How Buick Became the #1 U.S. Car Brand in China

January 1, 2021

By Charles Schott

In the earliest days of the modern US/China diplomatic relationship, immediately after President Nixon extended diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China (PRC), the PRC sent its first delegation to Washington, DC with a view towards establishing an embassy. This delegation took over the top floor of the Mayflower Hotel, the historic landmark hotel on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest DC (located between Dupont Circle and Farragut Square). See https://www.themayflowerhotel.com/.

At the time, the Auger family, a prominent Greek American DC-based family headed by Ulysses Auger Sr. (aka, "Blackie") was one of the owners of the Mayflower Hotel. This story was told to me in the early 1990's by his son, Ulysses Auger II. Both Blackie and his namesake "U2" Auger are now deceased, but U2's long time business partner and friend, Synthesis Cloud Inc. Chairman and CEO Vern Fotheringham helped fill in a few of the pieces of the story.

There are three phases to this story that spans several decades. In the beginning the Chinese delegation arrived with trunks full of Chinese Yuan cash. At that point in history China had no international banking exchange with any US financial institutions. Blackie Auger was also a partner in Riggs Bank at that time, and when they asked him about how they could exchange their currency for US dollars, he realized he needed to introduce them to an appropriate national bank. Citibank was the Riggs Bank correspondent, so they called up and indeed Citi said "come on up to New York and we will set you up." Citibank established the first exchange rate for Chinese Yuan to the US dollar, and the delegation returned to the Mayflower flush with US cash. 

As the story goes, upon their return one of the PRC officials in the delegation was tasked with the responsibility of obtaining a car for them to use. The amazing sequence of events began with this PRC official asking the concierge at the Mayflower for a recommendation about what kind of car to purchase.  

Knowing the local market and having experience with embassies, the concierge shared with them that most embassies used Cadillacs for their staffs. He was asked by the Chinese official to call the local Cadillac dealership and ask them to bring over a car so they could decide if it met their needs. The salesperson who answered the phone at the Cadillac dealer told them they should really come over to the dealership as they had so many choices from which to choose. The Chinese official politely declined and hung up the phone.  

He then asked the concierge what would be the second choice for most embassies automotive selection, and the hotel manager suggested that Lincoln would be viewed as the next most prestigious choice. The call they placed to the Lincoln dealership was met with the same response. So, once again it seemed that the dealer was telling the Chinese representatives that it would be too complicated to make a special trip to the hotel when they had so many choices to see at the dealer. 

This second failure to have a car brought to the hotel resulted in the Chinese official asking the concierge what would be the next "best" choice for an embassy vehicle, and he suggested that they call the Buick dealer. The real story begins at this point.

When they called the local Buick dealer a junior salesman answered the phone, and he jumped on the chance to take a car over to the Mayflower Hotel for a possible sale. He asked what color they wanted, and was told blue, so off he went with a blue Buick, which he parked in front of the hotel and announced his presence to the concierge who had called. Together they called the delegation upstairs and were asked where the car was parked. When told it was out front, imagine the visual image of the PRC delegation, still on the top floor of the Mayflower, looking down at blue Buick parked in front of the hotel, at which time they went back to the phone, and told the concierge to tell the salesman they liked the car and would buy it. When telling this story Mr. Auger (U2) enjoyed emphasizing that the delegation did not even go downstairs before placing their order for the car. 

This process was repeated multiple times over the following weeks until a small fleet of Buicks was in service to the Chinese delegation. Imagine, how excited the owner of Capital Cadillac was when he heard this story being gossiped about among the local car salesmen after hours at their local bar. As it was told, he personally called the Mayflower and asked to speak with the Chinese delegation about bringing over as many cars as they would like to see ... he was politely told, "that's OK, but no thank you, we like Buicks!"

Consequently, in the ensuing years, practically every Chinese diplomat and businessperson who came through Washington, DC was introduced to the Buick by way of the embassy's fleet and returned to China with the impression that Buick is the preferred US car for Chinese officials.  

In short, one hungry, junior salesman, through a simple act of courtesy resulted in Buick capturing a significant brand advantage once US cars were able to be imported into China several years later. The prestige value of the brand had been "pre-sold."  

Now some forty years later when first time American visitors to China step out of the airport in Beijing, Shanghai or any other major Chinese city what do they see but Buicks, with lots of Buick labels on General Motors vehicles of all types. GM now produces in China, which now yearly buys 70% more GM cars than we do in the USA.

I have often thought that young unheralded Buick salesperson deserved a statue somewhere in both Detroit and DC.

Charles Schott lives in St. Louis, MO and serves as Chief Innovation and Growth Officer at give4me.