Some of my older friends and relatives view Cadillacs/Lincolns as ultimate American luxury cars and Buicks as “nice” cars. I don’t know of any 60ish and under folk who do (in my urban community). A Caddy is a mark of “I’ve made it!” for older Af-Americans in my area, whites in my more rural homeland buy Lincoln Contis (are they even around anymore?)
TBH, many cars are much the same these days – American and foreign. Even entry-level econoboxes tend to have AC, power windows, ABS, stereo perks, and similar reliability track records in some classes. My BMW X3 probably doesn’t blow other midsize American SUVs out of the water in really big ways.
I thought of Lincoln’s and Caddies as American made luxury cars for the wealthy while Buick was the middle class luxury car from GM. Just a little more snob appeal than an ordinary Chevy or Ford. I think those concepts faded away as imports became more acceptable.
Buick has ranked high on a number of quality surveys fairly recently, and they position themselves (still) to provide a bit more comfort and luxury vs. offerings which sit on similar platforms and with similar engines at GM, such as from Chevy.
We’re at a point in time where quality across the big brands is so high that you simply should go and drive some Buick models, to see if you like them.
Generally, suspension tuning and seat choices will lean a bit more towards comfort than towards sporting aspirations.
But again, all modern cars are extremely capable and you should buy what you like. No particular model or engine are known to be ticking time bombs, if you’re shopping new or 1-3 years old (older are probably fine, but I can’t recall from memory now). Note: There are many brands of cars where a given model-year range would be a big fat “Do not Buy”. Generally, every German car over 8 years old, sans Porsche (but they have some real shitter years, too). Lol.
To be honest, I don’t remember the commercials beyond the tag line and that from Carlin’s bit on obscene commercials–“I’d walk a mile for a Camel. (a-henh)”
My first thought was “Buick is still a line? GM still makes them? I thought they where discontinued.” Huh. They’re still selling them… Perhaps I was thinking about Pontiac. Ah. That’s it.
Their reputation is they are boring old person cars, which is why they are desperately trying to counteract with their ad campaigns.
I don’t get it. If a Brand name has a negative connotation, to the point where you are basically acknowledging that in your commercials, why not just rebrand? Hell, whole companies have rebranded to ditch their bad reps and that seems a helluva lot more cumbersome than just slapping on a new logo (or less ill reputed existing logo).
TOTALLY agree they should have ditched Buick and kept Pontiac. First thing you think of with Pontiac is the Trans Am, which is NOT an old people boring car.
I think the hierarchy for the American manufacturers, historically, was:
Ford > Mercury > Lincoln
Chevrolet > Buick > Cadillac
Dodge > Plymouth > Chrysler
… where the ones to the left were the entry-level models for younger people, the middle had some luxury features for those who were established in their career and life, and the ones on the right were supposed to be full luxury models for the managers and oldsters entering retirement. They wanted to keep customers loyal to the brand. Mercury and Plymouth are both gone now.
I agree the reputation of American luxury car brands for old duffers has been hard for them to shake. And now the brands are probably more mixed anyway WRT luxury features and toys. And then there are the truck lines, performance cars, etc. I also agree most modern cars are going to be pretty reliable with good performance - the deciding factors for selection are just going to be personal.
I think that that’s more or less accurate, except that you’re missing the two now-defunct GM marques – Pontiac and Oldsmobile. Chevrolet was definitely the lowest tier for GM, and Cadillac was definitely the highest tier, and the other three were somewhere in that middle space.
I have a Buick, a 2016 Verano. It’s large enough to pick up a friend ands fit 2 sets of golf clubs. It’s been very reliable but I only drive around 9K miles a year. It’s an OK looking car without being flashy which is perfect for business lunched when I drive. Looks like this:
I really have no loyalty to the brand. Truth be told the main reason I bought it was because I got such a great deal on a discontinued model. The dealer had 4 on the lot and just wanted to get rid of them. I got almost 10K off list price and 0% financing so I got a 35K$ car for just over 25K$ and a very reasonable monthly payment.
Yeah, I saw Pontiac as GM’s performance brand, more or less. And Oldsmobile - seemed to occupy the same space as Buick. Not sure what GM was thinking there, other than the idea of shelf-space?
I think what also killed this so-called hierarchy of brands was that while GM, Ford, and Dodge thought they could build the same car on the same chassis and throw-on a few more bells and whistles, then charge the customer a lot more for the perceived cache of the brand - well, people just saw right thru that. I recall Toyota ran afoul in this area at one point being that some of their Lexus models were nearly identical, mechanically, to their Toyota models, but of course you pay a premium for a Lexus name plate. Most people are not that dumb.
I’ve owned only one Buick in my 50 years of driving; it was a 2003 Rainier SUV, a very good looking car I bought from a Lincoln dealer in 2014. But “good looking” was nearly all there was to it, IMO. In fairness I’ll say that it was extremely comfortable in just about all road conditions, and the built in air compressor was handy.
Non-isolated window, lock, and mirror controls on the door panel, water catchers all. I drove in rain with one or more open windows too many times because of inoperative window controls. Same with door locks and mirror controls. One door panel trim piece broke, and I refused to pay $120 for about an ounce of plastic. Within the first couple of months my ex-wife managed to run it a few quarts low on engine oil because the idiot light failed. Water pump replacement cost about $1000, since the entire engine had to be lifted or pulled to get to the thing. In less than a year I got pretty discouraged with it.
Engine diagnostics finally disclosed something that sounded a lot to me like “imminent total failure”; the replacement estimate was in the $5,000 range.
I took it back to the dealer, who I’ve been doing business with since 1982. Told him I couldn’t afford an engine rebuild/replacement. He asked me how much I had left on the loan, and he bought it back from me for exactly that price. The same day I bought a 2005 Ford Explorer from him. I totaled the Explorer thanks to an inattentive driver crossing my path while I was at highway speed in December, 2016. Three days later I bought a 2013 Explorer from the same dealer.
I understand that early-2000s GM products had a lot of the same kinds of problems, but my suspicion is that nearly all (or all) of those things have been improved since then. I think I’ll be sticking with Ford products from here on. (I really miss my old 1972 Super Beetle and 1962 VW bus sometimes.)
At this point a Buick is nothing more than a dressed up Chevy. Supposedly Buicks are set to have a softer, “American” ride and maybe a little better soundproofing – but I could say the same thing for a Toyota Camry.
If you compare a Chevrolet with a higher trim line to a standard Buick, I doubt you’d find much difference at all.
It would be a more interesting lawsuit than I think you imagine. Kia hired a BMW designer not long ago. And it’s beyond looks, the Kia Stinger holds its own against (crushes) the BMW6 series…and costs half as much. I’ve got one, it really is all that.
