DETROIT, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A few bad reviews pushed plans for a new crossover Buick into the dumpster, U.S. auto giant General Motors Co. said.
GM quickly abandoned plans for the crossover and for a Buick plug-in hybrid after showing prototypes to a select group of customers and industry analysts at the company's Tech Center in Warren, Mich., The Detroit News reported Thursday.
The quick dismissal "does show that GM is now agile enough to kill a future product this quickly," said industry analyst Aaron Bragman at his Global Insight.
"Or you can look at it as GM has not quite gotten its house in order. This thing should never have been released," he said.
GM originally planned to produce a plug-in Saturn Vue. The restructuring plan that emerged from GM's bankruptcy, however, included selling Saturn to Penske Automotive Group.
GM then tried to make a car identifiable as a Buick using design intended for a Saturn.
"It would have been a return to the bad old days of GM when they made multiple vehicles with some trim changes," Bragman said.
"What gives me pause is how quickly we made a decision and carried it out," Tom Stephens, GM's vice chairman for product development wrote in an on line blog.
