It’s only a “value” as a purchase compared to a $50k 330i/C300/A4.
The lease numbers on them have never made sense.
Even as a purchase the G70 may be better. Hard to tell since neither has much resale data.
Exactly. Some cars just don’t make sense to lease vs purchase. Leasing a car with no lease incentives and at MSRP is a recipe for a payment that makes absolutely no sense given what that vehicle is. Other cars make no sense to purchase given what you can lease them for and THOSE are are the cars that folks like us generally go after.
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I’m not a marketing person, but I suspect that the “non-premium” buyer looking at the cheapest MB/BMW models is, in many ways still very different from the “non-premium” buyer looking at Buicks, esp in terms of future earning potential or, perhaps more importantly, how vulnerable they are to feeling like they need to spend a lot of $$$ on a car. Just my $0.02.
I think the more pertinent question is, how good are the A/CLA and 2-series gran coupe at getting buyers to stick w/ the brand and to upgrade to more expensive (and more profitable) models later?
We can definitely have that discussion & I’m sure we can go into details about who buy what for what purpose etc.
But just the fact that a manufacturer is trying to introduce models to attract non-premium buyers doesn’t Automatically disqualify the brand from being a premium brand, which was the poster’s original point that having Encore in it’s line up itself disqualifies Buick from calling itself a premium brand.
If you look at average transaction prices, there’s a very clear different between Buick and Acura or even Infiniti. Obviously there’s a gap from Acura / Infiniti to BMW, MB, Audi, etc, but Buick sits closer to mainstream than it does to even the low end of premium.
The reason I use the quotes around non-premium buyer when referring to MB and BMW is b/c that phrase doesn’t really have any clear meaning. Are we just referring discretionary income? Potential income? Percent of discretionary income that the potential buyer is willing to spend on something unnecessary (a “luxury” car, not a car in general)?
I imagine there’s plenty of “rich” people who drive Buicks. Most/all of those people will never send the $ required for an “actual” luxury brand b/c that’s not what their priority is. Not a particularly useful group of buyers to a company that wants to maximize profit on each unit sold (and not just gain it by sheer volume).
OTOH, I imagine there’s lots of people who might be stretching a bit to get into an A/CLA/2 GC. Perhaps those people absolutely can be convinced to spend more $ on a car that perhaps they can’t truly comfortably afford. Those buyers are probably pretty important to a luxury brand (but obviously not as important as the people who can easily afford an S-Class or G-wagen). Presumably the Buick group and the MB/BMW groups will respond to different types of marketing.
So different marketing and market positioning does affect whether a brand is considered premium in the buyer’s mind.
But, again, not a business or marketing person, so… It’d actually be really interesting to hear from someone who does car marketing.
And back to the thread about the TLX. 
Acura product-planning seems to happen in a vacuum or at least in some sort of parallel reality where Genesis doesn’t exist…
Genesis took the Infiniti & Acura playbook of “better value than the Germans” and put it on steroids.
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Love throttle house, and couldn’t agree more even though I never driven, sat in or seen a type S.
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theyre not comparing the car to the right competitor. it’s a 54k acura. it wouldnt compete with a 65k 340 or s4. it more than holds its own against the q50 red sport or whatever crap the koreans or lexus throw against it. it’s not a bad car. it’s just not worth a massive premium to list.
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I don’t think you’ve seen the video, the koreans crapped on it
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i watched throttle house. i also drove the car. i liked it. it sounds good, feels premium, and handles fairly well.
I bet that the video has been approved by Acura PR.
They ran it against a G70 and Stinger.
The TLX loses to a Honda and Hyundai too
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To some degree the Type S is also trying to be a halo product to sell more TLX A Spec and eventually IntegraLX Type S. I think it serves that purpose well.
Agreed… someone goes in to look at a type s and realizes they can get almost the same car for 2/3rd the price in an a-spec.
Of course, one might argue that’s the whole problem.
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This thread is turning into a deja Vu of pprevious “Type-S” & integra thread
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It’s a loaded Accord at best.
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It’s not on the same platform anymore.
So that justifies $20K more + $6k DAS?
Anyone who thinks this is a good or standard deal should be banned from LH. It shouldn’t even be posted as “sharing a deal.” Waste of time other than people venting. Lolololol
Show me where I said that.