January 18, 2018 12:00 AM

Buick's Avenir subbrand expected to grow across lineup

Avenir launched last fall on the redesigned 2018 Buick Enclave.

DETROIT -- Buick's Avenir subbrand is poised to grow across the marque's lineup of cars and crossovers.

Duncan Aldred, vice president of Global Buick and GMC, said expanding the upscale subbrand is a way for Buick to better compete in the entry-level luxury market against the likes of Audi and BMW.

"As a premium brand, we reach up into luxury and down into mainstream and Avenir is the way we go toe-to-toe, I think, with some of these Tier 1 luxury brands," he told Automotive News during the Detroit auto show. "You'll see Avenir roll out across many more models and maybe the whole range over time."

Aldred had previously said Buick was considering using Avenir on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis.

Avenir launched in the fall on the redesigned 2018 Buick Enclave, followed by the 2018 Buick LaCrosse sedan, which is expected to arrive in showrooms by early February.

Buick did not use Avenir for its new family of Regals entering showrooms, but Aldred said that could change.

"One of the key things for us is that when we do Avenir, we have to do it properly," he said.

Avenir vehicles thus far have had additional standard technologies, bolder designs with additional chrome features and plushier interiors.

Buick would like to grow Avenir into a premium pricing powerhouse as GMC has done with Denali, which hit a record average transaction price of $55,600 in 2017.

Madness over Super Bowl

Expect Avenir, like Denali, to be featured in Buick's advertising moving forward, Phil Brook, Buick U.S. vice president of marketing, previously told Automotive News.

Buick will not advertise during the Super Bowl for the first time in three years, Aldred said. Instead, it will focus on its well-received partnership with the NCAA men's basketball tournament, of which Buick has been a major sponsor since 2011.

"We look forward to March because we do kind of dominate a lot of the media at that time," Aldred said. "It's a great property for us to have. We're happy to have it."

Buick, according to Aldred, expects similar, possibly better, U.S. sales this year than in 2017.

"Going into '18, we expect another carryover industry level, very strong," he said. "We think Buick can go even further."

Buick's retail sales -- a focus for the brand -- have increased the past two years, while the brand's overall U.S. sales declined 4.5 percent in 2017. Buick's sales since 2015 have been led by the Encore subcompact crossover, which accounted for 40 percent of the brand's sales in 2017.

Aldred said he expects Encore sales to continue to grow this year after reaching nearly 90,000 in 2017.

"The segment has grown faster than any other but it's still not actually that big," he said. "I still think there's plenty of growth in the segment."

Globally, Buick's sales rose to more than 1.4 million in 2017 -- led by growth in China.