General Motors Head of Consumer Affairs, James Bell, recently paid a visit to the Tonawanda Engine plant, but The Buffalo News caught up with him where he revealed how he strongly felt a culture change was taking place inside of GM.
But, Bell delved into more than company culture. When asked about Buick particularly, his response was littered with optimism on the brand’s future, calling it “one of the brands I’m most bullish on within the GM portfolio.”
Pressed further, Bell shed some light on Buick’s design going forward saying he has personally seen what is currently being cooked up inside the Buick design center up to 2019 and beyond, calling the designs “beautiful,” and “unexpectedly interesting looking.”
Buick has gone on the record to publicly promote its “white space” mantra, filling niches and voids where it sees fit inside the GM portfolio of vehicles. This attitude has spawned the Buick Encore, Buick Verano and, most recently, the upcoming Buick Cascada convertible in the U.S. market.
The future holds close ties between Buick and Opel, and quite possibly Holden, and we’d have to believe these designs aren’t centric to only Buick in North America, but across the globe.
Whether the future holds a production Buick Avenir remains to be seen, but we can only hope it does.
Comments
Buick must present premium product. Linked with GMC in North America, the distribution network has potential to be a powerhouse.
“unexpectedly interesting looking” by the people who brought you “dare greatly”
Dear GM. Watch Jonathan Ives talk about Apple products.
I would try
Unexpectedly interesting looking by the people who brought us the Avenir.
Do not judge what you have not seen yet. You have yet to really get a all new post Chapter 11 Buick yet. All the models we have now are either pre chapter 11 derived or Holden sourced.
Once you see them they you can condemn them or praise them. For now I will give them the benefit based on the last show car we were given that was nearly in production form and was also used in a Holden commercial 2 years ago.
I’m not judging their products. I’m judging their Yoda-like syntax.
Too bad that GM lost the public’s trust by discontinuing PONTIAC !
What trust? I was at the Pontiac Nats last week and you really hear few complaints.
The real fact is they lost many of the real Pontiac faithful 30 years before when they killed the Pontiac engines. You kill the heart and soul and you end up with a restyled Chevy.
I am still a long time Pontiac fan and I never understood it for years but now I see what the old timers meant now looking back.
While Pontiac made some very stylish cars GM really did not know what to do with them. By the time Lutz got there it was too late.
Come on we though we had it good but looking back some of these cars really were nothing that special and even then poorly executed. Yes I would have chosen one over a Chevy version based on styling as under the skin they were the same.
But even in the 60’s when Delorean wanted to make Pontiac more independent he was shut down and told to make a Camaro a Pontiac. The GTO was targeted to get much more Euro like things like Radial tires and 4 wheel disc but again shut down. The engines were to get DOHC back in the 60’s but again shut down but one still survives in a 63 GP,
If you look at all that Pontiac did right like the GTO. 455 SD TA and other models that stood out they were all cars that broke the GM rules. The rest like the 74 GTO and the later cars and while unique they just were never all they should or could have been.
While some like to gloss that people were cheated out of Pontiac at the end the truth is we were spared the products of failure to be true to their own. The Aztec, All the FWD cars and not even a 2.0 LNF offered in any one of them? The GTO was done with little to no budget as a Hail Mary. The G8 came too late and the Solstice while nice was at the end of it’s life with dropping sales.
So if you can say with a straight face the G4-5-6 and SUV were real Pontiac you need to go back and see what they did when they broke the rules years ago.
Many true Pontiac fans see the death as a mercy killing. The GTP GP and SSEI were just images of the real thing years ago. Don’t tell me I am wrong I have own old and even these two models new. My Comp G was ok but it was no GTO or even 69 GP.
Sorry Thomas for the rant but I have very strong feelings on this as I came home from the Hospital in a 1960 Ventura and have been privledged to have owned and driven nearly all the great models they made. To hear people lament the loss of the cars they had at the end really just sets me off as they never really were true to the Pontiac heritage. The key that set Pontiac apart was their engines and intakes. They did things different performance wise and suspension wise in the past that in the last years they failed to do.
Pontiac at one point was a performance division with no performance RWD car till Lutz arrived. Even the 67 Bird got lowered one inch more than a Chevy and had suspension changes you could not get on a Chevy like many other Pontiac’s they did their own cars. the last Birds were restyled Camaros with red dash lights. Yes better looking but still just a little higher priced Camaro.
