Buick dealers are telling us supplies of the ballyhooed mid-launch 2010 LaCrosse have slowed to a trickle. In fact, several dealers report they’re out of stock. Needless to say, waiting on the first hypeworthy Buick in ages isn’t putting them in a good mood. Nor are the problems rumored to be causing the delays; it seems initial reports of electrical problems may be true despite GM’s denial. We are hearing dark mutterings of weird malfunctions. Specifically, opening a door while the hood is popped causes the dashboard to light up like a Christmas tree. You’d think that with “only” four brands, GM could get a potentially brand-rescuing product launch right. Or at the very least get the story straight. We done a ‘ring ’round’ to check on supplies, and we can smell the napalm in the morning on this one . . .
Hurd Automall in RF’s Rhode Island reports they have one black LaCrosse CXL. The salesman said they’re getting one—count it, one—car per week.
TTAC commentator 210delray reports [below], “My employer has been trying to find one for weeks, and we finally received word from GM that they’ve located 9 in the entire state of Virginia (maybe excluding the far southwestern part) — 3 each at 3 dealers.”
Buick-Pontiac-GMC Trucks of Thousand Oaks, CA, has three fully-loaded, full-retail CXLs; two in white, one in (you guessed it) black. “We’re lucky we got that,” a despondent salesman admitted.
Considering GM’s ad spend on the car, the botched launch should make heads roll down at RenCen. But it probably won’t.
It will never outsell the current Lacrosse so all this does not matter.
akear :
It will never outsell the current Lacrosse so all this does not matter.
Why not? Current Lacrosse sold 36,800 cars in 2008.
That’s a good number of cars in general, but nothing earth shattering.
No reason the new Lacrosse won’t also be heavy on rebates and fleet sales, like the old one, either.
My employer has been trying to find one for weeks, and we finally received word from GM that they’ve located 9 in the entire state of Virginia (maybe excluding the far southwestern part) — 3 each at 3 dealers.
Talk about a botched launch…
Given the conditions under which this car was developed (imminent bankruptcy, mass layoffs and downsizing, supplier bankruptcies, etc etc), it is not a wonder that this car would have some bugs. All new cars do.
What is more damning is the fact that once again the advertising/marketing push for this car is not in sync with production. (Remember the launches of the Solstice, Camaro, Lamdas, Malibu.)
I wish that GM would cool its jets, quiet down and get quality and production up to speed. THEN they can toot their horn about the wonderful new Lacrosse.
Just another line not worth waiting in.
Twotone
The first hype-able Buick since the Enclave anyway and Buick dealers are drowning in those here.
Odd that they would have some issues off the bat with this car, considering it’s a Chevrolet Malibu with a fancy wrapper, which has already been in production for a few years.
At least GM is keeping the cars off the lots until the problems are worked out of it.
I misread the headline as “Buick AWOL”…
My local Buick dealer has 8 new Buicks in stock. And 5 of those are 2009 Lucernes. Maybe all the old people have stopped buying new cars?
TriShield
The first hype-able Buick since the Enclave anyway and Buick dealers are drowning in those here.
And yet, when the Enclave was first introduced, it was in extremely short supply. In GMspeak, it was in such high demand they couldn’t produce enough – even though they didn’t have any problem producing plenty Outlooks and Acadias on the same assembly line. Sounds like a repeat of the same thing, and we’ll soon be hearing that demand is so high they can’t possibly produce enough so they’re rationing them to dealers.
“We are hearing dark mutterings of weird malfunctions. Specifically, opening a door while the hood is popped causes the dashboard to “light up like a Christmas tree.”
Can someone please explain to me how the car’s computers know that the hood is open. If there is some sort of hood position sensor that is connected to the car’s other systems that’s just batshit insane.
My car has a spring loaded hood latch actuated by a cable release. It’s simple and effective, and guaranteed not to trip any dashboard warning lights ever, let alone ruin a mission-critical product launch.
What would Toyota do? Faced with the same problem, they would stop production until the product came out right.
If GM kept making the so-called defective product and shipping ’em to dealers, would we have grounds to bitch then?
My dad always taught me, “It ain’t what happens to ya, it is how you react.” Seems to me that GM is reacting the right way…or at least the desired way under these circumstances….not letting bad product get to the customer, and not talking about it until the problem is solved. What would you have them do?
