You know what car brand’s having a great time right now? Buick. Once the stereotypical fixed-income ride, the brand has bounced back from an era of low sales with a strong lineup and some bold decisions. While the marque previously committed to going all-electric by 2030, the cull of dealers that came with the EV announcement may have contributed to greater success well before the brand goes electrified for the American market.
The Lucid Gravity was on an extremely slow roll for the first six months of the year, and Shelby has a new Mustang with an absolutely eye-watering price tag.
Welcome back to The Morning Dump, where we crack open the car news stories you’ll want to know about, extract the juices, and blend it all into one protein-rich smoothie. Matt’s at Monterey Car Week, so I’ve been handed the reins today. Let’s get cracking.
Buick Is Absolutely Crushing It
Sometimes, certain decisions have more upside than they first appeared to offer. For instance, high-sulfur fuel may be cheap, but it also turns out that the former use of it on shipping routes in the North Atlantic may have been an accidental case of climate engineering, with emissions clouds so dense, they may have actually helped keep the ocean cool. That’s dirty technology, though, but sometimes an equal secondary upside comes from clean technology, or even just the announcement of it. Buick’s plan to go all-electric by 2030 seems to already be paying off well before electric Buicks have even been unveiled for America.
Flash back to 2022, and Buick looked like a dead brand walking. Market share had shrunk to below one percent, and it was clear that something drastic had to be done. Buick announced that it was going all-electric by 2030, and offered to buy out dealer franchises that didn’t want to spend the money to sell EVs. The result? Buick nearly halved its dealer network, but that was all good, according to then Vice President of Global Buick-GMC, Duncan Aldred. As Automotive News reported:
“I’m really pleased with where we are,” Aldred told Automotive News. “The network, where we are now, is a good size. It’s with dealers who are focused on the business, who’ve shown that they can recover the volume that the dealers who transitioned away were doing.”
Cut to the present, and everything’s turned out beautifully for Buick despite the brand still not offering any electric cars in America. As Car Dealership Guy points out, thanks to a revitalized product portfolio including the value-rich Envista, the revamped Encore GX, and the midsized Envision, sales are up big time. This year, Buick led the mainstream pack when it came to gains, posting a first-half sales volume increase of 29 percent. In the second quarter, the brand outsold Cadillac by 20,000 units, and is now one of GM’s big success stories. So what’s happening? Well, as Car Dealership Guy reports, Buick’s demographics are shifting younger.
JC Prats from Starling Buick GMC Stuart (the #2 Buick GMC dealer in Florida) watched his monthly Buick sales explode from 7-8 units to 35+ by capitalizing on the demographic drawn to these redesigned vehicles.
“The main buyer for the Envista are ladies between 25 and 40,” he told me. And as a response, JC started spending more heavily with TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram ads to reach these buyers where they are.
Younger buyers are exactly what Buick needed, as the brand’s been looking to shake off a bit of a Boca Raton image for the past few decades. Plus, in a way, Buick’s all-EV announcement paid off already. Lots of dealers don’t want to sell electric vehicles, but the ones that would put in the effort to do so are also likely the ones pulling their weight when it comes to selling combustion models.
There’s a hilarious irony here that Buick’s threat of electrification cleared out its dealer network and the dealers who agreed to make the investment benefited, even though none of them have had to sell a single EV for the brand.
While Buick is uniquely exposed to tariffs, at least among GM brands, with the Envista, Encore GX, and Envision all coming in from overseas, the brand’s built some strong momentum with nice, reasonably priced offerings. Although that momentum might meet a headwind as tariff costs get passed onto consumers, it likely isn’t insurmountable.
The Lucid Gravity Is On A Slow Roll
The Lucid Gravity is an interesting electric SUV, a highly efficient cutting-edge powerhouse that looks far more like a minivan than an off-roader. Indeed, while we were impressed by the machine, our main concern was how consumers would take to it. While it’s still to early to say, early registration figures are looking rough. As Automotive News reports:
The Gravity managed just nine U.S. registrations by June 30, S&P Global Mobility data showed. The Lucid Air sedan had 4,780 registrations during the first half of the year, up 52 percent year-over-year.
Nine? Nine. Huh. S&P Mobility pores over vehicle registration data to crunch just how many of each model are running around on America’s roads, and the firm’s analytics are used by many facets of the industry, so this single-digit figure likely isn’t a typo on the company’s part. However, between sold units and continued production ramp, Lucid claims the number today isn’t in the single-digits. As Automotive News reports:
“While we don’t provide the actual mix of our vehicles delivered, Gravity is significantly more than nine, and the real number is well into the three-digit range,” Lucid said in an email to Automotive News. Lucid didn’t dispute the registration data, but said it didn’t represent current sales numbers.
