Well, Desire beats LaCrosse. If you don’t know, LaCrosse is A) a medium-sized town in Wisconsin founded by French fur traders in the 17th century B) one of four sports that Jim Brown lettered in at Syracuse C) a French-Canadian term for jacking off. And until today, LaCrosse was also the name of yet another dull-mobile from Buick. Until today. Meet the new LaCrosse. Built off GM’s Epsilon II platform, we don’t know what to expect as only the Opel GTC and China-only Buick Regal are so underpinned. Let’s figure modern. Lookswise, why yes — it’s good. Buick has (finally) managed to break free from the “I’m FWD” styling that has plagued the brand’s sedans since the 80s. This here new LaCross looks, well, kinda great. Especially once we get to see it in a color other than Octogenarian Red. There’s a definite Lexus GS meets Chevy Malibu meets the Armored Personnel Carrier from Aliens. But we’re not talking Buick here on Autofiends because of looks.
No, we’re (maybe, hopefully) excited about a Buick because of the optional 280 hp direct-injected 3.6-liter V6 that’s good for 261 lb-ft of torque. It hooks into an (optional) AWD system that’s able to send up to 85% of the power to the rear wheels (through an electronic limited-slip diff) based on driving conditions. Default is FWD biased, which is fine. When exactly it switches to mostly RWD — like at say the peak of an apex — is unknown. Also trick is the suspension, which we’ll just call “Variable Orifice.” Nice imagery, huh? It works by changing the diameter of the hole the damping fluid passes through. Not only that, but the LaCrosse’s brain can vary the spring/damping rate at each corner individually, and on the fly. Fancy. The car is also very tech-heavy (heads -up display from the Corvette!) and loaded up with “near luxury” stuff like French stitching and Jalopnik-stumping fake wood.
So, to recap: Swoopy, almost rugged looks, good power, fancy AWD and near-magic suspension makes this the first Fiendish Buick in a very, very long time. Oh, one more thing. The portholes are on top of the hood. To try and differentiate the brand from Maserati? In other words, who knows?
Posted By: Jonny Lieberman | 6 Comments »
Tags: 2010 Buick LaCrosse AWD buick Buick LaCrosse Detroit LaCrosse NAIAS
Now, if they could only manage to do a decent marketing campaign to get people in the showrooms.
…and manage to bring the Buick dealership experience up to the level of foreign competition.
Sounds good, but I wouldn’t mind if one of GM’s pushrod V6s replaced the 3.0L DI as the base engine.
Did they steal the back doors from a Charger? Otherwise, not bad!
That c-pillar is the shit, though I imagine outward visibility will be challenging.
Whose buyers are they hoping to attract? Volvo? Lincoln? I’d consider this before a FWD A6.
Painted black, this would be a bitchin alternative to the Town Car on the way to the airport. Or a wedding.
If it weren’t for “Octogenarians”, Buick would have been out of business 25 years ago.
I am getting a very Oldsmobile Aurora feel here: not the styling, but the fact that one nice car is not going to save Buick. WTF is GM thinking?
And another thing- I hope this is not being built by Opel in Europe like some other GM USA cars, or they will be losing a pot of money on each one. But don’t worry, they’ll make it up in volume, or with bailout money.