Autoblog

If dealer anticipation is anything to go by, the new Buick Enclave has already exceeded the expectations of General Motors. Buick dealers have put in orders for 6,000 units of the third large CUV to be built on the automaker's Lambda platform, the other two being the Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia. This is one of those good news/bad news situations, as GM only has the capacity to build around half of the orders taken for the Enclave by the time the SUV goes on sale by June 1st.

So far, the Acadia appears to be handily outselling the Outlook by over 2 to 1, racking up 5,965 sales this year through February compared to 2,844 sales of the Outlook. The Enclave will be positioned above its two CUV siblings with a starting price of $32,790. Dealers are also ordering Enclaves optioned to the hilt with premium items, so expect average transaction prices to be much higher. The looming question is whether consumers can stomach a premium-priced CUV from Buick after being weened on the heavily incentivised Rendezvous. We think they can, if based solely on the fact that the Enclave is a real looker and the other two Lambda CUVs have been received well by the press so far.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Everyone experiences growing pains at some point in their life. Some are more debilitating than others. As it enter its 21st year in the US, Hyundai is feeling a few of its own. In a market dominated by overproduction and a seemingly insurmountable glut of models, Hyundai has a good problem to resolve... maybe. A labor strike in Korea coupled with strong worldwide demand means U.S. dealers can't get enough of the popular Korean-built cars like the three-door Accent -- an issue that may also extend to the new Elantra and the forthcoming reskinned Tiburon.

Before you can build cars, you have to have engines, right? The first issue to work on is improving the currently limited capacity to build four-cylinder engines. The inventory of these engines, which power both the Elantra and Accent, is now and will continue to be a huge problem until something changes. As a result, Hyundai has informed dealers that the automaker is likely to miss its '06 sales target here in the US. Even at full capacity, the plants may fall short of meeting global demand next year as well, prompting concerns that the '07 sales target could be jeopardized, as well.

Undercapacity and overwhelming demand for your products is an enviable position to be in for a short time. Once the issue begins to affect long-term profitability, however, somebody had better deal with it quickly.

[Source: Kathy Jackson, Automotive News via AutoWeek]

A week ago, Ford posted a $5.8 billion loss due to sagging North American sales. To make things worse, CFO Don Leclair announced yesterday that Ford expects North American production for the first six months of 2007 to be down 8 to 12 percent from 2006 due to lower demand for its products and at least partially due to the demise of the Taurus. The second six months of '07 are expected to be up 5 to 10 percent compared with '06.

For the entire year of 2006, For expects production numbers to be down about 9 percent from 2005.

Can Ford pull out of this spiral with new products such as the Edge, MKX, and MKZ? Initial reviews have been good, but we will reserve judgment until we have had them through the Autoblog Garage. Watch for our reviews and comments on all three vehicles very soon.

Wall Street is keeping a close eye on Ford as well. Nervous stockholders saw Ford shares down 19 cents, or 2 percent, at $8.10 in morning trading Monday.

[Source: Detroit News via AP]