That’s better, but still not great. Sales being “well into the three-digit range” means that over the past six months, Lucid Gravity sales still haven’t broken out of the hundreds. Considering crossovers are essentially licences to print money, what’s going on here? It turns out the bulk of it is simply due to how making cars is hard. On an earnings call earlier in August, interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said, “I feel that it is important to acknowledge that we are not where we want to be with Lucid Gravity production relative to our target at this point in the year.” Indeed, between the magnet spat with China, and the turbulent conditions of global trade, the first half of 2025 hasn’t been ideal for manufacturing. On the bright side, it sounds like things have already started to turn a corner.
“We’re definitely in the process right now of ramping up Gravity in the second half,” Winterhoff said in response to an analyst question on July sales, which he didn’t disclose. “The Gravity will actually be the majority of our deliveries.”
It’s a positive outlook, and one that could yield significant success for Lucid. After all, the crossover utility vehicle has displaced the sedan as the default form factor of car in North America, and so long as consumers aren’t weirded out by the looks of the Gravity, it could be the sales savior Lucid needs.
Snake Bitten
The current-generation Mustang has seen a series of new names appear on the scene, from Dark Horse to GTD. It’s a new chapter to the pony car legend, but what’s happening with the Shelby nameplate? Well, while Ford hasn’t been using it in-house for the past few years, that hasn’t stopped Shelby American from building its own hot S650 Mustangs. In fact, it just unveiled its highest-Scoville one yet, the extra-wide Super Snake R.
To create the Super Snake R, Shelby American started with a Mustang Dark Horse and supercharged it to the tune of 850 horsepower. That’s some serious firepower, but since power is nothing without control, the package comes with some notable chassis upgrades. All four corners now feature adjustable coilovers with caster-camber plates, spherical bearings replace rubber bushings, a stiffening brace ties the rear damper towers together while acting as a harness bar, and beefed-up anti-roll bars round out the suspension package. At the same time, the wheel and tire package grows even more aggressive with 11-inch-wide rollers up front and 13-inch-wide wheels out back, all made of magnesium. Add in two-piece brake discs, stronger CV axles, a short shifter and a one-piece driveshaft on manual models, and a beefier radiator, and the Super Snake R seems to walk the walk.
You definitely won’t lose it in a parking lot, either. The Super Snake R is substantially wider than a standard Mustang, almost every panel ahead of the firewall is either carbon fiber or aluminum, and you get a function splitter and wing combination, along with a sizeable rear diffuser. Sure, it’s not a GTD, but it’s a pretty comprehensive upgrade package. The only big hang-up? Pricing. The 2026 Shelby American Super Snake R starts at $224,995, more than a 1,250-horsepower Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X. The result is a tough sell, although one that’s sure to make a handful of diehard Shelby fans happy.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
This morning, I’m digging into nostalgia. It’s “All That I’ve Got” by The Used.
The Big Question:
Ever rode a mechanical bull? If not, what’s the closest car to the experience?
Top graphic image: Buick
Some advice, never tell the operator of the mechanical bull, “Don’t use the wimpy setting!”, you will get thrown rapidly, and far.
My closest experience to a mechanical bull was a small skid loader that I just couldn’t get the hang of. It bucked like a bronco every time I turned. I was on pavement, so the wheels didn’t “skid” the way they were supposed to. I should have been wearing a helmet.
The closest to that in a car was driving a tall, short wheel based car (Geo Tracker) on a concrete highway suffering from extreme frost heave in the spring.
The roadway had relief cuts at even intervals, and the frost heave was doing its best to make sure every section was out of alignment with its neighbors.
It got a lot better if I sped up or slowed down – the posted speed limit was right where the resonance effect magnified the porpoising.
Thanks for the reminder otherwise would have forgotten about this…
I was a dumb teenager and found an abandoned forklift in the back of a shut down mill. Over 3 weekends me and my friends rode our bikes over there and got it to work again and took it off roading through the woods in the back of the property. That lasted about 1/10th of a mile before we got stuck but it was the funnest and bumpiest 1/10th of a mile ever.
I rode a mechanical bull at a bar once, and I was tossed pretty quickly. I am not about to claim that the bull operator was biased, but he had a way of making the pretty girls’ rides last a bit longer.
