New Buick LaCrosse sees sales surge in China

While General Motors' total U.S. sales have been hard hit this year, the redesigned Buick LaCrosse is seeing explosive growth in China since launching this summer — demonstrating the importance of the 106-year-old Buick brand in GM's portfolio.

Sales of the LaCrosse sedan jumped almost threefold in China during the first two full months of sales of the redesigned large sedan compared with last year.

GM sold more than 20,500 LaCrosse sedans in China during August and September, compared with about 7,000 during the same two-month period a year ago, according to company figures.

Those monthly totals are the highest the LaCrosse has had since being introduced to the China market in 2006.

The redesigned LaCrosse has been widely praised by industry analysts but still faces an uphill fight in the United States, where the Buick brand has not been as well received.

In China, however, the brand is considered a premium player and its sales are also helped by a blazing overall sales market.

"You've got a great brand and you've got a marvelously executed vehicle," said industry analyst Erich Merkle, president of Autoconomy.com. "It's like fire and gasoline, you can get a great explosion out of it."

U.S. sales of the LaCrosse, while down for the year, are also picking up compared with earlier in the year.

Globally, September and August sales of the LaCrosse rank as the fourth- and fifth-largest selling months, respectively, of the model in GM history, according to the company.

That's better than when the vehicle was first launched in 2004, when the U.S. market was at 17 million in annual sales compared with 2009's 10 million market.

GM is trying to breathe new life into Buick brand in the United States. Last week, GM announced that it would launch the Buick Regal midsized sports sedan in six months.

"Regal will be a grand-slam home run," Tom Stephens, GM vice chairman of global product development, told the Free Press in an interview.

Stephens also said the early success of the LaCrosse shows the wider importance of the Buick brand.

"We kept the Buick brand because of its global nature," Stephens said.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration's auto task force questioned keeping the Buick brand as GM underwent planning for a sweeping restructuring, which eventually included bankruptcy reorganization.

"Buick's important because of its volume, its revenue basis and its ability to sustain itself. Remember Fritz" — GM's CEO Henderson — "said that everything has to pull its own weight," Stephens said. "Buick more than pulls its own weight."