TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein
 

<p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/china/" rel="tag">China</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/buick/" rel="tag">Buick</a></p><strong><big>Buick Back?</big></strong><br />
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<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2010/02/17/thedetroitbureau-on-autoblog-with-paul-eisenstein/TheDetroitBureau.com"><im g hspace="0" border="1" align="right" vspace="4" alt="" class="right border" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/04/paul-1-08opt.jpg" /></a>Later this month I'll be heading out to San Diego to get my first ride in the new <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/model/regal">Buick Regal</a>. It's a trip I'm looking forward to, something I couldn't have said about most of the <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/make/buick/">Buick</a> product previews I've attended over the course of my 30 years on the auto beat.<br />
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Let's face it: Since the days of the classic Riviera, the long-struggling General Motors division didn't have a lot to offer other than "badge-engineered" products that appealed to a limited core audience of aging Buick buyers. One GM wag once suggested that the average age of the division's buyers was "nearly dead." And as that audience steadily dwindled, so was Buick.<br />
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Consider that over the quarter century from 1984 to 2009, Buick sales plunged nearly 90% from 941,611 to just 102,300 and you understand why so many industry analysts began urging GM to abandon the Buick brand long before last year's bankruptcy. Yet when the ashes of the century-old automaker rose like a phoenix last July, Buick remained among the four surviving North American "core" brands.<br />
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To understand why, I just need to talk with an old friend, Al Abramson, a long-time dealer in Asian art, jewelry and antiques, and one of the first Westerners to go behind the so-called Bamboo Curtain after the fateful meeting between Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong.<br />
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<em>Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of <a href="http://thedetroitbureau.com/">TheDetroitBureau.co m</a>, and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.</em><hr style="width: 630px;" /><p><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/10/thedetroitbureau-com-on-autoblog-with-paul-eisenstein/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>TheDetroitBureau.co m on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;backgr ound:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/10/thedetroitbureau-com-on-autoblog-with-paul-eisenstein/">TheDetroitBureau.co m on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.autoblog.com">Autoblo g</a> on Mon, 10 May 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.</p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/10/thedetroitbureau-com-on-autoblog-with-paul-eisenstein/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/19470933/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/10/thedetroitbureau-com-on-autoblog-with-paul-eisenstein/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>

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