GM Counting On Avenir Sub-Brand To Boost Buick Sales

According to General Motors CEO Mary Barra, the company has high hopes for the Avenir brand, due to arrive in U.S. showrooms as the flagship trim of the redesigned 2018 Enclave.

GM is hoping Buick and Avenir will follow in the footsteps of GMC and their Denali sub-brand, which has accounted for nearly 30% of GMC retail sales in the U.S., something Avenir can do as well, reports Autonews.

“Avenir already seems to be capturing the imagination,” said GM exec Duncan Aldred, during a media event last week. “It just seems to have something maybe in the same way Denali has something.”

However, despite their similarities, GM is initially putting a lower premium on Avenir than GMC did with their Denali models. For example, starting prices for 2018 Denali-badged cars are, on average, 43% (about $15,750) higher than equivalent base models.

Meanwhile, prices for the Enclave Avenir start at $54,410, which makes it 33% ($13,420) more expensive than the base Enclave, and 11% ($5,400) more expensive than the Premium version, which is Enclave’s next-highest trim level.

“We certainly didn’t want to price it too high,” added Aldred. “We were’t going to overprice this to begin with, for sure.”

Still, it’s worth noting that a fully-equipped Enclave Avenir can cost as much as $60,000, more than an entry-level BMW X5 or a Mercedes-Benz GLE.