Well, that is the million dollar question. In many ways, Buick is an even more damaged brand than Pontiac is in North America. If it wasn't for Buick's Chinese operations and perhaps their good JD Power scores they'd be as dead as Poncho, maybe even in PLACE of Poncho.

If I had the somewhat unfortunate position of being a Buick product planner, I'd say the new LaCrosse looks good as the bread-and-butter, the Enclave is a winner, I'd like a Zeta car but I know that isn't happening so I'll wait for Alpha. And if I MUST take on a Delta car, I'd demand that AWD be an option, if not standard. Then I need a marketing team that isn't comatose who can trumpet the fact that our cars are better than Lexus (at least according to JD). It's going to be hard to reach the younger buyers with that message though - heck, the Tiger Woods thing was a flop....

With all that said I am still not sure if Buick is transformed from a "beauty parlor" brand to "aspirational for successful 30-somethings" brand. Cadillac had its Escalade to get the ball rolling, then CTS blew people away. Buick is still searching for its Escalade. Yeah, Enclave is a winner, it brought you in, but it certainly isn't a blingy pop culture icon - something THAT significant was needed just to get Cadillac going....

 

There has been loose talk of a near luxury, Alpha based convertible for Buick.