insignia wagon here, but chickened out. Buick is still here. I don't like it, but Buick is committed to plump, chromy luxo-barges with big toothy grilles. Their best cars don't really play to American tastes. So be it.

bsegalis

I've voiced this opinion a million times before and I will say it again. What's holding back Buick is first and foremost its name.

Opels are great cars by American standards. Now that Ford is selling more European-derived models here (new Fusion and Focus) it's not such a bad thing to be equivalent to Ford.

But if Ford tried to sell Fusion and Focus under the now defunct Mercury brand, they would not sell. Same for Buick. The consumer targeted by Buick's re-badged Opels is not the consumer that would be caught driving a Buick. The targeted audience does even consider Buick as an option in their car shopping experience. Whatever GM commercials may say, consumers do not cross-shop Buick against premium brands.

The solution is right in front of you, GM. You got half of it right. Drop the Buick name and replace it with Opel in the U.S., then you have a good car and an established European name untarnished by Buick and its decades of derivative poor-quality cars. If GM has to keep reminding everyone that Buick is actually an Opel, you gotta ask why. It's like "the Caddilac that zigs" commercials for Catera. If you have to argue this car is not what it appears to be, it means that you don't believe in the brand and neither will the consumers.

There is zero good will in that brand. Not clear why GM is holding on to it.

joe_scuba

Buick has dropped to a overpriced opel or chevy. No top end model any more sad way to run a company