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I'll have to pay attention to the age of Verano drivers. They're selling a bunch so we should start seeing more of them on the road.
Here's a bit of age-related interesting reading...
http://blog.polk.com/blog/blog-posts-by-tom-libby/buick-goes-against-trend-and-a- ttracts-younger-buyers
Buyers ages are shifting with Boomers, as I suspected.
59 years old for the Verano. Young for Buick, but certainly not young buyers.
Wow, though, car buyers are geezin' - 51 average.
Now that I think about it, I think the Rendezvous was around 48. Dunno about the Rainier or Terraza. Back in those days, MSNautos used to list the average buyer age in the stats of their car reviews, and for some reason the Buick numbers stuck with me.
Makes sense that, overall, the average buyer age advanced along with the calendar, as that age group is likely to be the most financially "secure", if indeed that's the correct descriptor.
Lastly, all these numbers HAVE to be skewed.... If I Co-signed for/bought a car for my teenage son (that is, if I had a teenage son), I would guess the stats would show a 58 year old buying the car, not a 17 year old kid.
So, just like your GPS warns you, any analysis such as this needs to be given a "sanity check" before being taken at face value.
I wonder what the average age is for a car like the Veloster or Soul?
Might be surprising...
"Not your father's Oldsmobile" was one of the best-remembered bad slogans of the past thirty years. Dad's Oldsmobiles were far more interesting than Oldses of that period!
I always liked the slogan "Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick", and I also liked, "When Better Cars are Built, Buick Will Build Them".
As I recall, that one pissed off a lot of people, and could be considered the seeds of Oldsmobile's downfall. It alienated the faithful Oldsmobile buyers, while the new buyers that it did woo only wished the new ones were built as well as their Father's Oldsmobile!
I always liked the slogan "Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick", and I also liked, "When Better Cars are Built, Buick Will Build Them".
I liked "wouldn't you really rather have a Buick". It made the car seem like something to aspire to. And the ads tended to show people of all types, so it really didn't get typecast as an old people's car. However, when they switched to "The Great American Road Belongs to Buick" in the late 80's, I just get this mental image of an elderly couple cruising down the road into the sunset in an '88 Regal in a generic shade that matches the hair in Grandma's wig.
The old "Cadillac Style" ads were catchy and not offensive or stupid anyway.
Gentle ribbing, nothing more.
I found those highly illuminating of problems and makes me wonder how their posts can be so critical of a company they don't understand.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Didn't one of them actually give us "Not your father's Buick?" :shades:
Sad thing is, by the time GM pulled the plug on Oldsmobile, it looked like the marque was having a bit of a comeback. I thought the Aurora and Intrigue were pretty nice cars.
I LOVE both those slogans about Buick and often use them myself. Heck, my wife was talking about a co-worker's Lexus and she then said "I'd rather have a Buick!"
Well, that was Oldsmobile. Here's one of their ads for the Cutlass Ciera, featuring the Judds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-orYU4b1PE
Oddly enough "your Father's Oldsmobile" did just fine through most of the 1970's and up through 1985. In the early 70's it ousted Pontiac as the #3 brand in America (although Plymouth managed to hold that title twice...something like 1971 and 1973?). I think the managed 1M cars per year in 1977-79. And in the early 80's, Olds actually outsold Ford for a couple years!
In 1985, three of the top 10 selling cars in the United States were Oldsmobiles. They were the Cutlass Ciera (#4), Cutlass Supreme (#9), and the Delta 88 (forget its place). Chevrolet also had three (Cavalier, Celebrity, Caprice/Impala). Buick had one (Century). Ford had two (Escort, Tempo). The lone import in the Top Ten was the Nissan Sentra.
So, Olds really did have a good thing going, selling traditional cars that had broad appeal. But, they started messing it up in the later 80's. For one thing, the downsized '86 Olds 88 never sold nearly as well as the RWD model. The Cutlass Supreme was aging, and personal luxury coupes in general were fading from popularity. And, as time wore on the Ciera would fade away as well.
The Olds 98 and Toronado were traditionally strong sellers too, although they were more expensive and luxurious, and less mainstream. But, the shrunken '86 Toronado was a flop. The shrunken FWD 98 was popular for a few years, but then dried up fast. On the lower end, the Calais was fairly popular for awhile, but again, it just wouldn't last.
