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Buick to kill Verano as early as 2017

The Buick Verano's days are allegedly numbered. Citing unnamed sources, Automotive News is reporting that Buick will kill its Delta-platform-based sedan. The company offered the typical "no comment." According to AN, Buick is expecting 70 percent of its sales to come from the Encore, Envision, and Enclave once the Envision goes on sale. And it doesn't take a professor of economics to recognize that when half the vehicles you build account for just 30 percent of the sales, it's time to trim. But the case for killing the Verano is a weird one, because the problem isn't a lack of demand. Struggling sales might be the reason to kill a car, but the Verano is – and has consistently been – Buick's second best-selling sedan. It's beaten the slightly larger, more expensive Regal by at least 12,000 units in each of the last four years. Hell, in 2013, Buick sold 45,000 Veranos to fewer than 19,000 Regals. So why not kill the Regal? Well, the Verano's raison d'etre is irrelevant today. Buick launched its smallest sedan at a time when premium compact four-doors weren't a thing and gas prices were high enough that consumers were still hesitant to tie themselves to a CUV's fuel bill. And while it was roughly the same size as the Chevrolet Cruze that it shared GM's Delta platform with, it had enough unique equipment to stand apart and warrant its price premium. Today, fuel prices are cheap and consumers are flocking to crossovers while Buick is stuck sharing the premium compact pie with much more prestigious names ( Mercedes-Benz and Audi). And because it's sharing showroom space with the super-popular Encore, even the Verano's affordable pricing has become a liability. Today, a lightly equipped Verano is the same price as a base Encore, and they offer broadly similar features (rear-view cameras, a seven-inch touchscreen with Intellilink, Bluetooth, etc.). And if the Encore is too small, there's probably a GMC Terrain sitting in the same showroom, offering more utility and equal equipment to the Verano for a similar price. As one dealer told AN, "For not much more money, customers can get an SUV." Killing the Verano might risk 30,000 to 40,000 sales, but it's a move that proves Buick has tremendous confidence in its CUV lineup – clearly the company thinks the Encore can do the job of luring customers into showrooms. AN's sources claim the Verano will survive through 2017, so we'll be waiting a few years to find out if that faith is misplaced. Related Video:

GM's MPG overstatement could affect 2 million vehicles

Late last week, GM admitted that three of its large SUVs fuel economy window stickers did not match their actual efficiency ratings, and so the vehicles couldn't be sold. The stickers on the 2016 Chevy Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Buick Enclave said their ratings were one to two miles per gallon better than they should have been. Officially, the number of affected vehicles sits at about 60,000. But Consumer Reports makes a good point: what's up with all of the previous model year SUVs that are basically the same vehicle? To wit: the 2016 model year vehicles are not substantially different than the 2015 or the 2014, or even going all the way back to 2007. On the EPA's fuel economy website, all of these older models will "have better stated fuel economy numbers than the new vehicles in GM's dealerships," Consumer Reports noted. CR's best point, and the one that makes the 60,000 number potentially grow to 2 million if all of the vehicles built on this platform are affected, is that "[i]t seems unlikely that the company would change the powertrain on these carryover models so late in their model cycles in a way that would cause a dramatic, negative impact on fuel economy." GM says that earlier model year SUVs are not affected and the EPA did not respond to CR's question about the potential for more discrepancies. We've seen automakers reverse course before, so if GM has to come out with a mea culpa soon, don't be surprised. GM is rushing corrected stickers to dealers so that the SUVs can be sold again, but a fix for the already-sold vehicles could be trickier to solve. Related Video: Related Gallery 2013 GMC Acadia View 16 Photos News Source: Consumer Reports Government/Legal Green Buick Chevrolet GMC Fuel Efficiency mpg gmc acadia chevy traverse

Buick dusting off Grand National, GNX and T-Type nameplates

Inside Line reports Buick is planning to bring back some of the more storied names from the company's past, including the Grand National, GNX and the T-Type. Those cars rose to prominence in the 1970s and '80s to become performance legends of their day.
The new models will reportedly make use of the rear-wheel drive platform that currently underpins the Cadillac ATS and all would arrive as sedans - according to an unnamed source familiar with the initiative. Odds are the T-Type and the Grand National would share a driveline, with honest money being on a new twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter V6 as the engine of choice. Word has it the mill will be good for anywhere from 350 to 400 horsepower.
That leaves only the GNX. Inside Line seems to think that machine could get down the road with some help from the all-new GM LT1 small-block V8. The engineers behind the ATS platform have already told us the engine bay is large enough for to accommodate the big eight pot, and since GM is most certainly working on an ATS-V, a slightly less powerful, less luxurious Buick iteration makes some kind of sense. We can't wait to see these things in the light of day.