Yep.....and they built (and sold) plenty of big sedans there when she was managing it.

 

Are those international designs easily adaptable to north american regulations? I'm talking about when the market taste changes and how quickly GM can adapt to new market demands. I'm not talking about the UAW or whatever you are veering off into. Do you not understand the conversation here?

 

I feel like Buick, and Lincoln will both be gone in the next decade. GM will concentrate on Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac mostly. Ford will become mostly a Truck and SUV company, while spinning off the Mustang into its own brand.

That is my prediction.

 

What do you think will happen to Buick in China? It's currently the top-selling brand in that country. It's one of the main reasons the brand still exists in the U.S.

 

Interesting point. Maybe Buick would exit the US market, and just become the Opel of China.

 

The USA (and Canada tends to follow) has some specific new vehicle regulations (like emissions, and headlight and taillight) that are different from the rest of the world. These specific regulations make it more difficult and more expensive to produce a North American version of a vehicle on a foreign assembly line, especially in small numbers.

But if we updated our new vehicle regulations to match what the rest of the world has, that would make it much easier to build and export vehicles to North America.

 

I never understood why Buick had to remain a North American brand post-bankruptcy a decade ago. It could have been kept but sold only in China. That would have avoided the 2-tier premium lineup that GM now has (Buick and Cadillac) in North America.

 

I remember in 1998, Nissan (and likely many others) sold a California car, and a rest of the USA car. Mine had Calif. emissions as a result of being sold in NY.

By the time I bought my BMW in late 2006, I asked a salesperson, must I buy a car in NY, to get Calif. emissions? He put me on hold, and came back 5 min. later, saying he's told all BMWs are 50-state cars.

Flash forward to late 2011. My wife buys a new GM, in PA, and it meets Calif. emissions, as PA had joined at some point, along with NY, NJ, MD, VT, MA, etc. At this time, General Motors still made 3 versions of the same vehicle, with differing emissions. They can do that, and they can't fix a dirty voltage issue going back to the 90's. I saw a new Yukon Denali XL where the right side LEDs were burned out. imho these are hints that the co. is not nimble enough to do things that make sense. Maybe they need to get smaller to succeed.

 

 

That wouldn't work, because GM no longer owns Opel. Sold them off last year. The current Buick Regal, introduced last year, will probably be the last of the Opel-designed Buicks. GM also broke its ties with Holden of Australia (Buick currently sells a big RWD sedan in China that is Holden-based, like the Chevy SS and the former Pontiac G8 and GTO)...so Holden can probably also be eliminated as a source.

 

Someone asked a question and I answered.

Don't put words in my mouth. I never said that automakers are not importing to the USA, only that it would be easier and cheaper, and make it economical even for small numbers (low demand). We could, theoretically, get access to a much greater variety of vehicles if we standardized new vehicle regulations with the rest of the world.

 

Hard to see the Mustang being spun off into its own brand unless they plan on different variants of the Mustang like an SUV.

 

That's a big IF. And we would probably get all the cool cars that Japan and other countries get that we dont if all the regulations are unified.

 

She's just ignoring the fact that a manufacturer cant just simply import a vehicle from another country. The steering wheel may not even be on the same side for gods sake.