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I should go into a Toyota dealer to endure the humiliation because the salesman is doing me such a big favor selling me a Camry? I don't think so!
Heck, I could care less if the LaCrosse had absolutely no resale value whatsoever. Cars are NOT investments. We are extremely happy with the Buick.
Rocky
Rocky
Most likely fleet cars being sold. Just a guess. They may sell SUVs here, but most of the cars are rentals. The Caddy dealership has like 21 SAABs. It is something to behold. I had no idea they sold that many - 21 cars - in all of California :surprise:
Maybe some good deals on lease cars coming up in a few months. Will be really interesting to see how the New, well sorta New GM cars do come one to two years resale wise. My old rule was buy domestic used and Japan makes new. But I did buy a new one. And currently, I have a Chrysler, you know the German company.
-Loren
Rocky
Sorry to report that the Buick doesn't seem to have beaten any other car, in any test is many years. If ya find a link to a side by side comparison test in-which Buick came out on top, please post it here. Should be something over the last decade or so.
The 1994 Riviera was pretty cool looking. The LaCrosse is kinda nice in a way. Has the Jag. thing with the lines following the front lamp area. Kinda a smooth look and with some traditional Buick to it. Lucerne may not be a bad deal with a V8. Depends on how soon the LaCrosse gets to $15K and the Lucerne to $20K, as great used deals.
As far as conformity goes, it is all General. If you want an upstart company, with some new cars, and lots more on the way, look into Hyundai. No, I did not say for everyone to run out and buy one, but at least look into and research something new. Heck, the all wheel drive, boxer engine cars of Subaru are for the non-conformist. Those babies must do well on snow. And then there is SAAB, oh saab.
There is something unique, as in few on the road.
How about those 1993, or 1995 Rivieras? Couple interesting styles. I think it was the '64 which was interesting too. I like the family '62 LeSabre,,, or was that '61? Anyway, you could always get an Avanti and have something non-conformist.
The Buicks are fine -- enjoy!
:shades: Loren
The newer cars from GM are doing the styling change in the right way. I like the laCrosse. One parked next to me in a parking garage replacing the XXX Mercedes that was parked there. They both were silver. I couldn't see difference on the park visible through the right hand window.
The Lucerne is a great looker. It's attracting people to look and breaking the perception lockstep of those who haven't driven or shopped GM in years.
Yes styling is working.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Loren,
you crack me up, you really do. I'm glad you own an AMERICAN CAR, the only thing GERMAN about Chrysler is the Mercedes half. Well I suppose some of the parts do come off the Mercedes Shelf. Hey I do like some Chryslers, actually more so than Fords. If Chrysler build the Imperial Concept I'd be very interested in it. God only knows how much they're going to want for that puppy. :shades:
Neways what kind of Chrysler do you own ?
Also getting Saabs cheap on leases will perhaps happen. You can lease a pretty much standard 9-3 pretty cheap right now.
Rocky
Rocky
Rocky
http://www.buick.com/promo/usatoday_promo.jsp
http://www.buick.com/lucerne/index.jsp
Here's the article from the USA Today just to show you I'm not making this up
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/reviews/healey/2006-01-26-lucerne_x.htm
Rocky :P
I was shocked to find no Lucerne cars at Safeway however. Only thing in the dairy was milk products which said Lucerne. I may have to contact Safeway to see why the cars are missing.
Now, again, the question was car reviews, even those of newspapers may do, having the side-by-side testing done, with Buicks winning -- where do we find those?
I will agree what you do NOT need to win a car review to be providing the customer an automobile which fills a particular need. This is true. Since the Camry and Accords seem to be attacked on a regular basis as somehow inferior, I am just looking for some sort of data which proves the point. I check several sources for reliability data, then the road test reports, then go out a drive the car myself. I get the final say ya know.
-Loren
About the Lacrosse...IMO it is the product of new employment for the stylist of the 96 Taurus. I much prefer the Lucerne.
The only negative comments are that the V6 is not as powerful as the Avalon V6 and gas mileage. Other than that he loved it. He comments that the Buick has a 4 speed but is smoother shifting than the Avalons 5 speed.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/reviews/healey/2006-01-26-lucerne_x.htm
If you feel I am biasing how I read the article and you are not please point out the bias I have.
It's a good looking car with some respectable outside/exterior build quality.
The interior was still lacking a bit (though not cheap) from what I could see, I'd give the outside a 7.5 or 8 out of 10, and the inside a 6 or 6.5 out of 10.
I saw a Ford 500 and a 2006 Accord drive by me on the freeway at the same time, and guess what, the Ford 500 has noticeably large gaps between the trunk lid and the sides and top of rear bumber. I'm talking some serious space and gap. The Accord, it looked so tightly fit to close tolerances that the metal must be touching that plastic bumper (dead nuts as they say).
It struck me after a recent trip to the Midwest how insanely low of a market share the domestics have in the New York City area (and I suspect it's much the same story up and down the East and West coasts).
