http://m.buick.com/testdrive.html

So apparently Buick has sales that are starting to sag a little. They are bringing back the 24hr test drive. I hear the dealer supply is higher than usual.

Good or bad for the brand? How do 24hr test drives do historically?

 

IMO, doesn't make much difference either way. I test-drive a lot of cars (sometimes written up in reviews, sometimes not), and my experience is that one does not need anywhere near that long to get a pretty good accurate idea of what the car is going to be like. If you can drive on enough different road surfaces, sometimes you can tell in just a few minutes, though sometimes backache-producing features in some seats may not make themselves immediately apparent, and take some time before your spine really starts to react. But that won't usually be that long a time, either.

One of the most important things on the test-drive, though, is correct tire PSIs. New vehicles typically come off the transporter with tires pumped way up to 40-50 PSI, to keep the vehicle or ship's rocking motions (or an aircraft in turbulence) from causing the alloy wheels from contacting the vehicle's bed through thin or soft rubber. When the vehicles get to the dealership and are unloaded, one of the things that the PDI persons at the dealership are supposed to do is bleed the front and rear tires down to their normal recommended PSIs, which are usually between 30-37 PSI (posted on the inside of the door-jamb). But, but for whatever reason, they often don't, even if they SAY they do, and I often have to do it myself before a test-drive or when a car is delivered. (I carry two mechanical gauges with me in my briefcase wherever I go.....one pencil-type and one dial-type). Then, since all new vehicles have on-board PSI-monitors, I check them after the engine starts to verify there are no further problems.....THEN I test-drive. Tire pressures are important because they are critical in determining how the vehicle will ride, steer, handle, and react over bumps. One also must remember, when checking them, that they increase and decrease roughly 1 PSI for every 10 degrees Farenheit of air temperature, and tires sitting with bright sunlight hitting them will be higher then those sitting on the opposite side of the car, in the shade.

I also don't particularly care for the idea of 24-hour test-drives because, even though I am a careful driver and not likely to wreck a car from my own stupidity or carelessness, the longer you have it out on the road or away from the dealership, the better the chances of something happening to it, whether it being stolen, hit by someone else, vandalized, damaged in a storm, or whatever.

 

^ I've heard of Ford dealers back in the 90's intentionally UNDER inflating tires on Explorers, pickup trucks, etc to make them ride smoother on the test drive. Of course that was before the whole Firestone tire debacle and back when trucks/suv's rode a lot stiffer unloaded.

 

I would like to see some proof that dealers are under inflating the tires for test drives. I highly doubt it.

As for the test drive, it does not loom good on Buicks part IMO. I think GM tried this years ago.

 

Yep.....Ford and Firestone had a big public confrontation about that. And it involved a lot more than just test drives. Because early-model Explorers were truck-based, and had a rather bouncy ride, Ford found it a lot simpler and cheaper to simply make the tires a little softer than to redesign the ancient Twin-I-Beam truck front suspension that actually went back to 1964 (the suspension was finally redesigned on the next-generation Explorer). But the Firestone Wilderness tires, though OK at the original recommended reassures and reasonably cool or warm road conditions, were not well engineered either, and simply didn't have a safe enough margin built-in for reduced PSIs at hot temperatures on hot pavement. Most of the tire-failures happened in the South or Southwest at hot temperatures, at high speeds, with heavily-loaded vehicles, at reduced tire PSIs.....added to the fact that some negligent owners were lax about maintaining even THOSE reduced PSIs. Ford and Firestone simply couldn't agree on what the recommended PSIs should be for those tires, and that, added to further owner-neglect in maintaining the PSIs, caused a number of serious accidents.

That incident, BTW, led to a separation of the Ford and Firestone companies, which had a close business partnership for 100 years, since the days of Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone.

I don't want to get too far off-topic though...Buick and/or long test-drives.

I disagree. I don't think it has anything to do with sales. Much more likely, It has to do with the still-lingering image among many of Buicks being Geezer-Mobiles, and a chance to prove to more people that that image is (now) a simply inaccurate stereotype. I don't personally think that it takes a 24-hour test to prove that, but the 24-hour policy seems to be Buick's or GM's reasoning, not mine.

And, if you think 24 hours is long, Saturn used to (essentially) give 30-day test drives by allowing buyers, after purchase, to return a new car during that period for any reason, even Buyer's Remorse or the fact that they decided they didn't like the color. With a clear title and no significant damage, the purchase price was fully refunded. I actually went through that process once, but I won't get into it in detail here because this is not the proper thread for it.

 

That's correct, they've done this before:

http://wot.motortrend.com/1507_buick...e_program.html

 

You're missing the point. It's more about the psychological effects of actually seeing yourself living with the car day to day, physically seeing it at your house in your garage. For many consumers this can be the tipping point to getting them excited about the purchase and following through.

 

Sort of like the old Toyota "Oh, What a Feeling" commercials from the 1980s.

 

Sales year to date thru June in the Buick division are -6.2%, and for June -12.5%. All models except the Encore are in negative territory, most by double digits.

It looks like Buick is resurrecting a program that worked for them in the past to boost sales. Not a bad idea IMO. Probably relatively low risk overall for them.

 

It's a good idea for GM to do this with the Buick Marque. Buick still seems to be finding itself despite the massively improved vehicles.

 

Part of that is that the Lacrosse has a superb new competitor in the Chevy Impala (which, IMO, is a better car). The Encore, though, seems to continue to sell despite another new competitor from Chevy....the Trax. The Encore probably outsells the Trax because it is the identical vehicle under the skin (drivetrain, chassis, suspension, etc.....), while the Encore has a far nicer, better-trimmed and more comfortable interior.

Agreed on the low risk. I don't see where it makes much difference either way, although pbm317 might have a point with the image and satisfaction factor.

 

Keep in mind that all of Buick's cars/suvs are at or near the end of their life cycles. I think the Enclave has been on sale since 2007, the LaCrosse since 2010, the Regal since 2011. I really do like the styling and driving dynamics of the Regal BTW, it straight boogies in the corners.

Also keep in mind Buick has totally gotten the shaft for a smaller 5 seat SUV priced between $25-35k, which is probably the hottest market segment right now. All they have is that way too small Encore that is styled after a potato.

 

I did a Caddy CTS 24 hour test drive about 10 years ago.

I took our younger son to camp in New Hampshire and thoroughly enjoyed the use of the car for a day.

The dumb *** dealer never even followed up to see if I was interested in the car.

Beyond that, I think having folks pull the car into their driveway to see how it looks there, using it for a commute or a Sunday day trip can be useful toward winning customers over.

 

Agreed on the Encore. I personally think that, while the interior is comfortable and refined, the vehicle is too small, shaped too much like the Chevy Trax (essentially a rebadge, though the Encore actually debuted before the Trax in the U.S.), and uses that same wimpy underpowered 1.4L turbo. The Encore and Trax both share the general design with the European Opel Mokka.

The Regal has had a sales problem for several years. The main problem is that it is being squeezed from both above and below at the same time. Buick sedan-traditionalists are mostly buying the LaCrosse, while many of the newer sedan customers (like me) choose the Verano....which sells at a substantially lower price than the Regal, but, like the Regal, is a redone German Opel product (Opel Astra and Insignia). The Regal, like the Lacrosse but unlike the Verano, does offer an AWD option, but IMO that option is overpriced like the LaCrosse AWD, and most Buick AWD customers end up in an Encore or Enclave anyway, not in a sedan.

 

I never even considered that the Buicks are at the end of the their life cycle. I did see an add for rebates and the longer the Buick was sitting on a lot, the larger the rebate. I have never seen that kind of incentive.