It’s official. The little sedan that carried the entry-level luxury flag for Buick has fallen in battle.
Its assailant? The crossover, and changing consumer preferences.
General Motors sent a memo to Canadian dealers today stating the compact Verano sedan will cease production at the Orion Assembly plant in Michigan on Oct. 2016, according to a report in The Globe and Mail.
Why Canadian dealers? Well, it’s the best-selling Buick model north of the border, selling six times as many units last year as its full-size brother, the Lacrosse. Oddly, last month was the model’s best sales month in the Great White North.
The automaker’s compact crown will now be handed to the Encore mini crossover.
Earlier this month anonymous sources leaked that the Verano’s death was imminent. U.S. sales dropped considerably last year, as Buick put most of its effort into building crossovers and courting the Chinese market.
The Cruze-based compact was likely seen as too “niche market” by Buick executives, who previously said they’d prefer to offer a smaller number of large-volume vehicles.
Offered with an upgraded engine lineup, including a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, the Verano was a step up from lesser GM compacts. A quiet, plush cabin and available six-speed manual (paired with the turbo) was a nod towards individuality, but there just weren’t enough individuals walking into Buick dealerships to buy one.
[Source: Globe and Mail] [Image: ©2013 Alex L. Dykes/The Truth About Cars]
They could discontinue the entire Buick brand and not really be missed.
Hey man I might still want that LaCrosse someday. They seem to depreciate more quickly than a Super Epsilon V6 Impala.
I paid $6500 for my ’07 Lacrosse CXL with 68k on it last year (2015), lol. must be the “old people” vibe and (until 2010) the dated tech. Whatever, great bang for the buck.
Yeah, old people vibe and nobody wants those, really. The revised model was so much improved it sort of cast down the old one.
I really like mine. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.
Purchase bias ;)
My 70-year old Mom picked a 2010 LaCrosse CXL with 2.4l for $11K with 40K right after the snow storm in Philly area. I didn’t know how good the car was until I showed her the Edmund’s comparison to the Lexus ES…they picked the Buick!
Your comment is 100% FACT.
Badge Engineering at its finest.
Why not just build CHEVY better?
Americans like Chevy.
Right?
BPG for life, yo.
Cadillac is too screwed up to survive and I won’t buy any Chevrolet not named Corvette.
BTSR is spot on. Why build the same model and rebrand it when they can just do what they’re doing with the Suburban? One Chevrolet model and 4 trim levels. You could eliminate most if not all of Cadillac that way too.
Buick is No. 4 in luxury/near-luxury segment behind Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW. I don’t buick going anywhere.
Just because you and the PR hacks at GM want to spin Buick as a luxury brand doesn’t make it so. No one is cross-shopping Buick with the Germans. Save for a couple of ES 300 conquest buyers, they’re still catering almost exclusively to Detroit loyalists.
And don’t bother bringing out your usual trope about how Buick is outperforming Acura in whatever metric. Folks around here take Acura even less serious than Buick. Both are redundant joke brands.
Buick6, or the combined sales of Cadillac and Buick in the ~$30,000 price range rule everybody by 50,000 units in sales. GM must be making money, hand over fist with all that badge changing!
They should have TriFecta tuned these sumabitches from the factory; it would have been the modern day Buick Grand National!
>> or the combined sales of Cadillac and Buick in the ~$30,000 price range rule everybody…
Is that the sticker, or what they actually sold for?
Buffalo, NY still loves Buicks. They’re as common as flies here. Lucernes, Encores, Centuries, Park Aves, Lacrosses (both W and Epsilon), Veranos, Enclaves, Regals….everything. Heck, I still see a handful of Olds Aleros each day and A-Body Centuries weren’t an uncommon sight here up until about 2013.
People still love some Aleros. I saw a very clean one which caught my eye on the drive in to work this morning. It was a dark red metallic with gold badging. Pretty sharp.
I’ve got a *strong* hankering for any of the Final 500 Olds’.
Except the Alero which you mentioned, which IIRC wasn’t offered as a Final 500 Edition anyway.
Oh yes it was!
http://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/2004-OLDSMOBILE-ALERO-GLS-SEDAN-THE-FINAL-500-66357
Sheesh.
I’ve seen the Auroras, and even saw a Bravada Final Five Hundo (in person, just driving down an interstate like it was no big deal!) but never an Alero.
Dam. Lol
I’d take any Final 500 Oldsmobile, except maybe a Silhouette. And maybe even then, if the price was right.
