GM delays new Buick La Crosse shipments on quality concerns

Once about a time, GM would have let go the products onto the streets and the consumer would have found out about quality issues, then dealt with them later. Is GM really serious about quality? Seems so.

General Motors Co. said Tuesday the rollout of its new 2010 Buick LaCrosse is being delayed for a few weeks due to quality concerns.
Speaking to analysts and reporters during a conference call on August sales, GM's vice president of U.S. sales Mark LaNeve said about 300 to 400 of the cars were shipped in August, but further deliveries are on hold until the company works out what it called "quality issues."
The company wouldn't offer specifics on exact problems with the LaCrosse, but LaNeve said they "were not serious but were enough to delay us three or four weeks while we made sure they were fixed so that our customers didn't have any problems."
GM is currently advertising the LaCrosse, a midsize luxury sedan that is designed to compete with Acura, Lexus and Toyota models. Its marketing campaign, called "Take a Look at Me Now," will feature television spots, as well as ads that run in cinemas and digital media.
The much-hyped car is key to attracting younger people to Buick, which has reputation of only appealing to older consumers. Buick had a median buyer age of 68 last year. Its target market for the LaCrosse is people in their mid-40s and 50s. The Lacrosse has a base price of $27,835.
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WorldofLuxury - 9/2/2009 7:26:49 PM

+2 Boost

Glad to see that they care, supposedly. However, not being able to do this on a timely manner really isn't a good thing.

lexusrox123 - 9/2/2009 8:35:27 PM

+3 Boost

wow...this is kind of unrelated but i saw a pic of the (dreadful) hyundai equuus and now i see this car; it seems as if hyundai "took" the buick character line and put it on the equuus, as well as the overdone chrome.

WorldofLuxury - 9/3/2009 1:23:03 AM

+1 Boost

I like chrome. lol

Agent00R - 9/3/2009 8:50:10 AM

+1 Boost

So, what it comes down to is the battle of the undesirables.

Do you take a Buick or a Hyundai? Equus is excluded, way too expensive.

lexusrox123 - 9/3/2009 8:59:25 AM

0 Boost

i'd reluctantly take the buick, even though it looks kind of weird, but the equuuuus is awful, even scary looking.

WorldofLuxury - 9/3/2009 12:45:53 PM

+1 Boost

I'd take a Buick. ...maybe one from the days when Buicks and Caddies were slathered with chrome! :D

thstone - 9/3/2009 7:47:00 PM

+1 Boost

The Buick will need AAA quality if its going to be priced in the mid-$30's and go after 40-50 yr olds. That is prime Toyota/Lexus territory.

mikeydred20 - 9/3/2009 9:11:34 PM

0 Boost

This crap is supposed to compete with Lexus and Acura? It is not even released yet and it already has quality issues, TL's grill my look goofy but the engineering of the car is with the best of them.

veyron1001 - 9/4/2009 10:42:15 AM

+2 Boost

GM is a 160billion dollar joke.

tango - 9/4/2009 11:17:58 AM

+1 Boost

This is a definite step in the right direction. Some manufacturers, in fact, MOST manufacturers would say send the cars out and then fix them when the things break for free under warranty. Fixing under warranty apparently says that the manufacturer cares about the customer. Delaying a vehicle to fix the problem is somehow perceived as being sloppy in building it. I'll take the 4 week delay thank you, because my having to leave work to go fix a brand new car (even if it's for free) is a pain in my ass. Every car has quality issues when first released. That's because the production line may have real-time issues that were not encountered during the slower-moving dry-runs, workforce not yet fully mastered on the build, so on, so forth. I dare anybody on here to find ONE car that did not have issues when first released. From Tata to Bugatti. Name one. Good luck with that.