I think where GM really messed up was in reacting to the Ford Taurus. The Taurus/Sable came out in 1986, but it wasn't until 1990 that GM reacted, with the Lumina and 4-door Grand Prix/Regal/Cutlass Supreme. GM put a lot more effort into the coupe versions of these cars, which came out for 1988 (BOP, Chevy was absent until the '90 Lumina coupe), but catered to a shrinking market. And by the time the 4-doors came out, they just seemed like rush jobs. And, in the case of Olds (and Buick) they kept the old A-body Century and Ciera around well past their prime. These cars could do just about anything that a 4-door Regal or Cutlass Supreme could, but at a lower price. And, their styling was more in tune with what your typical midsized Olds/Buick buyer wanted. Not surprisingly, in final-year 1996, the Ciera and Century were among the most popular sellers of their respective brands. I'm pretty sure the Ciera WAS Oldmsobile's top seller that year, but at Buick it might have been the LeSabre. By this time, a lot of Centurys and Cieras were also getting dumped into rental fleets, but there were still a lot of buyers who wanted their budget Buicks and Oldsmobiles.
Not a huge deal, but I am pretty surprised that two regular posters here got something so basic about GM's history wrong. The Impala a Buick? That's got nothing to do with GM's branding image. It is probably the best-known model name (to most people) after Corvette and Suburban, and has been used for most of the past 54 years. That's somebody asleep at the wheel! And everybody knows it was 'not your father's Oldsmobile'--tells you how much these critics really even paid any attention to GM in the years that are probably criticized most roundly here.
I wonder, if there are two people's names on the title to the car, how they would factor in the buyer's age? For example, back when my Dad bought his '03 Regal, he put my name on the title as a co-owner. His reasoning was that it would simplify things in the event of his death, as the car would then go to me and probably never enter into probate. At that time, Dad was 57 and I was 33.
Funny, that's when my grandpa switched from Olds to Chevy. He didn't want a FWD v6 car and traded his '83 Delta 88 on an 87 Caprice Brougham LS.
Funny how some slogans stick, and others don't...
See the USA in your Chevrolet...
BMW...The ultimate driving machine...
Zoom, zoom...
Others, not so much.
Fortunately for me, I have a life outside of being a GM fanboy.
I call it as I see it.
You post pretty frequently to a GM board to make this statement.
Age = average of the two
LOL
I think a lot of people spurned those FWD cars. There was an older guy at our church who had an early 80's Buick Electra coupe. My grandparents really liked it, and were hating their '82 Malibu Classic wagon, with its anemic 229 V-6, with a passion.
So, they decided they wanted an Electra. Unfortunately, this was 1984, and the shrunken '85 FWD models had just come out, prematurely. Granddad hated it, and decided he'd better go get a LeSabre while he could, because he figured GM would soon screw that one up as well!
One Friday night in October 1984, they went out looking at Buicks. The first LeSabre they looked at was a nice medium blue one. It wouldn't start, which gave Grandmom a bad vibe. Probably just the battery, but she didn't want anything to do with it. So they looked at a gray one that fired right up. Bought it, and it turned out to be one of the best cars they ever owned.
Grandmom gave it to me when she had to give up driving back in 1999. I kept it until the brakes went out on it, in 2002. Would've been tempted to just get it fixed and keep it longer, but Mom was hinting about wanting to get rid of Granddad's old '85 Silverado, that got passed on to her. I figured my '79 5th Ave was enough to give me my big old 4-door sedan fix and didn't really need the Buick, so I got rid of it, and got the truck. The Buick had about 157,000 miles on it at the time, and still ran great. Stopping was a different story.
Yes, the same postings that some would use to "verify" their claims of, I don't know, say... certain vehicle models with bad transmissions.
But, in direct answer to your comment, my tax $$$ "investment" gave me the right to comment on GM as much as anyone else.
After all, the title of the thread is "GM News, New Models and Market Share".... Not "GM Fanboy Comment Thread".
"Like a rock" was one of the few that didn't, and hence really sticks out.
The "See the USA in your Chevrolet" was part of a set of lyrics, and probably most famously sung by Dinah Shore in TV and radio commercials.
http://www.google.com/search?q=see%20the%20usa%20in%20your%20chevrolet
If you watched TV in the late 50's, you couldn't have missed it...
