Buick officially issued the compact Verano’s death certificate in North America weeks ago, stating a more permanent shift to crossovers is to blame. While that may be true for North America, something curious has occurred in Canada.
As Buick pulls the plug on the Verano, GM Canada revealed the vehicle’s sales rose to an all-time high in the country. According to The Truth About Cars, the 2016 Buick Verano sold 1,125 units during the month of April, a record, and generated half of Buick’s Canadian sales volume during the month of May. In all, the Buick Verano utterly outperforms the entire Buick portfolio in Canada, leading any other vehicle sitting on dealer lots.
Still, Buick will wave goodbye to the sedan, where it will live on in China, and allow the Buick Encore to take the place of an entry level vehicle. It’s all just a bit ironic.
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In Canada, people tend to like compact sedans more than any other bigger sedans, because they cost less and generally have lower fuel consumption. So, Verano fits well here.
Besides, Enterprise rental buys them to provide as rentals (I rented it from Enterprise myself before), so considerable part of these sales may be due to fleet sales. Regardless, I see a lot of Veranos in the Greater Toronto Area where I reside, while e.g. the 2nd gen LaCrosse and Regal are a relative rarity here.
I bet GM Canada was/is aware of Verano popularity in Canada, but there stands the fact that Canadian market is 1/10th of US market, so whatever happens on Canadian market, which is a “satellite market” with respect to big US market, does not really seem to affect global North American GM decisions.
Why can’t GM import Verano to Canada via China. Canadians already get unique product like Chevrolet Orlando. It can’t be that hard to put together such a distribution channel.
I don’t see why they can’t come up with capacity to make 40k or 50k in the U.S. or Mexico. Is the Verano that different from the Cruze?
I think GM-Buick dropping this just because of the binge-fest towards CUV/SUV things is short sighted.
Makes no sense. A finely-tuned Verano GS beating the S3, Focus RS, Golf R featuring a hatchback version would go a ways toward attracting my young hipster generation.
The dealers in Canada that only have Buick/GMC had little product to sell anyways since Lacrosse and Regal are low volume …………..this will not help
Folks today’s market has changed and the fact is most small cars like this in this segment are expected to pull 2-3 times the amount of sales that this car was pulling.
Ford recently made a statement that they will not sell any cars unless they make a decent profit. Less the EV cars of course.
This car just was not maximizing the profit potential of the plant and workers and if GM can find or build a higher volume and bigger profit car on that line they will do it.
In these times a small car like this selling under 30K units at this price is just not making the best use of production potential. This is why cars under 40K today are expected to sell in excess of 100K units or more anymore.
As it is now it is not short sighted but maximizing potential. Now if the CUV thing changes they could easily pull this from China and bring it back here as changing a line is not a hard thing to do anymore.
The old thinking of building cars no longer applies in todays market. GM finally has gotten to where they need to be and look for the models that will either deliver the volume for profits or the price for profits and stop fooling around with the small change that makes less money.
That 1100 units in Canada did not pay the electric bill for the plant they are made at in Michigan.
I get it my heard is for a full line of cars too but it is about making money. GM forgot this and we saw what happened. It is a competitive market and MFGs need to be flexible and fast to bring what people want or they will move on. They also need to do it in volume at the lower prices to make money.
I could see a small number being imported from China as many Canadian cars are imported but at that number it is so small compared to what is expected anymore.
Also I would caution to see just what GM has planned. So often the end of one model is a beginning of a much better model. With GM today so little is known on their future product that there could just be a big old surprise waiting.
With hints of a sub Alpha who knows?
If the Verano sells that well in Canada , why export the vehicle from China when GM’s factories there are hardly running at 100% of their potential capacity .
The Verano was a very good car, well built, solid and quiet. My friend bought one three years ago and I was impressed with the overall quality/ride/quiet/comfort and performance.
For GM, I guess this is a matter of having a balanced offering. Subtract one existing car, and then add back one new SUV/ crossover.
GM still needs to come out with a series of new crossovers with a lowered roof height, as we are seeing from the imports. Soon, I would expect to hear more news from both Ford and GM, regarding such new models.
I highly doubt with Opel’s investment in Astra that the Verano will be gone for long. Perhaps a new name, but Astra will come back stateside eventually.
Had Chrysler learned to refresh names that didn’t play out too well with the Sebring/200, that car might have survived too.