2020 Buick LaCrosse Refresh To Be Discontinued Months After Launch (Updated)
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The third-generation Buick LaCrosse is in for a midcycle refresh that will bring new front and rear fascias, along with other updates. In fact, we already saw the updated 2020 Buick LaCrosse after it leaked in China a few weeks ago. Notably, GM is still testing the LaCrosse refresh, as shown by these new spy photos, which were captured by a reader near Chicago.
Meanwhile, GM has already signaled plans to discontinue the LaCrosse in North America some time next year, while closing the GM Detroit-Hamtramck plant where it’s made. And that’s the curious part: by the time the 2020 Buick LaCrosse launches in the U.S. and Canada, it will be discontinued within a few short months. So, why continue working on a refresh when the entire model is about to get dropped?
To answer that, one must understand that plans to refresh the large Buick sedan were already in place back in the 2017-2018 timeframe, when the third-gen LaCrosse was being launched. In addition, the LaCrosse’s largest market is China – where the sedan consistently sells at least double what it does in the United States (and all of North America). Not surprisingly, the LaCrosse will remain on sale in China, along with the Cadillac CT6 – the other large luxury sedan that GM will drop in North America.
At the end of the day, it’s a very sad reality that GM – once a force to be reckoned with in the automotive landscape with massive market share and profits – has reduced its global dominance to a presence in two markets – the United States and China, while continuing to dwindle its vehicle lineup to record levels – all the while increasing its investments in pie-in-the-sky projects like autonomous vehicles and electric cars, both of which are losing billions of dollars every year and are not even close to breaking even, let alone turning a profit.
It should be noted, however, that GM – along with the other two American automakers – Ford and FCA – are the only automakers that are cutting their passenger cars in spades. Meanwhile, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, and others are not discontinuing passenger car models. In fact, they are even expanding their lineups – like with the Volkswagen Arteon and Kia Stinger.
Update: Buick has told us that the 2020 LaCrosse refresh isn’t coming to America whatsoever.
About Buick LaCrosse
The Buick LaCrosse is a full-size premium sedan that slots above the compact Buick Verano and midsize Buick Regal. The current, third-generation LaCrosse was introduced for the 2017 model year. The vehicle is based on the long wheelbase variant of the GM E2 platform. The short-wheelbase variant of the same platform is shared with the sixth-generation Buick Regal and ninth-generation Chevrolet Malibu.
The 2018 model introduced several new colors and the GM 9-speed automatic transmission in place of the 2017 model's 8-speed. It also added a new standard powertrain in the form of the mild-hybrid 2.5L engine with eAssist coupled with a six-speed automatic transmission. In addition, the 2018 LaCrosse Avenir was introduced to serve as the range-topping model.
The 2019 LaCrosse introduced two new colors and a Sport Touring (1SH) trim. A refresh is expected for the 2020 model year.
In November 2018, General Motors announced that it will discontinue the Buick LaCrosse in the United States market, while closing the Detroit-Hamtramck plant where it's built. The vehicle will remain available in China.
The third-generation LaCrosse is built at the following plants:
- GM Detroit Hamtramck factory operated by GM USA supplying North America
- Jinqiao South factory operated by Shanghai GM supplying China
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That’s not fair! The xts and the lacrosse get a refresh but not the impala ?
It’s not unreasonable to assume that we may get some of these sedans back once the next generations launch on VSS. Maybe being that everything will be built using VSS maybe they’ll find some extra room at the plants.
It pains me to say that that’s wishful thinking. I see absolutely no reason why VSS-R (or any other platform) would have an impact on reintroducing the discontinued models in question.
The Impala didn’t need a refresh. It is still a great looking car!
Import both the LaCrosse and the CT -6 from China. That is better than no cars
I know it didn’t but it deserved it
“So, why continue working on a refresh when the entire model is about to get dropped?”
The answer can be summed up in two words: Poor Management. That’s utter stupidity but then GM hasn’t seemed to have good management since Roger B Smith took the helm and put the company on a downhill slide in the 1980s.
Why spend all that money to develop the CT6 and a brand new engine for it and then drop it before it actually launches? Again, exceptionally poor management.
Mary Barra says GM must close five plants and lay off workers due to excess capacity. But why does GM have excess capacity? They obviously needed the capacity at one time or they wouldn’t have built the plants in the first place. We’re not in the midst of an economic recession where auto sales have ground to a halt. Again, the issue is poor management. GM failed to design and build compelling products that sell that would’ve kept the plants humming and as they say, the fish rots from the head down so that’s on Mary. The cost-cutting and half-baked product efforts are killing GM. To use another analogy; it’s death by a thousand cuts. Countless products over 35 years exactly like CT6 where money was poured into them but not quite enough to make them top-notch so that they ultimately failed in the marketplace.
