Buick Ranks Low In J.D. Power 2020 Brand Loyalty Study
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J.D. Power recently released its 2020 Brand Loyalty Study findings, ranking major automakers on customer loyalty via percentages calculated on whether an owner purchased the same brand after trading in an existing vehicle for a new vehicle. Of the 19 mass-market brands studied, Buick ranked 14th with 27.5 percent.
The study leveraged data collected via the Power Information Network, with percentages based on the number of vehicle owners who bought the same brand when trading in or purchasing a new vehicle. The calculations are based on transaction dates from June of 2019, through May of 2020, and include all model years traded in.
The J.D. Power Brand Loyalty study is now in its second year for 2020.
Among mass-market brands, Subaru ranked the highest with 60.5 percent, taking the top spot for the second year in a row and claiming the highest score of all brands studied in all segments. Toyota came in second with 60.3 percent, and Honda was third with 58.7 percent.
2021 Buick Envision
Beyond Buick, several other General Motors brands were also studied, with Chevrolet and GMC ranked seventh and 13th, respectively, among mass market brands. Cadillac was ranked tenth among the 13 luxury brands studied, with Lexus taking the top spot among all luxury brands studied.
“There are many factors that contribute to brand loyalty, ranging from the experience a customer has when purchasing the vehicle to how driving it makes them feel,” said vice president of data & analytics at J.D. Power, Tyson Jominy. “Automakers are really focused on customer retention, as evidenced by the payment plans and incentives they’ve offered since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Many have gone above and beyond to offer customers financial assistance during a period of economy uncertainty, which does a lot to bolster consumer confidence in their chosen brand and repurchase it in the future.”
2021 Buick Envision
Over the last several months, General Motors has announced numerous measures to help those affected by the pandemic. For example, in April, GM announced it would provide month-to-month lease extensions. The automaker also announced special discounts for first responders and healthcare workers.
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Source: J.D. Power
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Buick is dying, and General Motors spends nothing on promoting the brand. I also believe a lot of Buick’s potential customer base is not about to buy a Chinese car.
Buick is just another faded memory…
Buick not needed anymore,…
Numbers don’t lie…
Half of Buick sales in 2019 were the Encore. Crazy to think that GM wastes advertising money to keep the brand alive in North America to sell essentially just one vehicle.
Just rebadge the Encore as a Cadillac or GMC and gain more market share with those brands. Cadillac seems like they could really benefit from the sales of a subcompact+ sized CUV.
And lose billions because the Chinese isn’t buying from a non-US brand also several divisions been killed already, Chebby needs to get it together rather than kill another division.
Again, the Chinese don’t buy Buicks because it’s a U.S. brand. I believe that the Chinese like the brand because it was the first to see major production in China from SAIC-GM-Wuling. The sales of the brand in China have absolutely nothing to do with the history of the brand in the U.S. and really has more to do with the history of the Chinese. I think you’re giving the U.S. a little more credit than it deserves in this regard.
SAIC-GM was founded on June 12, 1997 with 50% investment each from each partner. SAIC-GM began assembling the venture’s first vehicle, the Buick Regal, in Shanghai, China in 1999. As the longest running GM brand in China, I surmise that the brand would do just fine without the existence of a United States lineup. The best selling “Buick” in China is the Excelle which I’m pretty sure doesn’t exist in North America.
SAIC-GM-Wuling doesn’t care at all about GM product names, they just want the manufacturing, engineering, and tech. Once they get that they’ll start pushing American companies like GM out. In fact GM brands have already seen a 25% decrease in sales since 2018, as that market starts to plateau. As it stands GM only owns 44% of that endeavor and Wuling is actually the best selling in that joint venture.
Maybe it would make sense for GM to become less involved in China since the market seems to be on the decline and possibly even sell the Buick name in the process? Maybe in the long run that could make financial sense? Anyways, most of that data is pulled from Wikipedia or wall street journal, so I’m not sure how current or accurate it is.
Nope, what you believe in isn’t factual. Sales are down but sales everywhere are down because of a garbage economy, yes the Chinese do love IP stealing but what exactly do Buick have to steal?, also why pull out if Ford and FCA is playing catch up in China?. Tesla may have a IP problem there.
Overall point is shuttering Buick won’t save a dime, nor improve any other GM division, you improve divisions by investments. Rob Peter to pay Paul (or GMs case killing) won’t improve a thing, since Holden’s dead, wheres the new interior for the Malibu?…..
