Almost half of America’s Buick dealers are gone or going away fast. The Detroit Free Press reports, “GM will end 2023 with about 1,000 Buick stores nationwide, down 47% from where it started the year.”
They’re not just closing their doors and walking away. Automotive News explains, “Buick offered to buy out retailers who did not want to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on tooling, equipment, and training to prepare to sell and service [electric vehicles] EVs as the brand goes all-electric by the end of the decade.” Almost half have taken the deal.
Duncan Aldred, vice president of global Buick-GMC, told AN, “The network, where we are now, is a good size. It’s with dealers who are focused on the business, who’ve shown that they can recover the volume that the dealers who transitioned away were doing.”
Buick sales rose in 2023, but its lineup has shrunk to just four SUVs for the 2024 model year, and it has lost its historical place in the GM lineup.
Buick traditionally served as an entry-level-luxury brand, positioned above Chevrolet but below Cadillac in GM’s hierarchy. But 2023 has rearranged that ladder, with Buick falling to become GM’s budget brand.
The average Chevrolet buyer spent nearly $12,000 more than the average Buick buyer last quarter.
Buick doesn’t yet have an EV on the American market. But once it makes the switch, it could turn over its lineup quickly. The company has shown off an electric concept car and promised to go all-electric by 2030.
