Sommer's Buick GMC

The 2010 Buick LaCrosse comes the closest I've seen to an American car replicating the Lexus experience. On comfort, ride quality, and roominess, the 2010 Buick LaCrosse delivers an experience roughly on par with the Lexus ES350, Buick's target. Fit and finish is good if not quite Lexus-freakin'-awesome, either on the car or on the Buick website. Bluetooth comes standard on two of the three trim lines and a USB jack is standard on the top line, part of a $650 package on the other two. And the LaCrosse is easier on the eyes than the other outstanding American sedan, the slab-sided Ford Taurus. You need to check out the Buick LaCrosse if you're in the market for a midsize sedan.

LaCrosse: A New Car for 2010

The LaCrosse is a vehicle that shows the middle sibling in the death-riddled GM lineup (Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac) has something to offer. The front-drive LaCrosse is completely redone for 2010, in three trim lines: the entry Buick LaCrosse CX with cloth seats and limited options; the mid-level Buick LaCrosse CXL, which can be had with all-wheel drive; and the luxury-standard, tech goodies-standard Buick LaCrosse CXS. The LaCrosse uses six-cylinder 255 hp and 280 hp engines with six-speed transmissions. Fuel efficiency for the V6 is rated at 17 mpg city, 26 mpg highway. Buick will also offer a four-cylinder, 182-hp engine on the entry Buick LaCrosse CX, good for 30 mpg highway.

What's Available from the Tech Bins?
If you want the full range of GM technology in the Buick LaCrosse, you have to get the top of the line LaCrosse CXS. Only the CXS has rear parking sonar standard; it's not available on the others. The CXL and CXS include an integrated garage door opener, two-zone (left-right) air conditioning plus rear outlets; not the CX. Keyless go is standard on the CXS, available on the CXL.

The entertainment package bumps you up to a 384-watt, 11-speaker 5.1 matrix surround system, USB port, and 120 volt power outlet. (It's standard on the CXS.). XM satellite radio comes standard across the model line with three months free. The OnStar telematics package is integrated on all three lines and you get one year of basic service, called Directions & Connections.

Blind spot warning will be available this year on the CXL and CXS; it hasn't been priced (probably around $500). Buick calls it Side Blind Zone Alert. Other Buicks such as the Lucerne offer lane departure warning but not (yet) the LaCrosse. Safety is good both in equipment (six airbags, stability control) and in crash test results.

On the Road: Is It the American Lexus?
"American Lexus" means great fit and finish, comfortable ride, decent styling, and if it doesn't handle like a German sports sedan, well, how many twisty back roads do people drive anyway? The Buick LaCrosse nails it with one exception: ultimate fit and finish. If you scrutinize closely, you'll see the LaCrosse is somewhere south of today's Lexus but well above the old GM with panel gaps useful for securing toll receipts and but-no-trees-died petrowood dashboards. Fortunately, this Buick is closer to Lexus than to Buicks of yore. And on reliability, the previous generation Buick LaCrosse (2005-2009) was cited as the most reliable midsize car after three years by J.D. Power & Associates.

Steering Wheel Buttons Looks Like Audi's (Not as Versatile)

The cockpit is attractive, a bit more chrome than I'd like, but nothing approaching the pimp my ride cockpit trappings of the Chinese Buick Regal, Buick being an honored and revered brand there of late. The steering wheel buttons are too small for comfort when wearing gloves. Two buttons look like the knurled rotating wheels (photo above) that Audi and now BMW use to such good effect for adjusting volume making selections; Buick's is actually a rocker switch camouflaged to look as if it spins but in fact requires three button presses to move three increments. 

The instrument panel suffers from glare in sunlight and if you're wearing sunglasses, you'll have trouble reading the speedometer. Lots of cars have that problem. Lexus doesn't. The leather-and-wood steering wheel also has heater elements at nine and three o'clock and a heated wheel is a true blessing in winter months.

Center Stack (Navigation Cars): Buttons, Buttons, Buttons

The bucket seats on my test car were pretty good, with lumbar support, and with seat heaters and seat coolers both. The center stack on navigation-equipped cars is a maze of buttons (above). It's this kind of center-stack complexity that iDrive reduces. The premium audio was fine.

Rear Seat Entertainment in a Sedan

The back seat was reasonably roomy and you can even get rear seat entertainment (LCD panels in the backs of the front seats), something that's not common on sedans except for the world's $75,000 super-sedans. The trunk was not so roomy. Nor was the center console, especially since this is a front-drive car. The ski jump shape takes up space but doesn't give it back in the way of useful storage. And there's no need for such a big center hump for the driveshaft (except on one model).

The Lazy Guy's Navigation System: Destination Download
Here's a confession: When I test a GM car, I plug in my Bluetooth phone, hook up an iPod, and dial in a couple destinations to see if the navigation system can be fathomed without resorting to the manual. The LaCrosse navigation was pretty obvious. But here's what I do after I find navigation works: I just press the OnStar button on the mirror and have the OnStar operator look up where I'm going, have the OnStar operator - sorry, "OnStar navigation advisor" - download the address to my car, and all I have to do is press the Go button. GM's Destination Download makes navigation just about idiot-proof, but it's also part of the $30 not $15 a month OnStar service, Directions & Connections. I'm not sure I'd spend the money if I owned the car, but on a test car, it's there for the taking.

