regfootball

like most people, they have the wrong perception of GM. (on this particular item only in your case) the vette is one of the lightest cars out there. its physical footprint belies the genius engineering to keep the car super light like it is, its also why the vette will get 30mpg on a road trip if you dont slam the throttle. IIRC the nissan 350z is even heavier than the vette. the vette is almost as light as the vw golf / jetta is heavy.

it also wasnt long ago grand prix sold 200k and grand am like 300k and pontiac as a brand was close to a mill........

GM basically will have nothing to offer younger buyers or performance minded drivers. Unless you can foot the bill for an expensive CTS and even then you might still want the 3 series. GM s really screwing the pooch here. Honestly if there was no new camaro they had to make do with, GM would have nothing to hang its hat on for anyone who wants fun and a reasonable price tag.

you are referring to the notion that the younger set does not want a buick..... pontiac needed cars. the g6 and solstice were the last specific pontiacs. g8 was done as a quick way to replace the pontiac flagship...it was not originally a pontiac. Obviously the OM agenda and greenies with the axe are in control now so perhaps the notion of pontiac could have had an entire new lineup by now if GM had greenlighted the funds 3 years ago would have been intriguing. an all new alpha range of G6 products......g8 in many variants including wagon and truck, and maybe even a new compact pontiac with a turbo or something EXCITING!!!!!. we all should have known something was amiss when no replacement was planned for the g6 and grand prix. the solstice being introduced just kept everyone from noticing how pontiac was being starved. well, now that we are in damage control......what would make sense and what OM/Tarp patrol wants Buick to do are two different things. I would think however what is absolutely critical is to launch the LaCrosse with complete attention and keep the pricing attractive so it comes out of the gate ok. Secondly, I would get the REGAL here as fast as possible. In all forms including OPC. the regal is the model that can possibly grab younger buyers and it MUST make the transition from the insignia seamlessly. The Lucerne has to be kept and supported but there is limited options for what to do with it and how long. I would question if it didnt make sense to do a rename.....LESABRE......and plant the 3.6DI and 6 speed into it with a new interior. Then, lets have the holden chinese PARK AVENUE pronto. Redo the grille but otherwise bring us that goods. By 2012 then the Lesabre and park avenue would need to be consoldiated and replaced with one new large sedan. The chinese excelle / astra variant would if it comes here need to be the SKYLARK. I could honestly see a sedan and wagon being viable with a buick badge. (Pontiac should have gotten the astra). Its too bad the g6 hardtop convertible or some other vehicle could not have become the RIVIERA. Perhaps the Vue will become the RENDEVOUZ. Not a bad idea but inside and out the VUe needs a makeover to be a proper Buick and the dual mode hybrid would be essential as would a better 4 popper and add a 6 speed. I would curtail Enclave production to maintain its exclusivity. Can we get a dual mode Enclave? my strategy is to promote and revive as many of the classic old buick marques are possible. make it a true revival. go down swinging. Buick then may need to get involved in racing etc. if they want the younger set to have any interest in buick. and we may need to see things like T-types and Grand Nationals, i.e. dechromed Buicks. Imagine the horror at seeing your first Insignia with a Buick badge and a fake convertible top and pinstripes........ The Regal revival is THE critical Buick though. How much effort GM puts into / if they bring it here will clearly show if GM is not planning to axe Buick in another 3 years........

enraged crazy woman with a pulpit..........

you become a star in hollywood and want to spend money, you buy a big house. part of the reason mini has the aura it does is because it is a bmw. a front drive discount bmw. in the frame of reference to the mini actually being a bmw, it ain't no flagship. conversely, the flagship mini could not sell for near as much as a flagship bmw. why? size. no one will pay the same for a tiny mini as they would for an S class. the price tag has to reflect the difference. the small to big perception thing is not US cars alone. shi--t little toyota or scion, Lexus LS. Hyundai accent to Genesis sedan. little to big. the price varies accordingly. just like the size of your fries at mcdonalds or 1, 2, 3 patties on your burger at wendys.

polo should have been the rabbit here anyways

I almost spit out my coffee!!!!!!!!! BUT I'm SMILING!!!!!!!!!! awesome post. As far as vans go, it looks ok for a VAN, but we don't need another TERRAZZA. perhaps this buick MPV could have the turbo ecotec and we could badge it 'GNX'......Buick Terrazza GNX...... any buick that would be a minivan should be a full size sienna competitor anyways.

of those 4 vehicles, none sell here except the mazda5, which didn't sell in retail hardly at all until the 4 dollar gas. if the mazda5 were to take over family transport, they would not offer the cx7 or cx9 which both sell for more $$$$/profit even though they both suck fuel. Mazda killed the MPV to sell the cx7/cx9 because they could sell more and at prices 10 grand higher, because they didnt look like minivans. the only reason they can sell the 5 here is because it doesnt need to anchor their lineup. its a complement. Buick MPV. i thought you said 5 sedans would be fine for buick, now you're endorsing a blatant minivan? Well I guess you endorsed the TERRAZZA then. fact remains that this thing needs crossover styling or closer to it to be successful in volume here. Maybe if they built em in china and shipped em over it would work as a niche vehicle....OH BUT WAIT....Gm doesn't know how to do niche............. Besides, Buick will rebadge the VUe into RENDEZVOUX......which would sell better with a buick badge on it. The Orlando may be a success here. A Buick MPV will not, as long as the Enclave is in the showroom and this thing smells like a minivan.

