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GENERAL MOTORS CORP. has already wrecked Oldsmobile. Now it's trying to wreck Buick. But slowly. And ineptly.
In the 1980s, Oldsmobile was a big seller for GM; but the world's biggest car company got nervous that Oldsmobile customers were aging at an alarming rate. So it brought out spiffy new models aimed at a younger crowd and proclaimed that they weren't your father's Oldsmobile any longer. So the fathers quit buying and the younger consumers didn't buy in big enough numbers to sustain the car brand.
Buick is pretty much stuck in the same place. Its average buyer is 62 and, like Oldsmobile, it's got a stodgy image. It too has a racy new model, the Rendezvous sport wagon, that it hopes will appeal to a sub-6o audience.
But Buick marketers are determined to make the same mistake Oldsmobile made. Rather than come right out and say they're aiming for younger buyers (and that older buyers need not apply), the Buick ad team has...