Good on Buick if they can pull it off. I thought very seriously about getting a used Tourx, because they seemed like great cars but was scared off by rear diff issues/ parts availability down the road, so I passed.
Buick makes some very good looking crossovers. Sexy? No, of course not, but still very good looking both inside and out. Would LOVE to see them leverage this new popularity in the US by releasing a new GN or maybe a modern day Riviera which would probably fit their niche better.
I had a Buick Century as a company car in the 1990’s. It was a dark red/burgundy. Every time I got out of the car without a cane/walker, it was a surprise for onlookers.
I remember working at a supermarket in high school and being absolutely terrified of Buicks when getting shopping carts in the parking lot – if those backup lights came on, you stopped what you were doing and got as far out of the way as possible, because there was at least a 70% chance the driver was not going to check their surroundings before backing out
Such tiny numbers!
An extraordinarily obscene number!
Yeah, I would like to come back and look at the sales numbers of the Lucid vs. the Shelby snake.
Current Buicks are very attractive and I’m now seeing them everywhere. Also that Used song is a banger. I’LL BE JUST FINE
Edit: I’ve ridden a mechanical bull. I hopped on one at a big freshman party my college was having to try to impress a cute girl who just gave me her number. I fell off in about 5 seconds. I later found out she was LITERALLY asking me to give her guitar lessons and not…you know, trying to find her way into my dorm for other activities.
I was disappointed and she stopped talking to me forever when I suggested we go on some dates. I’m not sure why I remember this or what use you people have for this information.
Saw them a few years ago when they were touring with Rise Against, except Rise Against called off and The Used played a full set, and then some. It was awesome
They’re an underrated band in the grand scheme of things. It’s always been a bit of an injustice to me that Fall Out Boy and MCR are the bands from that scene/mall emo era of music that get all the accolades…The Used are a great band and IMHO the best band that was ever affiliated with the scene (although they’ve dabbled in just about everything) is far and away AFI.
The names of these bands remind me of Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine. That stuff is hilarious.
On Buick looking to younger buyers: Mid 2000s, and my parents (early 50s at the time) were looking to replace my Mom’s Lincoln LS because it was too small for toting their aging parents when needed. They ended up with a Buick Park Avenue Ultra. You know, “Ultra” for the “luxury” of mid 2000s GM, and the upgraded, supercharged 3600. (Mom never did take to that car. She always lamented that it “didn’t drive as well” as the Lincoln; i.e.: bigger car with less HP wasn’t quick enough!)
The dealership bent over backward to keep my parents happy, and cut them a hell of a deal. My dad couldn’t help but ask why, and the answer was funny in its honesty: “Well Mr. Amish, we love having you as a customer, it actually gives us the chance to have repeat business.”
I hope Florida Man With a Dealership has better luck than my local Buick dealer did 20-some years ago. That was the last Buick to ever enter the family (so far, at least!).
My in-laws had a late ’80s Park Avenue, but not the S/C’d Ultra.
For a luxobarge, it was a pretty decent car. It was attractively styled, rode nicely, didn’t wallow excessively around corners (admittedly, I wasn’t exploring the limits of adhesion with my in-laws onboard) and got up to speed on Southern California freeways fast enough.
I toyed with the idea of buying it from the estate when they passed, but I really didn’t need it or have a place to garage it two states away. Someone got a great used car.
Those Park Avenue Ultras are a sort of guilty pleasure for me. I don’t think I’d ever own one, but I do kind of like them – classy styling, living room sofa seats, supercharged version of the best engine GM ever built, plenty of space
I live on a street that is paved with brick. It doesn’t really matter what you’re driving- if you hit 20 mph it’s going to feel like a rodeo.
Those “Chinese” Buicks hit the port in my small town on the west coast and I have not seen any parked there in a long time.
There’s only one Chinese Buick in the US at the moment.
Mechanical bull: probably the car I learned to drive stick in, a microscopic ’80s or ’90s vintage Isuzu pickup. It was a ton of fun but that suspension was built for durability and not comfort. I briefly considered giving her the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County treatment just to keep her on the road.
I’ve driven a few of the smaller GM SUVs lately as rentals or loaners (my work buys a lot of GM vehicles so they drop off vehicles when recalls occur) and I get why the Buicks are selling well around me. They are all good enough, look decent enough if a little bland and the Buicks feel just premium enough.
I probably wouldn’t seek one out but if I needed a car and the deal was right I also wouldn’t say no.
If you’ve not ridden a mechanical bull, perhaps there’s someone in Michigan that can set you up with one with a ram head.