Shutting down Buick would absolutely save GM North America money. I mean after all the Opel based Regal’s are gone what does Buick have left? Pretty much just the Encore. The Enclave, that has pretty direct competition from GMC, Cadillac and Chevy. Or the all new Envision, which actually looks pretty decent, but still imported from China. Hopefully sell more than the old Envision, which barely moved 30k units a year. But, again GM offers fairly direct competition from both Chevy and GMC. Having 4 brands that all compete with each other doesn’t make much sense to me.
How many brands does Toyota carry in North America? 2, maybe 4 if you count their minority stake in Mazda and Subaru. Ford has 2, Honda has 2. All of this makes me think that selling Buick to the state run Chinese SAIC and maintaining a minority share could be a profitable course of action. I’d still prefer my vehicle to be made in a free market, like Korea or North America.
What makes sense to you isn’t what makes sense to GM. GM copied Toyota for years and got nothing, If people want Toyota they’ll buy one, not a Chevy. Ford is still sinking with a few flashy products. FCA, well look who bought them now. Also don’t forget the payouts to the dealerships that carry Buick for franchise contact breaches.
Keep saying profits this and that after killing multiple divisions and yet kill another one means they can’t get their act together and I’ll buy the competition anyways because no-one don’t want to be associated with a loser, want to know how to make divisions not compete with each other?, by making them better than before, not by quitting.
And this suprises GM? Our last three cars have been two Regal’s and a Lacrosse. The Lacrosse is the best car we have ever owned.
What sedan am I going to replace it with? I don’t want a cookie cutter CUV. We drove Pontiac Grand Prix until GM disconnected them. Not interested in a Malibu, can’t afford a Cadillac. (Although I had a used CTS for a short time that was a great car, sold it and kept the higher milage Lacrosse because we liked it even better than the CTS). What is between a Malibu and a Cadillac? Nothing from GM.
The Buick number is only going to get worse as current Buick sedan owners look to trade and find no Buick sedans left.
I don’t agree that Buick is dying; rather, I think it’s being ignored by GM. I think GM has shown little consistency for Buick, with the latest change being to all SUVS / crossovers. Gone are the familiar model names that Buick owners liked, gone are the choice of body styles that was traditional. For instance, why does GM force each Buick to start with the letters “En—-“? And when was the last time that we had a discussion of who is leading Buick as its champion and cheerleader, the way we discuss who is at the helm of Cadillac?
There’s evidence for that. I don’t think I ever saw an ad for the Chevy SS, not even in the pages of Car and Driver. The Regal TourX only appeared in a TV spot featuring the whole lineup (Encore, LaCrosse, Enclave, et al.)
Car and Driver always skewed toward foreign-owned automobiles. I dropped my subscription years ago.
How can clients be loyal to Buick when they keep canceling sedans when they form a huge segment of their client base! No support for the Regal. Veranzo so popular as a higher quality to the Chevy Cruz canceled! Next it will be cancel SUVs and pick ups and you can purchase all vehicles from overseas companies and make a contribution to GM .
The move from cars to SUV and cuv may be the problem for past customers? What were customers driving when they left and what did they purchase unstead? Does GM have any idea where their clients went and what they opted for? Can anyone name the full Buick lineup? Buick were known as ‘Doctors’ cars years ago. Guess they drive Mercedes and BMW now.
Is it because of the pandemic or financial reasons?, I don’t see products as a cause for low scores.
The loss of sedans from their model lineup is a big contributor to the lack of loyalty and the resultant loss of share.
Not everyone wants or needs a SUV, a fact recognized by Toyota, Honda, Audi, Mercedes, BMW, etc.
Even Porsche saw the need to have a sedan.
But not Buick.
Not sure where such decisions get made… but they obviously didn’t talk to their own owners.
A sterling example of the failure of “management by genius”, as practiced by GM.
Sad but true.
Jay, I couldn’t agree more. Under the leadership of Ed Mertz, in the 90s, the brand was doing wonders. Fine products were flying off the shelves. Regardless of the popularity of SUVs and crossovers, NOT everyone wants one. Many people still want a nice sedan. Remember “Substantial, distinctive, powerful and mature”? That was the description used for every one of Buick’s products. And, they met that criteria admirably. Not so, today. Some very serious reconsideration is needed here. Hear that, Mary?
The sedans wasn’t selling only CUV hold and maintain Buick USA. We had the Regal hatch / wagon and Lacrosse, arguably the best Buick cars in a while with “womp womp” sales.
Hopefully a VSS-R sedan is in the works for Buick but GM goes with the money.
