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Reatta factory lives on!


Reatta Man

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Just saw a news item that said the Lansing Craft Center, where all Reattas were made, will build Cadillac's El Dorado coupes next year. Guess GM knows where to go to build high-quality classy personal cars. <P>Too bad they couldn't shorten the El Dorado chassis, use the current Buick supercharged 3.8L Series II V-6 and....VOILA...the 2001 Buick Reatta!<P>I sure am tired of seeing only four door sedans carry the Buick name. Yeah, I know about the Rendezvous. So far that just looks like most other mid-sized SUVs....a station wagon with a lift kit. <P>Guess I'll have to keep my '65 Wildcat convertible, '70 GS coupe and '90 Reatta coupe going another decade or two, wiating for the rest of the automotive world to come full circle again. <P>

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Just found some production figures comparing '99 with '00. Buick down 33,603 units (10%), Olds down 52,642 (20%), Pontiac down 4,196 (1%) Chevy,GMC,and Cadillac were up. Looks like all of GM needs something that will sell. With the Aztec at Pontiac, their numbers may be down as much as Olds next year.<BR>,

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Aside from the trucks it looks like the revenue generators are the Malibus and Grand Ams. They sold more Grand Ams than Oldsmobiles.<P>If you think in terms of domestic automobiles you will be out of sync with the direction the auto industry has been going for the past 10 years. The auto marketing folks know the upscale boomer generation doesn't want their father's Oldsmobile. The boomers want exclusiveness and Ford and GM are delivering via Jaguar, Saab, Volvo, and so on.<p>[This message has been edited by miata'nreatta (edited 10-30-2000).]

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Ok, let's see now.....<P>Buick down 33,603 units (10%)<BR>Olds down 52,642 (20%)<BR>Pontiac down 4,196 (1%) <BR>Chevy,GMC,and Cadillac are up<P>Buick and Olds, with no sporty two door coupes or convertibles, are both down by double digits. <P>Pontiac, with the Sunbird convertible and coupe, the Firebird coupes and convertibles and GMC rucks, is down by one percent. Most of that can be attributed to getting a late start delivering the new Bonnevilles to dealers, so if they had had a full year of Bonneville sales, they probably would have been up for the year.<P>Chevy and Cadillac, both with two doors, convertibles, and trucks, have sales gains. <P>Hmmm....I can remember a time when a flashy car like a coupe, convertible or sports model, was not intended to sell in large numbers, but rather get people into the showroom. There, the dealer put most of those potential buyers into a bread-and-butter car. BUT FIRST, YOU GOTTA GET 'EM INTO THE SHOWROOM!<P>I guess Buick and Olds, with their Park Avenues, Le Sabres and Auroras that look more like 1954 models than 2000 models, forgot that simple rule of marketing. <P>I'm beginning to think Buick NEEDS a new Reatta or Riviera to generate some excitement! <P>Do you think ANYONE from the marketing department at Buick reads this forum?

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<P> I WISH the new trucks were Roadmaster Wagons. It seems as if anything with power is doomed. The heavy rumor is that the Camaro and the Firebird will end this year. The Corvette has a niche by itself, but the Bowling Green plant is going to start producing the Cadillac Vette clone soon to justify its existance. By the way, the new Cadillac has been emasculated of its supercharged engine. Sad but true, name the sucessfull (profitable) performance car GM has come up with in the last 15 years.<P> Bob Rich

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The Gran National was a perfect example...fun, flashy and you-gotta-be-kidding-fast. (They were actually much faster than the Corvettes of the same vintage.) Now, nearly 15 years later, they still bring mega bucks, have a huge following, and every once in a while, someone pops up with one that has been stored and has less than a couple hundred miles on it. <P>That car generated TONS of free publicity in Motor Trend, Car and Driver and others, yet few were actually sold. <P>What did they do, then, for Buick? Nothing, really, except keep the Buick name in front of people, generate millions of dollars worth of free publicity, keep people coming into Buick dealers to look at the GN and then drive out in a Regal or Lesabre T-Type. That's all....just help Buick have some of its' best sales years during an automotive recession. <P>With what Buick and GM have learned about cars in the last 10 years since the last Reatta was built, imagine what they could build if they would just turn their engineers and designers loose!<P>

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I think you guys are absolutely right about Buick needing something to generate some showroom traffic and excitement! Check out the posting about getting Buick to build the Blackhawk as its 100th Anniversary special. It's on the General Discussion Forum, along with the mailing address for the General Manager of Buick Division. There's an effort to get a campaign going to build this car. While we're at it, the LaCrosse concept car is also spectacular, and it's worth mentioning that one to Buick as well.<P>It kills me to see GM allow Buick to slowly die. Let's hope there's a corporate willingness to rebuild the marque's reputation as a classy, stylish car for the moderately upscale buyer.

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