Sure, you'll see a lot of trucks and Burbans and Escalades and so on, but beyond that, I'm actually almost startled when I spot a new domestic. I might see a Malibu Maxx or a Cobalt or a Mustang once in a while, but in addition to the LaCrosse, I've never seen a G6, a Milan, a Lucerne, a Crossfire, a Ford 500, a CTS, or any other of the "hot" domestics.
I can't see the domestics reversing their downward sales spiral until they do something to capture some buzz in those markets, and that is probably a really tall order at this point.
No, they're not investments, but apparently there are a lot of people who prefer a slower rate of depreciation to a rapid one.
I actually agreed with a lot of your points in your "Buying American" post -- the cars have come a long way in terms of performance, reliability, and even looks. But the poor resale value is going to make a lot of savvy shoppers think twice.
The Lucerne is derivative in a much classier way.
Who was responsible for the Aztek, anyway?
I dunno, but it's one of the ugliest cars ever made.
Rocky
He consulted on the design of the scion B.
There is another car I've seen that must have had the same designer but it was a foreign brand so people probably think it looks okay. The Aztek is odd but actually is practical.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
He's been exiled to a deserted island!
So is a Yugo.
I want that guy's job. You can pen the biggest screwup in modern automobile-dom, and still come out ahead!
Then again, I don't know whether to blame the obviously blind designer, or the committee of overpaid underworked suits who approved it. But someone should have faced some serious fire.
As for gas mileage, it can become important at a certain price on gas; say $3.50 a gallon -- oh no, we have passed that already!
-Loren
Really the Lucerne rendition of the DTS is pretty well done.
-Loren
Top talent is fleeing the Big Three to escape declining morale and shaky prospects
Generous Motors it isn't. Not anymore. Just ask the several hundred General Motors Corp. (GM ) managers who were fired on Mar. 28. They were each taken aside and given a severance package, told to surrender their keys and badges, and allowed a month to turn in their cars. And while the hundreds of layoffs didn't amount to the "Black Tuesday" many managers expected, GM is just getting started. It plans many more such job cuts this year.
No sir, life in Motown isn't much fun these days. The rank and file of the United Auto Workers may be trembling in their steel-toed boots as GM and Ford Motor Co. (F ) gear up to impose tough new contracts and layoffs. But in the design studios, engineering labs, and corporate offices, the companies' white-collar professionals are experiencing the same kind of anxiety, gloom, and resignation as their blue-collar brothers and sisters.
GM Chairman G. Richard Wagoner and Ford Chairman William Clay "Bill" Ford Jr. exhort underlings to get jazzed about turning their companies around. But the troops are finding it hard to stay pumped. Executives get excited about new car projects only to watch them die before they get out of the studio. Middle managers find themselves reporting to a revolving roster of bosses. Pay, benefits, and perks aren't what they were.
And because the companies are erasing layers of management, the opportunities for advancement are dwindling. Many industry professionals believe the tough medicine will help their companies, but the turmoil is enough to wear down even the most determined optimist. "It's bad news after bad news," says a GM engineer. "It's not going to end anytime soon."
RESUMES ARE FLYING
Is it any wonder that more and more Ford and GM executives are thinking about hitting the road? Headhunters report a steady flow of résumés from top Motown managers. "Not a week goes by without a Detroit executive telling me: 'If you see something outside the industry, I'd love to look at it,"' says Brad Marion, who runs the auto practice at executive search firm Korn/Ferry International (KFY ).
Detroit's carmakers -- even relatively healthy Chrysler Group (DCX ) -- are already losing key talent. Ford lost its hybrid chief, Mary Ann Wright, to auto parts maker Collins & Aikman Corp. (CKC ) Levi Strauss & Co. snagged GM's chief financial officer for North America, Mary Boland. Dell Inc. (DELL ) got the auto maker's top quality officer, Annette Clayton. And Chrysler marketing whiz Julie Roehm fled to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ). "If people at that level are leaving," says a GM product developer, "how bad are things going to get?"
It's hard to tell how worried Detroit should be. Kathleen S. Barclay, GM's vice-president of human resources, says they have no trouble filling the jobs. She adds that those who stay are undeterred, even energized, by the challenges. The auto makers also say turnover isn't much higher than usual. Still, one Ford executive concedes "if this keeps happening, the talent pool will get pretty shallow."
How things have changed since Detroit's heyday. The Big Three had their pick of the brightest stars. Just five years ago GM and Ford were cherry-picking talent -- swiping hot stylists from European carmakers and marketing bigs from the likes of Procter & Gamble Co. (PG ) and General Electric Co. (GE ).
Back in the day, Detroit also could afford to pay for its employees' loyalty: fat bonuses, union-caliber bennies, and a virtual guarantee of lifetime employment. It wasn't uncommon for Detroit professionals to stick around for 40 years. Or to find their sons and daughters climbing the ranks right behind them. That's Mary Ann Wright's story. "Ford took care of our family," says Wright, whose father was a Ford engineer. "I thought, 'God, I'm supposed to work for Ford forever."'
