Until very recently, Buick had seemed as old and elderly as the people driving its cars. But over the past year, the carmaker has been on an upward trajectory. Someone very smart at GM made the decision that things had to change and the Encore line was the model that would lead the charge. Targeting younger buyers, mainly ones just starting families of their own, the Encore's combination of affordability, design and size, checked many boxes.

Encores began selling like hotcakes, outselling yearly estimates by three- or four-fold. GM was struggling to keep up with demand and word of Buick's new trendiness started spreading overseas and eventually went viral. Buick's yearly sales figures were recently revealed, causing us to do a double take. The company sold 1,032,056 cars this year, an all-time record for the company. 205,509 vehicles were delivered in the US, 14,310 in Canada, 2,319 in Canada - a 107% increase over 2012 - and 809,918 Buick sales were made in China. In addition to the Enclave sales, the China-exclusive Excelle compact dominated the competitive Chinese compact sedan market.