Buick to scrap trim levels

Buick will eliminate its “CX,” “CXL” and “CXS” trim levels in the 2012 model year, opting for a few “stair-step” packages instead, one of the brand's top marketers said today.

“It isn't befitting a premium brand. No other premium brand has those designations,” said Craig Bierley, Buick-GMC director of advertising and sales promotion. “It implies a hierarchy -- that there's a cheap one, a middle-level one and a really, really nice one.”

Instead, the brand will offer a few packages with increasing content levels that build on each other, Bierley told GM employees today at an event outlining the Buick brand's positioning.

“When you get the second package, you get everything that's in the first package, plus the second package,” he told reporters after the event. “You can't go in and layer on the stuff that's in the third package on the first package. You have to walk up the ladder.”

Customers will also be able to add select features to their package, such as sunroofs, navigation systems or larger wheels, he said.

The base models will likely include more content than they do today, Bierley said, including large, color displays for electronics. That would probably increase the price of base models, he said.

“It isn't our stated goal to raise all our base prices over time,” he said. But “to give customers the content they want is absolutely key.”

By Chrissie Thompson- Automotive News