What was once The General's aspirational luxury brand ("it's 'this close' to a Cadillac") has fallen on hard times, as anyone who has followed Buick's sales figures in the past few years -- or decades -- can attest.
Recently, in the past several years, GM has introduced a raft of new models, all with the aim of reducing the average age of Buick buyers from 63 to something a bit lower.
They have succeeded in changing the average age, so perhaps the new models assisted in altering the figure. However, the average age is now 65. We suspect that's not what the folks in Flint were after.
How did Buick get imbued with such an "ick" factor by the younger generation? Even signing golf legend Tiger Woods (a youthful 31) as its spokesman since 1999 has done nothing in budging Buick's average customer's age to somewhere south of the Social Security years. The cars that were supposed to herald the age of the youthful buyer at Buick -- the Lucerne and LaCrosse -- clock in with average buyer ages of 68 and 69.
And this can pose a problem for the brand, because not only does it mean that many people who buy Buicks are, in fact, older than in their late sixties, but that Buick is dealing with a population that may not buy many more new cars in their lifetime.
One way to combat this trend is in General Motors' decision to combine Pontiac, Buick, and GMC vehicles are a single dealership. In this way, the full product lines of all three divisions can be shown to prospective buyers -- and, Buick hopes, show off a LaCrosse to someone who might, until then, have been interested in a Pontiac G6.
One new vehicle that Buick managers hope to attract the public's attention with is the new Enclave CUV. It seems to be reaching a wider demographic than the traditional Buick vehicle, as the average age of new Enclave buyers is a youthful 55.
Buick also has some new models coming down the pike -- a restyled LaCrosse in 2009 that may be renamed the Regal (resurrecting an old Buick nameplate), and a new CUV that will be smaller than the Enclave. There's hope that by shifting Pontiac's vehicles to rear-drive performance-oriented ones, and keeping GMC as the truck/large SUV division, Buick can emphasize its stance as the premium division (keeping Cadillac as the luxury division), and draw new customers into its fold. (Pictured is the Buick Riviera concept recently displayed in China.)