I’ve lost all enthusiasm for the mid-engine Corvette. I’ve seen this show far too many times. I know how it ends. New GM, as it turns out, is just like old GM. C8 will launch half-baked and eventually Mary Barra will prance out and claim there just isn’t demand for mid-engined cars. Poor management at GM will kill the mid-engined Corvette just like it always does.
Sorry to admit it, but I believe you will be proven right. Half-baked is the only consistent term you can use to describe any GM vehicle at launch. Maybe given enough time and model years the C8 would finally get the great body work, chassis and interior all together, but why can’t they just get it right the first time??
I have to wonder why nobody is calling Machete Mary out on the carpet for wasting so much money on Detroit Hamtramck- over $1 Billion by some estimates- and just walk away from it and their home city. Or if you are so big on electrification, why are you closing Warren and White Marsh that produce components for EVs?
This is a bankruptcy-style reorganization whose sole purpose is to impress Wall Street for a few weeks to hide the fact that GM does not have a clue.
GM has reduced it’s presence to 3 markets; United States, China and Canada*
There is also Mexico, Australia, Korea and South America. None of those, including Canada, are major drivers of sales, revenue, or profit. I believe that’s why Alex mentones only US and China – the only ones that truly matter of all those.
I have a 14 Lacrosse and it’s a great car – much better than my 15 CTS. The Cadillac is junk. It’s too bad they’re doing this. It also shows how GM should’ve been allowed to die instead of getting bailed out. As sad as it may be, free market economics should be allowed to decide the fate of businesses, not get propped up by tax dollars. Now they’re in almost as bad a situation and all those billions of dollars are gone that could’ve been spent on any number of things. Pathetic.
The truth is so much of the comments here take so little of all the factors facing automakers today.
Plans still run 5 years and more out trying to not only predict the customers trends but also regulations, contracts with unions and suppliers etc.
Programs have to run their course even if the decision was made long before and the tooling, contracts and agreements with plants are made to all end at specific times.
The Car segment has been in decline for a while but the rate of decline has accelerated in the last 2-3 years. No one really saw it going this far this quick.
The best example is the Lordstown plant was running 3 shifts and skipping lunch in 2015-2016. The Union Local there was willing to do what ever to keep the car line there as they and GM both expected the car to keep up at this rate. Few people saw anything different.
GM has tried to make it work at Lordstown as they did need that plant to keep up but today it has changed and they just can no longer just keep making cars. They will take some time to wind things down.
Many of the other cars were set to die after minor changes that were already set and paid for. Tooling and contracts prevent them from stopping them at this point.
Because of the time it takes and the cost of development this is why most automakers are just going the CUV route as the odds of success are much better than taking more risk. with another car.
The truth is GM is not in trouble now. With out changes like this they would be in trouble, For the first time in a long time someone was in place that had the courage to make the difficult calls.
If the old leaders had killed Olds and Pontiac decades ago when they really should have. If they had invested in Saturn correctly, killed it or just not done it in the first place they would have been in much better shape with market changes.
GM for years was criticized for being reactive vs proactive. Today they are one of the most proactive for the future now they get criticized by folks who have little clue to all that is in play.
The things going on here are much more than what you just see on the surface. If you have to deal with all the numbers and timing involved you would have a hard time saying the things you are saying.
My thought is if those critics are so smart why are they only on the web posting and not running a company somewhere?
Scott, you’re evidently a man of few words LOL Seriously, please finish your thought as I always enjoy reading your intelligent comments and insight.
This alleged car sales decline is only impacting GM more than it is any other automaker. That’s the crucial point no one is making.
Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Mercedes, Audi all have seen declines in passenger car vilumes, but not alarming ones. Meanwhile, GM car sales are in the gutter. Has anyone cared to ask why?
Not true as car sales are declining for everyone. As to decree it depends on the model, class and price structure.
In the case of the Lacrosse and Impala the larger higher priced FWD cars are being hit mostly by SUV and CUV sales. the Taurus, Fusion, all the FWD Chrysler’s are going or gone too. The Asian models also are not growing.
For models like the Cruze it is selling ok in six figures but the problem is the factors of being in a plant that once fit it will and now is under capacity so much that it is a money losing venture.
