Buick Dealer Network Cut In Half After Refusing To Sell EVs

Plus, Daihatsu stop deliveries of all cars to fix problems discovered during an independent investigation.

2024 Buick Envista ST Exterior Front Quarter

Adrian Padeanu

By: Adrian Padeanu

Dec 20, 2023 at 10:00am ET

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Buick's dealership footprint in the United States has roughly been halved, and Daihatsu temporarily stops selling cars.

This is AM Drive, Motor1's daily look at the news you need before you get in your car.

Almost Half Of Buick Dealers In The US Are Gone

For more than a year, General Motors has been giving Buick dealerships in the United States a choice. Sales representatives were asked to either invest in tooling and training pertaining to EVs or accept a buyout. GM announced this week nearly half have decided to stop selling Buicks.

Indeed, 2023 will end with approximately 1,000 dealerships across the US, down by 47 percent compared to the start of the year. In early 2023, Buick had 1,958 showrooms in the country, based on the numbers included in the annual dealer census by Automotive News.

According to Buick-GMC Vice President Duncan Aldred, the remaining dealers still have time to pick between selling EVs and accepting a buyout. The program will "continue to be done in a voluntary and consultive way." About a fifth of Buick's sales in the US were made by the nearly 1,000 dealers that have decided to part ways with GM.

As previously announced, Buick intends to become an EV-only brand in the US by the end of the decade. That's despite the fact it doesn't currently sell any.

Daihatsu Stops Delivering Cars

2020 Daihatsu Copen GR Sport by Toyota Gazoo Racing

Wholly owned by Toyota since August 2016, Daihatsu is facing huge problems. Earlier this year, it admitted rigging vehicles to perform better in crash tests. These procedural irregularities prompted the company to hire a third party to perform an investigation and find out what really happened. The results are now in, and they don't look good.

Problems were found in 174 items across 25 test categories. Mind you, that's on top of the door lining irregularity discovered in April and the side collision test irregularity a month later. Issues were found on no fewer than 64 models and three engines. They're not all Daihatsu models as 22 cars and one engine are sold by its parent company Toyota.

Near the end of the investigation, it was discovered some of the cars that were crash tested had a different airbag ECU than the one installed in vehicles sold to customers.

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In the wake of these terrible results, deliveries of Daihatsu-developed models currently in production have been temporarily stopped, both at home in Japan and in export markets. Toyota will be doing the same for the affected models.

A list with all of the impacted Daihatsu vehicles can be found at this link. As for the ones sold as a Toyota, you can read the list here.

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Sources: Automotive News, Daihatsu

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