Even though GM says they have customers lined-up waiting for Enclaves because demand far outstrips production capability, Gasgoo reports they're going to export them to China later this year. It looks like GM's figured out how to expand their production capacity by at least 5k Enclaves, because that's how many they plan to ship to the PRC to sell through their partnership with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). When the Lambda-platformed CUV goes on sale in China in October, it will join the Park Avenue, LaCrosse, Regal, Excelle and GL8 models in Buick's Chinese showrooms. Last year, Buick racked up over 332k sales in China, almost twice the units they moved in the U.S. Oh, and if I was on the U.S. waiting list for an Enclave, I'd have a royal conniption fit over this news. Just sayin'…
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Do they cost more over there where they can make up the transporation, tariffs, fees, etc. with the sale?
Just looking at the state of affairs of Chinese cars – they are where Hyundai was back in the late 80’s – copying a lot of other’s ideas (many times just outright stealing) and have terrible reliability / longevity. I’d see a modern Buick as something exact opposite and reliable. No wonder they’d sell there – competition is weak and the car market is growing (versus shrinking in the US).
GM does things that lead me to think they’re trying to kill the BPG dealers. Roger Smith’s blunder of creating Saturn is perpetuated by its continued money-losing support while starving the established dealers and brands. I realize that many Saturn stores are more appealing than the older BPG stores, but more profit would help the dealers fix that.
This is just nuts.
What a genius idea! According to GM, there are supposedly long wait lists for the Enclave and dealers are starved of Enclaves period while also according to GM it can’t make more Enclaves due to some parts shortages. So now GM will magically increase production only to export them to China, absolutely brilliant!
Of course, this entire zany scheme hinges on the premise of believing what GM has been saying about Enclave demand and about the parts shortages. If this is just smoke and mirrors, then all bets are off, in more ways than one.
Liberty Buick in Peoria, AZ has rows and rows of Enclaves sitting on their lot. Many have been there for a long time. I will say the vehicle is popular in this area, but then again this area is also filled with Buick’s core market. Retirees.
TriShield :
February 13th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Liberty Buick in Peoria, AZ has rows and rows of Enclaves sitting on their lot. Many have been there for a long time. I will say the vehicle is popular in this area, but then again this area is also filled with Buick’s core market. Retirees.
Our Hertz office has already seen two rental Enclaves come and go. One has been in the fleet for six months and already has 14,000 miles. Demand outstripping supply, my ass.
Meanwhile, our local Buick dealer sits on four Enclaves (it’s a tiny dealer, too – they have perhaps 70 cars in stock across all three brands: Buick, Pontiac, and GMC).
This just exposes the “supplier” parts issues GM came up with to explain the less than exciting sales of the Lambda and Malibu.
Just looking at the Chinese vs. American lineup it is pretty easy to see which market GM values the most but I think that since they are getting the Enclave we should get the Chinese LaCrosse and Park Avenue just to make it fair.
Lichtronamo:
This just exposes the “supplier” parts issues GM came up with to explain the less than exciting sales of the Lambda and Malibu.
How right you are. And now we have some anecdotal, yet surprisng personal observations of Buick dealers having several Enclaves in stock?
Sounds more and more like GM hasn’t changed and is using smoke and mirrors, hype, and excuses to explain the mundane sales of it’s new products.
“Liberty Buick in Peoria, AZ has rows and rows of Enclaves sitting on their lot. Many have been there for a long time. I will say the vehicle is popular in this area, but then again this area is also filled with Buick’s core market. Retirees.”
Liberty Buick has exactly 24 Enclaves in stock. Of those, 21 are less than 30 days old.
The waiting lists are in China. Duh!!!
Skooter: Thanks for the facts…they are stubborn things…that said “rows and rows” type hyperbole is a little more entertaining !
Okay, maybe I’m slow…I read this thing three times…but am I correct that the Chinese love Buicks? Selling twice as many there as here?
Is this one of those cultural misunderstandings…ie, Germany and The ‘Hof?