Drove a Lucerne CXS!

[01cavalier]

So this past weekend I had the chance to drive the Lucerne. I had a choice of what to drive, but chose this one mainly because of a lot of others comments I have read on the site. So, overall though I do like the car, I have some criticisms of it.

It looks nice enough on the outside, though is a bit bland. It does need some styling changes. Friends seemed to mostly like the ports on the sides. It looked good to me, though the car got mixed reactions, nothing horribly negative except a driver in a 4-runner who gave me a thumbs-down while passing him on the road after he passed me trying to get a better look at the car. A cab driver did stop me at home asking about the car, after taking a good look at it thought he might like it over the Crown Vic he has been driving for some time and liked the fact that it is front drive. The only issue I noticed on the outside is that the gaps between the bumper cover and the hood did not quite match, there was a good difference on each side. I also prefer to not see the location of the sensors for the parking assist feature in the back bumper, though I know this feature could be very handy for some people. When backing up I always had a good idea of where the car was though.

Inside the car was definitely comfortable, the seats were firm and quite comfortable, and the cooling in the seats is a huge bonus! I definitely loved this feature. The radio sounded good, and was definitely straightforward to use. There seemed to be a bit more road noise than I expected from the front though. The sound of the engine is pretty muted, never getting too loud even at full throttle. The interior layout was good, though I did not care for the neutral color, I think the gray or ebony would have looked more appealing. The gated shifter was for the most part a welcome difference in a GM car, though only between park and third gear, shifting any lower gets rather annoying. Shifting into drive one can easily get third gear instead and I found myself doing this a few times. Still, the feature could be good when using the engine to brake down steep hills. In the rain the rainsense wipers cane in rather handy.
The only gripes about the interior other than the color is that a few panel gaps were inconsistent, but not anything that most people would probably even notice, the center console came up too high to comfortably rest my arm on and for its bigger size it did not have that much room and there was a bit more road noise than I expected coming from the front tires.


The carn rode quite well, never floaty at all and handling was good, though it definitely did understeer a lot when pushed. This is definitely not a car to take curves in for fun, but the type of buyer this car is built for won't be pushing it like that.

The engine never lacked for power, even with the 4-speed automatic, though it did not feel like it had lots to spare either. The transmission shifted extremely smooth, which I of course expected. One thing with the transmission, when placed into a lower gear, it will still upshift at 6000 RPM. Again, not something the typical driver of this car would do. The traction control did a good job of controlling wheelspin in wet weather and on dry pavement torque steer was barely noticeable.

So, overall it is a nice car, though it is styled too conservatively. I had read that nearly half of all buyers are over 70, and it does not surprise me though for those needing or wanting a full size car this is a good choice.

[2005 Equinox LS]

Sounds like a winner to me.