Near-luxury? Is that what you call a Mitsubishi Mirage when it’s parked next to an S550? It’s parked “near-luxury”. What really defines it? Is it hand stitched vinyl on the dash?
Buick is probably the #1 near luxury brand at rental counters.
Take out rental and fleet sales and Buick is not in the top 5.
>>I don’t buick going anywhere.<<
We can all agree on that.
Good point. Hertz in Salt Lake city tried selling me an “upgrade” to a Verano when they didn’t have my reserved full size available when I showed up at the counter. Anyone know if the Verano had a fleet spec, or are they all regular models sent to fleet? I recall the ‘bu being built to a 1FL spec for fleets.
except if they canceled Buick here, it’d tank their sales in China.
>> except if they canceled Buick here, it’d tank their sales in China.
Just embed hidden text about the Tiennemen Square massacre into the press releases and their filters would block them. They’d never find out!
“Tiennemen Square massacre” ?
Do you mean that unfortunate traffic accident involving a tank?
I was in Tiananmen square about 10 days ago, officially that event never happened no mention of it in local tourist guides.
In the Simpsons China episode, they showed Tiananmen Square. In the cartoon version there was a plaque there that read “On this spot in 1986 absolutely nothing happened”.
That always made me chuckle.
@JimZ
“except if they canceled Buick here, it’d tank their sales in China.”
I came here to say the same thing. This has been stated over, and over again, But people can’t seem to get it into their thick heads.
Besides the be title should read (2011-2016). The Verano went into production in 2011 not 2012.
“except if they canceled Buick here, it’d tank their sales in China.”
Pretty good one. :-)
What?
“What?”
You weren’t making a Tiennamen Square joke – my bad.
The Verano is/was a lousy/meh car. My local Costco checkout gal traded her new Verano for a new Mailbu and told me how much better the Chevy is.
As Lutz said, Buick is a dead brand in the USA and the hodgepodge of disparate rebranded Opels and last-tier Korean cars (Encore) that masquerade as Buicks here will disappear once China shows Buick the door.
GM is probably the # 2 brand in China behind VAG.
Lots of Chevys, Buicks and Cadillacs in Shanghai and Beijing.
For now.
China will push them out when it is time.
Oh no? My 84 year old Dad would shake his head and wonder what the world is coming to…….
To which I would say, “Dad, just go buy a new Toyota Avalon.”
Attention Buick Haters: Buick is not going anywhere. Sorry!
The Verano isn’t being axed because Buick is struggling, or as the first stage in the discontinuation of the brand.
The Verano is being axed because sedans are not as popular or dominant a segment as they once were.
Buick has three sedans, which is at least one too many, so the Verano goes. Simple as that.
As for CUVs, with the Envision coming to American shores, Buick will have three of them, in big, medium, and small sizes. And CUVs ARE popular and dominant right now.
Buick will keep selling lots of Encores.
They will keep selling lots of Enclaves.
And they will sell a lot of Envisions when they show up in dealerships.
They will keep selling them because people will keep wanting them.
Just because YOU don’t like them, don’t want them, and won’t buy them, doesn’t mean they aren’t liked, wanted, and bought. It’s a simple concept, really, called PERSONAL PREFERENCE.
Sales of the Regal and LaCrosse may continue to suffer, but as long as Buicks are being sold that doesn’t really matter.
Those aligned against Buick for whatever reasons and are rooting for its downfall may as well save their breath, because in the words of Peggy Lee, Buick “ain’t going no place.”
That night I swore I could hear the sound of taps being played… softly.
The Old Man had a ’37 Oldsmobile Six.
Fuuuuuudge!!!!
+10,000!
Lifebouy–“piquant, after-dinner flavor!”
Some men are Baptists, others Catholics; my father was an Oldsmobile man.
(And Buick! Now Honda!)
But Regal, a clear winner, lives on! /s.
Buick by Opel!
Following the rollout of the new LaCrosse, Buick has a new larger Regal in the wings that is built on the current Malibu platform (which is basically a longer wheelbase version of the Opel Insignia platform).
The new Regal will no longer share any sheet metal with the Insignia and will be closer to the Malibu than to anything else. Fortunately, the new Regal will get a lot more rear-seat leg room which should help it sell better.
Given that the new Regal will be larger, it’s kind of sad that Buick is discontinuing the Verano. The new Regal won’t compete with the Verano the way the current one does.
Is the new Regal getting a V6 option? Otherwise don’t care.
