Centurion

Evidently, General Motors will be making an announcement as early as this Thursday regarding its Centennial celebration. Read the Detroit Free Press article about GM's Centennial that appeared today: http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID...ESS01/712300532

(Please transfer this topic to a more appropriate forum if there's a better place for it.) The Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Buick Divisions have all celebrated their respective centennials during the last decade. These were unforgettable events with highly visible participation and support by General Motors itself. In 2003, we saw Ford Motor Co. celebrate its centennial with a grand gathering in Dearborn. But we've heard nothing regarding General Motors' plans to celebrate its own centennial next year, and GM enthusiasts have been hoping for some indication that the company will plan an appropriate event. The Buick Club of America will return to Buick's hometown of Flint, Michigan during July 16 - 20, 2008, and meet organizers and Flint boosters have taken the initiative to plan several events in celebration of the General Motors Centennial. Whether General Motors itself announces an "official" centennial event, Flint -- the "birthplace" of General Motors -- is an appropriate venue for part of the celebration. In addition to daily tours to the General Motors Heritage Center, the Motor Cities Heritage Committee is sponsoring a "GM 100" cruise/show in downtown Flint (for all General Motors products) on Friday evening, July 18. On Sunday, July 20, a General Motors 100th Anniversary parade is tentatively scheduled for 1:00 PM in downtown Flint. Other events in the planning stages are a "Historic Places of Flint" tour, events at the Dort-Durant building, tours of the Mott - Applewood Estate, tours of GM homes, etc. The Sloan Museum and its Buick Gallery and Research Center will, of course, be open to the public throughout the week. As more information becomes available, I will add to this topic. And I hope that any news of other GM Centennial events will also be posted in this topic or elsewhere in the C&G forums.

Buick dealers are now providing the programming update for the earlier-built Enclaves. The update is known as "Customer Satisfaction Update Bulletin # 07217". Here's the comment from the Enclave forum from the first member to receive the update to his Enclave (built before August): " had the Customer Satisfaction Update Bulletin # 07217 installed earlier this week and it made a huge difference in the transmission shifting. Much more driver friendly now and I would recommend anyone with an early model Enclave to get this upgrade."

Those who have purchased the Enclaves built since about August 8 -- with the latest transmission programming -- say that the transmission performance is vastly improved with its earlier downshifts. I suspect that the Enclave loaned to O.C. was an earlier production model.

I picked up a brochure for the Enclave at my local Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealership last weekend. If the brochure is indicative of the marketing approach for this vehicle, this is going to be a dynamite product launch. The brochure is a beautiful and very expensively-done piece. Has anyone heard whether Buick will have the premiere parties, as they did with the Lucerne launch?

Sure looks to me like Lucerne outsold Avalon during February: Lucerne: 6,311 Avalon: 5,583

Thank you. Yes, the forum link is now there. It was missing earlier.

The Buick Current Models forum seems to be missing. Or am I simply overlooking it when I view the list of forums?

Some of the Toyota devotees on Toyota Nation have questioned why Toyota has not issued a recall on the 2007 Camrys, rather than simply issuing a service bulletin. Obviously, a service bulletin remains under the media's radar. One of the Toyota Nation folks suggested that some of the Toyota dealership service departments were being literally overwhelmed with 2007 Camry transmission problems. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I would think that this will certainly impact the Initial Quality results in the next J.D. Powers survey. If so, I'll be waiting to see whether the media chooses to pick it up. Lexus ES cars have been similarly affected by the transmission problem, but the Lexus dealers are being very careful to treat their customers well.

No surprise to see the Camry named Car of the Year, but what we're not hearing much about is that many owners of the 2007 Camry are very dissatisfied. I read through the 62-page topic at Toyota Nation about the serious transmission problems. It appears that a Toyota Service Bulletin and new software download may have largely addressed the problem. Nonetheless, you all might find it interesting to look through the 267 reviews of the new Camry at yahoo. Sure, you'll see many who love the car, but you'll also see many who swear that they'll never buy another Toyota. I can't confirm that all of the comments are credible, but it shows that Toyota is not as invincible as many seem convinced that it is. Read here: http://autos.yahoo.com/toyota_camry-review...tart=1&show=atl

I hope that those who are participating in Project Driveway are doing so with strict instructions that Toyota or others are prohibited from evaluating the cars. Secondly, I hope that GM can bring these to market in the near future rather than test and study them for the next ten years. It would be wonderful to see GM seize the initiative and relegate the Prius to the sidelines.

