Buick Encore Sales Drop 78 Percent During Q4 2020

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• I think GM did it to themselves by naming two vehicles so closely together, by making them into products so closely together, and letting the Encore grow stale.

• lowercase gm all but abandons the largest market in the US. Brilliant! Bye market share. When are share holders going to realize that not everything is going well under Mary's regime anymore. Everyone likes to think full size trucks are the high selling segment, but that's simply not the case. Subcompact plus is the most competitive and best selling segment, especially excluding fleet and commercial sales. lowercase gm is absolutely rudderless in the b/c segment, demand for the BEVs simply isn't there, and the TB is a flop.

• As usual the gums run before the fact came out. The GX is taking the sales, are some going to the competition?, yes but not as much.

  • It's a shocking drop, Encore GX has not been as well received by critics as Encore, but Buick still has market share. What's amazing is how Trax, a vehicle GM was
    reluctant to bring here, has held on in such a significant way. The shock really comes when one compares the twins.
    GEM Encore, which needs a new name, can't come quick enough. GEM Trax should be readied as well and, for the sake of Chevrolet sales, produced on one line outside of China. GEM is Gamma 2 so should be an easy job to Federalize and enhance.

    • Why waste money on an antiquated platform? Take the VSS-F platform, bring production to the U.S. and put in a decent motor, like the 2.0t lsy, already made in the U.S. It would instantly shoot the platform to the top of the segment, and probably be my next vehicle. Seems like a no brainier, which might require too much common sense for Mary and her cronies.

• I must agree with the others above. I feel (opinion) that Buick made a huge mistake bringing the new Encore GX to market and calling it an Encore at all. Confuses people. There were other great names that could have been used. The reason I don't say they should have called the GX the all new Encore and changed the old Encore is because of them being sold side by side.

  I'm a GM guy and really like Buick, but they have been making some really bone headed decisions IMO.

• I think we need to wait until the end of March or June before we get a more accurate picture of things. This article is pointless and foolish.

  • lowercase gm doesn't seem to have any plans to make the GX and Trailblazer any better, so why would you think they'll magically sell more units or grab more market share? If anything it will sell less and less, especially as all the lack luster reviews from third parties keep rolling in.

• The obvious has been said by many people above the encore is stale doesn't have all the safety equipment of other cars. It has the same name as the GX series which was just foolish I think the marketing department could have been fired over this. Plus the sales department and the pricing department simply does not understand that senior citizens which are still the bulk of Buick sales wanted a vehicle for $20,000 and not 25 or 30.

• This is a suggestion for general motors not necessarily a comment about the encore. I think you should rotate your internal marketing staff and pricing staff and all of management, place them into the actual car dealerships as sales trainees for one or two weeks to show them how difficult it is to actually sell cars. Let them actually find out what customers are looking at, what the price objections are and how intense competition actually is to get the dollar from the consumer. Just my two cents but sales is hard work especially when you have real competition which obviously gm does today compared to the 1950s

  • Julius: I couldn't agree more! I'm not in actual sales any more but now work in the fleet department at a dealership. However, I've been in auto related sales and/or service related for over 20 years total with almost 19 of those in sales. I've said this same thing for years. These people just don't know what it's about unless they have been on the front lines where the feet hit the ground. I also think a lot of people on here just don't understand the problem names, lack of names or letters/numbers for names can create and thus lose sales. Example: You have someone who has purchased a certain model for years and then that brand changes the name. Customer doesn't get the memo and leaves the brand. This may be going back some years, but here are some examples:
    Regal into LaCrosse
    Century into LaCrosse
    LeSabre and Park Avenue into Lucerne
    Cavalier into Cobalt into Cruze
    DeVille into DTS into XTS

    And then you have the lettering/numbers games that no customers understand. So yes. Maybe if these people you mention above had to word the front lines, just maybe they would finally get it and see the value of sticking with a name that customers will stay with.

• It's not even really a competition, the Kia Seltos, Hyundai Kona, and Mazda Cx-30 are all just straight up better vehicles than GX and Trailblazer. Kia and Hyundai even offer a way better warranty. You'd literally have to be out of your mind to choose the Trailblazer imho.

  • Trying to get Kia and Hyundai to honor their warranty is like pulling teeth in my personal experience.

    • Trying to get any manufacturer to cover warranties is like pulling teeth. Squeaky wheel gets the grease.

• gm planned this. The Encore GX took the sales away as buyers looked to the updated version, and bought those.

• Almost the same as the Chevy Trax, so why spend the extra money on the stale looking Buick.