If I’m stuck with a turbo I4 I can lease a 320i or IS200t and at least get RWD out of the deal.
Hear, hear.
The king is dead but not forgotten.
As I said to the man when test driving something last week and he said – you know, the I4 would save you two grand and be better on gas – I’m only looking for the V6 because you won’t sell me a V8.
@MrGreenMan
You should have told him a bicycle would save you even more both in price and gas.
What ajla said.
Perhaps a twin-turbo, dubs, and a black mirror-finish paint job. Put a full set of Borg-Warner instruments in it.
GNX 2.0!
Unless things really dropped off in 2016, 32K units would be plenty for a near rebadge margin model on top of a volume model. Well, in a sane world at least.
2011* 265[19]
2012 41,042[20]
2013 45,527[21]
2014 43,743[21]
2015 31,886[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Verano
Encore has only had one great year of sales thus far, and it basically sucks in its current form.
Year
Buick Encore
U.S. Sales
Buick Encore
Canadian Sales
2013
31,956
3550
2014
48,892
5683
2015
67,549
4915
2016 YTD *
23,808
1510
http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/12/buick-encore-sales-figures.html
I am awaiting comments from ‘Dave from Calgary’ regarding this decision.
“The” Verano is a good car. My parents have a 2.0T in their Regal, and its been rock solid thus far and a really nice car to drive. Had a few base 2.4L Verano as courtesy cars, even took one to Vancouver and Seattle. Has the same great seats, and quiet and comfortable ride that makes the Verano a nice small car. So, I really don’t judge all Verano based on my experience, because when my car is working properly its still really clear what attracted me to it in the first place. I’m pretty sure that had I bought an AT I wouldnt be where I am today, since most of the mechanical and electrical/sensor issues are stemming from the transmission.
“My” Verano is a misbegotten waste of metal. I constantly shake my head at how bad this individual car has been. Honestly, my car is so comically bad, my GF likes to joke that she wonders if I’m secretly in a reality show, and everyone at GM is laughing at my travails.
So, I don’t think discontinuing the Verano is a great idea because I hate the Verano or anything. If they say its not selling, and they say its not worth revising and continuing, they are the experts right? Just too bad the only small Buick left is the Eggcore.
Congrats on being more mature about your Buick than I am about my Dodge.
“I’m pretty sure that had I bought an AT I wouldnt be where I am today, since most of the mechanical and electrical/sensor issues are stemming from the transmission.”
It makes me wonder if your manual-equipped Verano was assembled in-line with the automatics, or a run of “manual-only” units were built on a Saturday by hung-over techs…
You have too many Verano sadz. :(
I just want to go out and buy this:
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details.html?requestSource=b&adId=1061545351
We wont justify a third vehicle. The hyundai is dirt cheap to run and paid for long ago.
But, if I sold my car for 20 kilobucks (VERY unlikely, its very well kept but has 3″ of service records in two years), it would be another 5 to pay off lease, then 5 to buy new vehicle. Or, about the same in payments till the lease is up. So, at this point the best use of the same amount of money either way is just keep the Verano. At least its a hell of a tax deduction.
Haha, good lort that’s yellow! You sure you’d want RWD up there?
It would be fine with good winter tires, provided it has the G80 diff, which it should in that trim. And maybe a sidewalk slab in the box.
Its just so hard to find an SLS Sonoma stepside with those rims, in what looks to be a well kept, rust free condition.
Every single newspaper ad was littered with Verano’s selling at liqudation prices, clearly it was the bargain when the suckers bought the Cruze.
North American manufacturers just can’t get their head around the phrase “premium small car”. This decision will just bite Buick in the ass when gas prices inevitably rise. The Encore has a weird stunted look, hardly premium.
Neither can anyone else though. Everyone says the only Verano competitor is the ILX, which everyone constantly pans. Whats left? BMW 320 lease special? GTI?
Its not just Buick who cant or just aren’t inclined to figure it out.
Dave, its not okay to point out holes in someone’s anti-US carmakers rant. Its always the stupid Americans who can’t figure it out, even when others try and fail at the same concept.
Just like how Ford/GM/Ram full-size trucks are so gaudy and useless, and only driven by small-penis posers, but the Tundra is excluded because Toyota.
Why must you be such a foolish, pro-USA, blinders wearing cheerleader, especially when many “foreign” manufacturers (e.g. Honda, e.g. Toyota, etc.) produce as many of their vehicles they sell in the U.S. market within the continental U.S., if not more as a % of their vehicles sold, than some “American” manufacturers (e.g. GM, e.g. Ford, etc.)?