Very well put. There have been a few interviews with Bob Lutz about the bailout/fallout of 09. Bob sure waxes philosophical about Pontiac and what might have been if it were allowed to continue. Would the dream of RWD, performance-oriented-only cars have been realized? I guess we don’t know for sure, but when he talked about it, I got excited and depressed at the same time. Oh well, what might have been….
Camron to have saved Pontiac they would have had to have Bob Lutz 10 years earlier with his understanding of the brand and his culture change. We also would have needed money like we have today. But Pontiac really was too far gone buy the time Bob arrived and too little money to do much about it.
GM lost the public trust by making unreliable/uninspired cars for decades. By the time Pontiac was iced — the Japanese/German car buying public no longer cared.
At the end, killing Pontiac was in the best interests of GM because it freed them up to actually style Chevrolet vehicles.
In a whole lot of ways both Oldsmobile and Pontiac harmed Chevrolet’s ability to compete with the Japanese and Germans. Chevrolet needed to be bland and basic as to justify Pontiac.
Lutz had a purpose for Pontiac that we have ended this and positioned GM well for this new golden age of muscle cars.
As a newbie to American cars I’ve been finding GM terribly interesting with all its subbrands. It’s outright ludicrous how many brands GM had for so many years. I mean my Mom drove Oldsmobile wagons in the 70s… and I had no idea they were relatives to my Dad’s Caddies.
All I knew is that both cars fell apart. I don’t know if history has forgotten this but one of my Mom’s Oldsmobile wagons had a known ‘ignition’ issue back in 78ish. Basically the ignitions were not designed to handle a key on a keychain with any amount of keys. My Mom must have had no more than 7 keys and a leather key chain thing… and believe it or not… it slowly ‘broke’ the ignition.
GM cars taught me to 1.) only have the car key on the ignition and 2.) not to buy American. It sounds like I’m picking on them but my Dad’s Caddy had power seats that broke within a year. Things were falling off of both of these cars as a going concern. Roll down a window, the handle ends up in your hand. It was simply God awful.
Somehow during those years I had no idea that both cars were related to Chevy. Or Pontiac. Or Buick. Since they didn’t inspire (Enspire?) quality I never gave it another thought.
Now that I’m on this side of the equation I realize keeping Pontiac but losing Chevy may have been an idea back in 2009. As brands, not as historical concerns.
Pontiac could have offered mass market cars plus performance vehicles. Essentially what Chevy is doing right now with simply a name change. Then again a name retreat of this magnitude may have confused/alarmed people.
John all automakers have had their issues. GM while they did have issues in many areas still generally still offered sold cars that have run for ever. Even with the cheap plastics in a Cobalt they tend to out last many of the imports due to the fact they keep running trouble free as rust eats up most Toyota, Honda and Nissan cars before they hit 20 years old. Also the GM cars are generally cheaper to maintain as too often the older Asian cars get to a point they are not worth the cost of a timing belt change here.
Case in point while the Grand Am may have not been the example of quality they are nearly in every parking lot here in the Midwest and many wit 250,000 miles or more with nary a failure. The pain may be faded and the plastic interior may not be pretty but they keep right on going.
I generally drive my GM cars 100K miles and get good trade on them and seldom see an issue other than a dead battery or brakes and tires.
Hell my 1985 Fiero is 30 years old but yet I have the original exhaust still on it and even the Freon in the AC that came from the factory.
The perception is GM got it all wrong. The truth is that they did get many things wrong but the did get the basics right and that is why they are still here today. It is also why others like Ford, BMW, Jag, Rolls and others have come to them for things like Transmissions, AC systems and other things that they do engineer well.
Today GM is fixing the areas they lacked like interiors and other unit parts they outsourced cheap.
Like stated to me by a former F body manager he said they would give us the money to do the driveline and suspension but when it came to the interior they came up short for us. That is why the window lifts failed. Today we are seeing the first time their cars are being fully funded and we will see major changes in their quality and perception. But that takes time for people to discover it themselves. It took time to lose the trust and it will take time to gain it back.
The truth is GM today is as good as any and many of the others are not as good as some think.
I have a buddy that owns a plane because of the money he has made from working on Toyotas and Honda. They do not walk or drive on water like many think.