Tim Kuniskis is claiming to be missing his; local PD think you should check with Tim first, though.
Funnily enough, The Drive did an article this morning where it was discovered the contractor who built it took it during the deconstruction and went home to NC, without telling anyone.
Dude also got home without knowing what was going on, and saw on his phone they reported it missing. It’s apparently in the “right” hands now.
A lot of the Buicks are on the cheaper end or at least not selling for very much more than their Chevy counterparts. This combined with giving you a similar experience to the smaller Chevys just with nicer finishes seems to be winning buyers.
If I were to look to buy a souped up Mustang, I think I’d have to look at what RTR is doing. The cars look good an less in your face than the Shelbys while giving more power and handling with enough visual distinction.
I have ridden a mechanical bull, and the closest car experience to it was the Model T wheelie wagon I rode in our city’s Bicentennial Parade when I was six. It bucked up and spun just like the bull.
I have also ridden a real bull.
Well, a cow that my friend lured up to the side of the pen, and I jumped off the fence onto its back. She backed up so quickly, my knees hit the side of her head, tipping me face first into the mud. I don’t think I ever touched her back. The cow may have exceeded the speed of sound.
Buick is also no longer gunning at a premium price for it’s smaller models – they’ve succeeded in moving downmarket.
Fun trivia fact about me:
I won a prize for “Most Abused on the Mechanical Bull” at my college frosh week. An award they made specifically for me.
I just kept getting back on the damn thing. They’re so much fun. Although I’m now nearly 20 years older, so I’m not sure I could take the punishment any more.
If you have never ridden a mechanical bull and experienced it how would you know what’s the closest car to the experience?
My hottest take is that Shelby needs to calm down with whatever aesthetic language they’re going for these days.
I kinda dig the Shelby, but I’m a sucker for souped up Mustangs. But alas, I’ll ever be able to afford a base GT new, let alone anything higher than that.
I really like the black graphic on the skirt that ends at where the fender begins. Reminds me of DTM cars with the underside of the doors chopped out.
I see Buick’s regularly but they do nothing for me. I can see the effort in the redesign, but it just doesn’t hit at the same level as, say, Lincoln or Cadillac.
And I know most of us are big fans of giving your cars actual names instead of alphabet soup, but I can’t keep them straight. To be fair, Lincoln isn’t much better and Cadillaq is just insane.
I had one mnemonic device, not even kidding: The Encore is for people whose families told them it was time to quit driving, but they refused and kept it up.
Weird criticism, considering GM has specifically been using Buick to slot underneath Cadillac since at least the 1950s. They don’t hit at the same level because they were never and never intended to be on the same level.
Well, to be fair GM’s “slotting” approach to marketing really started breaking down in the 70s and reached a low point in the 90s and early 2000s when everything just overlapped.
If I can say something nice, at least the current crop are distinctly Buick and don’t look like they’re badge engineered at all anymore. It’s been a long time since I could say that.
I still dislike the last-gen Encore, though. It wasn’t “Buick” enough, it was just a weird turtle 😉
I think it started breaking down a lot earlier than that. The first time Buick came back from near-death (by selling affordable performance cars in the 1930s), they followed up their resurgence by offering a line of factory custom coachbuilt bodies from Brunn & Company on the Buick Limited, which were priced well into Cadillac territory, and were ultimately killed off in 1941, when Cadillac successfully complained to GM upper management
In the late ’60s, a Pontiac Grand Prix was pretty much dead even in price with a Buick Riviera, once you factored in the most popular options, and, back in the ’50s, a Chevy Bel Air was also pretty close to a Buick Special. GM used to function sort of as a holding company, management would intervene when they thought things were really getting out of hand, but, generally, each division was allowed to do whatever they thought they needed to do to maximize their own sales, as long as it translated to profits for the whole company, they’d let some things slide
Wasn’t that overlap due to GM bringing Cadillac down, rather than trying to get Buick to reach up?
But I agree that Buick is working hard and doing good things. It’s impressive to me that I immediately recognize current-gen Buicks when I see them, considering they only really did sedans and coupes for most of their history. It’s not like they had memorable SUV/CUV stuff to pull influence from, nobody wants a retro Rendezvous. I’m about a decade too young for the products they are offering right now, but that little Envista is my favorite rental. As small and light as it is, I still feel like that 3 Cylinder is working too hard and wouldn’t hold up to the way my aging ass still drives. I don’t really speed, I just like to get up to the speed limit from a stop so I’m not in people’s way. That engine does not like that. I get it, boomers don’t give a shit. But if they found some way to put out a GS variant I’d be interested, even if it was just a crammed-in turbo 4. I think that would sell to mid-50s GenX like me.