(This comment also applies to the components that go into the assembly/production of those vehicles; many Hondas sold in the U.S. have a higher U.S. sourced parts content than many GM vehicles.)
The base FWD Audi A3 1.8T is probably the other most direct competitor aside from the ILX. The F30 gen 3 series is quite a bit bigger, and the GTI is for a totally different customer. The Jetta GLI is closer, but still really not the same. That’s just a fast Jetta, not really a premium car at all.
What’s a shame is I think Buick really could have gotten this right if they had put ANY effort into differentiating it from the Astra other than changing the grill and adding sound insulation. This is a problem that GM keeps running into over and over when they try and sell their ROTW cars here. Holden Monaro? Stick a Pontiac badge on the front, call it a GTO. Not selling? Kill it. Holden Commodore? Stick a Pontiac badge on the front, call it the G8. Kill it (and Pontiac). Now let’s try selling the Commodore again with a Chevy badge on the front. WHY IS IT NOT SELLING???
The Verano had the exact same issue. They didn’t even bother to change the EU style x100 RPM gauge to the standard American x1000 gauge. Slap a Buick badge on the nose, call it a day.
In spite of all that, I really liked the car in turbo form. The throttle response was better than the turbo Regal’s, steering was decently weighted and reasonably sharp, the seats were very comfortable, much more so on my back particularly than the Regal’s BMW aping seats, and it was S-class quiet inside which was a nice respite from the road roar that you get in an ILX.
The problem I think was that the humble Astra roots were a bit too humble. You couldn’t get a power seat recline at any price. Now you can, but of course it’s too late to matter. Both the head and tail lights were cheap halogen bulbs, when mainstream family sedans were coming with LED tail lights a full model cycle earlier. The Atari grade center LCD between the gauges was somewhat forgivable in 2012 considering that Infiniti Gs and base Audis had something similar, but that could’ve been better too.
If the Verano had been a clone of the 2016 Astra from day one instead of the old car, I think it could’ve done very well. The new Astra has a far more modern and attractive dash layout, and the IP looks current as well instead of looking 10 years out of date. And yes, the gauges in the new Astra are about a billion times better than Cadillac’s.
I think a Buick-ized Astra with a 12-way power seat with memory position, adjustable bolsters, and full LED lights like the new Astra has could do fairly well against the A3 and CLA, especially if they got rid of the stupid venti-ports which NO ONE cares about, and gave it more aggressive styling less targeted at retirement communities.
Oh well, I guess we’re stuck with the baby CUV that looks like a kid’s shoe, and is about as fast as a lawn mower. Better make sure you put it on rabbit.
The Civic Touring is a much better car than the Verano.
For Buick it was a mercy killing.
I haven’t seen a Honda yet I’d like to drive ten hours. I’ve owned two and ridden in many. Buick builds that feature into the Verano standard. When your commute is thirty minutes highway, the light airplane feeling of a Honda gets tiresome fast. Honda’s are great cars but they aren’t to be lived in.
“The Civic Touring is a much better car than the Verano”
It’s also a better car than the Acura ILX, which has been outsold by the Buick by a 2:1 margin.
Is Acura still putting the 150 hp econobox engine in their entry level luxury car, or did they give it a “mercy killing”?
@davekaybsc- “put it on rabbit” !- my nomination for Comment Of The Year !
Davekaybsc I really enjoyed reading your comment. Made me laugh :)
Davekaybsc:
Right on, right on, right on!
My neighbour now owns a Buick Mokka, after her late 90s Regal got totaled in a winter accident. I’m not sure why she bought it, but she seems to like her Buicks. I think she’s in her late 50s.
I briefly considered one as a replacement for my Sportwagen, but then I realized that they put that underpowered 1.4T Cruze engine in an SUV and stopped looking at it.
Mazda thinks the sGT trims of the Mazda3 compete. They do, for the most part, but are substandard on noise and highway ride quality.
same old story…GM designers and engineers build a great car and then marketing destroys it.
Any credibility you might have thought you had was destroyed by the comment “GM designers and engineers build a great car” with respect to the Verano.
Now hold on, Hoss. I just went looking to see if anyone broke out Buick’s China sales of this thing’s cousin the Excelle GT. Buick itself has a page addressing that but the syntax is deliberately sketchy. However my take was that the Verano/Excelle combined for over 300,000 global sales.