Anything made by man can and will fail the duty of a company is to make it the best they can to minimize this and most today are.
Since the 80s, Japan has made more reliable cars than America. This is a fact you reject along with Consumer Reports, but it’s the truth.
Let me give you a little advice that is given with a good heart and understanding of how the media works.
#1 Consumer Report is not the most exacting reference to automobiles in the eyes of the enthusiast. They test cars like toasters and not to the degree a mechanic or automobile enthusiast would regard as a compete test. You can reference them but stop giving them as the last word in reviews if you want many on the web to take things seriously.
Even the same goes for most other auto publications as many are very political and the like. No Motor Trend does not always pick the best car of the year and the road test tend to be biased due to personal subjections and even advertising.
I do agree that Many American cars really sucked in the 70’s and 80’s with no question. But also the Imports while they may have had an advantage they were far from what we have today in general on the market. Many Asian cars were bolted together well but as in long term durability in the areas where rust is an issue they were like Bic Lighters. Use em up and throw them away as the bodies just crumbled here. As for cost of repair, yes they too need repair the cost was much higher and often more than the car is worth.
Now take for example the Chevy Vega. Even though it was one of the worst cars ever as it had so many issue they were on the road much longer than many imports in the Midwest. Why? Because even though they used oil and did rust they ran forever and were cheap to keep on the road.
Same for the Grand Am and Beretta Even though both have been off the market for years and had cheap interiors they are a daily sight here in the mid west. Why because they are easy and cheap to fix, Durable and just keep on running. The paint may flake off and the headliner may have fallen but they keep on running.
The fact is there are no perfect cars. Ferrari has a major maintenance deal at 30K miles that cost thousands and if not done will in time destroy the engine.
Hyundai Sonata needs a timing belt between 65K-80K or you run the risk of losing all the valves if the belt beaks. Also you need to replace the water pump as if not it will leak before you need a new belt and you will have to pay all the labor again to remove the belt to get to the pump.
BMW where to I start on that Money pit.
Honda Rust, Valve Guides and other issues that add up.
Toyota has had major issue with various parts and interiors. Even their truck were recalled because they were breaking in half from rust. They never came near recalling all that needed to be as my buddy’s was one year out and it broke in half after they refused to do anything.
I can go on as everyone as their demons in the closet and if you work in the auto industry you will see most of them.
The fact is today they all have good and bad issues and they all make pretty good and reliable cars today. There may never be a point where they are all flaw less but most do well today American and Import.
Honda is a nightmare for part people as they offer so many variations of engines not only year to year but during one year. Then add in if the engine is from here or Japan and you can have 6 different ignitions on one car.
You can see just what you want to see but I see both sides. I just spent time with a fully unrestored 1981 Camaro 305 4 speed. It only had 11K miles. I was amazed at how bad it was put together and how bad the paint was. Today so many have been restored to a level much higher than it originally was. Many people forget how bad some of these cars were. But on the other hand it drove and ran flawless. Some of it was bad but some of it was very right.
The collectors market also note on cars of interest. This is why so few Asian Imports are of any value. Many really were not all that memorable and also they are nearly impossible to restore due to the cost and difficulty of repair.
The Datsun 280 and 260Z and a couple other smaller cars are of interest but that is it.
Around here you never see a MR2 anymore as they all blew up and or rusted out. RX7 once in a while but even some of them have Chevy engines in them around here.
Miata has done well but the value is limited due to the fact there are so many vs. demand. They make good club and autocross cars because you can get them cheap.
Anyways I can give you good and bad on about anything out there today. In the past I agree the American cars had major issues in some areas but others they did get things right. The imports did hold an advantage but were not flawless themselves.
