While America Slept. Saturday, January 10, 2009
Chinese Buick: The Buick LaCrosse, set to debut at the North American International Auto Show next week, is a Chinese product. Due to Buick’s popularity in China, the company’s design team there took the lead in remodeling the LaCrosse, Gasgoo writes. Sales of Buicks in China reached 332,000 units in 2007, according to data supplied to IHS Global Insight, a consulting firm. The LaCrosse was the second-best seller there, with 71,500 cars sold. Figures for full-year 2008 year are not available yet. By comparison, GM sold 137,197 Buick branded cars and light trucks in the U.S. in 2008, down 26.4 percent from 2007. The company sold 36,873 LaCrosses in 2008, down 23 percent from 2007. In December alone, LaCrosse sales dipped 59 percent to 1,451 units.
Renault shelves India plans. Renault put a big HOLD on a project to set up an assembly plant at Chennai, India, the Nikkei (sub) reports. Patrick Blain, executive vice president for sales, told a press conference that the freeze doesn’t mean that the project has been shelved. “We had a date” for the completion of the project, he said, but “we no longer have a date.” The project is a joint venture between Renault and its Japanese alliance partner Nissan Nissan’s production line is going ahead as planned.
Shanghai to breathe easier: From Nov.1, 2009 on, China’s equivalent of the Euro IV will be mandatory for all cars newly registered in Shanghai. Vehicles failing to meet the standard will not be registered and their sales will be halted, Gasgoo says. Shanghai is leading the way towards a nationwide implementation of the standard. The EU IV standard has been mandatory for EU members since 2006.
And that’s all for today. For the next days, WAS coverage will be a bit spotty as your BS will move his post to Berlin, Germany for a few weeks to chase the elusive Euro. There will be no WAS this Sunday, and there may be no reports on certain days due to a hectic travel schedule all over Europe.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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The badge engineered Insignia is a Buick Regal, which is smaller than the LaCrosse. Both nameplates have coexisted in China for a while now. The new LaCrosse was designed in both Shanghai and the US.
Every time a writer emits a missive that if GM survives it will be with Caddy and Chevy, the names Buick, Pontiac, & saturn sink a little further into the swamp. Who wants to put $20-30K into an orphan? People are using an old maxim of Blaise Pascal (the French philosopher) that goes like this. If I don't buy the Buick and it keeps going onward, I lost nothing. But if I buy one and it is the last year for them, I will tank for thousands. Therefore, err on the side of safety and don't gamble with the buick. If confidence is part of the game people play in buying a car, buick will sell less in 2009 than in 2008.