Busineess Monday: Bye-Bye Buick Lucerne?
It seems like the news from Detroit these days is nothing but bad. GM and the UAW went through a strike just a few weeks ago, while Chrysler is still in negotiations, and sales of American cars are slumping at the same time American auto workers are asking for better job stability and benefits, among other things.
GM, specifically, has announced that with sales of the Buick Lucerne down 15.3 percent, and the Cadillac DTS down 14.4 percent, they will be halting production of those front-wheel drive behemoths at it’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant for two weeks beginning on December 14th, with subsequent plans to completely drop a shift, and lay off 767 hourly workers.
The Lucerne and the DTS were originally put into production to replace the classic Buick LeSabre and Cadillac Deville. GM’s numbers say that the Lucerne’s whole market segment is down 19.1 percent through September, while the DTS is still leading it’s segment, but also has numbers that are off, down 5.5 percent in the first nine months of 2007.
The Buick Lucerne is one of only two remaining Buicks in production today.
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