Buick Bets on Mid-Size Segment

Similar to its parent company, the General Motors Buick division is experiencing tough times during the global recession, with sales going down for most models. However, Buick plans to pay more attention to the mid-size segment which, according to the company's representatives, has the potential to bring better sales than the others. Moreover, the full-sized models market unveiled a drop of 35 percent this year, according to figures provided by Susan Docherty, vice president of Buick-Pontiac-GMC.

Buick delivered 50,799 units of its full-sized Lucerne between January and November, which represents a 34.1 precent drop when compared to the first eleven months of 2007.

However, the mid-size segment seems to become more attractive for Buick as the upcoming 2010 LaCrosse is expected to bring very high sales. LaCrosse is due to be unveiled to the general public at the forthcoming Detroit Auto Show in January 2009 and will be sold in China by General Motors.

"The partnership that we have with Shanghai GM means that in our future Buick portfolio, a lot of the design and engineering work can be done over there. Having a design and engineering center in China that we can tap into definitely helps reduce our North American costs,” Susan Docherty was quoted as saying by Autonews.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Buick will abandon full-size models, Docherty added, but the automaker will do its best to secure the future and establish a strong connection between the market demand and its vehicle lineup.

"I am just saying that it's going to be a lot less than it has been in the past. You want to make sure as you look forward to GM's next 100 years that we are putting our efforts in market segments that are big and thriving, in ones that don't have a high decay rate,” she told the same source.