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So there I am driving to the Northwestern/Iowa football game last Saturday when my friend Bruce says, "Hey, what do you think of the Buick Enclave? I think it's pretty sharp." Well Bruce, you are not alone. The latest stats from J.D. Power's Power Information Network shows the Buick Enclave was the fastest selling vehicle in the U.S. last month. Yes, #1. The Enclave sold so fast, it was in showrooms fewer days than the Toyota Fit which rounded out the top "hot selling cars" in October. Why is this a big deal? Buick is hurting, and if the Enclave...

The company is bleeding billions, but management is beginning to see the light. There are a few bold steps -- including the scrapping of one of its brands -- GM execs should take to keep the auto giant running. According to some analysts on Wall Street, General Motors lost credibility last week when the company said that it would be restating 2001 earnings. That’s what it took for GM’s management to lose credibility? How about years of mismanaging its production effort? Or refusing to aggressively streamline its product offerings, recklessly pursuing incentive strategies, failing to address ballooning health-care and pension...

Title and link only. All GM vehicles except the Hummer H3 at GM employee discounts? Huge! Read about it, especially if you are in the market for a newer vehicle. http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/gm28e_20050528.htm

Dec. 23, 2004, 2:16AM Man watching TV in bed is run over by car Buick crashes through the wall of his apartment By PEGGY O'HARE Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Craig Hartley / For the Chronicle Kimberly Lewis, left, and Shaundreka Gonzales examine the damage to the apartment of Willmon Guillory, Lewis' father-in-law. A man watching television became ensnared in his own drama Wednesday when a car plowed into his northwest Houston apartment and ran over him as he lay on his bed. Willmon Guillory, 56, was trapped beneath the vehicle for about 40 minutes before Houston firefighters were able to...

For the first time in 25 years, the influential Consumer Reports magazine says the reliability of Detroit car and truck brands is now slightly better, on average, than European brands, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported. Prestigious European brands Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, Mini and Jaguar all ranked below average for reliability in 2003, based on results from the magazine's annual subscriber survey, which this year got 675,000 responses. For cars less than a year old, the average problem rate for European cars was 20 per 100 vehicles, compared with 18 problems per 100 for traditional U.S. brands, such as...

Eight Cubans Caught on Floating Buick Returned Home; 3 in Limbo The Associated Press Published: Feb 10, 2004 MIAMI (AP) - Eight Cubans who tried to reach the United States in a 1959 Buick converted into a boat were sent back to their homeland Tuesday by the Coast Guard. A judge has not decided what to do with three others who were in the car. The Cuban family of three remained on a Coast Guard cutter at sea while a federal judge in Miami decided whether they have any right to enter the United States. The group of 11 was...

Exile Activist Says Cubans in Floating Buick are Sent Back to Cuba, Car Sunk BY LUISA YANEZ and TERE FIGUERAS lyanez@herald.com/ Feb 4,'04 The '59 Buick converted into a boat and headed to Florida Keys with 11 Cuban migrants onboard has been sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard and those onboard will be taken back to Cuba, according to an exile activist in Key West. The U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday morning refused to comment on the fate of the car, citing a policy not to comment on an ``ongoing mission.'' But Arturo Cobo, who ran the Cuban rafter house in...

A group of Cubans sails toward the Florida Straits on a modified 1959 Buick Tuesday February 3, 2004. The pilots were the same two men who tried to sail a converter 1951 Chevy flatbed truck to the U.S. last year. Nine other Cubans, including wives and children, were intercepted by the U.S Coast Guard on Tuesday Feb. 3, 2004. (AP Photo/CBS4, HO)

shelby county Ferocious wildcat chews up Buick By Paul Bird paul.bird@indystar.com May 8, 2003 Fairland -- A wildcat bit and flattened the tires of a Fairland woman's car, clawed electrical wiring and chewed away part of a bumper. "It is unbelievable how much damaged there was," Edra Ragland said of her Buick. "One estimate is $1,700, but it could be more when it is all done." It was shock and awe about noon Tuesday when the 72-year-old Ragland discovered something had attacked her car. She called the Shelby County Sheriff's Department, and Deputy Travis Maloney responded. Bite and claw marks...

After Helen Thomas saw her name in print for the first time in her Detroit high school newspaper, she "was hooked for life," she told a group of budding journalists at Waialua High School yesterday. Many, if not all, students in Gail Kuroda's news-writing class had no idea who Thomas was, but they do now. And they came away impressed with the former White House correspondent with a remarkable resume who confessed she "goofed off" in class and didn't get A's. Thomas, 82, visited the rural North Shore school yesterday to highlight the importance of journalism in the schools and...

Chrome is Where the Heart Is By Martin C. Evans Staff Writer In 1956, John Barone -- single, newly out of the Air Force and with money in his pocket -- got rid of the 15-year-old Pontiac he'd been driving and bought a brand new Buick. Big. Brawny. Powerful. Cutting-edge. Think babe magnet. But the Buick's charm maybe worked too well. Eighteen months later, the then-27-year-old Barone was married and a new father, with mouths to feed and bills to pay. So he swallowed hard, sold the Buick, bought a more practical Chevy, and a few years later settled in...