1995 Buick Riviera Base Coupe 2-door 3.8l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

News anchor swaps his Roadmaster for a custom Buick Enclave Woody

Dennis House, self-proclaimed car buff and Connecticut news anchor, thinks that with the impending launch of the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, woodies will make their grand return to the car scene in modern fashion. House wanted to get ahead of the potential trend and decided to create a one-of-one woody wrap for his Buick Enclave. On the rear quarter panel of the custom SUV, an aftermarket badge reads "Enclave Estate Wagon." It's a direct call back to one of the vehicles that has inspired House's love of wood-paneled family haulers, the Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon. House owns two Roadmasters, a black 1996 model and a 1995 woody. In making room for the Enclave, House has decided to sell the '96, which looks spotless and only has a bit more than 71,000 miles on the clock. According to GM Authority, who spotted House's Enclave, the look was achieved with a vinyl wrap. After exploring the idea of a first-gen Enclave woody or a Regal TourX woody, House decided the application worked best on a current Enclave. The mock-ups were done on the computer, and Scranton Cadillac Buick GMC completed the work. The wrap starts just beneath the headlights and wraps around the entire vehicle. Furthering the theme, House took a photo of the woody with a surfboard. For now, the woody look is not a factory option, but House hopes General Motors takes notice and considers offering the choice on future models. If not, just take your ride to Scranton Motors, and they could probably help you out.            View this post on Instagram                   What a cool new 2019 Buick Enclave for CT’s own Dennis House! We couldnÂ’t be happier to have you as a part of the Scranton Motors family!! #scranton_cadillacbuickgmc #scrantonmotors #dennishousetv #carbuyingshouldbeeasy #buick #buickenclave #2019buickenclave #woodpanelingforthewin A post shared by Scranton Cadillac/Buick/GMC (@scranton_cadillacbuickgmc) on Apr 19, 2019 at 10:18am PDT

GM and Ford quarterly sales continue to slump in China

BEIJING — General Motors and Ford announced their quarterly sales in China fell, albeit at a slower pace sequentially, as the U.S. automakers were hit by a slowing economy amid the Sino-U.S. trade war. GM's vehicle sales in China for the quarter ended June 30 dropped 12.2%, while Ford's sales slumped by 21.7%. While GM also suffered from heightened competition in its key mid-priced SUV segment, Ford was hurt by the limited new models for customers to choose from. For the first quarter of this year, Ford's sales in China tumbled 35.8 percent while GM's skid 17.5 percent. Still, the numbers from GM, the second biggest international automaker in China by sales, and Ford portend more uncertainty for the industry which is trying to rebound from a downward spiral that led to its first annual sales decline last year in more than two decades. GM delivered 1.57 million vehicles in China in the January-June period this year, while Ford delivered 290,321 vehicles. China's factory activity shrank more than expected in June, highlighting the need for more economic stimulus amid higher U.S. tariffs and weaker domestic demand. Annual car sales in China fell last year for the first time since the 1990s, and they are expected to fall this year too. Sales tumbled 16.4% in May from the same month a year prior, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said. That marked the 11th consecutive month of decline and followed falls of 14.6% in April and 5.2% in March. U.S. car companies' share of total China passenger vehicles sales fell to 9.6% in the first five months of this year from 10.9% in the year-ago period, according to CAAM. Over the same period, German car makers' share has risen to 23.3% from 20.9% and Japanese auto makers' to 21.3% from 17.3%. CAAM is set to announce June sales next week, which industry analysts forecast will be negative.   New models In China, GM has a joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp, in which the Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac are made. It also has another venture, with SAIC and GuangxiAutomobile Group, in which they make no-frills minivans and have started to make higher-end cars. Sales of GM's affordable brand Baojun dropped 31.8% for the latest quarter. But luxury brand Cadillac's sales jumped 36.6%. GM sold 3.64 million units in China last year, down from 4.04 units in 2017. Ford makes cars in China through its joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co and Jiangling Motors Corp (JMC).

Lexus tops JD Power Vehicle Dependability Study again, Buick bests Toyota

It shouldn't surprise anyone, but Lexus has once again taken the top spot in JD Power's Vehicle Dependability Study. That'd be the Japanese luxury brand's fourth straight year at the top of table. The big news, though, is the rise of Buick. General Motor's near-premium brand beat out Toyota to take second place, with 110 problems per 100 vehicles compared to Toyota's 111 problems. Lexus owners only reported 89 problems per 100 vehicles. Besides Buick's three-position jump, Scion enjoyed a major improvement, jumping 13 positions from 2014. Ram and Mitsubishi made big gains, as well, moving up 11 and 10 positions, respectively. In terms of individual segments, GM and Toyota both excelled, taking home seven segment awards each. The study wasn't good news for all involved, though. A number of popular automakers finished below the industry average of 147 problems per 100 vehicles, including Subaru, (157PP100), Volkswagen (165PP100), Ford/Hyundai (188PP100 each) and Mini (193PP100). The biggest losers (by a tremendous margin, we might add) were Land Rover and Fiat, recording 258 and 273 problems per 100 vehicles. The next closest brand was Jeep, with 197PP100. While the Vehicle Dependability Study uses the same measurement system as the Initial Quality Survey, the two metrics analyze very different things. The VDS looks at problems experienced by original owners of model year 2012 vehicles over the past 12 months, while the oft-quoted IQS focuses on problems in the first 90 days of new-vehicle ownership. Like the IQS, though, the VDS has a rather broad definition of what a problem is. Because of that, a low score from JD Power is no guarantee of extreme unreliability, so much as just poor design. In this most recent study, the two most reported problems focused on Bluetooth connectivity and the voice-command systems. The former leaves plenty of room for user error due to poor design (particularly true of the Bluetooth systems on the low-scoring Fords, Volkswagens and Subarus), while the second is something JD Power has already confirmed as being universally terrible. That makes means that while these studies are important, they shouldn't be taken as gospel when it comes to automotive reliability. News Source: JD PowerImage Credit: Copyright 2015 Jeremy Korzeniewski / AOL Buick Fiat Ford GM Hyundai Jeep Land Rover Lexus MINI Mitsubishi RAM Scion Subaru Toyota Volkswagen Auto Repair Ownership study