Do you consider Buick a luxury brand? (POLL now added) - Page 2

mmarshall · 09-24-09, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IS-SV

Yes, "borderline" is the best description I've heard in a while for these marginal cars.

Current lineup consists of mediocre/dated cars regardless of the subjective categories.

You may have misunderstood what I meant by "borderline". What I meant was not a "marginal" or or "mediocre" vehicle, but, according to the question of thread topic, the idea that, IMO, they more or less straddle the line between what could be considered luxury vs. non-luxury vehicles.

Quote:

Nice flashback to 1969-70 though.

Yeah. Buick did some great products in the 60's, but cost-cutting, a quality drop, CAFE, and emissions really screwed them up in the 70's....and several of their vehicles got noticeably tinnier. With Chrysler products (and I'm sure you'll remember), the quality drop started a couple of years earlier......in the late 1960's.

YARIS! · 09-24-09, 08:04 PM

Sometimes identifying a brand as "luxury" can be tricky as opposed to identifying an individual model as luxury or not.

Is BMW luxury? Of course. Is the BMW 128i? No.

Also, the standard of luxury keeps changing. Today's Honda Accord, for example, is more luxurious than a 20 year old Mercedes in most respects (partly because new inventions keep popping up in cars as well as much improved build quality).

But anyway, Buick is now becoming entry level luxury but in a different way than import entry level luxury. It has been for decades though.

Faymester · 09-24-09, 08:10 PM

I see Buick on par w. Infiniti (though I confess to not having looked at one for a while), they make nice cars though not necessarilly luxury cars.

Also, for the record I consider more entry level luxury cars (IS, C, 3) to be only near luxury.

Trexus · 09-24-09, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IS-SV

No way. Buick is not a luxury brand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allen K

It's a tweener really. Ford goes Ford -> Mercury -> Lincoln and GM goes Chevy -> Buick -> Caddy. It's a step above the mainstream brands, but it's not quite the company's luxury brand. Now with Caddy going the sportier route and Buick going to comfy luxury route they may both be luxury brands but I haven't had any seat time in a new Buick to really know if it's a full fledged luxury car just yet.

Agreed. So that means GM has two luxury divisions? Seems kinda redundant, yes? The old GM didn't get it with 8 - 10 divisions and some overlapping each other and now the new GM is repeating history again and trying to market Buick as a luxury division competing with Cadillac. GM shoulda died back in December 2008...

shyguy16 · 09-24-09, 08:21 PM

not at all.

i thought they were just another pontiac/chevy alternative until i've read about them recently targetting lexus.
that's not a good indicator for buick.

herbvdh · 09-24-09, 08:24 PM

Absolutely not!!!

SLegacy99 · 09-24-09, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IS-SV

No way. Buick is not a luxury brand.

Indeed. Neither is Chrysler.

AlexusAnja · 09-24-09, 08:57 PM

I voted yes, but not Tier 1. It's hard... how many "levels" of anything are we going to have now? Sub base (Tata), base (Kia, Dodge, Suzuki), entry one (Honda,Toyota, Hyundai), luxury Tier 3 (Buick, Chrysler), Tier 2 (Acura, Lincoln, Cadillac), Tier 1 (Lexus, MB, BMW) and Super Tier (Maybach, Rolls, Bentley) or what?

Buick I think is hardest... not basic like Honda/Toyota, but not top tier luxury like MB/BMW/Lexus for sure.

dunnojack · 09-24-09, 09:15 PM

buick is still a big step below infiniti.

they're all crap fwd-based, gussied up GM cars which still offer cloth seats & stripped base models.

and they only have 3 models. 1 suv and 2 sedans. and one sedan is old ass tech.... with a huge 3.9L engine putting out a measly 227hp, and a 50 year old 4 speed transmission. only a blind old man would be dumb enough to buy that.

so not luxury. not even close. I would rank them somewhere between Ford and Mercury.

Targeting lexus is good for marketing........ Just as Kia commercials say they outsell Lexus. But that's where the comparisons end.

J.P. · 09-25-09, 11:00 AM

It is a Lexus board so I know there will not be much American love, but….

My issue is and it becomes more and more clear every day that people are only focused on a brand name, I know, not surprising.

It’s no different with cars then it is jeans, watches or stereo equipment.

When it comes down to it if you took someone that didn’t know much about cars, placed all these cars in a showroom with no badges what would they say?

GS3Tek · 09-25-09, 11:09 AM

compared to our 79 chevette then yes

dunnojack · 09-25-09, 12:15 PM

taking a cheap chassis / slow car and lining it with relatively softer leather does not make a luxury brand.

have you seen the car test videos of the lacrosse? it runs like an elephant.

Trexus · 09-25-09, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GS3Tek

compared to our 79 chevette then yes

The 1979 Corvette should be compared to a 1979 Buick. Cadillac has always been the luxury division of GM unless GM has mutiple luxury divisions (Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile)?

DASHOCKER · 09-25-09, 12:32 PM

Coming soon from the Luxury car maker Buick....

encore888 · 09-26-09, 12:02 AM

It really depends on how luxury brand is defined.

Here in SoCal, most Buicks are sold at combo Chevy/Buick sites...they have about as much 'luxury' feel as a Hyundai or Toyota dealership. So Buick could be seen as offering the same network as Hyundai, by that comparison.

OTOH, the new products are much more impressive and competitive, either Genesis or Lacrosse.