For folks my age and older, I'd bet it's got a high recognition rate.
"Like a rock" came much later, and I think it was based on a lyric from a Bob Seger song.
Zoom zoom - this tells you about the product.
Ultimate driving machine - this tells you about the product.
Quality is job One - this tells you about the product. It lies, but it still tells about the product.
Like a rock - THIS tells you about the product. In fact, it's a key feature for truck buyers.
In the meantime, GM's parade of patriotic slogans include the following, none of which describe the PRODUCT, except making a point that it's an American-made product (well, I guess Canada counts).
USA-1 Taking charge
Heartbeat of America
Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet.
Rock, Flag, and Eagle
An American Revolution - this at least has an implication that the product is revolutionary, but still hugs that flag.
I love America, but you can't rely on the flag to sell your product for you. If that's the best thing you can say about your product, you may as well go home.
My rebuttal to them was the typical "Found On Road Dead", "Fix Or Repair Daily" slander and for my Chevy friends it was "Like a Rock... dead on the side of the road with it's hood up..." :P
Then they found out I was packing a healthy (for its time) 4-bbl, Small block V8 which was later modded by me and they showed a little more respect. :shades:
GM and Chrysler officially closed their plants to politicians recently (before Biden's comment), which is smart. They didn't want to be pawns in a chess match.
But the bailout is being used by politicians whether GM likes it or not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDm_ZHyYTrg
Great song!
Devil doesn't always win.
No one has lost anything yet, so it's a bit premature to be talking about losses, or gains.
Until that story has been written in its entirety, like it or not, the taxpayer IS an owner of GM.
Of course, the taxpayer owns far more... Including $15+ trillion in debt, among other things. GM better hope that the bailout $$$ don't become part of that debt, because if you think GM has an adversarial relationship with many taxpayers now, well, "you ain't seen nothing yet".
If the day does come, and that's a big "if", I pity the poor guy who happens to be president then. It'll be a political weight likely to sink the best politician. It won't matter if he had nothing to do with it, but you can rest assured he'll be the guy who gets the blame for it.
"Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphaned child"...
Ateixeira, you made a good point. The best thing that GM and Chrysler can do is stay away from stump-preaching politicians as far as possible. There is no upside, only downside.
Dad just got a 200 'vert, maybe he'll eventually replace it with this?
Ask the man who owns one. (Packard)
When better automobiles are built, Buick will build them!
The Standard of the World. (Cadillac)
Make a date with a Rocket 8! (Oldsmobile)
1. Simplicity
2. Doesn't require thought or explanation
3. Catchy
4. Accurate
GM (mostly Chevy) seems to have trouble with effective campaigns. I personally think it's because of their insistence on the heavy patriotic element. That will be a big turnoff in the following situations:
1. Foreign car owners, rather than being interested in checking out new Chevys, will feel that their patriotism is being slighted by their ownership of a foreign car, and ironically, be so insulted that they will stay away.
2. In partisan political times (read: election season...like, say, now) some people really get overloaded on flag-waving, and getting more is not appealing at all.
Caddy seems to be OK with its ad campaigns, they're very consistent with the euro-sport stuff. Buick, just like their cars, all over the map. And I don't remember the last GMC commercial I saw....which in itself says something.
Rock, Flag, and Eagle
Huh?
I think "See the USA in your Chevrolet" is absolutely the most iconic auto slogan in the U.S. It was used well into the late '60's and even the "Building a Better Way to See the U.S.A." campaign of the early '70's built on it. The tune was catchy as well. I wish Chevrolet would return to using it, again showing families and their new Chevrolets at historic or vacation spots in the U.S.
Bonus points if you can come up with one for Buick as well. :shades:
Actually, last year when I was in Minneapolis for twelve consecutive weeks, I had exactly one Chevrolet rental. I had one Toyota, and the rest were Fords and Kias.
Oops, already been taken. :P
There's a commercial showing old pictures of scenes (Yosemite is one, I believe) with old models, then overplayed with newer, present day models.
I think another scene in it involves a Corvette.
It's a very well-done commercial.
They did the "Professional Grade" thing for a while.
It was fine, but what does that make Chevy trucks? Being a clone, there wasn't really enough behind that tagline.