GM courts younger Buick buyers

[rickaren]

GM courts younger Buick buyers with new Regal

Posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 12:48 PM EST. (Employee News)

General Motors Co.’s Buick, the premium brand whose buyers are older than the U.S. average, is courting younger consumers by reviving the Regal name on an Opel sports sedan, Bloomberg reported.

The Germany-built Regal will go on sale in the second quarter, GM said before unveiling the auto yesterday at an event ahead of next month’s Los Angeles Auto Show, the news service said. Opel’s Insignia, on which the Regal is based, was named European car of the year by a group of trade journalists, Bloomberg said.

Bringing back Regal is part of a strategy to bolster Buick, one of four U.S. marques being kept as GM sells or shuts four others, the article said. The unit’s U.S. sales fell 26 percent in 2008, when GM ended a nine-year Buick marketing campaign with golfer Tiger Woods, and 33 percent in 2009 through October, the story said.

Buick dropped the Regal to make way for the LaCrosse in 2004. GM reintroduced the model in December in China, where the average age of Regal buyers is 36, according to the Detroit- based automaker, the news service said. The average age for U.S. Buick buyers is 57, compared with 46 for all new-vehicle purchases, said Art Spinella, president of consulting firm CNW Research, based in Bandon, Oregon. Five years ago, the average age of Buick customers was 62, he said in the article. (Bloomberg)