General Motors Inc. (NYSE: GM) kindly sent me the promotional material I've been waiting for about the new Buick Enclave. As a life-long fan of GM (six Buicks, four Chevys, and one Jimmy thrown in), I greatly looked forward to getting a look at promotional materials for the well-crafted Enclave. While that little beauty met all my expectations in regard to looks, style, appointments, and detail, one particular issue has left me a bit deflated.

The 2008 Buick Enclave sports an overall mpg rating range of 16/24 for all types of driving. I would have overlooked the gasoline use issue if not for the fact that these promotional materials use the words "superior fuel economy " when revealing the numbers. This fuel economy rating applies to an "advanced" 275hp V6 engine, which I'm sure makes the Enclave a blast to drive, but my issue is this: I already get similar mpg numbers for my 1997 Chevrolet half-ton pickup with its 5.2 litre V8!

Really GM, it's not that I have a particular problem with the rating as it stands. The fact of the matter is, at a list price of between $32,000 and $37,000, anyone who purchases the Enclave is probably not too concerned about the price of gas anyway. My point here is this: if the company is not interested in stoking the fire under loudmouth goofballs like me who enjoy spewing our opinions, until the day GM puts out a half-ton pickup that gets 30 mpg in town and a crossover SUV that rates closer to 36 mpg, it would do better to reserve the words "superior fuel economy " for when it's speaking of GM's goals.

But that's just my opinion.

General Motors, what do you mean 'superior'? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Someone put hallucinogenics into the drinking water at General Motor Corp. (NYSE:GM). The big car maker's Buick unit announced that it believes it can get up to 40% of its new customers for the Enclave crossover SUV from Acura and Lexus.

Acura is owned by Honda Motor (NYSE:HMC) and Lexus is part of Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM), and both have owned GM in market share for several years now.

Acura's recent growth in the U.S. market has been fueled by sales of its SUVs and crossovers. Of course, they plan to willingly give a large portion of this market to Buick.

Lexus also showed sales gains in October. As part of the world's most successful car company, the luxury brand is also likely to hand market share to Buick so that the GM unit can do better.

Recent sales at Buick have not even kept pace with GM's overall numbers. In October GM's total unit sales rose almost 22%. Buick was up a little over 15%.

There is something to be said for hoping to take shares from rivals that are doing better, but telling the press and the competition about it?

Well.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

General Motors: Hallucinations at Buick originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.