Actually, OnStar Destination Download wasn't entirely idiotproof: If you didn't complete your previous trip, say from your house to a sports stadium, but stopped a block short at a parking lot, the navigation system doesn't clear out the previous destination despite the car having sat there doing nothing for five hours, and tries to finish the previous trip. At least that was my experience.

What It Costs
The cheapest Buick LaCrosse, the XC, runs $27,835, including $750 shipping. The most costly is a LaCrosse CXS that's loaded at $39,050 (loaded excluding vanity items such as the $445 illuminated sill plates or a $3,995 rims package). On the CXS, navigation runs $1,995, rear seat entertainment is $1,295, and a touring package with bigger wheels and "variable real time damping" shock absorbers is $800.

The middle of the road CXL starts at $30,395 with shipping. Add $2,175 if you want all-wheel drive on the CXL. You'll probably want the Luxury Package ($1,350) with a leather and wood grain wheel (that looked like wood and fooled me), ventilated seats, keyless entry, and that heated steering wheel. To get it, you must also take the Comfort and Convenience Package ($550) with rear parking sonar with a bunch of maybe-useful items such as turn indicators in the outside mirrors and manually folding mirrors (definitely useful in crowded garages).

 
LaCrosse Gives Buick a Reason to Live
General Motors offerings in recent years, say since the end of World War II, comprised one big car, one medium-size car, and one small car shipped off, with different chrome and fins, to dealers in Chevrolet (typically your first GM car), Pontiac (R.I.P. 2009), Oldsmobile (R.I.P. 2004), Buick (hanging on for now), and Cadillac (typically your last car, or at least your final ride). Terrible suspensions, worse fit and finish, fat-dumb-and-happy executives, and couldn't-care-less-unions through the early 1990s made GM ripe to suffer a near-death experience. What survives now is vastly better. Cadillac has a unique look (CTS, Escalade) at the high end while Chevrolet has pretty decent midsize cars (Malibu) and one icon (Corvette). Oldsmobile and Pontiac are in a better place.

Buick used to be the just-below Cadillac line where it was considered the doctor's car; now its place in the middle is reinforced with a new Buick Regal (just below the LaCrosse) in the 2011 model year.

Should You Buy?
The LaCrosse is about as good as it gets with American sedans. The only other American car that matches up to the LaCrosse is the slightly larger Ford Taurus. The LaCrosse is better looking; the Taurus in side view suggests it was separated at birth from the Berlin Wall. The Taurus has more technology standard or available and a bit less chrome. (What about Cadillac? The CTS doesn't compete with Lexus because the CTS is seen as a driver's car, and performance is something Lexus isn't about except with the IS350, and the once-competitive STS and DTS are getting long in the tooth. When they're refreshed Cadillac can take aim once again.)

If you can live with rear-wheel-drive or prefer it, then you also have to look at the Hyundai Genesis. The Genesis is the bang-for-the-buck leader among cars selling for $35,000-$45,000 and a threat to every car selling for less than $60,000. It's that good. Actually, the Hyundai that's more comparable is the 2011 Hyundai Sonata, a breathtaking car that costs at most $28,000; it only has a four-cylinder, but a turbo four is coming that will equal Buick's V6. And with things such as Bluetooth and the USB jack standard, it's easier to configure the car.

Buick sees the target car as the Lexus ES350. Not necessarily that they'll draw every ES350 wannabe-buyer into a Buick showroom, but Buick has a reasonable chance of convincing its buyer demographic that the LaCrosse comes close. And the LaCrosse is bigger inside, not hard since at 197 inches it's six inches longer outside. It's also a bit roomier in back than the Acura TL. The Toyota Avalon is a legitimate competitor with no significant disadvantages other than lack of all-wheel-drive and the current stigma of the Toyota name. The Ford Taurus  is an even bigger car outside (203 inches) but in many ways comparable.

Other competitors in the midsize segment include the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan (not as nice inside or out, less so the Mercury), Chevrolet Malibu (smaller, not as comfy), the Honda Accord (roomy, a bit ungainly outside until the 2011 model arrives), the Toyota Camry (a good deal now, with shell-shocked dealers offering 0%, five-year financing), and Nissan Altima (very good car, sportier). The Chrysler Sebring is midsized but not competitive.

If you're looking at used cars, the first-generation LaCrosse of 2005-2009 is a different and less desirable car. Except in reliability, where it was the top-rated midsize car in three-year reliabity, accoding to J.D. Power & Associates. It's nothing much to look at outside or in, Bluetooth wasn't available until the 2009 year, and most models had unconvincing petro-wood trim and the short-nap mouse fur upholstery if you were too cheap to go with leather. All of which means you might pick one up as a bargain, demand for cars like this being modest. It should be cheap to maintain, since GM got its act together on reliability several years before Buick got its act together on styling. But really, if you want a LaCrosse, you want the 2010.