Over the last couple of years, GM has been working hard to shed Buick‘s image of retiree transportation. But in China, it’s seen as a luxury brand, an image which ultimately helped Buick end 2013 with a new sales record.
According to a report out of Bloomberg, it sold 1.03 million Buicks across the globe last year. Sales in China, now Buick’s largest market, made up the largest slice of the pie rose 16 per cent to 809,918 cars. In the U.S., Buick sales jumped 14 per cent while Canadian sales increased 9.5 per cent. The previous record, set in 1984, saw 1.003 million cars sold across North America. After that, Buick sales fell gradually and ultimately bottomed out at 102,306 vehicles in 2009.
The news comes hot on the heels of GM registering the “Opel Calibra” and “Opel Cascada” names in the U.S., which could signal GM’s intent to introduce more European models into Buick’s lineup from Opel. The Cascada is a two-door convertible that shares its underpinnings with the Chevy Cruze and the Buick Verano, while the Calibra was a two-door version of the Opel Vectra in the 1990s.