Cananopie

Thats the point, compare the Enclave to those in its price range, and if it's better than them, then it's okay to compare it to those above its price range but only to explain that you can get these more expensive features/style/quality with a cheaper vehicle... you don't say the Enclave just can't "meet or beat" them if they're not even in the same price range. While Buick isn't Cadillac (and was never trying to be), Buick is just giving another great vehicle for a more affordable price. However I'll believe you that he looks at them all equally, I don't know anything else he's done... but the caption is a sort of backhanded compliment.

Come on, Los Angeles admitting that a domestic brand vehicle outclasses the foreign? Especially Princess Lexus? Never. Let's just set it a minimal step below the rest and say "Nice try, but once again, not the best." Saying a Buick outclasses a Lexus or Acura is seriously a cardinal sin in LA. That would mean everyone in LA wasn't cool anymore OR that the writer was wrong... what would you do as the writer? So deciding between his reputation and the sheer perfection of the Enclave Dan Neil split hairs to mark the Enclave just a hair below the rest. Perfect. Both reputation and social standings saved.

hahaha, exactly

Exactly. Just like real rubber tires, real engines made by the company, real wood should, for the sake of the planet, become a thing of the past. Nothing is truly being lost if the above action is taken.

This argument on the lack of "genuine" wood really kills me because illegal logging has just reached new highs because of the demand of wood across the globe. The reason these alternative fuels are being sought is because of their impact on the environment and the fact that many of these resources are non-renewable. While trees are renewable, they are not renewable at a rate that we are cutting them down. They also are happy to breathe in the carbon dioxide we create, and they also happen to $h! us their oxygen. We have to understand, as a planet, that we are working on a global scale, and that we can't just take things anymore just because it will please some petty desire. There are a few things going for faux-wood to the point where I'd love to take anyone who needs real wood, and see if they can tell with random samples whether it was used or not. While I have not done this study or know of anyone that has, I believe it'd take a true arborist the be able to tell the difference between real and fake wood. I wonder how many people would be satisfied (if the automaker couldn't get sued) if they just claimed real wood but used fake... my bet is 100%. This isn't the 80s anymore, the wood isn't made out of wallpaper and the design isn't cringe-worthy anymore. Real wood is smoothed to the same feel as plastic and then treated in such a way that you can't scratch or ruin it on accident. Whether it is real or fake you aren't really touching the wood insomuch as you're touching the protectorate of the wood. Faux-wood can still give the same haughty atmosphere the real-wooders desire. The argument of needing real wood is akin to the argument of demanding real rubber for your tires, instead of the decades-used synthetic rubber. In the end, one might argue, it's the natural beauty of real wood that will really bring a giant hunk of steel and plastic to beauty. However, it's the 21st century and we need to start thinking globally and wisely. Killing old, thick, sturdy, life-giving trees for petty pleasure (and upping the price of a Buick no-less) is a thing we must put in our past strictly for our future interest. I myself would love to see Buick back in the business of making their own engines, however I understand that GM was thinking globally, only their motive was simply profit. The motive of no-real-wood in cars is just one so that the rampant logging industry has one less reason to tear apart our Earth. I feel by taking this stance many people would dismiss it as environmental extremism. But I simply use logic and reason when understanding trees give us our oxygen, give us a rich diverse environment to keep our planet stable, and provide many beneficial services that the desires of pride should stand down. Just get huge flat screen tv to impress your friends instead.

It's about time Buick made the winner. It's time for it to win comparison tests now and be the best of the year.

How dare you questions Toyota's ability to be absolutely perfect?! Just joking. Yea buyacargetacheck, that was a little premature of a statement to make. Aside from the fact that obviously Toyota and Lexus have their own problems (and the fact that my 70,000+ Regal has a fantastic power steering pump as well as everything else since I bought it) Buick has sustained industry leading fullsize sedan sales, it not only gave a place to put poor-selling Aztek parts, but actually ended up doing the exact opposite of the Aztek and sell consistently and well (and it was only the Rendezvous), and it tops the charts in long-term-reliability with precious saintly Lexus, and maybe, just maybe (it's a thought) Buick earned that spot. It's premature to expect Lutz would not promise to deliver on one or two more vehicles. They promised it'd get down to 3, and they hadn't considered the next generation by that point... Enclave was the goal at the time. It is now that time and it's not unreasonable (with the rise of excitement in Buick) to expand their lineup, especially with vehicles following the quality, style, and attention to detail Buick has given the Enclave. These are valid arguments for Buick's long term survival. Throwing away a successful brand when executed right (or even awkwardly as the Rendezvous showed) Buick can sell, and it can sell well. And the quality keeps the financially responsible within GMs grasps since they are the best sorts you want to be buying your vehicles.

