Buick Rainier SUV a step towards image makeover

DETROIT, May 23 Reuters reported that beginning with the Rainier sport utility vehicle in the fall of 2003, General Motors Corp.'s Buick division will try to transform its aging image with a new vehicle every year for the following four years, Buick general manager Roger Adams said on Thursday.

The 99-year-old brand will kick off a new national advertising campaign this fall, with golfer Tiger Woods playing a prominent role, to set the stage for Buick's makeover, Adams said. Buick now has among the oldest buyers in the industry with an average age of 63.

"We have to start changing people's perception of Buick and get them ready for where we're going," Adams said at an Automotive Press Association of Detroit luncheon. "The opinion of Buick has risen dramatically since the introduction of the Rendezvous," he added.

The Rendezvous sports utility vehicle (SUV), derived from GM's front-wheel-drive minivans, has received good reviews since it went on sale last year. Rendezvous sales are expected to total around 60,000 this year, and Buick is trying to produce more of the SUVs, whose buyers are 53 years old on average, a decade lower than the Buick brand.

The Rainier mid-size SUV, similar in size and components to the Chevrolet TrailBlazer and the GMC Envoy, will be slightly larger and more expensive than the Rendezvous, Adams said.

Buick's aging buyer base and dwindling product lineup -- before the Rendezvous was launched last year, Buick's lineup was just four sedans -- had sparked some talk that the brand could go the way of GM's Oldsmobile and DaimlerChrysler AG's Plymouth brands and disappear.

But Adams said that Buick is profitable, and will expand to at least six vehicles, which should grow sales by at least 15 to 20 percent. So far this year, Buick's U.S. sales are up 8.2 percent to 117,883 units, and Adams said he hopes sales will end the year up between 5 and 9 percent.

"In recent years, Buick's aging owner base was a sign that we weren't attracting the younger, affluent target buyers base that we needed to regenerate the brand," Adams said. "And no marketing campaign alone can really rectify that," added Adams, emphasizing that the new products will be key.

He declined to give further details on the new cars and trucks planned, but key elements for the brand's targeted "near-luxury" segment will be more powerful engines, more elegant interiors and more expressive exterior styling.

"We're trying to deliver a luxury experience at a less-than-luxury price," Adams said.

Buick has had some of the best-received concept vehicles over the past few years, and Adams said some low-volume, niche vehicles could be part of the brand's future.

"There's a role for niche vehicles in the future, but it would be to make a specific statement," he said.

GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said in February that he scrapped the designs for the forthcoming Buick LeSabre and Regal sedans and ordered a redesign of the cars, resulting in a 10- to 12-month delay. Adams said the delay has improved the styling of the vehicles.