The Buick Regal midsize sedan and Chevrolet Cruze compact, both sold in key segments of the U.S. car market, face stiff competition and other obstacles to success.
GM rolled out the Regal on Thursday in Los Angeles, and it's counting on the sleek-looking sedan to claw out a new market for the once-stodgy Buick, now the official brand of bingo night at the senior center.
Buick has been absent from the tough midsize market since 2004, while the Cruze was recently put on hold because GM wasn't happy with how it drove.
Executives have high hopes that the Regal, much of it designed by GM's Opel engineers in Ruesselsheim, Germany, can help bring younger buyers to Buick, crucial to the brand's long-term growth. Currently the median age of a Buick customer is around 68, but GM is targeting new models for those in their 40s and 50s, said Craig Bierley, Buick's product marketing director.
"Clearly having a midsize entry is absolutely critical for us," Bierley said.
Buick sales this year are down 33 percent compared with last year, worse than the overall U.S. market, which is off 25 percent.
Midsize cars like Toyota's Camry, the perennial sales leader, are attractive to young families and baby boomers who are downsizing their vehicles. They typically can haul five people and have decent trunk space. Also, several entries get well over 30 mpg on the highway, making them the default buy for those who need space but are concerned about the return of $4-per-gallon gasoline.
This year, the midsize segment is the biggest part of the U.S. car market, making up 47 percent of sales. Camry dominates the segment with 294,000 sales.
GM has no margin for error with the Regal or any other new vehicle, said David Koehler, a clinical marketing professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"Their success in the future is riding on these new launches," he said.
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