LexFather

Its a genuine supply issue with the Regal. Dealers can't get enough of them as its rebadges overseas also sell well. Its a good looking car to boot and as you stated, cheaper than most.


I hope the Care Bears brigade doesn't come here and try to beat you up for that comment. Imagine, the QX outsells the M37/56 and dealers want more QXs to sell. I won't rehash my comments other than "I told you so"

Edit. The M37/56 is really doing poorly.

2010 Sales: M37/56
Mar -- 1,440
Apr -- 1,212
May-- 1,065
Jun -- 1,196
July -- 1,277
Aug -- 1,251
Sep -- 1,460
Oct -- 1,175
Nov -- 1,112 (2nd worst month since debut)

jwong77

I think the styling really limits the appeal of the car. Its too polarizing for someone to drop 50k-65k on. There is too much good competition at this price point, the new E-Class and 5 series are eating Infiniti's lunch.

-J-P-L-

I just went to check MSRP's on the Regal and the Lacrosse.

Guess what's the starting price difference between the two?

$250. Yup, they both start at $26,xxx.

That spells trouble for the regal. I had no idea they were the same price. Why would you get a Regal when you could have a Lacrosse? Unless you just prefer a smaller car with more sport. I think GM screwed up on the pricing here.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

^Agreed. This should be a $24k+ car, and the LaCrosse could realistically be closer to $30k.

LexFather

I don't think thats the issue. The Lacrosse is much larger and drives less sporty. The two attack different people though the price is the same. No different than the IS/ES/HS/Avalon or G35/37/Maxima/Altima 3.5.

Buick does offer two 27k cars here which does help sales, the TSX is a 29k car base.

-J-P-L-

Granted, the Lacrosse does get more expensive with AWD versions. And the most common FWD CXL lists at $29K. It's just odd that Buick would start them at the same price.

Remember, the 2012 Buick Verano is coming, Buicks new entry level car ($23K).
So the Regal wouldn't be able to go much lower than it is. Perhaps Buick should just drop the most basic Lacrosse and start it at $29K.

-J-P-L-

That's true too. Certainly nothing wrong with offering two different cars for different purposes. The important thing is to have enough difference between them. Buick's challenge is to get younger buyers to look at the Regal as a sporty alternative. Most traditional Buick buyers will go straight to the Lacrosse.

LexFather

Yeah, good posts guys. Pretty amazing we talk but Buick and Hyundai..something we never talked about on here when we first started these sales threads!

Just occurred to me the Accord MMC did nothing to help.

RX300-BV

So without the 2,230 Crosstour sales, the Altima and Fusion would have outsold the Accord. Pretty impressive for Nissan and Ford.

How impressive would it be if either the Altima or Fusion or perhaps both outsold the Accord and Camry in a month. Maybe it happens this month.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

It's impressive when you look at the total number in the end. They've sold so many Altima and Fusion, but one thing they don't tell you is that they lumped all the sales together whether it be from normal consumers like you and I or big corporates who buy in bulk. There is a reason why you see many Fusion and Altima at car rentals and rarely any Accords.

To me, the amount of cars sold to the retail world is much more important than the total number that includes fleet sales because most companies are looking to buy cars cheap. Enterprise car rental could care less if you wanted a Corolla XRS. They'll give you the CE model because it's maximizes their profit.

In 2009, fleet sales made up 15% of the Altima's total sale while the Fusion was at 25%. If you were to only include retail sales figure, the Accord sold as much as the Fusion and Altima put together. That right there is impressive!

LexFather

Nice points Gteg. Also the Altima and Accord include coupe sales as well. Fusion/Malibu/Sonata don't have coupes and I do believe the Solara is done so no more Camry coupes either.

So you just got to look at the numbers and say its pretty amazing the Camry is still #1. Utterly amazing to think the Taurus used to sell in that volume.

dunnojack

i think one thing is becoming apparent-

luxury car buyers are not ready to accept curvy swoopy styling.

all the germans are more or less rectangles, and conservative.
conservative is still king of sales.

let's hope the 4GS doesn't go overboard on styling like the infiniti M

LexFather

Well they bought the last 5 and that was different to look at. It seems no matter what people line up to buy the E/5 with no questions asked. They are selling back at pre-recession levels.

In comparison the M37/56 is selling at a 50% lower rate of the previous model. While I agree the styling seems to be a miss I also think they lost their rabbit *** minds with their pricing and option packages. Sadly like Lexus, the yen is hurting and has nearly eroded much of the pricing advantage so its hard to completely blame them.

Considering the A6 and GS are old, Volvo and Saab are in trouble and their aggressive discounts and leasing the car should clearly be doing better.

Its hard to believe they can't sell 1,500-2000 of them a month its first year out. Its a new car!

RX300-BV

Good point. I will give credit to Ford. If you look back at what the Fusion replaced, the old fleet queen Taurus, 75/25 retail/fleet volume is a vast improvement. I wonder, if you disect the Fusion fleet sale if you would see that the fleet sales are now more skewed toward government and corporate than daily rental.

GSteg

iTrader: (15)

The government only accounts for 8% of the Fusion's fleet sales. The rental group still owns majority of fleet (a little more than half) while the corporate/commercial group is a close 2nd.

It's still a whole lot better than the Taurus though that's for sure! No one consumer really wanted the Taurus, but I see lots of Fusion around