Easy to arm-chair QB from the safety of the blogosphere. Should the product have been right when it was launched? No question. But since it ain’t, give GM SOME due for taking the appropriate containment actions.
A number of GM cars have a “Hood Ajar” indicator light on the dash. I guess this must be one of them.
Except, Mark, there are LaCrosses on dealers’ lots and in customers’ garages and GM PR is denying there exists a problem. Is that the right thing to do?
So, whom are we to believe? The dealers or GM PR? Talk about a rock and a hard place.
Flashback…
“The hood is ajar. The hood is ajar.”
Justin Berkowitz :
September 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Why not? Current Lacrosse sold 36,800 cars in 2008.
That’s a good number of cars in general, but nothing earth shattering.
———————————————-
Good? I mean, that’s less than 10% of Camry sales. Maybe good for Mitsubishi, but for GM?
You know, Toyota sold more Celica’s than that and they still killed the model.
“You know, Toyota sold more Celica’s than that and they still killed the model.”
Yes, but the last generation Celica was so ugly that it should have been strangled in its crib.
In Canada, the Allure is reportedly just now renamed LaCrosse, mis-badged cars are to go back to the dealership for a re-applique.
First they take the wire wheels off my Skylark conv. and now the fender vents are gone? What kind of nonsense is going on?
I think the issue is capacity, not assembly problems.
At the end of August, GM had a year to date total of 4,703 2010 LaCrosse’s produced.
Taking into account delivery time and sales, that only leaves roughly 2 cars per dealership.
If GM had money they could store cars away for 6 months and then sell them (I assume this is why Toyota launches cars in February).
there are 23 2010 LaCrosses within 50 miles of me.
I live north of Chicago. Not a lot but they are out there.
This is just recycled rumors.
“We are hearing dark mutterings of weird malfunctions. Specifically, opening a door while the hood is popped causes the dashboard to “light up like a Christmas tree.”
OK, I am not an engineer, but why can’t (didn’t?) the new LaCrosse use the same electrical components already being used successfully in other models? This sounds like someone decided to re-invent the wheel and in the process created a glitch.
Running a query through Buick’s website shows no 2010 LaCrosse models in NH. There are 27 in a 150 mile radius.
The closest CXL is a silver one in Lowell MA, about an hour and 15 mins away. The nearest CXS is a red one in Rutland VT, about 2 hours away.
This of course assumes that what is shown on the query actually exist at the dealers. Previous experience with this says not all of them are on the lot, but are in transit, or have been allocated a VIN for the dealer’s build.
I can think of no useful reason why one needs to be told that the hood is ajar. If you don’t notice that sitting in the driver’s seat, you shouldn’t be driving.
It’s too much complexity and it needs to stop. If the electronics are that sophisticated (read complicated) imagine what this turd will be like in four or five years with constant $2,000 repair bills to replace out of warranty processors. It can be done and it can be done in a much simpler fashion.
This car sounds like damaged goods already. First this problem, which is substantial, and now the inaneness of changing the Canadian model from “Allure” to “LaCrosse” after the car has left the assembly plant badged as an “Allure” and GM offering to rebadge it as a “LaCrosse”. Not a good omen for the “New GM”!
wth they mean tsome dealers havent gotten any yet?! im a salesman at rio rancho bpg in phillips ranch california and we been beggin and waiting on the 10′ lacrosse. and we only have 3 buicks left: 2 enclaves and 1 lucerne or however u spell it. they need to correct watever issues they have. im missin out on sales!! lol
Dear GM,
This building cars stuff sure is hard. What with all those moving parts, electronics, gasoline, and whatnot. I can totally see how you can’t get it right. Wait, haven’t you been building cars for over 100 years?????
Electrical glitches huh? Hey, that new fancy Volt has even more electronics on it than this Grandpa car. So how in heck do you think your dealers are going to “No Trouble Found” their way through the upcoming Volt Debacle if you are denying problems with this relatively simple vehicle?
P.S. Perception gap huh? Good one.
OK, maybe I’m just ignorant, but WHY in the HELL would you give this car a diffferent name in Canada? Copyright/trademark issues?
And the “”hood ajar” indicator – just stupid.
Finally, get the MFing car RIGHT before you even start sending them to dealers. Does anybody even check them??
This IS interesting. A friend has a test drive scheduled tomorrow for an 2010 LaCrosse.
