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Buh-Bye - GM to end Buick passenger car sales in U.S. - Includes The Auto Channel Journalist Comments


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Special To The Auto Channel
From Clark Schultz, SA News Editor
Seeking Alpha


Dec. 4, 2019 General Motors Company:

•General Motors (GM +1.4%) says it will discontinue selling the Buick Regal in the U.S. and Canada.

•The decision means the Buick lineup in the U.S. will only feature SUVs.

•90% of Buick sales this year in the U.S. are SUVs.

We Are Older But No Wiser, In Our Hearts Our Dreams Are Still The Same

The Auto Channel Journalist Comments

Larry Nutson

Chicago December 4, 2019; The Regal with its two models, the hatchback sedan and the wagon, are selling at less than 10,000 units per year. This low volume combined with the fact that the wagon is built in Germany for GM by Opel which is now a subsidiary of French automaker Groupe PSA are probably the reasons to drop the model line for 2021. Maybe also, GM is bowing to D. Trump and stopping this German import wagon.

The Detroit-3 have been moving away from offering what I would call "traditional cars" to more and more crossover SUVs (XSUV).

However note that I published a few weeks ago this: Edmunds.com in a new study says the decision by Ford and GM to drop small cars may have been a bad idea. Analysts at Edmunds found “that instead of jumping on the SUV bandwagon, 42% of Cruze and Focus owners are choosing to stay in the passenger car segment." This year, 23% of Cruze owners and 31% of Focus owners who traded in bought another car from a competitor

The "traditional car" is being redefined. Look back at the last 100 years and see how the family car has changed in design and appearance. Today everything is being called an SUV. However, the new Ford Escape is quiet car-like. In my opinion, the Ford Mach-E is a 4-door hatchback with slightly raised ride height. It has only 5.7 inches of ground clearance which is not very SUV-ish.

Coming back to GM, I guess they hope to get BuicK "car" buyers to buy a Cadillac. But then again, as the baby boomers age and live longer, a crossover is a bit easier to enter and exit.

I think I'll go buy a Buick Electra 225.

And this just in yesterday from Cox Automotive "While the Detroit automakers may believe cars are bad business, the Japanese and Korean automakers view the market differently. They are investing in good sedans; consumers, turned away by the Detroit Three, are finding what they want from the Asian brands. Nissan and Toyota actually delivered INCREASES in year-over-year car sales. Honda and Hyundai saw only small declines in car sales last month. Don’t believe the mainstream media talking point – cars are not dead in America."

Thom Cannell

It’s a business decision. Hyundai almost disappeared due to lack of crossovers, now up 6% in a down market, same for everyone focused on what are large American sedans du-jour.

Martha Hindes

The auto companies need to hold onto their product names, unlike Ford that lost rights to the Futura name. In 10 years when crossovers are totally boring, someone could reinvent the sedan. I also have a friend who recently bought a Chevy Cruze sedan who lamented the loss of sedan varieties. There was no way she wanted an SUV.

. Martha


Maureen McDonald

I spoke to the marketing manager of Volkswagen at the Chicago Auto Show last year who said VW is still bullish on automobiles. Investing in its car line. I'm driving my sixth VW Jetta and love the design.I've got plenty of room for hauling stuff with fold down seats, but I'm not hauling a Uhaul like many of these SUV owners. I think the U.S. automakers are abandoning a viable market. Yesterday the president of Toyota said the Camry remains the best selling car in America.
The US Auto Industry didn't have to give that market away.




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Those Were The Day's My Friend We Thought The'd Never End