This has been a topic that has killed me since the internet became popular. Corporations seriously do not know how to handle the internet because when they try they come up with something like the American GM sites - all of them - which have to follow the same layout... Why? Why would you insist that? A website can be clear and understandable yet unique and totally its own. This suggestion could go for all of the GM sites but specifically for Buick they could even have a better website than the Chinese Buick site... they can even have a better website than all or almost all other car companies sites if they really understood the power of the internet. Say you're looking for a new car. You go to Buick.com or Pontiac.com and you're going to get virtually the same layout, and it's going to get boring quick. Especially if you're looking for, let's say, the Enclave in a color other than the overdone cocoa and you're going to have a hard time with that. That should be a cardinal sin but it's a fact right now on the website. Now say Buick hires like 2 or 3 people to maintain their website and that is their only job. And let's say GM allows a decent level of autonomy to them. Easily we could have a design that surpasses the Enclave Buick site (which has the most web-based effort in it yet for American Buick.com) and it can easily surpass the design of the Chinese website too. And it can be updated ON TIME! (which they never are). Each car can have its own theme like the Enclave does now and this small group can even (and easily) take the effort of taking multiple real-life pictures (not that bad professional photos we all hate) of each color of the same car in one room. So if someone is interested in a white Enclave one of these people could get a hold of a white Enclave (since they work for GM) park it in a spot in a room and take pictures of it from all angles, and then do it with the cocoa one (same spot, same lighting, different color/style), and then with all the other colors. This would seriously pique people's desires on the internet because they can say "I want this exact vehicle in this exact color" and have real life photo to show people and to fantasize about as they mull it over in their head if they want it. It's okay to have a theme like Buick does with the cocoa Enclave, but make sure the other colors are on the site and in real life pictures (preferably easily comparable by a single click) for those who are interested in the vehicle but not the promoted color. Buick could've lost sales already by people only seeing the cocoa and not being interested in it, and not ever even being exposed to any of the other colors, even when they did a brief search. Remember - the work should be on the companies end, you shouldn't have to hunt for a second color to the Enclave. And the feature such as the LaCrosse and Lucerne have where you have all the colors lined up at the bottom and a blank vehicle above it does not give an accurate look as to the real color. It looks totally fake. With the power of the internet Buick (and GM) should take the time to have dedicated people bringing the cars, in all colors, right to our screens. Literally people would be able to point and click to their dream car in the right color and let the desire swell until they buy it. I have no desire for a LaCrosse that looks like it was colored with a red crayon.

I agree, anyone can draw anything that looks cool. We'll see how GM can execute this. It has a lot of positive potential though.

These are great pictures. I'm excited for better Lucerne pictures. I can not wait for the next gen of LaCrosse, it will probably have amazing styling, it's my most anticipated Buick... unless they ever get a coupe or convertible in the works for sure.

nice. Definitely an impressive improvement of the LaCrosse

I love it when people desperately clamor to find the "loophole" that Buick slipped through because it couldn't possibly be as reliable as the beloved untouchable Toyota Brand... But Toyota/Lexus should get used to this, they're about to be the #1 company and they have to shell out more vehicles than the rest, and with that, naturally, comes more problems in a vehicle. There is an ebb and flow to the automotive industry and when you're the biggest brand you're going to get the most heat and produce the most cars which will naturally turn people away to those brands that can pay more attention to what they're creating instead of firing out car after car like Toyota is really starting to do. If theres a loophole it's how die-hard in love Toyota consumers are about their vehicles being the best and most reliable strictly because they're the stereotypical Asian marketing brand which can build no wrong. People buy Toyotas (and Lexi) because they're generally dead set on the car being as good as gold, bulletproof, and will never ever break down... but that image is starting to dissipate now that it's becoming Americas bulk company.

The identity that worries you about Buick shouldn't, and it's interesting at how you ignore Saturn's identity and not have that worry you. The way I see it, and I think many would agree, is for the core brands it runs something like this: Chevy is your bulk sales with the widest variety of vehicles, none too luxurious. Pontiac is going to be about the same size as Buick (model-wise) focusing on sporty, but still cheaper, vehicles Saturn is a lot more inline with Opel now but not only that GM seems to use the brand for more of a practicing brand to see how the public responds to it... I mean we're going to see the first serious green vehicles out of Saturn and Saturn is always doing something a little different than the rest of GM. Buick is the entry-luxury brand. as it has always been. To me it seems America is so focused on the best nowadays that middle class luxury which flourished during previous decades has virtually been forgot about. The American mentality is either "You're rolling with the best (ie Caddy, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti) or you aint nothing (ie Chevy, Pontiac, Dodge, Toyota, Nissan)" and a lot of people forget that there is a pretty big gap usually between them. Buick aims to fill that gap... GMC respectfully tapers off with the Acadia for the Enclave, the Impala doesn't encroach in on Lucerne territory substantially... the $30k - $40k range has a lot of buyers who aren't looking to spend the kind of money that movie stars, rappers, and other celebrities will throw down for things like the Escalade, but still believe they deserve a car with some luxury and comfort. Buick has always catered to this crowd and still has its place. Check the prices of Cadillacs in comparison and notice that they are not selling the same vehicles Buick is in the same price range... there is more than the two-tiered system most people think about with cars (low class or high class). Cadillac is the aspirational brand, the brand that is there to flaunt and to essentially waste money. It doesn't have the time to be dealing in the $30ks anymore and the longer time goes on the more expensive Caddys are getting (with the quality to go with them). Buick has a very important thing in the scheme of things. The companies that overlap price and product are the first three- Chevy, Pontiac, and Saturn... does it take 3 brands to do the very few things each of them do?

