Auto blog

2014 Buick LaCrosse to sticker at $34,060*

Buick first showed the facelifted 2014 LaCrosse at this year's New York Auto Show, and General Motors' luxury-ish arm has now confirmed that pricing for the updated sedan will start at $34,060 (*including $925 for destination), a increase of $1,505 over the 2013 model.
Buyers will be treated to an updated appearance, both inside and out. On the outside, tweaks were made to the LaCrosse's front and rear fascias, and new wheels are on offer (though the ones seen on the car pictured above seem to have been simply pulled from the 2011 Regal Turbo). Inside, there's a much cleaner center stack layout, complete with a standard eight-inch reconfigurable touchscreen IntelliLink interface. Buick is also offering a new Ultra Luxury interior package ($2,495), featuring Tamo Ash wood throughout the cabin, black synthetic suede on the headliner and leather seats in a new sangria color. Standalone options include different wheels, Bose audio, rear seat entertainment, navigation and a sunroof.
The 2014 LaCrosse's base powertrain is the trusty 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine with eAssist, which is capable of achieving up to 36 miles per gallon on the highway. But for folks wanting more power, a 304-horsepower, 3.6-liter V6 is available as a no-cost option, available with either front- or all-wheel drive.

2020 Buick Encore drops more powerful 1.4-liter four-cylinder option

It's not just Chevrolet Equinox, Terrain and Traverse crossovers and Cadillac CT6 enjoying the engine and trim switcheroos this spring. Based on the order guide, CarsDirect reports that the Buick Encore, Buick's most popular model by far, will lose one of its two engines. The 2019 Encore offers a 1.4-liter four-cylinder in two guises: one with 138 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque, the other with 153 hp and 177 lb-ft and stop/start. The more powerful version will not be an option on the 2020 Encore. The upgraded motor is a $250 option, but only after spending an additional $2,600 to move up to the Sport Touring trim, or shelling out $6,100 to reach the Essence trim. Aggressive deals could make the higher trims more economical, though; at the time of writing, the Sport Touring Encore includes $3,250 cash allowance, making it $650 less expensive than the base Encore 1SV. The more powerful 1.4-liter engine also delivered better gas mileage, with buyers getting one more mile per gallon in combined driving. Even so, buyers didn't dig it. In comments to CarsDirect, a Buick spokesperson said those purchasing 2019 Encores have only chosen the burlier motor 12 percent of the time. The weak take-rate could end up doing Buick an easy favor. The Buick Encore GX is expected to make landfall on U.S. shores sometime this year, riding on a different platform than our present Encore, and bringing a longer wheelbase with it. It will slide into the lineup between the $23,200 Encore and $31,995 Envision. This is all hypothetical at the moment, of course, but that seems a perfect place to insert the 153-hp 1.4-liter as an exclusive standard feature.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.