Wright found huge satisfaction taking the Escape hybrid sport-utility vehicle from lab to showroom. And she was geared up to roll out a fleet of hybrids by 2010. But budget cuts and management churn meant "we weren't getting anything done." Wright also endured constant sniping that hybrids were a waste of time. In September a colleague sent an e-mail essentially asking: Why bother?
Soon after, Wright told Bill Ford she was quitting. He asked her to stay, but she was adamant. "When you're not having fun," Wright says, "it's time to go." She resurfaced in February as Collins & Aikman's vice-president of sales and program management. Her new employer is a fraction of Ford's size and struggling to emerge from bankruptcy. But there are compensations; including bonus, Wright, 43, could make more than $600,000, possibly double her take at Ford.
For executives overseeing the wholesale downsizing at GM, going to work can be especially draining. As the company's CFO for North America, Mary Boland spent her days scouring financial data, looking for ways to slash costs. That included figuring out which plants to close and dealing with the knowledge that these decisions had real-life consequences for families and communities. "It has been many years of downsizing at GM, but the last couple of years took its toll [on me] physically and mentally," Boland says. "I want to give 110%, but I felt I couldn't keep up the pace."
Yet she found it hard tearing herself away from an industry that had also employed her father for decades as a tool-and-die maker. Before becoming CFO in 2004, Boland, now 48, had worked at the company for a quarter-century. Finally, though, her family nudged her into taking the CFO job at Levi's.
"A PRETTY DEPRESSING PLACE"
When she finally took the plunge, Boland says, it was a big weight off her shoulders. Levi Strauss has completed its downsizing, having shifted its manufacturing offshore a few years ago. Now the company is looking for ways to grow rather than shrink.
Like Wright, Boland got a pretty decent package. She wouldn't give numbers, but says she got "a significant raise" to take the same job she had at GM. And every morning she wakes up in the tony San Francisco suburb of Tiburon, where she sips coffee and looks out over San Francisco Bay. Her morning commute takes her across the Golden Gate Bridge, a far cry from her old drive on Detroit's potholed John C. Lodge freeway. Says Boland: "Southeast Michigan is a pretty depressing place to be right now."
Detroit's rivals are only too aware of that, and they are taking advantage of the Motown malaise. The Japanese and Korean transplants are expanding, grabbing market share, and paying good salaries. So it's easy to see why Detroit professionals are going to work for the competition.
One is Joel T. Piaskowski. He's only 38, but he's the guy who designed the Buick Lucerne, one of GM's successful new models. Three years ago, Piaskowski quit GM and went to work for Hyundai Motor Co. in sunny Irvine, Calif. Today he's Hyu
That said, 20mpg isn't bad for a Northstar engine. It's a slightly detuned, slightly less plush DTS for **10K LESS**.
The CXS model is very very nice. Handles like a dream. Completely like a Caddy and nothing like any "Buick" you've ever driven in the last two decades other than maybe a Grand National.
FYI - the magnetic/whatever they call it suspension is GM's version of the X-Reas suspension Toyota uses in the 4-Runner. It makes the car handle like it lost a thousand pounds in turns compared to the base model. Nearly zero body lean. Torque-steer evaporates. Lurching from the power when you whomp on it - barely there.
Go test drive the top-end model with the better suspension. It's a totally differnet car. It really did remind me of a mid-90's Mercedes S class. Big, solid, and smooth. Loads of power and perfect gearing(FINALLY!). Lucerne CXS? S420? I honestly did a double-take as I'd test-drove an older Benz the week before. Both wer eblack, both had about the same power and torque, and both rode beautifully.
For $20K used, in a year or two, it's high on my "next car" list. I suspect that a Buick will also cost a *tad* less to maintain compared to a previous generation S-Class.
It's called Magneride and yes it Toyota that has tried to copy it but failed. Magneride is the "worlds fastest suspension" well right next to the BOSE one that hasn't seen production. My Caddy STS had the magneride and yes we agree it's da best !
Rocky
P.S. Ferrari baught the Magneride for the Ferrari 599 GTB
Rocky
Rocky
Rocky
They'd better stick to motorcycles. :P
and rides like a buick. Fun to drive - not; any hint of sportiness is surgically removed except for SI. I guess Mazda the new Honda of old.
Rocky
Rocky
In my 1993 there is a computer controlled suspension described in the service manual for Park AVenue.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Is it a Magneride, but I don't think Magneride came out until the late 90's :confuse:
Rocky
P.S.
imidazol97, lemme know as much detail pal. I'm interested in it. I've never heard of that. I was under the impression only gas charged shocks were part of the package for the Bonneville SSEi, Cadillac's, and later 95' Buick Riveria. My 92' Bonneville had a air compressor in the trunk which I used to inflate lake floating devices since I gre up on a lake.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060504/BUSINESS01/605040409/10- 14
Rocky
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060503/BUSINESS01/605030421/10- 14
Rocky
Supplier to continue negotiations on labor costs
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060502/BUSINESS01/605020320/10- 14
Rocky