Chevy’s vintage slogan was The Heartbeat Of America and it very much was. Chevy has existed as The General’s entry-level value brand aimed at the everyman in America. Chevrolets are the hard-working, blue collar, good ol’ boys of the car market, but Chevy’s once snooty cousin Buick has recently started undoing its top buttons and hanging out at the local dive bar on weeknights.
For those who don’t leave the MotorWeek Retro Reviews YouTube playlist on shuffle when you fall asleep like me, Buick is intended to be one step higher on the prestige ladder than Chevrolet. Think of it like shopping at Target over Walmart, or eating at P.F. Chang’s over Panda Express– it’s nicer than the alternative, but you’re not at Saks Fifth Avenue or Nobu. General Motors does lots of cross-brand platform sharing as all big brands do, and the Buick versions used to be notably more upscale than the Chevy versions, but that has changed in recent years.
Despite Chevrolet still offering some vehicles with lower base prices than their Buick equivalent, Buick has maintained a lower Average Transaction Price (ATP) in the U.S. than Chevrolet. This can be attributed to the fact that Chevrolet offers many vehicles at higher base prices than Buick like the Silverado, Tahoe and Suburban, and Chevrolet has a far more diverse model range than Buick’s crossover-only lineup. There are other, less tangible reasons for this swap between GM’s entry-level brands, The Drive pulling data from Cox Automotive’s Q3 2023 U.S. Market Performance reports,
…The difference between the models’ average transaction prices is markedly less than the difference in MSRPs. That means people are spending more on options for the cheaper Chevys.
This tells us people who walk into Buick dealers aren’t spending as much on options or higher trims as Chevy customers are. You could argue Buick’s trim structure discourages this with better standard equipment, but generally speaking, that’s the opposite of what you expect as prices go up. Pricier cars have more and costlier options—Porsche in particular is famous for its nickel-and-diming. But for some reason, Buick bucks the trend.
One reason might be that Chevy customers who aren’t after something aspirational like a Silverado HD ZR2 or Corvette might seek a deal that a lower MSRP promises. But because they feel like they’re saving money, they splurge a little more on options than a Buick buyer might. Perhaps the Buick badge is what buyers show up for, not what backs it up.
The above quote references the differential between the base price and the average transaction price of Buick and Chevy models that share the same platform. The Chevrolet Trailblazer and Buick Encore GX are twins under the skin; the base price of a Buick Encore GX is $3,800 higher than the base price of a Trailblazer, and yet the average transaction price shows only a $1,945 price differential between the two marques. The Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave paint a similar picture, with the Enclave’s base price $10,280 higher than a base Traverse, but the average transaction price differential is only $7,637. This shows that Chevy buyers choose to add more options onto their new car than Buick buyers.
The ATP of a Buick in the third quarter of 2023 was $36,590. Chevrolet’s ATP in the same quarter was over $10,000 higher than Buick’s at $48,074. According to the Cox Automotive Market Performance Analysis, Buick’s ATP has actually been lower than Chevrolet’s for several years back to 2018, but in Q3 of 2018 the average transaction price of a Buick was only $2,863 lower than Chevrolet’s, where that number has climbed to $11,484 in Q3 of 2023.
In a Q3 results presentation given to investors, GM touted Chevy and Buick together as “the new leader[s] in affordable, small SUVs.” Elsewhere in the slides, it revealed that just 28 percent of Buick customers spring for the Avenir trims, which are positioned at the premium level that formerly defined Buick. (This also implies the average Buick buyer spends even less on options than the ATP indicates.)
This shift does not spell the death of either brand, it is more of a surprising statistic that belies GM’s historic brand structure. Buick undoubtedly offers significant luxury at the top-end of each model lineup with pricey Avenir trims, but Buick also offers well-priced and well-specced options at the other end of the spectrum. Car shopping on a budget? Maybe check out your local Buick dealer.