There are more things to the automotive industry than quantity which is really the only point you keep bringing up over and over again. You are telling a GM forum that Buick doesn't know what they're doing, and when you get a response saying exactly the opposite by a dozen people you cling to declining sales as your only real form of defense. You make it sound like being 43rd best selling has any bearing on it being a hit or not. The Enclave just got out of the stable well behind the Acadia which is widely more available than the Enclave, let alone cheaper... and you have the audacity to compare it to the Torrent or the Grandpa Pacifica which are priced (excluding the incentives that must be on that thing by now) $8,000 to $10,000 cheaper than the Enclave base model. They aren't even in the same league. And then you blindly, with no proof, say it's not better than Acura or Lexus which you've been ingrained somewhere that they are "more prestigious." Please stop confusing your opinion with fact and stop trying to make Buick look worse by comparing it to the bulk sales of the much cheaper and in one case outdated models. You're not tricking anyone, your entries seem at best spiteful as if you must prove what a poor brand Buick is... with no real proof at all and ignoring the unique situation the brand has been in, which there is much surprise at how well the sales have stayed afloat. Buick's are a lot more profitable than the lower brands, a high percentage of customers pay in cash, the Chinese market is flourishing with Buicks, the Lucerne slams Avalon sales, Buick is constantly rated as one of the most reliable brands, it has one of the most loyal fanbases, the average age of a Buick owner is dropping like the barometer before a storm (and it has taken less than a decade to do it), the Enclave has a huge waiting period and is one of the hottest new vehicles, Buick has proven it could sell what Pontiac can't (Aztec vs Rendezvous).... and yet with all those facts you just focus in on the numbers, ignoring the drastic drop in vehicles to save a bloated umbrella corporation. Who wants the late 80s/early 90s Skylarks and Centuries again? Nobody... but you cling to those sales numbers like it was worth it. Buick was selling Chevys at the time the sales were near half a million, the quality was not there. Things have changed a lot. Quality, not quantity, is what you need to realize is what Buick is about. You seem to be the only one on this forum who won't let go of the old 80s/early 90s Buick image of being "less prestigious" so let go of it will you?

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20 and you are a prime example of that. Was GM worried about the import vehicles in the 40s? what about the 50s? SURELY they were concerned about them in the 60s!? No?!?! What about the 70s? Not really... And now... after decades of having only two REAL competitors (Chrysler and Ford) you expected a bloated corporation who has played the same game for generations to have just "realized the threat that imports posed." Gas was not an issue before the late 70s, imports were not an issue before the late 70s, and neither was heavy competition... in about a decades time many companies flooded the market and GM was a bulky corporation used to entitlement rather than heavy competition... and it was that way decade after decade after decade after decade. NONE of the Big 3 were ready for cheap labor outside of the country or gas shortages or any of that and being one of the biggest corporations in the WORLD at the time (if not THE biggest) they had a LOT of work to do to compete with the cheap small imports. It's as if today you should expect EXXON-MOBIL to be on their toes for small oil companies they never even hear of... the oil world revolves around them, not vice versa. They have the cash to throw at problems of competition and thats the difference between GM and them, GM didn't eliminate competition but adjusted to it. As for your incredibly irrational fear of Toyota PURCHASING GM you can relax about that. GM made over 192 BILLION dollars in revenue last year and was the 5th largest corporation in the ENTIRE WORLD, they aren't exactly strapped for cash. And even if they were Toyota does not have enough money to purchase GM. Nobody does. Not #8 Toyota or #1 Exxon Mobil... at BEST they'd have to merge (which there are absolutely no signs of) and even so Toyota is becoming just as much GM as GM is becoming Toyota. Your fears are irrational, your reasoning is without proof, and your spite for Buick is above all else. Buick is an international brand gaining international popularity in one of (if not THE) fastest growing market in the world. In the USA Buick is finally getting the financial attention it deserves and the GM flying fortress is leveling out after a bit of a dip. They are still a very influential corporation and though Toyota will be roughly evenly matched with them by the end of the year, it does not make them "buyable." As of last year they still stood as one of the top five largest corporations in the entire world- the entire world! Chill out and relax. Things are not as bad off as you wish them to be.