While I agree that your choices are excellent, GMC, I have a hard time limiting my list of favorite classic Buicks. Here's a start, however! The 1938 models are a great pre-war favorite, especially the 4-door convertibles like this Century: How about a truly majestic 1941 Limited? The 1953 Skylark was a true milestone, but I prefer the rarer '54 model: If I could choose a '50's era Buick for my personal collection, I'd opt for the magnificent 1958 Limited: The 1959's are another favorite, and I'm the proud owner of this fine, unrestored Electra with the GM "Flying Wing" roofline: For sheer elegance, can any other American car match the '63 Riviera? The 1965 Wildcat coupe is another personal favorite: A final favorite for me would be the stunning 1966 Riviera: These choices are simply the tip of the iceberg. Buick built incredible cars through much of its history.

The classic Buick guys fit their late model Buicks with the portholes offered by the Sloan Museum in Flint, Michigan, which is home to the Buick Gallery and Research Center. I understand that the Sloan's portholes are the best quality versions currently available. http://www.sloanmuseum.com/museum_store.html

A member of the Buick Club of America forums recently shared this link regarding the statistical problems with the CR reports. David Zatz is a professional statistician. Scroll down at the link to see his extensive analysis of the weaknesses with the CR survey methodology: http://www.allpar.com/cr.html

The data from GM says that Lucerne's RETAIL sales were more than double last year's LeSabre RETAIL sales, so many of the LeSabre sales from February, 2005 must have been to fleets.

I approached the article with an open mind. It became rapidly clear, however, that this magazine is pandering to the audience it created. It is evident to me that it really did not matter to the writer how wonderful the Lucerne might be. The Lucerne may not be a perfect car, but I strongly suspect that it would receive the lukewarm treatment even if it were the best car in the world. Part of what concerned me is the cynical tone of the article. He says, for example, that the interior materials "simulate" high quality, but he will not concede that, perhaps, the materials are quality materials. And he's got to take a dig at Buick's clientele; no opportunity is missed to prop up the image that the media has worked so hard to create. The state of automotive journalism in the U.S. is very sorry.

Minarets, I was just out on my lunch break, and spotted both a new Impala and new Lucerne on the road. The Impala is an attractive facelift, but the Lucerne says "class" to me. The Lucerne is a definite step up. Were I lucky enough to be in the market, I'd be pursuing a Lucerne.

VenSeattle, which dealer will you be at tonight? I've RSVP'd to Cornforth-Campbell in Puyallup, and hope to make it there in time. I'm in Everett at the moment, and have seen the beautiful CXL displayed at Clyde Revord Motors here. I've also seen three Lucernes about town -- one in Puyallup (on two occasions, but assume it's the same silver car) and two in Everett. Last night, I saw a CXL with the bench seat in Everett. The cars look great, and I agree that color choice will make a big difference to the visual appeal of this car. I'm hoping the Lucerne will confound the "experts" with fantastic sales results!

I've spotted none in the Seattle area, and I'm currently commuting daily on the Interstate 5 corridor through the metro area. No glimpses of any at the Buick dealerships I've passed, but I'm anxious to see one soon. For those of you who spot them, please provide your impressions as you see them on the road.

I'm pretty much a life-long LeSabre fan. Mom & Dad bought their first Buick -- a spanking new '61 LeSabre -- on October 7, 1960. I was seven years old at the time, and every passenger car my folks bought from that day forward was a Buick. And, now, I drive every day the last car they ever bought. Yes, you guessed it -- a LeSabre. It's a Ruby Red '89 LeSabre Limited 2-door coupe that still looks new and drives like the day it left the showroom floor. If anyone should doubt the significance of the Buick LeSabre in automotive history, consider this: Beginning in the 1980's, the import manufacturers overran virtually every passenger car market segment in the U.S., and the Japanese nameplates dominate sales of small, mid-sized, and luxury cars. But the one car that the imports have never dethroned as king of its market segment is -- Buick's LeSabre. LeSabre, I'm sad to see you go. And I'm relieved to see that I'm not the only one who feels so strongly about this. If I had opportunity, I would love to tally up the LeSabre production for the entire 1959 - 2006 time span. I'd be curious to know how many million fine automobiles have worn the LeSabre nameplate. (Using figures readily available on the Internet, I was able to tally just the first two decades of LeSabre production -- 1959 - 1979. During that time span, nearly 3.3-million LeSabres were produced. Obviously, a great number have been produced in the years since 1979.)