Guest my3buicks Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2014/Jan/0108-buick-global.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrEarl Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Thanks for sharing Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rob McDonald Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Wow, over 800,000 Buicks sold in China last year! That handily beats Ford's peak production year for Model Ts. That was 1917, when they built 568,000 units. I wonder if future Chinese popular culture will remember Buick as the marque that pioneered personal mobility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 Damn, reduced to a foot note in history! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarNucopia Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 I wonder if we will reach a point when old Buicks will be bought by Chinese collectors and shipped overseas. There are probably more Buick enthusiasts over there then there are here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 How about a big thank you to Opel, Holden, Vauxhall, .......... and FIAT. "When better cars are built, Buick will build them." 1950 "Buick, rebadging a stairway to heaven."2010Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest my3buicks Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 There always has to be a wet blanket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 It's worst than a wet blanket. I am a third generation of Buick owners and at a point in life where I want to buy that loaded dream car. I had a 2008 Enclave in 2008. The lack of power for the 5,000 pound car made me livid. And that was mostly Buick built. I'm a buyer and there is nothing to buy.Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandy Dave Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I wonder if we will reach a point when old Buicks will be bought by Chinese collectors and shipped overseas. There are probably more Buick enthusiasts over there then there are here.Look at Japan in the 1980's, They had a thing for collecting our 1950's cars and culture. Dandy Dave! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest my3buicks Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 (edited) What's wrong with a Lucerne? Have you driven one? No excuses there, they are first rate.I have driven several Enclaves, while not powerhouses the performance was more than adequate, certainly nothing that would make me "livid" not that I couldn't live with.I haven't heard John sing anything but praises for his new Regal Turbo, why not a Regal? Edited January 13, 2014 by my3buicks (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Lucernes are nice cars, but they don't make them anymore. I would buy a black CLS if they made one.I drive across New York State. The Enclave was fine if I took the Thruway ay 75 MPH all the way. If I wanted to come home on Route 20 a secondary road through scenic rolling hills the 3.6 engine wouldn't pull it over the hills without forcing a downshift on the compensatory 6 speed transmission and that was never a predictable shift. I have owned 30 Buicks (I have the list). The Enclave was a disappointment. I drove it 24,000 miles. It is gone. I take my 5.3 Chevy pickup now.My long association with high torque Buicks has made me a light throttle driver. My vehicles rarely exceed 2500 RPM. I am not in the habit of jamming the pedal enough to get a turbocharger to blow life into a 4 cyclinder engine or wind up a 6 to its over rated high horsepower.They just don't build cars for a person with traditional Buick expectations. Luckily there are almost 100 years of cars to choose from and people saved a lot of them. If I don't get a new Tahoe I may drop a W12 in a newer Lincoln Town Car.Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest my3buicks Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 When I typed Lucerne I actually meant Lacrosse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RivNut Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 WOW! China bought over 78% of all Buicks built in 2013. Any one ever think why it was Oldsmobile followed by Pontiac, not Buick, that bit the dust a couple of years ago? There's your reason in a nut shell. The Chinese bought almost four times as many Buicks as did folks in the U.S. We ought to be glad that the Chinese don't take the same view of American products that we take of Chinese products. Makes one wonder how good of a Buick do the Chinese build - they sure aren't going from Flint to Beijing across the Pacific. Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 I'm certain my Regal GS would also downshift on some of those hills on Rt 20 Keith. And Bernie is right to some degree when he says " They just don't build cars for a person with traditional Buick expectations." The Regal GS is not your father's Buick. But I enjoy it as much as, or maybe even more than, the rest of my collection. It's a very satisfying car. Handles great, more than enough power, even if it is a 4 cylinder, and most thrilling when you tap the gas pedal and the turbo kicks in plastering one into the seats. You can predict the shifts or use the dual gate shifter to control the process. No surprises in that department. Great amenities too. The mufflers are starting to change their tone. Sounds great ideling without being loud. The radio heat and A/C kick butt! Seats are supportive and comfortable. Regardless of the Buick's overall impressive sales records, this little jet pack is destined to be rare in the future and sought. It is so nice to have strangers approach and say: Wow, that's a Buick?!?!?! The only thing I don't like are the outside rear view mirrors. They are small. But that is not a deal killer. I just hope it does not ever become too popular so it retains that Buick quality we all seek...Uniqueness! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarNucopia Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Building cars that meet "traditional Buick expectations" earned the brand the distinction of having the oldest customer in the industry. Changing their cars away from these expectations has lead Buick to be the only brand to actually lower it's average buyer's age. To paraphrase Jeff Bezos, "Businesses need to stay forever young. If your business ages with your customer, you become Woolworths."Here's the specifics: http://blog.polk.com/blog/blog-posts-by-tom-libby/buick-goes-against-trend-and-attracts-younger-buyersThey just don't build cars for a person with traditional Buick expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest my3buicks Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Someone who gets it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 A few years ago I tried out a Jaguar S type 4.2 V8. I have had a few ranging from 1953 to 1988; six's and twelve's. During the whole test drive the word "homogenized" kept running through my head. Global marketing of mediocrity must be what I'm not adapting to. Maybe as I age my thoughts will become less acute and I will settle for less without noticing.I might even like the Buick made from a Chevy Sonic that they pulled off the FIAT line.Or if I do decide on a LaCrosse, I'd probably get the twin Impala and put a little of the 5 grand difference into some options. They all come out of the same box. Some just have different badges. Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest my3buicks Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 Bernie, hasn't that always been the case more or less? Look at your 60 Buick, then look at any other GM car that year, same car with each divisions personalization on them. Platform and mechanical and sheet metal sharing has been going on for decades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Rob McDonald Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 same car with each divisions personalization on them.KEITH, not so, in my opinion. Although the beautiful GM bodies of 1960 shared their core architecture, the chassis and engines were all very different, which gave each line a distinct driving flavour. Looking back to the pre-1925 Nickel Era, premium cars as manufactured were really just running chassis. The bodies were crafted and installed by others. Over time, the supply of bodies was brought under the wing of the car manufacturers but General Motors' divisions continued to carefully guard their own technologies and traditions until well into the 1970s. After the big downsizing of 1977, the divisional outlines did become more blurred and thus less interesting to those of us "of a certain age". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest my3buicks Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 Rob, we are going to disagree on that, as I said, each division put it's personality on it ( which would include engines, chassis, etc) but at the core, they were the same cars right down to the glass. Look in Canada, they toss a Pontiac Body onto a Chevy and you have a Canadian Pontiac. And to believe that a Chevy drives like a Buick drives like a Cadillac today is to be misinformed - go take some test drives Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarNucopia Posted January 16, 2014 Share Posted January 16, 2014 The only thing the Sonic has in common with a Fiat is the letter "i". I agree you need to take some test drives. Badge engineering was much worse in the '80's and 90's then it is now. .I might even like the Buick made from a Chevy Sonic that they pulled off the FIAT line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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