I believe, these pictures so far just leave me wondering how the grille was even designed to fit in the front because it just doesn't make sense to me. It's like looking at one of those paintings where you only walk up stairs and end up in the same spot... I do believe that in person or even your pictures (though you say differently) will help clear this up a little for me.

The reason why Buick was selling half a million cars a year in the 80s is because Buick had been an aspirational and reliable brand for decades and GM cashed in on that by making very cheap Buicks. Put Lexus through the same cycle and see if they will be able to still be a company. The biggest reason for the reduction of Buicks was mismanagement at GM due to a problem that had never even remotely happened to them until the gas crisis - an influx of foreign brands. I do not really blame GM for mismanaging because they were blindsided as they were an unwieldy giant and small foreign brands were small and agile. It really did take them 20 years to be able to adjust to the current competition... And in a lot of situations giant corporations typically manipulate the government in such a way through lobbyists in order to force something like Toyota or VW to have a raised price, but in respect to all of the big 3, they took it like a man and they did the adjusting instead of refusing competition... Buick was able to go from positioned between Olds and Caddy to selling on par with Chevy, Pontiac, and Olds... forgotten about basically... and still were able to survive. GM did such an amazing job with that brand that loyalists kept buying even when the quality of Buicks went way down. Buick was able to start to pull out of the nose-dive in the late 90s boosting quality and now Buick is trimming off the fat and ready to be a current competitor that isn't awash in GM financial misery. Fleet sales are down, the LaCrosse and Lucerne didn't abandon the previous generation fanbase (ask Oldsmobile why this is important) and the Enclave is on target, current, and extremely effective in everything from styling to luxuries to technology. And Buick shows no signs of playing dudley anymore with strictly 4 door vanilla vehicles. The fleet sales are low and the quality of each vehicle is high... forget the Rainier, forget the Terraza, they might've given Buick volume which is obviously important to you but they did not give Buick quality... going down the volume road leads Buick right back in the same predicament they were with in the 80s that took them 20 years to get out... and now you want them to revert and recycle back to it.... Buick is an amazing company for even surviving that tarnished image and just stands as a testament to what a great company can hold up against. Buick was practically forgotten for about a decade because their image sold everything while the cars stayed below entry-lux conditions. Now Buick is getting back on its horse and China shows every sign of ensuring Buick for the long run. Relax and understand that you are looking at the tail-end of the declining sales. Buick has cut its inventory in more than half within the last half-decade so of course there will be a period of declined sales... but you can not say the Lucerne or the Enclave have been received poorly... I'll give you the LaCrosse even though it doesn't seem a detriment to Buick.

I'm waiting for a few clear real life pictures before I judge the grille. I'll agree- the grille looks extremely awkward in the professional pictures, bu the professional pictures always make the car look horrible, this has been a C&G fact for a while. However I suspect in real life they will look more real and purposeful, I mean these grainy pics above really aren't helping much.

I'm not too keen on the idea of a compact Buick however if done right it could really boost Buicks image and allow those who want a Buick name to be within affordable reach. But "Excelle" is a terrible name... call it a Skylark and if it's done right Buick and GM can hopefully give the name a little bit of respect back that it deserves that was removed with the two previous generations.

Actually after owning my 3100 Skylark and having two separate blown head gaskets, I made my next decision deliberately a 3800. Hoping it would last as long as my first LeSabre which had 294,006 miles on it when it died (without me giving it oil for a few months). I've owned 3 3800s to date and I have never even had a slight problem with any of them.

Torture in its purest form: Owning a GNX and not being able to drive it. I think I saw this GNX at the Buick auto show here in Batavia a few years back, I might be wrong, but either way it's beautiful.

Best money-saving idea they could have.

Cadillac and Chevy will have no shortage of GM funds and unless they have idiots working in those two companies they should fare well in whatever they do. It is those that are pinched for cash, mainly Saturn, Pontiac, GMC, and Buick that will need to be innovative and smart in order to retain the necessary amount of sales. Saturn, by far, is the leader in that department

I can understand that, not because I'm someone who just hates anything non-American, quite the opposite actually... but America has sold its soul to China already and most things you probably buy anyway already comes from China. And I would have no problem with this if China was an environmentally conscience, pro-human-rights country. However it goes to show that both Americans and Chinese have devalued life enough so that we feed off of this system hurting both Americans but especially the poor Chinese. General Motors, however, has always impressed me with the standards they set wherever they build and whatever they build. I don't find GM one of the big manipulating corporations in spite of their massive wealth and power.

Finally! Someone understands! Buick needs some excitement vehicles!