With most consumers favoring smaller foreign cars and the US auto industry seemingly headed for the toilet, there is still one demographic that Detroit has a solid hold on… Retirees. Buyers over 65 are the last hope for the good old American car. In some dealerships, upwards of 85 percent of all Buick buyers are 55 and older. That’s an ominous sign for the future of American autos.

The over-65ers look at brands like Buick, Lincoln and Cadillac as status symbols. Those brands have what advertisers call the “Mind Share” in that demographic. Retirees remember a time when the only people driving those cars were celebrities and other high profile members of society; now they want in to that high-profile group of Cadillac drivers. Plus, older folks like familiarity, they know these brands, they’ve heard them their whole life.

Check out the list of the top ten cars most popular with retirees:

This week, GM announced that it will be temporarily idling production at both its Detroit-Hamtramck and Bowling Green, KY assembly plants. The Hamtramck plant, which builds both the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS, will experience a one-week hiatus beginning Nov. 24. The Bowling Green plant, which is responsible for the production of the Chevrolet Corvette and Cadillac XLR, will be idled during the week of Dec.1. Generally viewed as the quiet before the storm, GM has also revealed that temporary production halt will also be followed be a fresh round of layoffs. Beginning January 12, GM will release 500 of the 1,700 employees currently on the Detroit-Hamtramck payroll followed by an as-yet-undisclosed number of the 800 employees currently working at its Bowling Green facility.

Speaking of the impending production changes, GM spokesman and apparent horsepower whisperer Tony Sapienza explained, “The market is telling us we don’t need that many cars.”

2009 Buick LaCrosse

General Motors announced on Friday that as a cost-cutting measure, it would delay the unveiling of a new Buick LaCrosse model that it had planned to show at the Los Angeles auto show next month.  This is In addition to a similar halting of plans to display the coupe version of its Cadillac CTS.  Speculation as to whether GM will eliminate or sell the Buick brand altogether to cut costs has dogged the company since at least last spring.  That decision, at least for the moment, seems to be off the table.

Today, GM announced the recall of 857,735 vehicles equipped with heated windshield wiper fluid systems [although at least one early bird attorney already has the number inflated to 944,000 on his "Lemon Law" website]. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a short circuit in the wiper fluid system’s electric wiring may cause other electrical features to malfunction, resulting in an odoriferous smoke and a significant fire hazard.

2010 Buick LaCrosse Sneak Peak

On Monday, GM released a sneak preview of the redesigned Buick LaCrosse. The photo, which is of a relatively unexciting grill, is apparently intended to generate enthusiasm for the 2010 Buck LaCrosse’s official unveiling at the LA Auto Show in November. Besides a “fresh” new grill, one of the 2010 LaCrosse’s most anticipated features, repeated by all the major auto authorities, is its future distinction as the first car to sit on GM’s FWD Epsilon II global platform. Oh, we can hardly contain ourselves.