USA Today: There should be more cars like the Buick LaCrosse

[Ambalanche]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...e-healey_N.htm

General Motors has massively overhauled its Buick LaCrosse for the 2010 model year, creating a sedan that might be the very definition of "nice car."
It's not over-the-top, over-priced luxury. Nor is it a tarted-up family bus.


PHOTOS: More views of the Buick LaCrosse

And that's not faint praise. The market needs more nice cars — elevated but not ostentatious.

Buick thinks the LaCrosse is a head-on rival for the Lexus ES 350. In many ways it is. But for all its appealing features and mostly pleasing behind-the-wheel personality, LaCrosse has issues.

Some concern the interior, which, ironically also is a LaCrosse high point. It is a creation of Chinese as well as North American designers and planners in a joint project with GM's China interests. Buick is huge in China, a symbol of status and — here's the problem — often is used in limo fashion, with the owner riding in back.

On the plus side, you get unusual rear room and comfort. Also to the good, the instrument panel is a wide, elegant sweep interrupted only by a good-looking small gauge pod in front of the driver.

But among minuses for U.S. drivers is little storage space beyond a couple of cup holders. And the obsession with curved lines ruins the door handles and recesses for door pulls. Instead of fat bars easy to use even with winter gloves, LaCrosse's leave room for two or three fingers. The visual charm doesn't offset the ergonomic drawback.

And there's the still-not-correct GM Hydra-Matic transmission. Give GM credit for six speeds, which boost performance and mileage over five if tuned correctly. But the testers, a front-wheel drive CXS and all-wheel-drive CXL, shifted poorly. Better than the Cadillac SRX SUV (Test Drive, Sept. 11) or Chevy Equinox (Sept. 4), but still imprecise enough for even a moderate driver to object.

Must be a misguided fuel-economy play: Stay in a higher gear too long to keep the engine revs low and cut fuel use. Reluctantly downshift when the driver demands. Not worth it. A car, first of all, must drive right; feel sweet and smooth regardless of how lazily or vigorously the driver works it. Fuel economy should result from an efficient engine and transmission, not tuning tricks.

LaCrosse development chief Jim Federico said he specifically was aiming for people not to say, "They were trying for fuel economy," so it's unclear how it came out that way.

Other beefs:

•Seats. Look great, and the bottom cushions are fine, but the backs are lumpy. The lumbar support won't retract enough — common to GM cars. It's not as if there aren't good seats to copy: most Volvos and Porsches, some Acuras, VWs and Audis. Even lower-priced rides such as Ford's Transit Connect work van and the Hyundai Elantra Touring make good starting points for seat builders more interested in comfort than in how many high-profit gadgets can fit inside.

•Trunk hinges. They are the crude gooseneck style that swipes trunk space. Cheaper than the classy little struts some automakers tuck into the trunk lip. Federico says spring-loaded goosenecks let the trunk lid pop up as if it were powered. Struts don't do that, he says.

But neither did the test cars consistently. Most of the time you still had to lift the lid by hand. And struts can pop open a trunk, as a mom with a VW Jetta proved to me at a Little League game.

Lots of cars use goosenecks, so LaCrosse is no worse. But is that the goal?

•Rear safety hardware. Safety belt latches are too close together to easily fasten today's wider child booster seats.

Still, LaCrosse qualifies as a nice machine (if you ignore the shifting, or if GM has tweaked the gearbox since the preproduction testers were built).

Steering, brakes and cornering — elements that make a car feel good to drive, or not — were responsive and firm enough to erase the "sloppy" impression you might have of older Buicks.

The exterior was mainly artistic. You might quibble with the phony porthole vents, though they're a Buick tradition.

The inside was gorgeous.

Couple of interior notables: A light bar stretched the width of the dashboard. At night it emitted a thin blue glow that's striking despite (because of?) its simplicity. And every light in the instrument panel matched: soft blues and whites. You don't realize how tacky mismatched lighting is until you see it done perfectly as in the LaCrosse.

Is it a match for the tad pricier Lexus ES 350? LaCrosse's appeal is different, but it's worth a hard look if that's the kind of car you're considering.

The title makes you think Healey really likes it, and he seems to, but he naggs about stupid little things throughout. He was probably searching for negatives as he's had to write positive reviews for all of GM's latest offerings!

[dindak]

Why do people love pop up trunks? I just don't care.

