The good news: the low inventories are a good sign for GM, in that overall demand for Enclave is well matched to supply. That limits the need for incentives, supports the profitability of their dealer network, and should lead to better used residuals.

However, this issue of allegedly long waiting lists have me baffled. The waiting list story may or may not be true, but whatever it is, it isn’t consistent with GM’s own reports of days-of-inventory data. Competitors that often maintain similarly low inventories in the 20-30 day range (e.g. BMW and Lexus) maintain strong sales prices, yet don’t carry these extensive waiting lists. Meanwhile, Edmunds reports that average sales prices are about $1k below MSRP, again another sign that there shouldn’t be considerable waiting lists.

Overall, I am led to believe that GM had relatively modest expectations for the Enclave, and that low hurdle was met and possibly exceeded.

GM’s press spin has been hyping the low inventory data, which itself is a good thing. But the inventory data only tells you that the company is producing supply in line with demand, not that the vehicle is wowing the market. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a flop, there has been a lot of PR hype about it being a raging sales success, even though the unit sales figures don’t support that conclusion.

So basically, Buick is selling the number of Enclaves forecast a year or two ago, and because of that it’s touted as a raging success? GM must not be able to switch allocations, so much for shared platforms.

Three strikes and they’re out. As it would involve buying out stand alone franchises, closing Saturn would be costly.

> The Enclave is a combined replacement for both the Rendezvous and the Rainier. Assuming a current sales pace for the Enclave of about 50k vehicles per year, Enclave sales are below both of those retired models collectively, and less than the Rendezvous individually. (In Buick’s defense, I don’t have fleet sales data for the Enclave and the Rendezvous did a pretty brisk fleet business, so a comparison of the retail sales figures might be a wash. Still, a wash is not the same as a home run hit.)

> As noted by some above, it’s disingenuous for Mr. Darowitz to make the unqualified claim that “The Enclave IS the hottest selling crossover in the industry” when similar vehicles such as the Ford Edge (130k sold during 2007), Lexus RX (103k), Acura MDX (58k) and even GMC Acadia (72k) all outsell it.

> Meanwhile, Buick’s overall US sales fell 23% between 2006 and 2007. Overall, the brand is not performing all that well in the United States.

> As mentioned above, the Lansing Township plant where the Lambda triplets are built has cut its third shift. Clearly, the plant is not operating at full capacity, and Mr. Darowitz’s claim that “customer and dealer demand for this standout Buick far exceeds what the plant can physically produce” isn’t accurate.

The initial plan was to build the Enclave and Outlook in about equal numbers, with the most share going to GMC. I hadn’t yet gathered all of the data, but I’m guessing that the relatively low Buick inventories are not part of a brilliant plot to stimulate demand, but mostly the result of poor product planning and Saturn’s failure to materialize as a credible player that could sell its share of the product being produced.

I suspect that the real story lurking here is not the alleged success of the Enclave, but of the nail being pounded in a coffin that will be prepared for Saturn. If the Astra flops, my bet is that barring some miracle, Saturn will eventually join Oldsmobile in the great automotive junkyard in the sky.

I love all this pointless bickering…Do all of you honestly think the Enclave is a bad vehicle? Have you been close to one? Sat in one? Driven one?

Isn’t that what the internet is all about?

I think most of us-certainly me-are just wondering what the reson is that they aren’t increasing production of Buick Enclaves to meet the demend for this declared “hot product”? Personally, I’m opining that the guys at GM are out-thinking themselves, so to speak, and making a collosal blunder in an attempt to say, see look at these long waiting lists, it must be in high demand and a great car.

Good example. In its first year of production, I read a little blurb in the Wall Street Journal that indicated the Scion xB had the second lowest number of days in inventory (Prius had the fewest), yet when I went to my local Toyota dealer, one block from work, they had three in stock. Not a great inventory by any means, but they also told me they had five more coming in that Friday. I could try out either a basic manual transmission xB or one of two different trim levels of an xB with auto. that would be plenty to make a decision regarding the car itself, while the incoming Scions offered me another color choice for the manual or three other color choices in two different trim levels for the auto. That is a good production to demand ratio IMO. To artificially limit production in order to increase desirability of what is an ultimately basic car like the Enclave doesn’t make sense to me. They should be making hay while the sun is shining.

That’s about 56,000 annually.

In 2007, Chrysler sold about that many Pacificas.

OUCH!!

That’s pretty amazing in anyone’s book. I am sure that GM is pretty happy with its effort.

The Highlander and RX share a platform the same that the Lambdas do and have been strong sellers from Day 1. The current models are the second generation of each. I don’t know that anyone’s arguing about the Enclave being a nice vehicle – its more about whether GM’s claims that its a sales success is the Truth. Maybe by their own diminished standards it is. However, by their book, Toyota and Honda would not consider it to be such an amazing success for such an important core product. The bottom line is that GM’s Lamdbas combined sell half of what Toyota’s Highlander/RX sell in spite of three vs. two models and more sales outlets. That Lexus sold almost as many RX’s as Lambdas explains why they’re profitable and GM is not (“Highest Trim Level” == most profitable sale, right?).

I have driven all three of the Lambda models.

1. The Outlook should have gone to Chevy in the 1st place. Dumb decision as they would have far more exposure to the market. Right or wrong, many buyers do NOT like the policy or no negotiation at Saturn and the number of dealerships is far more limited.

