Over the course of the past few months, Buick dealer inventory levels across the United States stood above what the automotive industry considers optimum, with 119 days of supply in January 2024 and 76 days in March 2024. As for April 2024, the Tri-Shield brand’s inventory remained fairly stable.
According to a report from Cox Automotive, Buick inventory levels stood at 77 days supply as of April 2024, while the industry average was just below at 76. This means that at the current sales pace, there is enough inventory on dealership lots to last for 77 days. Notably, a 60 days supply mark is generally considered optimal in the industry. In comparison to the rest of General Motors’ U.S.-market brands, Buick was ranked roughly mid-pack as Chevy, Cadillac and GMC stood at 70, 72, and 79 days of supply, respectively.
It’s worth noting that these all figures are related to the U.S. market.
Of course, Buick inventory has been sky-high for the past several months, sitting well above 100 days supply until March 2024. As such, this drastic drop in inventory levels represents a significant clearing of backlog on dealership lots, which may have occurred for a variety of reasons, including the 2024 Enclave sunsetting in late February and production of the 2025 Enclave scheduled to commence in June 2024. This particular production schedule leaves a sizable gap of several months where no new Enclave units are being built, and will thus exhaust any remaining inventory of the Tri-Shield brand’s crossover.
Additionally, the refreshed 2024 Envision isn’t set to launch until Summer 2024. All said, these extended production schedules could be serving to drag down inventory levels. Notably, it’s likely that General Motors didn’t make this decision to lower supply.
For reference, this study was based on the daily sales rate for the most recent 30-day period – which in this case ended on May 2nd, 2024. Over this timeframe, April 2024 sales rose five percent on a year-over-year basis for a total sales pace of 15.5 million units.
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Comment
At least once every half hour, I see the “Wow Wow Wow” commercial for the 2023 Envision when watching TV. With pathetic deals.
I was hoping that seniors finally figured out the Chinese connection but they probably made too many and now are purposely delaying the ’24s, which should have been on lots 6 months ago. They’re playing games, don’t doubt it for a millisecond.