GM has to either move it to a lower volume plant or import it to make it profitable. With declining sales in the sedan segment that could be a losing battle no matter what.
As for the Asian models. Most are built in lower volume plants that are new. They also are in many areas where there are no unions so cost are lower. This helps to sell the cars at a profit but at lower volumes. But the margins here are also slowing for them as Honda last month were down 9.5% and mostly Civic were pointed out as the cause.
Toyota sales are down on the Prius and Camry. The Camry was a car that was bullet proof in sales but no longer.
As time goes on they all will have to address this. GM is the first to address this proactively. In the past they would have just kept doing what they were doing and lose money.
#1 GM is not going broke.
#2 markets are declining for all makes and depending on how, where and what they are building the economics can vary. Not all car programs cost are the same.
#3 All brands in a contracting market will be addressing cost. Most are way behind on this and GM has because of the bail out been better at controlling cost and making sure they do not repeat the past.
#3 Nothing today in the market is sacred anymore. All the cards are on the table and if a model is not making money it will be removed and or replaced. Yes this included the Corvette and Camaro. Everything has to make money. In fact not just make money but give a better return on investment.
#4 the one area profits are given some slack is the EV cars. It will take growing the market to lower cost. If you do not build a market the prices will never come done. Future regulations will make these cars a factor as they will be required in some cities, states and countries.
These are just some of the base things. There are even so many more factors in play.
While painful to watch as changes is never fun GM is doing the right thing getting out in front of this.
Old GM would have just kept building the cars at a loss and selling them with higher rebates at no profit vs killing a car or closing a plant. That was the formula to the bail out.
If the folks like Roger Smith and many other GM CEO’s has stepped up and done the hard things decades ago there would never have had been a bail out.
Saturn is a classic case of where they did not commit and then they did not kill it when they should have. Same for Olds where they were dead back in the 80’s and needed to be cut as GM did not need that many divisions of many similar cars.
GM is also facing a Buick in America issue. They will have to decide if they really need Buick. The SUV sales will decide this. GMC in the dealers is what is keeping them viable now. Could GMC take the Buick CUV models and just be one division. GMC has the Acadia but no long wheel base one. Enclave could be rebaged as a high end Denali long wheel based CUV.
Leave the Buick name to China.
Bob has a very valid point that the numbers prove, Scott.
GM is being impacted more than any other automaker when it comes to passenger car sales. That is the truth, supported by the numbers.
So while everyone is down in car sales, GM is down much more. Meanwhile, some rivals are not even down that much. GM is down acoss the board.
In addition, GM seems to have not structured its programs correctly, while also lacking global scale of its rivals, something that typically absorbs a market change in one market.
It is a sad commentary on this nation when “courage” is defined as how many jobs can be destroyed, and how many communities can be crushed. Any idiot can cut, cut, cut. The real “courage” comes from those CEOs (like Marchionne and Ghosn before the fall) that can actually create something instead of destroying it.
Tigger,
You really don’t know what you’re talking about, Ghosn and Marchionne were both known as AXE Men. Ghosn did it when Renault saved Nissan from bankruptcy and Marchionne cut like crazy when he reorganized Fiat and then later with Chrysler during the bankruptcy.
And both these guys were absolutely ruthless but their actions saved all these companies.
If you like socialism, get a government job!
You don’t know what you are talking about. Look at FCA”s and Nissan’s global market share since those two men took over their respective companies and now look at GM’s.
Quit injecting politics into this discussion as well. We are just talking about competent versus incompetent management which Machete Mary certainly fits the latter.
None of what you said matters.
GM car sales are down because they were down before the bankruptcy, and the festering hate for GM has finally taken hold in the general population and has started a terrible slide for them.
The 2019 Truck line isn’t going to help them, the Ford and even RAM are better trucks already.
GM is in big trouble, they know it, and this is them getting ahead of even worse sales.
As others have said, we shouldn’t have saved them the way we did. It just gave people even more reasons to buy the “not bailed out” foreign makers. There are far too many car makers in the USA right now. Someone’s going to go. And it looks like GM is going to be it.
Bailout had to happen, unless a great depression 2.0 is something that sounds appealing. And that’s no joke.
Just enough money was used to keep the company afloat, and the rest was squandered. Yes, half-baked efforts, but to say that the auto bailouts should have never taken place is to accept the destruction of the entire economy in the process.
People still would have bought cars after GM went under. And it would have helped every car maker left.
