I look forward to that write-up Mike

 

Agree. Have one mainstream and one luxury brand. I'm all for simplifying product lines and offerings to consumers as there is a lot of overlap, though at least we have gotten away from the eighties/nineties badge-engineering over the last 10-15 years.

 

Ending Buick would be an epic mistake. GM sells 200K+ units per year. It’s a bright spot. And not all people want a full luxury brand. Buick competes quite nicely with high end Highlanders, RAVs and the Toyota Avalon which Toyota originally described as a Japanese Buick.

 

With all due respect, I disagree. Apples and oranges. I don't see Mercury's former role as being similar to Buick. With rare exceptions, Mercurys were simply Fords with some rebadging, some very minor styling influences, and maybe some added standard equipment. That is simply not the case with Buick. Although some Buicks share basic platforms and drivetrains with Chevy (others don't), there are a number of significant differences between the two brands that make Buicks, in most cases, substantially different vehicles.

 

I disagree, I don't think most Buicks are that much different than their platform mates. Not the same, but not totally different.

 

In most ways, they are indeed different from Chevys. I've owned or sampled enough of them to know. The only real similarity is under the hood, where, with few exceptions, they do tend to use the same drivetrains.

If you want to disagree....fine. That's what forums are for. But I've sampled enough of both makes to see the differences for myself, and I'm not going to change my mind on it.

In the 80s and 90s, you were correct. Roger Smith, when he was CEO, cared virtually noting for product quality or differentiation, and basically stamped out cookie-cutter vehicles that were only half-assembled at the factory (sometimes not even that LOL). Bob Stempel (who succeeded Smith) was almost as imcompetent. But those days are long gone....and that is one of the things that Mary Barra deserves credit for (before the recent disaster, she had actually run the corporation well).

 

Sounds like " Not the same, but not totally different."

These two look similar to me.

 

First, that is a Opel product (the Mokka), not GM-designed. Second, the Encore's interior is vastly different from the Trax's.....there is a reason why it costs more. Third, the Encore comes wth a significantly better warranty.

 

That may be true today, when Mercury is no more. But that's a more recent development. This was not historically true; Buick had plenty of years--decades--where they were guilty of the same type of rebadging as Mercury. And now that Opel is no longer in the GM family, I see more Buicks being re-badged GM products going forward.

 

Up till recently, I've missed the Mercury nameplate myself (Lincoln was a real disappointment), but recent Lincolns, particularly the SUVs, have been so well done that I think that are finally going to take the sentimental place of what Mercury had been....in fact, a lot better.



Rebadging itself wasn't necessarily the main problem. Like the rest of GM (and Chrysler), Buick built some real junk in the 1980s, despite the popularity of the Grand National and GNX. They wouldn't get you to the grocery store without something breaking.

 

Disagree all you want. Both Mercury and Buick are pegged as 'Upscale' Ford's and Chevy's respectively. Today's Buick may be bordering 'Premium' BUT you have to compare them when they were both around 8 years ago in 2011, at which point Buicks were just as badge engineered as Mercury's were.

 

Well, let's go back 8 years, then. Again, depends on the model. When the Verano came out in late 2011 as a 2012 model, it was considerably more upscale vehicle than its downmarket Chevy Cruze cousin, enough so that it sold me...I took one home. Less than a year later, a repeat happened when the Encore debuted.....it was far nicer, both inside and out, than its Chevy Trax cousin, although I agree that the 1.4L turbo engine was a joke.

In fact, the last Buick I can remember that was truly badge-engineered was the Rainier, a Trail-Blazer/Ascender/Envoy clone...and it went out before 2011.

 

Buick Rainier was one yes. Another clone was the Buick Terrazzo minivan which was a clone of the Pontiac Montana SV6, Saturn Relay, and Chevy Uplander. In terms of closely related, the Buick Rendezvous was a corporate cousin and closely related to the Pontiac Aztek and the Buick Lucerne was closely related to the Cadillac DTS.

 

Yes, Thanks....I had remembered the Terrazza (corrected the spelling for you), but just didn't post it. (I'm not getting any younger LOL) You are correct on that one, but, again, it went out before 2011....in 2007.

The Rendezvous?.....I didn't mention that one for a reason. While, yes, done on the same platform as the Pontiac Aztec, it was about as different from the Aztec, inside and out, as two stable-mates can get. The Rendezvous, unlike the Aztec, actually looked like something from Planet Earth LOL.

 

The Buick Cascada Has Been Put Out Of Its Misery

Well, it finally happened. The Buick Cascada—which has been rumored to fall off the production line just about any day now—is dead. It’s time to wave goodbye to the plump convertible that never really warranted anything more exciting than a shrug and a ‘meh, I mean, it’s OK.’

Opel announced last year that the Cascada would cease production at the Gliwice, Poland plant sometime in 2019. And that “sometime” is now, GM Authority reports.

There are plenty of variants of the Cascada: it’s called the Buick Cascada in the US, the Opel Cascada in certain European countries, the Holden Cascada in New Zealand and Australia, and the Vauxhall Cascada in the UK. But no one, anywhere, was particularly interested in literally anything this convertible had to offer.

Soure