The typical modern buick has a tiny 3 cylinder engine. How is that desirable in the USA in 2025?
Imagine not liking inline 3’s.
A vehicle’s cylinder count defines some people. Just look at ram bringing back the hemi to satisfy that demographic.
True, but Buick drivers really only need hip-high seats and an AM radio receiver and they’re good to go. It could be powered by butterflies for all they care.
I had a Geo Metro with a 3-cyl and loved it. But then again, that car weighed next to nothing and was totally tossable. I love the 3’s in small Japanese cars, but in a buick SUV? HAHAHA.
In fairness, triples and fours make some pretty darn good power nowadays. I get how jarring it is, though. I was amused when I was reading up on the new GMC Acadia and saw that it was powered by a four. But, to my surprise, that four had some good grunt!
The vast majority don’t know nor do they care what powers their car as long it goes down the road.
Bingo. From what I’ve noticed, most people don’t even care about 0-60. They do care if the car feels “quick” around town, subjective but that seems to be what people focus on. I also suspect many buyers won’t be taxing their little engine too heavily. The number of people I’ve met who genuinely believe approaching the red on the tach will permanently and severely damage their engine is astonishing. And beyond that, if someone wants to go fast, they probably aren’t shopping for a Buick crossover.
Yeah, my old Outback’s 0-60 is “probably.”
My neighbor, who’s a smart and accomplished guy, bought a Wrangler recently. When I asked him which engine he went with he looked taken aback and literally said “I have no idea”.
I am more surprised that the Chinese built Envision is not nearly as shunned as the mexico built Blazer was.
Anybody buying a Buick Envision has a very short list of vehicle purchase requirements and country of origin is not one of them.
It seemed like the Blazer’s point of assembly became an issue more with the UAW after the display at Comerica Park, similar to the Dodge Stealth as an Indy 500 pace car.
Buick has always been a little quieter about the Envision, but a Korean-built Encore and Envista on display would have probably drawn the same ire. Wonder if a German-built Regal would have though.
These are not enthusiasts buying these, car buyers in this class couldn’t care less about the engine.
I’ll summarize this whole thread by saying that among the owner demographic for a value-priced Buick crossover, I’d be surprised if more than a single digit percentage of them knew both the country of origin and the cylinder count in their car.
Anyone remember the Esuvee ads from the 2000s?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESIxfWJQmRI
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaJhh0k4dkH0fRQw2kH6sPlyLkm33ix8r
Ever drive a ford superduty (doesnt matter the size) with a good death wobble? Thats a ride.
Haven’t experienced it driving a super duty, but have on a number of Jeeps over the years. Not fun.
I did many a Jeep steering shock R&R under warranty.
sometimes that fixes it, sometimes itis a track bar, sometimes it is just worn bushings elsewhere. probably the most frustrating problem with solid axles for many.
ah, the band-aid on a broken arm repair.
I had a 4×4 Econoline that got SCARY after a bump.
Huh, the bit about Buick is surprising to me. I had basically forgotten about Buick until I saw a few newer ones around Mount Rainier a couple of weeks ago and figured they were rentals.
Imagine if you saw a Rainier running around Mount Rainier?
That would be like the time I drove around Durango, CO looking for a Durango to photograph.
Last year I took my Sequoia to Sequoia National Park.
Or its platform mate, the Aztek, being sacrificed in Mexico City.
How dare you besmerch the might GMT360 platform by confusing it with a piddling U-Body minivan derived “SUV”?
The Rendezvous is the Aztec’s Buick twinsie.
I drove my Traverse in Traverse City. I don’t think anyone noticed or cared.
Damn, would have thought the mayor would have come out to shake your hand or something.
Ever rode a mechanical bull? If not, what’s the closest car to the experience?
That would be any car experiencing a tread separation.
Or when a chunk of ice/slush forms inside the rim.
While passing a Simi…
A better one was while driving a tandem farm truck loaded with 13 ton of sugar beets, got to the top of third gear when the rt. front tire deflated. The drop off to the corn field was about 4ft. And in the rain.
Got a great upper body work out while limping to a driveway, the rain stopped harvest for the rest of the day and I needed the scotch bottle for a bit.
I miss Big Chief brand
Where did you move to?
they dont sell it anymore. It s ray sis
Pioneer is the same stuff from the same co-op.
i know, but…… Went to TN
It’s cane sugar for you I guess.