I agree with Jay Gerth. The loss of their sedans is a huge deal. I have a Buick Lucerne and would like to purchase a Lacrosse when the time comes – but the Lacrosse has been discontinued. I think Buick should always have sedans. Even if they have 1 sedan and 6 SUVs – that’s okay but there are a few of us who like the traditional Buick sedan. Can someone tell me how in the world is the Avalon still being sold and it was the Toyota sedan that was suppose to be a Japanese Buick?! No one is buying the Avalon, but Toyota still sees fit to make it along with the popular Camry. I wish GM would bring over the Chinese Buick Lacrosse.
BTW, Kia is still making the Kia Cadenza – all I can say is wow. If Kia can make a full size sedan so should Buick!
Our 2012 Enclave didn’t drive well…jerky jerky throttle response, and expensive systems kept failing. (Struts, HVAC,, intake carbon), and the interior plastics were turning to dust. In all ways it was in worse shape than our 2004 Suburban that it was supposed to replace, even though the Suburban is 8 years older with 180,000 more miles on it, and has been parked outside since we got the Buick. It is disappointing product that had me moving on to another brand. The Atlas we bought on November, making is part of the statistic, is do much better, and has do much better warranty.
Absolutely, David. Does a guy who’s been buying Buick sedans all his life necessarily want to move to a EN*****? I think not. I too, was fine with my LaCrosse, arguably the best vehicle I’ve ever owned. No more. If it was me, I’d be putting $$$ into reviving the sedan market. Make something America would WANT to buy. You know . . . like Honda and Toyota. GM is it’s own worst enemy.
If Buick had just come out with a sedan like the Avenir concept car and the Avista coupe, they would have sold plenty of CARS vs. crossovers…
No surprise there’s no brand loyalty, Buick’s products could not be more bland and vanilla. The LaCrosse was a good foundation but totally ignored by marketing in favor of Buick’s lackluster SUV’s The Encore and Envision are two of the most underwhelming crossovers available today. Why someone would pay 26k or more for an Encore compared to a RAV4 or CR-V is a total mystery. The Envision’s “made in China” label is a total non-starter with the typical Buick customer, although Hertz and Alamo don’t seem to care. The Enclave is a credible effort, but overshadowed by the better trimmed & detailed and more coherently priced Chevy Traverse range. Regal TourX had lots of potential but again let down by non-existent marketing and dealer interest. Their series strategy makes no sense as well. “Prefferred, Essence, Premium, Premium II”, etc., what the hell does all that mean? Finally, Buick dealers have no interest in selling Buicks. They’re typically co-housed with wither GMC or Chevy dealers, both of which have much more profitable truck and SUV lines to concentrate on. My local Buick dealer is also a Cadillac and GMC dealer. They’re much more interested in selling GMCs and Caddy’s than Buick which is evidenced by their stock levels. Buick needs a “halo” car again like Riviera or a big luxury sedan like Park Avenue as well as a more credible crossover line-up if they want to become desirable and relevant again.
AMEN!! You are so right about everything you said.
All one needs to do is look at the direction Mary Barra is taking GM. Brand loyalty is down dramatically in GMC, and even worse in Buick. Barra’s vision and leadership says it all. GM management sits in a big glass office building in Detroit, oblivious of customer trends and preferences, driven only by profit and ignoring quality and customer service along the way.
Hey Mary you have 2 more losses for Buick, myself and a friend were ready too replace our Buick Lacrosse ‘s and not be forced into a suv so , good by Buick ..The other down fall only 1 model in assembled the the USA ,,sad.
I’ve asked Buick what the point of Buick is in the United States and other countries where they are paired with GMC.
If GMC is supposed to be near luxury trucks and SUVs before reaching Cadillac, shouldn’t Buick be mainly cars and some SUVs? At this point if you have 2 brands with near luxury vehicles, I would think one should go.
Just my thoughts.
Will someone please raise their hand and tell me why Mary Barra still has a job. In pretty much every metric, GM is faring poorly. She keeps GM profitable….okay….I get that but profits today when the company is turning off their clientele and killing future sales is not good. She’s exiting markets, killing products, has made the company alarmingly reliant on a communist nation which the US has brewing tensions with.
Buick and Cadillac are doing poorly, the former of which isn’t even a US car maker anymore; just a marketer of foreign products. On her watch, GM botched the full-size truck redesign and now finds Ram stealing significant market share. She’s off on same tangent trying to convert the whole company to a triple-zero electric driverless future which is likely going to be a very costly error due to getting far ahead of buyers. Roger B. Smith wrecked GM; they have never been the same omnipotent automotive powerhouse since his tenure. Mary Barra is shaping up so far to be worse. I don’t know of anything she’s doing right.