However Buick’s website shows only seven cars, spread among three dealerships, available in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
As far as desirability of a door/hood/truck ajar indicator, I have it on my car and I like it. I’ll try to call him and get him to pop the hood and open the door and the same time and we’ll see what happens!
I like the looks of the LaCrosse. I hope my friend gets one. I love living vicariously. However the wife test drove an Audi and loved it, so the Buick folks have a tough act to follow.
Had a 1974 Buick Opel Manta that was sometimes did not respond to the Start position on the keyswitch. It took a while to figure it out but if you opened the door, which turned on the dome light, it’d start.
I always figured it had Lucus electrical parts in it somewhere.
I’m surprised at all of the questions as to the need for a hood ajar sensor. It’s really a very simple – and worthy – reason.
It’s called an integrated vehicle security system, otherwise known as a car alarm.
Considering GM’s ad spend on the car, the botched launch should make heads roll down at RenCen. But it probably won’t.
They’re advertising the LaCrosse? I haven’t seen a single tv ad, heard anything on the radio or even seen a billboard. I’ve seen that lame Enclave ad with the artiste director a bunch of times, and GM seems to be hyping the Chevy Equinox a lot, but I can’t recall seeing any actual marketing of the LaCrosse.
And wtf is up with the name change in Canada. Why would they think that using a French model name in Canada is a bad thing in a country that has a significant number of French speakers. Did they think it would alienate the anglos who are tired of the Quebecois’ mishega’as? That didn’t stop them from rebadging the Bonneville as the Parisian north of the border.
jtk: “My local Buick dealer has 8 new Buicks in stock. And 5 of those are 2009 Lucernes. Maybe all the old people have stopped buying new cars?”That, or Mercury is running a good sale on the Grand Marquis…
Can someone please explain to me how the car’s computers know that the hood is open. If there is some sort of hood position sensor that is connected to the car’s other systems that’s just batshit insane.
Plenty of cars have courtesy lights under the hood. That means there’s a plunger or mercury switch somewhere.
“The hood is ajar. The hood is ajar.”
No a jar is a jar.
While a hood can be a bonnet and a roof a hood, a jar will always be a jar.
the hood ajar switch would be part of the anti-theft system. cars have had them for years, this is nothing new/interesting.
Lacrosse is french-canadian slang for masturbation, so they call it something else in canada.
I had a Merkur XR4Ti on which, on hot days, when you applied the brakes, the rear wiper would wipe exactly once. Also, exactly once, the entire array of IP lights (there were like ten of them IIRC) lit up simultaneously. I reasoned that, since I had just filled with gas I knew the low fuel light was bogus, same with the seat belt light, since I had my belt fastened, the others (including brake problems and low oil) were bogus as well. Over the next ten miles or so the lights went out one at a time.
I used to joke that, although the car may have been assembled in Germany, the electrical harness clearly was from the UK.
Mark of Excrement. Again. And again…
When GM tries to ape manufacturers other models they have been less successful. The new Lacrosse does not look like a Buick, and 80 year old auntie Jane is not going to like the small rear windows. Why copy the Lexus ES series in the first place.
This is why the somewhat stodgy current design is going to be a better seller.
The new Lacrosse looks better to my eyes but the older buyers will not be that pleased.
Dear Toyota,
The Lacrosse is a way better car then that piece of you know what Lexus. I had one of your Lexus ES and let me tell you, what a piece of SHIT that was!!! I don’t know how you do it, but you seem to hide all the bad press about yourself. I started digging one day to see what I could find and I was surprised at the amount of bad stuff I tracked down! You dont make better cars then everyone else you are just better at hiding your shit!!!
Love you never consumer “A”
My sales prediction.
30,000 – 2010
Sounds just like the mis fires of the 1982 Cavalier launch described in Brock Yates old book “The Fall Of The American Automobile Industry”. Old GM lives.
Ronnie Schreiber :
September 4th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
And wtf is up with the name change in Canada. Why would they think that using a French model name in Canada is a bad thing in a country that has a significant number of French speakers.
Lacrosse is slang for masturbation in Quebec. :)
Chill out guys…I remember when I had to wait 6 months for a Civic.
Can someone please explain to me how the car’s computers know that the hood is open. If there is some sort of hood position sensor that is connected to the car’s other systems that’s just batshit insane.
IIRC E46 BMW ///M3 with SMG would not start with hood unlatched. Not sure about 6-speed, tho.