Car Aesthetics: New Car Edition
In Sunday's NYT, James G. Cobb reports more bad news for GM: Now that Buick (average customer age: 68) has finally gotten its cars' reliability and construction up to market expectations, potential customers actually want interesting style:
My test car had a sticker of $32,160, which not only seemed steep, it put the LaCrosse uncomfortably close to some true gotta-have cars from Acura, Infiniti and Lexus. The same money will buy more envy if you invest it in a well-equipped Chrysler 300 Limited.
Don't take my word. Look at how the market values the LaCrosse: with such tough competition, dealers are slashing prices by ever larger amounts, a bad sign for a new car. Edmunds.com, the auto information Web site, reports that in March the average transaction price was 17.2 percent below the average sticker, or $4,702. That compared with a 3.7 percent markdown for the 300, 10.2 percent for the Five Hundred and 8.7 percent for the Mercury Montego.
At least with LaCrosse, the discount isn't on damaged goods; if you disregard matters of taste and styling, it is hard to find serious faults. Come to think of it, that describes the Camry and Accord, too, so right there Buick is in a whole new league.
Yeah, but if you're going to compete with the Camry--Cobb is, in my opinion, too down on the Accord's styling--the quality expectations will be significantly higher. The main lesson here is that competition in the auto industry has ratcheted up quality expectations, and aesthetics is increasingly a basic dimension of "quality."