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Buick Looking to Mirror GMC’s Success With Denali in Growing its Avenir Brand

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2018 Buick LaCrosse Avenir

GMC ’s Denali brand has been making bank in 2017, accounting for approximately 30% of all brand sales throughout 2017 and providing the brand with significant gains in average transaction price. Buick, simply put, is ‘mirin’ Denali’s successes as it begins deliveries of its 2018 Buick Enclave Avenir, which is the brand’s first US-sold vehicle to wear its own ultra-lux badge.


More on the Enclave: A closer look at all the changes coming to the 2018 Buick Enclave


General Motors CEO Mary Barra has already said that the automaker has “high expectations” for Avenir, and the belief is that the success GMC has had with Denali will translate in the same way to Buick and its own sub-brand.

“Avenir already seems to be capturing the imagination,” said Duncan Aldred, vice president, Global Buick and GMC. “It just seems to have something maybe in the same way Denali has something.”

2018 Buick Enclave Avenir

Automotive News points out that something likely to help Avenir’s success early on, as it is introduced to the masses, is a lower premium price point. The average Denali is 43%, or $15,750, more expensive than a base-level GMC, and the new Acadia Denali is 55%, or $16,415, more than the base model.

On the other hand, the Enclave Avenir will cost just 33%, or $13,420, more than the base 2018 Buick Enclave. Whereas GMC Denali prices tend to be 14% higher than that of the SLT trim below it, the Avenir will be 11%, or $5,400, pricier than the Enclave Platinum.

“We certainly didn’t want to price it too high,” he said. “We weren’t going to overprice this to begin with, for sure.”

Aldred notes that the Denali brand, after being introduced in 1999, achieved success due to natural growth over time. It was announced this month that the Avenir trim will also be made available for the 2018 Buick LaCrosse, true to Aldred’s foreshadowing to Auto News that he felt the Avenir would “play well in a midsize car.” GM President of North America Alan Batey also intimated earlier this year that the Avenir brand will continue to expand to additional models over the next two years.


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News Source: Automotive News (subscription required)

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