Buick Will Take its Name off all New Vehicles it Makes

Last month, Buick launched a refreshed version of one of its newest crossovers, the Envision. Compared to the outgoing model, the 2019 Buick Envision gets some small styling updates, a new nine-speed automatic, and a lower price. Buick also took its name off the back of the Envision, a change that will soon spread to the rest of the lineup.

Automotive News reports that the Buick name badge will no longer appear on North American Buicks. Starting with the updated Envision, the change will affect all 2019 and newer models. According to Buick, the goal is to add consistency between the vehicles it sells in China and the ones it sells in North America.

“It was a small running change that we didn’t view as especially worth announcing to the world, but I’ve been pretty amazed by the interest in it in the past couple days,” a Buick spokesperson told Automotive News.

Future vehicles will still wear tri-shield Buick badges. The name just won’t appear on the back anymore. Citing market research, Buick says three out of four people recognize the badge without needing to read the Buick name.

“We are in the minority of brands that have their badge in addition to having their name on the back of the vehicle,” the spokesperson said. “It was like we were saying Buick on the back of the car two times.”

The change also makes room for a badge that distinguishes Avenir models, Buick’s new Denali-like luxury sub-brand. Whether this decision helps Buick sell more vehicles or not still remains to be seen, but it can’t hurt to encourage people to focus more on individual models than the brand.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)