Maybe what Americans see as a sad little anti-Buick actually strikes a positive chord with Chinese?
It’s indeed a great car. It’s the nicest affordable compact sedan, once you’ve decided you want a compact sedan. It takes the best of what Buick does best (seats, NVH, highway manners) and packages it in a little car. Ford doesn’t make that, Chrysler certainly doesn’t. Reliability is fine.
The wheel is heated, the seats are sublime, and you can get a honking big turbo. For one you can get a real Buick that isn’t full size. That counts a lot for people who drive long distances, or for those who want a city car that doesn’t rattle their teeth or let in so much damn noise.
Mark my words, this is a curbside classic. If I were in the market for a small affordable innocuous car, a turbo Verano would be the first car I’d check out. Believe me we’re going to miss it.
The Version rides better, is quieter (less road & wind noise), and has a better interior with more useable passenger and trunk space than a “premium” Cadillac ATS.
Want to buy mine bryanska? Always dealer serviced. Always!!!!!!
The Verano has definitely been on the TTAC staff’s minds:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/06/my-candidate-for-murilees-ultimate-sleeper-buick-verano-turbo/
You are forgetting that 1.7 Billion Chinese aspire to have a Buick after their first Chery and before their ascension to Audi territory. I believe they flogged One Million Buick’s in the Magic Kingdom. That is a lot of cars.
The reality is Cadillac volume is down and dealers are not happy. GM would rather sell you a Cadillac Cimarron than a Buick Verano.
I don’t know why people keep forgetting this. They are making room for the Cadillac.
If true, then Buick has been rendered as vestigial as Oldsmobile by the brain trust at General Motors, and to make matters worse, if true, there’s absolutely no “sure thing” that by dragging Cadillac down the true badge-engineered path again, whereby Cadillac is selling more rebadged Chevys (something that Johan ostensibly put up a firewall against – an absolute line in the sand), that it will help Cadillac improve its image, products, sales and/or profitability (if anything, it will damage Cadillac’s already wounded image more, and diminish their product quality even further).
It would be no exaggeration to state that killing Buicks such as the Verano, in order to create space for the same rebadged Chevy Cruze on Cadillac Dealership lots, as a way to pump up sales and churn at said Cadillac Dealers, is absolutely a strategy that echoes Cimarron.
Cimarron v2.0
If GM wants to foist a 2018/2019 Cimarron on Cadillac, then it’s more than welcome to.
Mark my words, in about 20 years, the only GM brands that’ll be left will be Chevy and GMC. The LTZ trim will be Chevy’s equivalent to Ford’s Titanium.
You heard it here first, folks.
Yeah, and it’s geocentric. Buick continues to do great…in China.
Probably not so much. Buick is getting into the hot CUV market with Envision and already with the Encore.
So my mother owns a “one and done” model now? Great. And I was the one that introduced her to the Verano to begin with. That said, she loves the car, so I guess it makes no difference, as long as she’s happy. It fits the bill for her, as she had no desire for a large car and wanted one with a few niceties. It is perhaps the quietest car I’ve ever driven. The seats are comfortable and it has enough power for my 72 year old mom to be happy. Plus, she loves the metallic brown exterior and the two-tone interior. As she drives cars for 10 years, this is likely her last new car purchase. No real problems with it as of yet (just over 40k on it now, and it’s a 2012) and it still looks nice when washed/waxed.
Sad, as this seems to be a “thing” with GM when it comes to their product. The Verano “shoulda/coulda” been a true contender. Now I fear Buick will simply slide into being a dumping ground for foreign-made products with a Buick badge slapped on them and sold in dealerships proudly waving the American flag on July 4th.
It was a contender and proved it metal vs the ILX in many comparisons. Autoblog or Motortrend even switched engines and the rematch went to the Verano. As you know it is a very nice riding car and even quiter than my XTS VSport Platinum.
But the CUV craze is here and GM is making the adjustment in product.
“Mettle” must be proven. “Metal” is like beer cans & sh1t.
Hopefully they make that 2.0T an option in the Cruze. Just what the doctor ordered.
Cruze SS – that would get my attention.
Kill buick usa. Buick china will be fine. Then kill the ats and new camaro. What a terrible platform.
Wait until we see what Acura does with the ILX.
Seeing as how the engineering is already done perhaps GM can make a new Cruze trim with the 2.0T?
apology for poor english
when were you when buck veranno dies
i was sat at home drinking motor oil when dan ring
‘veranno is kill’
‘no’
and you??????