[Bravada]

I do - I hate touching the dirty trunk lid, I need it to pop up by itself and have a nice handle ON THE INSIDE that you can grab and pull it to close (this also requires good mechanics and hydraulics) without touching the dirty metal. And it becomes even more of an issue now that winter is coming.

[Sal Collaziano]

Interesting article.. A few things that bother me... The LaCrosse has an"unusual" amount of room in the back? Heh. F.U. More media hype trying to make us believe these "new" big cars are actually "big". They're hardly big...

The six-speed shifts "poorly" - but BETTER than the new Cadillac SRX?!?! GM?!

USA Today suggests that GM look to the Hyundai Elantra for more comfortable seats...

Otherwise, it sounds like a good review.. Well. A pretty good review. A big improvement over the old LaCrosse - so that's a plus.. Buick and GM are heading in the right direction, at least..

[Sal Collaziano]

Originally Posted by dindak

Why do people love pop up trunks? I just don't care.

This is supposed to be a luxurious car.. If and when you're carrying groceries, you want the trunk to open automatically so you don't have to put everything down, open it up and lift everything up again. Would that be a lot of work? No. But neither are opening windows with the old rollers...

[CRBoyd91]

It seems struts are good to use for trunks if they can pop it open. That is one thing about my car that gets to me since sometimes you can't tell the trunk has been popped. Anyway, the LaCrosse is a wonderful car and I hope there are more vehicles that build off of this.

[2648562]

•Trunk hinges. They are the crude gooseneck style that swipes trunk space. Cheaper than the classy little struts some automakers tuck into the trunk lip. Federico says spring-loaded goosenecks let the trunk lid pop up as if it were powered. Struts don't do that, he says.

But neither did the test cars consistently. Most of the time you still had to lift the lid by hand. And struts can pop open a trunk, as a mom with a VW Jetta proved to me at a Little League game.

Lots of cars use goosenecks, so LaCrosse is no worse. But is that the goal?

I'm guessing GM didn't want grandma straining to open the trunk. Period.

[ARCANGEL]

Mostly positive but if his gripes have merit some of those especially the trans are not good GM

[Dr. Show-Me]

I like the idea of the trunk popping open. If you are carrying 2 bags of groceries and it's raining, you want the trunk lid open, rather than having to put the grocery bag down on the ground in the rain. It's not a big deal, but a nice convenience. I agree with much of the review, except I found the 3.0/6 speed auto shifted pretty nicely in the 5 mile test drive I took. The small trunk size and rearward visibility were much bigger issues to me, but I found the door pulls annoying as well.

[zete]

The six-speed is one of those learning ones, so it'll probably shift oddly until it learns.

As to the goose neck hinges, they're on 7-series BMWs and S-series Benzes. So, it's not like Buick is cheaping out. Has this guy bemoaned those hinges on those cars? I don't think he has.

This is a general problem. If BMW, Mercedes, or someone else puts a fancy looking gooseneck it's OK. GM, it's bad bad bad.

And I'm one of those guys who hate goose neck hinges. I'd prefer the little strut arrangements.

And, yeah, a lot of people I know love it when the trunk opens full. I don't personally care, but some people see to.

[give_it_all_]

Originally Posted by Bravada

I do - I hate touching the dirty trunk lid, I need it to pop up by itself and have a nice handle ON THE INSIDE that you can grab and pull it to close (this also requires good mechanics and hydraulics) without touching the dirty metal. And it becomes even more of an issue now that winter is coming.

If it is dirty enough that you don't want to touch it, it is time to clean your car

[majicbz07]

I have a CTS with the struts ( called canteliever hinges) not sure if its spelled right, but it does not pop open just unlocks. While I like the hinges because they look better and take up less space, I really wish they would pop open. There are many times when I've just come out of the store with something big or lots of bags and the keys in my hand to unlock the trunk but still have to drop what I have to lift the trunk open. However for me this is not a deal breaker in a car.

[majicbz07]

I do remember reading earlier this year on one of the GM blogs with either Fritz or one of the Engineers, and they were asked about the gooseneck hings. And the reply was that the gooseneck allows the trunk to swing nicely open while the others don't.

[Dr. Show-Me]

A cantilever is supported on one end. Think Marilyn Monroe's breats. Are you sure it's a cantilever?

[cdp326]

Gooseneck hinges wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that they're so thick on the LaCrosse. It doesn't matter what other cars do and we shouldn't rationalize it by saying what others do - it won't change the fact that the LaCrosse has a small trunk for its exterior size and they should have put more effort into getting at least more volume than a Cobalt out of it.