Consider a few numbers. When Mary arrived in 1980, GM had 40 percent of the US market. Last year it was down to 16.8 percent. Twenty years ago, in the year 2000, GM had 28 percent of the US market and their executives all were wearing “29” lapel pins to remind them of the corporate mission to boost market share just one point in pursuit of getting back to the larger goal of their former numbers. They failed. Market share continued to slide. Today, as I said above, they’re at 16.8. In 2015, some five years ago, they were at 17.7. If one goes back ten years ago, the figure stands at 18.8 percent. It’s a continuous decline and it just keeps going. I’m sure GM’s senior management would say the company is profitable and that’s true but tiny companies are profitable. Profit isn’t the only metric.
To be sure Mary can’t be blamed for all of it but when a company is so clearly headed in the wrong direction why is the person steering the ship still behind the wheel?
GM had 45 percent of the market when Mary hired on at GM; not 40 percent. It’s too late to edit my earlier post. I’m not sure how I managed to type 40 but it was 45. It’s now 16.8 percent.
Numbers out your misogyny?. GM was 30% when Rick Wagoner was CEO ’09, did Mary somehow grow it to 45% to shrink it to 16, either way it’s still greater than Ford and Toyota with profit.
All one needs to do is look at the direction Mary Barra is taking GM. Brand loyalty is down dramatically in GMC, and even worse in Buick. Barra’s vision and leadership says it all. GM management sits in a big glass office building in Detroit, oblivious of customer trends and preferences, driven only by profit and ignoring quality and customer service along the way. The leadership wonks sit in a big, glass office building, oblivious of customer trends and wants, focused only on maximizing profits. Along the way, they went stone deaf to customer service and reliability (think 8-speed transmission in GMC). I have a 2012 LaCrosse, and I would love to replace it with the LaCrosse that’s exclusive to the China market. I also have a 2016 GMC Sierra SLT crew cab, which I will likely replace with a Dodge Ram, unless the Sierra interior undergoes a dramatic improvement in design and uses upgraded materials. And, I also have a 2018 Subaru Outback Limited, the first vehicle I’ve ever owned that is not a GM brand, which I’m delighted with. GM designers could take a lesson out of the Subaru playbook (exterior, interior and mechanical).
Long time GM customer, not anymore, KIA is running all over GM with quality, customer service and dealership service..GM loves cheap plastic jet black ash grey interiors, blah,
Hard facts. The Kia Seltos looks every bit as nice as the new Trailblazer and has the modern drive train to back it up. Kia has a 1.6t with a DCT compared to GM’s “modern, ultra-small displacement engine” 3 cylinder 1.3t with a slushbox 9 speed. Not to mention Kia has a 100k mile warranty to back it all up.
Reading all the comments above, I can agree with nearly all of them in the diverse range. But there is a pattern. !. Product. Buick must have sedans still no matter what. 2. People knowing what they are buying. Although Buick (thankfully) still used names, why was the choice made years ago to abandon the Buick names that made Buick……Buick? They must bring cars back with names of LeSabre or Park Avenue. They really needed to keep the Regal. Funny thing is that years ago when I was selling them, many people didn’t stay loyal to “Buick” as much as they were loyal to LeSabre, Park Avenue, etc. 3. Buick needs more than just an off tanish or black interior. Colors must be offered. Just my opinion.
Now I’m a great example of what this article is talking about. I currently still own a 2006 Buick Lucerne and love it. Although I haven’t owned this just a short time, I have some type of connection to that car. It has style, class and is unique in today’s sea of suv/cuv’s. I also just traded my 2018 Buick Encore two weeks ago on a new little Chevrolet Spark. Again, I loved the Encore and enjoyed driving it very much. I loved the style. I loved the economy. I loved the quiet. I loved the solid feel even after nearly 2 1/2 years of ownership. I never had one single issue, recall or out of pocket expense. I should have been a shoe-in for another new Buick. But in this case, there were two things going on. The first was that I just wanted to go with an even smaller city type car and Buick didn’t offer that. Second, I was actually willing to go with anther Encore (not the GX yet, but the 2020 Encore like I had). However, the lease special that was going on was for competitive brands and not offered to me as a current owner. Since the Encore was already a smaller and good city car, I would have readily gone with anther if I could have lowered my payment with the lease. Wasn’t happening. So although I stayed with GM this time, I did look at several import brands as well a Jeep. But doesn’t all this give a very compelling reason why Buick’s retention is so low?
