China to Influence Buick's Direction in Coming Years

In the near future, it won't matter whether or not North American Buick dealers don't want a rear-wheel drive model, as they told executives from their parent automaker General Motors at the NADA conventionearlier this year, and bringing back its premium-line “Super” designation that adorned top-of-the-line models of the all-American brand from 1940 to 1958 won't be much of an issue either, although it's coming back according to Buick General Manager Steve Shannon. What will matter is what Buick's Chinese operations believes is a good idea, as it currently holds the trump card of stronger sales.

Last year Buick sold about 280,000 cars in China, and only 240,657 units in the U.S. It should be said that the brand also sells a Daewoo Nubira-derived model at the lower end, dubbed Excelle, which won China's "Car of the Year 2004 - Value for Money" and no doubt helps to boost overall sales, and other models not available in North America. Still, in China Buick is now a revered luxury marque, something to aspire to, while in the U.S. it's lost some of its luster, having been outpaced by European and Asian luxury brands.

Shannoncontinued, "There will be a gigantic story to tell in the future between Buick in China and the U.S.”, when future models start rolling off of GM's new global vehicle architectures, which will no doubt include a rear-drive model despite negative reaction from U.S. dealers. “You will start to see the fruits of that in the not-too-distant future.”

Unlike China, where the brand's sales continue to grow, Buick is expecting U.S. sales that are “roughly flat” in 2007, according to an Automotive News story quoting Shannon. And that's including the introduction of an important new model, the Enclave crossover sport utility.

The Enclave points the brand further upscale than any previous modern-day Buick, with higher quality interior materials and unique, compelling styling. Last year's Lucerne has done relatively well for the brand, and while its exterior styling is elegant and attractive to most in Buick's mature demographic, its interior fit and finish doesn't match most luxury competitors from Asia or Europe. The same can be saidfor the LaCrosse, which targets midsize models such as Toyota's Camry and Honda's Accord, amongst others, although both cars show a marked improvement over the vehicles they replaced.

Interestingly, redesigns of the same cars in China not only look more distinctive, and some would say, more attractive in the case of the LaCrosse, but they are also finished to a higher standard inside according to reports. This is no doubt one of the reasons why the brand is so revered amongst Chinese luxury buyers. They are buying cars with higher perceived quality in China than they are in North America, something the brand's Detroit operations looked to have contemplated before introducing the more opulent Enclave. Actually, the Chinese design team's version of the LaCrosse is so impressive that GM's global design chief Ed Welburn has chosen it to design the next-generation LaCrosse interior for all markets. No doubt China, which sold over 110,000 LaCrosse models compared to 71,072 in the U.S., will have a big say in what GM North America does with the exterior design too.

Most likely the Lucerne and LaCrosse will follow suit, which will help the brand entice more American luxury buyers and potentially fetch more profit per car, as Buick's dealers will be able to sell on higher quality rather than just the brand's generally good reliability and, what is all too often the chosen incentive, price.