As far as it putting OEM manufacturers under, all it would have done was shuttered a few plants for 6 months while bigger OEMs ramped up to make the parts those that went under used to. And since nobody was buying cars back then, that wouldn’t have really been the end of cars either.
Same thing they should have done with the Banks. It would have put people in to other banks, that’s all. The government could have taken over bankrupt banks, and increased fees to those that were left to pay for the bankrupt bank’s closing. And they could have paid it, since every other bank would have seen large influx of new customers from the bankrupt banks.
David B,
Who do you think has been buying all the equipment in shuttered US plants (all industries); China.
China would have bought the plants, brands and equipment for pennies on the dollar and the head office would be in Shanghai today.
If the banking system would have collapsed, you would be spending your time hunting squirrels to feed your family. Lol
You didn’t read one thing I wrote, obviously.
How old are you exactly? We have been through something similar before. And the world didn’t end, and people weren’t “hunting for squirrels”. Sorry, you’re wrong.
GM’s business model is unfortunately the Government Motors/Obama model. The perfect miss was the Cadillac CT6 that should have had the 4.2 liter turbo V8 on release.
GM’s customers take a back seat to the UAW and the mentality that the company must operate within the liberal frame of mind. Their day will likely be over far sooner than GM’s executives believe.
GMs been propped up by the govt. since their inception. Didn’t start with the liberals, or Obama or a UAW bias. They just made crap cars for too long with crap sales models.
And in typical GM fashion this very last edition of the LaCrosse will be the best one right as they axe it. Does this story sound familiar? It should be as GM has re-written it so many times we have all lost track. The continued incompetence of this company is staggering.
GM is a massive capital destruction machine!
Sorry, but this is an american way how to managing company. We are best in the every segment and wrong is market. Our design is great and we know everything. We don´t need Europe business and China will save us. But now we have problem with Korean and Australian market because of Opel. Our future is in EV and autonomous technology but we produce ugly pickups and cheap looking SUV´s…
Just got back from the LA auto show today.
American products are subpar. The buicks are good, the new XT4 is a better product, and hopefully the replacements for the cts and ats follow suit.
But no one wants a Fusion over an Accord, or a Malibu over a Camry. Too little too late on the domestic sedans, and I’m not sure they can flourish with their SUVs. Just like the sedans, they’re not as good as the Korean and Japanese products either.
I don’t see GM leading the industry on the EV and hybrid front, so it really doesn’t leave much meat on that long term business plan bone at all.
I actually though GM had its’ act together post bailout. All of a sudden this. I understand that there has to be rainy day funds for expected slowdowns, but it seems they are ceding their market share on a platter to the competition. GM stops sedan production and the competition is developing all new sedan models. Did I mention that they are also selling them. It’s insanity, and I don’t think GM will survive, as we know it. I’m baffled.
GM is as lazy as every other US company. They are leaving here instead of trying to compete, for the potential of an exploding Chinese market. And now that GM can own it’s entire Chinese division, instead of having to split it with a Chinese company, they are gunho to move there.
And sad to say, they probably should do that. Because the Chinese are not going to embrace Japanese vehicles due to history. So, we either go there and become the market leaders, or cede it to Europe (ok, actually Germany).
That won’t happen. The Chinese are giving priority to their brands and will eventually buy the Western brands or put them out of business. China currently has over 140 car brands and over 400 EV companies and they are very close to a major assault on the world market.
China is hyper nationalistic and is a communist dictatorship after all.
Less people in the US starting in 1900, and way more than 140 now defunct car makers. How many are there now that are US based in the US? Doesn’t matter how many brands there are now in China.
We will make more money on a US car sold in China, or made and sold in China than China subsidized cars will make in the US.
The money is in high end autos, and we are doing great in those in China. Let the Chinese manufacturers sell to the masses. The Chinese luxury market will grow to be bigger than the entire US auto market.
They sell a shit ton of buicks in China now and have been for years, GM will continue to build sedans for them for the forseeable future as long as the Chinese gobble them up like they have been.
Whats overlooked is the China plant making Lacrosse’s stays open while the U.S. plant closes. We should be exporting to THEM. Trump is onto something and the question I asked during the first bailout was not if G.M. was deserving of the bailout but if the government will bail them out again.
great looking improvement too bad discontinued another dumb decision by Mary and her over paid cronies Fire them all before there is no GM
I think that you can add “Zero GM” to Barra’s babble of “Zero emissions, zero accidents, and zero congestion”
GM does not need to eliminate cars just reduce some models and the duplication.
GM does not need self driving cars unless they want to rebuild all the highways in the World.