I know our opinions differ pretty substantially most of the time, but you trading into a Chevy Spark is a prime example of why Buick has low retention. Buick is currently a redundant GM brand. A well equipped Chevy will give you many of the basic comforts of a Buick. If you want something premium you can get a Caddy or GMC. Buick is a very niche market that is growing smaller and smaller.
@h4cksaw: I do agree mostly with you here and some of your above comments. But I will say this: Although I (so far) love this tiny little Spark, it certainly isn’t the Buick. I fully understand that many people hate platform sharing with just making some styling changes and a slightly different interior. I’m not one of them. So if Buick had an equivalent of my Spark but in the “Buick” form with more sound insulation and typical Buick cues, I’d have totally gone that route. Even thought the Encore is kind of a different version of the Sonic hatch, the Chevy (Sonic hatch version) is smaller. It’s more car-like. Even there, had I been able to purchase a Buick version of the Sonic, I would have done so. I am one who personally loves Buick and has for years. They are better than most cars out there for more money and I have no problem with GM just making another GM product distinctly Buick with upgraded interiors and more premium features. But that’s just me.
This is what happens when you cancel all of your sedans. Those LaCrosse and Regal buyers have nowhere to go at Buick.
I agree. We have to buy them used or go to foreign brand which I wont do. We can only hope GM and Ford come to their senses but I am not holding my breath. I am surprised Chrysler has not discontinued the 300 yet!
Yes, that’s a miracle. With all the Dodge Chargers “Stellantis” is selling, it’s a wonder Chrysler hasn’t become the People Mover Division–though the Pacifica is a neat minivan, and I imagine the upcoming Town & Country will be a sweet crossover.
Mary has killed off more fine cars,lucerne,lacross were great cars.. Not everyone wants a cuv or an electric car. Mary will be the ruin of GM. I will NEVER buy a chinese vehicle
I’m really tired of American car companies not understanding that providing a quality product will bring in customers. When you base all your efforts on profits and ignore quality, you lose customers it’s that simple. You can only make a vehicle so cheap and then what do you do when you lose customers? I would love to be proud of American car companies, but it is hard to do it with what they are doing lately. I can not imagine how the employees feel working for a company that does not take pride in itself.
Maybe you need to look for a job elsewhere if you’re not happy. This discussion was not about quality, it is about models and choices. I have no problem with GM quality and if you read what others post, few do. Product choice is what GM doesn’t have. Especially Buick! This is the founding Division of GM and should show it but doesn’t. Read what is written here and become enlightened.
I do not work at GM. I feel bad for the people who do. It is hard to take pride in a product if it is not made well and the company does not car about its employees. The article is about brand loyalty. If what I said does not pertain to brand loyalty, I don’t know what does.
Apparently you don’t.
Very sad. As a native of Flint aka Buicktown it breaks my heart to see this happen. Flint the hometown of GM is sad. Used to have about 200,000 people now around 100,000. Buick, AC, Ternstead, Chevy assembly, DuPont, etc. Plenty of blame to go around. I will never forgive turning the lights out in Flint the founding home of GM.
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I visited Pontiac a few years ago, and it too was sad. Wide Track Boulevard seemed like a cruel joke.
This really surprised me. I have a Buick Enclave with 135,000 miles on it. It’s quiet and comfortable, and I’ve had several people say they want it when I decide to trade it in. I would definitely buy another Buick.
I’m not surprised by the positive experience with your Enclave. I found the previous version (before the ’18 redesign) to be a very solid crossover and an attractive value. The 2018 updates however seemed to “cheapen” the Enclave everywhere but the window sticker. That combined with Chevy introducing the High Country trim on the Traverse and Cadillac bringing out the XT6, all of a sudden the Enclave was squeezed by a nicer Chevy and a kinda cut-rate Cadillac, since they share showrooms in many cases the new Enclave finds itself in a tough spot. Add in the mediocre GMC Acadia and GM ends up cannibalizing itself in the showroom with 4 products in basically the same space. I think Buick needs 4 great products; a Equinox size CUV, the Enclave with upgraded power, standard AWD, and nicer trim, A LeSabre/Park Avenue replacement sedan and a Riviera type flagship that could compete with the E-class and comparable coupes and sedans. Keep the current Regal as long as Opel can supply it but give it some marketing for God’s sake. In the showroom I’d pair Buick with Chevy exclusively and make sure there was enough differentiation in models, content and price to justify the differences. Otherwise, put Buick out of it’s misery.