2. The Acadia looks a lot more “trucky” and a lot of potential “SUV” buyers like that along with the fact that the price is negotiable.

3. Enclave is a very good-looking vehicle and if it wore a Lexus badge nobody would blink an eye. I’m not saying that it is as “good” as a Lexus but comparably equiped is a hell of a lot less expensive and will seat 7 easily. You cannot do that in an RX350. Additionally, it is as quiet as the tomb, a feature that a lot of potential buyers for this type of car really like.

I’m still looking and will not buy until this summer, but I’ve yet to find another vehicle with the features that I want in it that comes close without costing tons more.

Grossly over-priced? What other large crossover hybrid on the market is available right now for 33K MSRP and one that gets good EPA numbers as well as has a good reputation? The Ford Escape and Vue Green Line don’t count, as the Highlander Hybrid is one full size class bigger than either of them.

To call the Highlander Hybrid “grossly overpriced” indicates you are making a comparison to other equivalent competitors, which there are none at the moment. When GM unveils a hybrid Outlook or hybrid Acadia or when Ford shows us a hybrid Edge and gives us pricing, maybe then we can talk.

Should have made myself more clear. Since the Enclave would be considered somewhat of a luxury car I was comparing pricing on the Highlander Gasoline Limited ($32,000 base) and the Hybrid which starts at $39,950 which is one heck of a price for a Highlander. I’m not knocking Toyota but drive a Highlander and then an Enclave and tell me which one you like better.

paulpita07:

I love all this pointless bickering…Do all of you honestly think the Enclave is a bad vehicle? Have you been close to one? Sat in one? Driven one?

And there you have it: Detroit's current attitude towards its competitive woes (and the lapdog press that follows behind). "We're building great cars now, so quit your bitching. What do you want, blood?"

The thing of it is, the U.S. is a cut-throat market. There's plenty of blood running through the streets of Detroit in the form of red ink, no matter how quickly or stylishly you drive over it. Until Detroit faces up to its RELATIVE excellence (or lack thereof), it's doomed.

And yes, I've driven the Lambda triplets. Review of the GMC Acadia soon.

Also “waiting list” (and I’m not sure how “paid” figures into such a thing) seems strange when viewed in juxtaposition with dealer ads for invoice pricing.

If Buick’s making money – great. However, I have more questions than answers.

In any case, if almost all Enclaves sold are of the highest trim level, then the variety of options would also be minimal, probably breaking down to mainly color and whether or not you want a nav system.

In any case, my point was that there never was a long waiting period for any Scion-maybe a week or two at the most. Not true with the Enclave-one or more months seems typical. It’s the difference between Just-In-Time and Way-To-Late.

After I picked myself up laughing, I went down to BMW to lease a 3 series for less money than Audi wanted for their 4 cyl. A4.

Dave, there’s a sales job waiting for you at Rusnak Audi.

@KixStart:

I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean. Are you saying that by having a large percentage of expensive trimmed vehicles in stock, people who can’t afford it move down price-wise to another car? I don’t think that’s what Mr. Darovitz was saying. I thought he was saying that the customers preferred the high-line CXL, so they had to keep making more.

Build 3 virtually identical vehicles off of the same platform in the same factory.

One of the triplets (Arcadia)is selling very well and GM is prodcuing enough vehicles to meet the demand.

One of the triplets (Outlook)is NOT selling very well yet GM continues to produce moer vehicles than it can sell.

One of the triplets (Enclave)is in very high demand and the dealers have waiting list of ready costumers yet GM refuses to (OR CANT) increase production to meet the demand.

There is something very wrong about this story and I get the impression that GM is full sugar, honey, and ice tea. Only a GM fan can swim though this sea of illogical B.S. and not think they smell like shit afterwards.

There is probably more to this story than GM is letting us in on. Are there production problems with the Enclave? Maybe GM is actually having a hard time getting those new fancy panels to fit together and line-up evenly. Maybe the supplier of the interiors is shipping too many defective parts. Or maybe GM misjugded the demand and is unable to make enough of the top of the line model Enclave and folks are NOT interested in the base or mid-level models.

Can it possible be that the demand for the Enclave is actually “niche”. The demand is for the loaded models that costumers are considering as budget RX350s. Is it possible that there is rather limited demand for the POS looking base models because the Arcadia is handling that demand easily. This can easily just be a model-mix problem and the Enclave is NOT the “hot” product that GM is claiming it is.

In any event, yeah, why not make somewhat more Buicks, hopefully looking to see which packages move the fastest and targeting them?

Is also have to wonder if offering upscale trim levels only is shifting people to other CUVs?

By the way, I don’t care for the looks; it looks to me rather like a cartoon car. I’ve only had a chance to ask a few others for their opinions but no one I asked happens to like it, either. Not a terribly signficant statistical sample, of course, but a car that doesn’t appeal seems less likely to be a “hot seller.”

GM introduced the Lambda triplets — a brand new platform) — and again compare the sales of all three since they have the same engineering under the sheet metal — in model year 2007. In a year and a half of Lambda existence, the triplets have been able to compete very well in sales against the well-established and brand-cached RX330 / Highlander.

That’s pretty amazing in anyone’s book. I am sure that GM is pretty happy with its effort.