depending on what color your hair is..........and how many agile limbs you have....... MKs ecoboost specced the same as a SHO won't cost much more once incentives are factored in anyways. the MKs has potential to gain lots of business once they incentivize it more, get ecoboost in it, and it will eat a little into GM's offerings.

the citizens of this country will wise up and realize that they appreciate freedom of mobility. one thing that our leaders or business leaders need to do is make things besides oil commercially viable. People hopped on the goregreen bandwagon because they were made to feel socially irresponsible if they chose not to. now that people have found the economic price associated with a sentiment and ad campaign, that is the reprioritizing. Yet we are Americans, the families still want to drive on vacations in a spacious vehicle, people still want vehicles of a certain size in this country. Technology and the money part will have to meet in a new middle, and we have to start to rely less on OPEC. That is why subsidizing ethanol is maybe not entirely bad. Its a start. Now keep going on solar, electric, wind, hydrogen, nuclear. But all that stuff will take forever and people are not going to downsize forever. At some point they want the depression to be over and to be able to drive something besides a Fiesta. Small cars will never be the savior in the US market because there is always a price stigma (small = cheap) and you will not be able to change that with everyone in this country. The cars that will become staple cars of the US market will be the midsizers (not that are not already). It wouldn't hurt if we had say a FUsion (hybrid!) wagon available to us as a fuel efficient family hauler. Or a Fusion coupe. The Epsilon platform could cover 2/3 of GM's cars if they planned wisely. Corolla is on the cusp of being sizable enough though to serve as a second family car, or a great car for singles and couples so I guess in that regard its why its a success but people are only going to ever pay so much for one, no matter how good you make it. that, or the cruze.

RAV4 rental i had once sucked ass too. its a tin box. with a cheap interior.

you'll start to see folks wise up by that tuesday in nov., 2010 which will foretell what will occur on that tuesday in nov, 2012. by then, green will be 'out', and we'll have people re-prioritizing what's important.

i don't think the media has told the masses that the unthinkable has already happened. the last few years of whoring cheap toyota leases has meant that their resale is in the $h!ter now too.

I owned a chevy prizm for three years and rejoiced the day i got rid of it. a new 99 which i had for 3 years. truly a less than satisfying car.

sho....365hp....awd.....20 cu ft trunk....more trunk and spunk for your money!!!!!!!!!

the cx9 sells way better than the mpv did...at much higher prices....even tho the mpv has more utility. you just dont get it do you. its a style thing. which also explains why every mfr is ditching vans

blu is right. it needs work on the proportions. it has large glass and small pillars. the basic character lines are ok. but it screams minivan. they need to downsize the glass and reset the pillar angles so it is more crossover.

tell us what you know.......

tell that to all the folks who continue to flock to the pleasantly average and mediocre asian cars.

i am pretty close to ditching GM. the CTS wagon and camaro might be the only cars i really like a bunch now. they cut everything else i liked.

if people bought ford gm and chrysler products then the case could made use stimulus funds to tear down battered plants etc. recycle the materials so the greenies will shut up, and then build a new long lasting arena on the old salvaged grounds if they are location friendly. then, you'd have real long term investment and it would cement the place going forward as a showcase of the auto industry in america. whoring the show out to LA or vegas, you might as well just say f-k the auto show and go see wayne newton or celine dion because thats about as much meaning as it would have out there in terms of significance to the nation. the show would lost any significance, and becomes a joke of itself. better yet just outsource the NAIAS to India or Korean or CHina or Japan. thats where everyone wants to get their cars from seemingly anyways. hopefully someday we can outsource wall street, banking, finance, advertising, sales and marketing to those countries just to be fair.

you know its really funny the public's perception of pontiac. my buddy the passat owner (who just sold it) who has the new 09 malibu company car. he sold the passat because he liked the malibu so much. travels a lot and rents a lot of cars. he is now even trying to convince his wife the traverse is a nice option to replace his pilot. he called me one time when he had the G6 GXP as a rental, to say how nice a ride it was. cheap interior a bit, but he liked the G6. He called me back a few weeks later when he got a base G6 rental and was not so kind. GM just needed to bring the goods for all its cars instead of starving the cheaper stuff of the good stuff.

so does that mean GM could sell opels as saturns for awhile? i actually kind of like that. an insignia OPC would be a nice ride. maybe then opel could design the cars and chery could make em and saturn could sell em.

had the G6 been better i think it could have held pontiacs position a little better. i have my aztek......but that don't count LOL. G8 was on my radar. But prob out of my budget. CobaltSS in pontiac or new astra as a G5 would have been appealing. oddly, i know 4 people with 07-08 grand prixs. back 10 years ago i could have named 15-20 people i knew with pontiacs.