Will Buick Ever Attract The Young Buyers?

I believe like most that are 30 plus, and remember Buick from the days of old will have this bias stuck in their heads, a bias similar to younger Scion aged customers that won't venture to purchase anything Toyota. What Buick will have to do is re-invent the brand and that will take more than the weak, limp wrist commercials of late. The Enclave is a great SUV that, from my vantage point, have seen mostly 40+ with families purchasing them. Only a matter of time before the customer base not image whipped will go into the Buick showrooms and test the La Crosse for themselves. I went by a Buick/GMC location in Pasadena, the heart of import country. The sales consultant was knowledgeable and easy going. He said there were tons of inquiries about the La Crosse, mostly younger buyers but demand has out stripped supply.

Most Scion buyers are in their 40's and 50's...young people buy Subaru WRX, Mazdaspeeds 3's, BMW 1 series, Mustangs, VW GTI's, a plethora of SUV's and Honda's.

you're confusing "some" with "most."

i actually see scion drivers of ALL ages, and skewed toward the young. ALMOST the same with the Matrix, which is skewed toward older folks in my area.

Sure, in China

I don't think young buyers will consider Buick....but then again I never thought Caddy would shed their image of being an elder brand but seem to be getting there. Hopefully they do, as most of their current fan base is dying off.

I'm not a huge GM fan but I do hope they succeed just for the pure sake of the people they employ.

GM has done this before........in the fifties, with Pontiac. At that time, Pontiac was the old lady's car, and young people wouldn't touch them.

John Z Delorean made his career changing Pontiac into the "Excitement" division. Think GTO and Firebird.

When the Enclave came out, it was swamped with younger buyers here at the Miami Auto show.

With appealing new products, not just advertising, this can be done. Buick hasn't just had old customer, they have been starved for new product.

Look at what Hyundai has done, after selling garbage in the 80s, and only surviving because of government bailouts in the 90s.

i know the solution - put 70+ Maximum Bob in charge of global marketing. Great guy but its time to hand it up. Buick will probably trend in the right direction, mostly due to it already being at the extreme end of the geriatric spectrum, but the La Crosse is not enough of a step change to jolt Buick into the conscience of the under 30 crowd in the US.

That is probably the reason the company isn't relaying on the La Crosse. The Terrain, a smaller hybrid, a midsize sedan (Regal) next year that is even more youthful than the La Crosse, a compact and the re-designed Enclave all within 2 years.

I actually witness the rebirth of Audi. In the 80's it was doomed and ready to pull out of the Americas. Slowly and steady, now look at where the brand is. Audi didn't have the stellar quality all this time. It had a great game plan. Make cars that people want and desire. The Enclave is a desirable model and so is the La Crosse. Its the brand that is the issue. Remember, when the Model T first came out, critics said it was the equivalent of the Segway of its time. I personally like the La Crosse but like the ES Lexus and Acura TL or Volvo S60, this market isn't for me, but for someone.

Yes if they Bring back the Grand National young people will line up in droves, at least the ones with no teeth from the south lol!

Nope I am me...and you is He...and we are all happy together!

Besides i never saw many Grand National's up North!

I just don't see this happening.

Fire the design team and start fresh. Seriously,they obviously dont want/care about young buyers. Its not a mission to design a sporty looking car with a good motor and nice handling. Make the car,let one of these car magazines test it out and post good numbers. People will read reviews and head to dealerships to check it out. Who would ever want to buy a neon? Dodge put a good motor,decent handling, made it look sportier and had magazines test it with good reviews.What happened? I see SRT-4's all day.

I think it has more to do with the design than the brand name.

Go with a better design, stick with it, young buyers will come.

When are people gonna get over that its just a badge?

Its what the badge is glued on to that counts.

Until it beats ford then no. There is no "cool" factor saying Buick. Now if GM brought over the Opel brand instead of selling the watered down version of the cars to Buick then there is possibility.

A friend of mine has an Enclave. He's 31. He went looking for one of the usual Japanese models and ran into a dealership looking to test drive a Pathfinder. He walked into the Buick side of the dealership and started talking. The sales rep showed him an Enclave and the rest is history. I'm 32 and I love that vehicle. And the LaCrosse is another step in the right direction. I'd have one in the blink of an eye. Cadillac made its move to where it is now in two steps. This is Buick's first step so there is room and time.

"You can sell an old man a young man's car, but you cannot sell a young man an old man's car."

that statement is actually attributed to a buick (or at least GM) exec of the past. the buick guys today need to be reminded of this truism.

fresh, more youthful styling is one small step. they need to FOLLOW UP with a performance oriented model. they did this once with the Grand National. have they completely forgotten their past?

We are totally getting off point. What is young. GM isn't going after 20 year olds to purchase Buick. 30-40 is the goal. This is where the money is for the brand and it will bring down the average purchase age.

Get with the times. Most rental vehicles are imports as of last year.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tc-biz-rentals-0722-0723-jul23,0,3062970.story

If you're renting a car this summer, chances are good that it won't be American.

For the first time, U.S. auto rental companies are buying more foreign vehicles than domestic brands.

Through the first six months this year, only 48.8 percent of the new vehicles going into rental fleets came from General Motors, Ford or Chrysler, compared with two-thirds a year earlier, according to data supplied by trade publication Automotive Fleet.

Just three years ago, more than 8 in 10 vehicles sold to rental fleets such as Hertz, Enterprise and Avis came from the Big Three. Now those lots are filling with models from Hyundai, Kia, Toyota and Nissan.

Im 23 years old an I would love to drive an Enclave. Barely out of school and in this economy I can't afford one. The new La Crosse is amazing as well but I like having an SUV, always have driven them since I was 16.


Look at Cadillac. 8 or 9 years ago remember how cadillac was viewed, then the CTS, XLR an Escalade came out and gave the brand a new image.

Enclaves are nice, I'm only 28. The new La Crosse is gonna be a hot car as well. If Buick makes the right moves and aims it's crosshairs more directly at say Lexus, they can accomplish a lot. The IS range is for the 20, 30 range and the ES appeals more to the 30-40 and the GS for the 30-50. I think if they can start edging into the territories that these models work with they can be more successful.

I see more old people in Lexus ES, GS cars than Buicks nowadays anyways.

Sadly not.