by the end pontiac was living on fumes. it seems like to me that the cars also lacked status, essentially chevys with twin nostrils. the pontiac aztek might have been a success had it been made in fiberglas or saturn-type plastic, but i heard gm cheaped out and made it in sheet metal. so it thus became the biggest styling joke since the edsel, or maybe amc pacer. pacer sales started off strong, though. aztek maybe was a victim of gm bean counters asnd no internal pontiac champion. i remember when i was a teenager, there were still pontiac guys , oldsmobile guys, along with ford, dodge and chevy guys. personally, i liked the 4-4-2, asnd later on, i had a custom cruiser wagon with the bulletproof 350 v8. later on i really liked the aurora, intrigue and even the alero. the bravada was ahead of its time, and i miss oldsmobile much more than pontiac. i think pontiac was, by the end almost as bad as mercury was to ford, nothing much original, even the vibe being a toyota clone. i think john rock was a great boss, having a lot more smarts than rick wagoner, who buried gm into the ground, imo. i’m sorry to see pontiac gone, but it was pretty much gone already, gm never was that great at marketing its brands or differentiating them, despite the styling cues. brand equity is easy to lose, tough to gain back, without that USP, unique selling proposition. kudos to gm for doing a good job on chevy vs. gmc. sorry for getting off topic
What’s funny is it’s been about five years since they killed Pontiac and I still hear it talked about all the time. Way more than any other discontinued GM brand. Seems to me like people think it had a good future ahead of it and even though they weren’t doing that great in the later years, people still liked the image Pontiac was supposed to give off- you know the whole sporty persona. I really feel like if it was a GM brand today it would be totally bad ass because GM post bankruptcy is a lot more focused. Pontiac will always be awesome to me. I love smoking people in my Grand Prix GTP at red lights 😉
Cody the reason so many spoke of Pontiac than any other division is they were the most popular that was killed.
As for the future it really depended on things we will never know.
Would GM have finally understood how to deal with Pontiac and let them thrive as a performance division as they should have or would they have continued to try to sell Pontiac SUV models, G4 models and offer cars like a G6 with no real performance engine?
Other things too is how would they sell Pontiac globally as no longer can you just sell a product in one market anymore in the volumes that Pontiac was selling. How could you make them more different than a Restyled Chevy and still make a profit? There was a lot of questions to be answered.
As the GTP I had one also has a SSEI too. Great cars but not really what Pontiac needed to be and not much of what they once were. While they were better than the Chevys they never did live up to the past of what Pontiac was or even could have been as GM really had little clue to know what to do with them.
Pontiacs best cars were where they let the engineers loose or they did it on their own. When they stopped that this is where things suffered. I have seen some of the things Pontiac wanted and were stopped from getting by GM through the 80’s and 90’s. The engineers had many things with more power and AWD that would have been much more than what they had. Even the Fiero was set to get a DOHC V6 and even earlier they had a 2.9 Turbo that was killed by GM. They even built two cars with Aluminum space frames that put the cars close to 2000 pounds.
I have seen many of these proto types built and killed long before they ever had a chance to survive.
How about a RWD SSEI? Yes they built one and it was killed early on after one was built.
Right now GM has a lot to still do. They still need to finish Cadillac. Chevy is on the way and we are just now seeing Buick getting all new post Chapter 11 products. Pontiac would have not done well in this time as they would have been the last to be fixed. They had much less effect on GM than any of the present divisions and would not have been treated as a priority. I fear the products would have suffered and grown long in the tooth while we waited damaging Pontiac even more.
I would love to see some day GM bring back Pontiac as a HSV like division. A place where dreams could come true. They would not be cheap but they would be special in all areas of go, stop and turn. Maybe one day once GM gets the rest of the lines where they need to be the time will be right to do something like this again. At least we can dream.
Note I have been lucky to spend time behind the wheel of nearly all the GTO’s, a 455 SD TA, even the Cat that finished second at the NHRA US Nationals in 1960. I have many friends and family that were tied to Pontiac over the years so I really know what the hey day of Pontiac was. While the GTP was an interesting car it really did not have the heart and soul of what made a Pontiac a real Pontiac. I enjoyed my Comp G but FWD was just never what Pontiac was all about.
There is a great book call The Fifties which has a chapter chronicling how Harvey Earl emphasized annual styling updates (to excess in some cases) over innovation. Then a bean counter took over GM in the late fifties to seal its fate by the 1970s. It was the beginning of GM falling behind. I loved and revered all the GM cars my family owned in the 60s and 70s (I was born in the early sixties), but it was obvious they were not the same quality as I got older.
To the comment that Japanese cars are actually better than Americans, I disagree. The cars from the seventies in Japan had interiors and bodies that did not hold up but the cars kept running way beyond the average GM vehicle. Once they improved in the 1980s it was game over for GM. Sorry, but reliability for most Japanese products was superior to GM until now.
PS Pontiac was amazing in the 1960s and style-wise through the seventies, but they became a joke in the 2 decades before the division was finally killed.