GM Listens: "Vue-ick" Cancelled

Much has been heard about the "New GM".  Post-bankruptcy the company would emerge with less brands, a fresh focus and a goal to truly listen to it's customers. Since then, we've had the G8 as Chevrolet fiasco and pretty much confirmed reports of a front-wheel drive flagship for Cadillac, the XTS. Needless to say, that isn't a promising start to me!

Then came news of a Buick crossover! We've been expecting a "Baby Enclave" small crossover from Buick for quite some time. But this was that - it was something quite different. While Saturn is being purchased by Roger Penske, the deal didn't include the plug-in hybrid Vue that GM was planning to introduce.  Technology like that is too good to waste - where was it to find a home? Apparently, Buick.

As a rebadge! Yes, that was against the statement of GM's CEO Fritz Henderson that he didn't "like rebadges". I agree with him in that comment by the way - for true rebadges like this car. From the beginning though, it was clear that the car was not worthy of the Buick name and image the brand is now trying to project. Fans and customers began to speak their minds about the vehicle through in-person appearances, emails and perhaps most importantly, Twitter.

Jalopnik's Ray Wert dubbed the new Crossover the "Vue-ick" and the term caught on (I think it's brilliant!). The term did a lot of damage, no doubt. But something happened this time - something different. GM listened! GM was listening to the consistently negative feedback, and within one day GM decided to stop it before ever reaching the marketplace.

While the fact that it made it to this phase is a bit disconcerting, the fact that they listened is huge. I've got to give GM credit for that, as well as the other things they have done to engage customers lately. With this in mind, let's try and kill the FWD XTS! Anyone got a damaging Twitter-friendly term for the XTS that we can rally around?