First Spin: 2010 Buick LaCrosse
by Tom Appel
The 2010 Buick LaCrosse takes the place of the outgoing Lucerne as the brand's flagship sedan.
Topping off what will be a full range of crossovers and sedans is a new flagship: LaCrosse. If you’re a little confused, you should be. Introduced in 2005, LaCrosse replaced the Regal as Buick’s midsize sedan offering. For 2010, LaCrosse gets a promotion to top dog, growing in size, price, and in some cases, available power.
For an awkward year, LaCrosse will share showroom floor space with the outgoing top dog, Lucerne. Lucerne, like the mechanically similar Cadillac DTS, is scheduled to receive a pink slip before the end of 2010. Not coincidentally, the DTS is slated for replacement in 2012 by a LaCrosse-based vehicle tentatively dubbed XTS.
Click here to read our review of the 2010 Buick LaCrosse. |
Like the outgoing LaCrosse, the 2010 will be offered in CX, CXL, and CXS trim levels. CX and CXL models will be available with the new (to Buick) 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine. Available for both is a 3.0-liter V6. A 3.6-liter V6 will be exclusive to the sporty CXS.
New for 2010 is available all-wheel drive, which can be had only on CXL models equipped with the 3.0-liter V6.
What’s Cool…
Styling
Despite a Jaguar-inspired round headlamp front fascia, the first-generation LaCrosse suffered from terminal anonymity. It was neither attractive nor interesting, aspiring to nothing more than inoffensiveness.
All that’s changed for 2010. The newest Buick unapologetically sports a rakish design replete with a boldly stamped contour line and almost trunkless profile. Subtle rear haunches pay passing homage to bygone Buicks, but little else of the LaCrosse’s new look can be described as derivative.
Based on 2008’s Buick Invicta Concept car, and designs now on sale in China, the new LaCrosse heralds a new look for Buick, and it’s a good one.
Luxury
Consumer Guide was fairly impressed with the cabin of the 2005-2009 LaCrosse, but for all the wrong reasons. GM interiors were trailing competitors in general look and feel, with budget-grade materials and lackluster design. When the 2005 LaCrosse arrived with a generally competitive cabin, we were surprised.
Six years later, we’re less surprised, but still wonderfully impressed. Even in base CX trim, the LaCrosse cabin exudes quality, with copious soft-touch surfaces, and noteworthy attention to assembly quality.
Isolation
Engineers must have worked very hard to keep the outside world well outside of LaCrosse’s cabin, and their efforts paid off. Especially in CX trim, with its less-aggressive wheel-and-tire package, road and wind noise are impressively squelched. Ride quality, too, is top notch, with minor road imperfections almost completely damped, and larger ones reduced to small disturbances.
Fuel Economy
It’s not going to set the passing lane on fire, but LaCrosse’s available 4-cylinder engine will be more than enough motivation for many drivers--drivers who will be spending surprisingly little for gas. According to the EPA, 4-cylinder LaCrosses will return about 20 mpg in the city, and a miserly 30 on the highway.
…What’s Not
Power
We are not complaining about the 4-cylinder model here; buyers opting for the smallest LaCrosse engine should be ready to accept its modest thrust. It’s the 3.0-liter V6 that disappoints, and it’s likely to be LaCrosse’s most popular engine.
Despite an impressive 255-horsepower rating, the 3.0-liter V6 wants for torque, struggling to provide quick take-offs or satisfying throttle response at low speeds. Things improve substantially under way, and there’s more than adequate passing and merging power.
Any power shortage is cured by moving up to the CXS with its exclusive 3.6-liter V6. Rated at 280 horsepower, the larger V6 provides substantially improved low-end power.
Handling
If you’re not looking for quick moves, you won’t be disappointed. And shoppers drawn to CX and CXL models are getting exactly what they expect, a luxury car with only nominal sporty pretensions. Not so with the CXS. Chock full of big V6 power, CXS models are shod with the same wheels, tires, and suspension tuning as the midline CXL. Ordering the available Touring Package changes all that, but not for the better.
The Touring Package includes beefy 19-inch wheels and tires and a driver-adjustable sport suspension. By driver adjustable, we mean the driver can turn it on or off. Activating the sport suspension also kicks in more-aggressive transmission programming that times shift points for optimal acceleration at the expense of fuel economy.
In truth, the Sport Package only serves to undermine LaCrosse’s mission as a luxury ride. As such, LaCrosse succeeds with honors; as a sports sedan it feels miscast, with lifeless steering, poorly-controlled cornering lean, and a sometimes jarring ride brought on by the package’s too-large wheels and tires.
Trunk
If this seems like a minor point, it sort of is. LaCrosse is a good car, though it should have a larger, more accessible trunk. In fact, at 13.3 cu-ft, LaCrosse’s trunk is the smallest out of every sedan in Consumer Guide’s large- and premium-large-car categories. Complicating things is the car’s alluring visage. To accommodate LaCrosse’s dramatic sloping roof, the trunk opens more to the rear of the car, like a cabinet, than to the top surface, like a hamper. The result is a small, likely frustratingly-narrow opening that may prove too tiny for bulkier items.
CG Says:
Buick wants desperately to be taken seriously by Lexus shoppers, and the 2010 LaCrosse deserves a place on their shopping lists. LaCrosse is not sporty, but it is refined, with a luxurious and peaceful cabin and supple ride.
Positioned between value-priced Chevrolet and premium-performance Cadillac, Buick now seems to have its clearest mission in decades. If the coming Buick Regal and small crossover are as well designed and positioned as LaCrosse, the new General Motors could be in pretty good shape.
08.21.2009
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