Ruby Red, Tan Leather, Sunroof on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2024 Buick Envision previewed with new design, Super Cruise technology

The second-generation Buick Envision will enter the 2024 model year with an array of updates inside and out and Super Cruise hands-free technology. While the model won't make its full debut until later in 2023, an official preview image gives us a good idea of what to expect. Buick designers gave the Envision's front end a complete overhaul; this is not a subtle nip-and-tuck. The crossover gets a bigger grille positioned lower on the front fascia, bright trim, and the new Buick emblem on its hood. The headlights are now integrated into the bumper, Jeep Cherokee-style (or Citroen-style, depending on where your automotive references lie), and LED daytime running lights replace the outgoing Envision's headlights. The revamped look brings the Envision in line with other recent additions to the Buick range, like the Encore. We'll need to be patient to find out what the rear end looks like, though the overall proportions haven't significantly changed. Similarly, Buick hasn't released photos of the interior yet. We're guessing that infotainment- and trim-related changes will be part of the 2024 updates. The updated Envision will bring the Super Cruise technology already available in several General Motors products, including the Chevrolet Tahoe, to the Buick brand for the first time. Likely offered as an option with a four-digit price tag, the system will allow drivers to take both hands off the wheel when the right conditions are met; the car notably needs to be on a highway that General Motors has mapped. Super Cruise won't make the Envision autonomous, the driver will need to remain focused on the road ahead and ready to take over if needed, but it should make long trips less tiring. As of writing, General Motors has mapped over 400,000 miles of roads in the United States and Canada. Built in China, the 2024 Buick Envision will go on sale across the nation before the end of 2023. More details about it will emerge in the coming months. It's too early to tell what's next, but the company promised it will unveil two additional new vehicles before the end of 2024.

Junkyard Gem: 1962 Buick LeSabre 2-Door Sport Coupe

American car shoppers looking for a full-sized hardtop coupe in 1962 couldn't go wrong with the offerings from The General. Chevrolet would sell you a snazzy new Bel Air sport coupe for just $2,561 (about $23,800 today), but those Joneses next door wouldn't have felt properly shamed if you put a new proletariat-grade Chevy in your driveway. No, to really stand tall during the era of Alfred Sloan's Ladder of Success, you had to go higher up on the GM food chain. For the B-platform full-sized cars of 1962, that meant the Pontiac Catalina/Bonneville beat the Chevy, the Oldsmobile 88 was the next step up the ladder, and at the very top was the Buick: the hot-rod Invicta and its swanky LeSabre sibling. To go beyond that, you had to move up to a C-platform Buick Electra or Cadillac. Today's Junkyard Gem is a once-luxurious '62 LeSabre, now much-faded in a northeastern Colorado boneyard. The reason GM shoppers got so bent out of shape about the "Chevymobile" episodes of the late 1970s, in which some GM cars received engines made by "lesser" GM divisions, was that each division had its own family of V8 engines during the 1950s and 1960s and they weren't supposed to be mingled. The '62 LeSabre got a 401-cubic-inch (6.5-liter) Nailhead engine (so called because the valves were unusually small), rated at 265, 280, or 325 (depending on what kind of compression ratio and carburetion you wanted). That's not crazy horses for a big-displacement, two-ton luxury coupe of its era, but the small valves allowed for combustion chambers optimized for one thing: low-rpm torque. This 401 has the two-barrel carburetor, so it made either 412 or 425 pound-feet of torque. That's just a bit less than the mighty Cadillac's engine that year, and definitely sufficient to get this car moving very quickly. You had to pay a fat premium on the Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile B-bodies to get an automatic transmission (a three-speed column-shift manual was base equipment in those cars), but a Turbine-Drive (formerly known as the Dyna-Flow) automatic was standard issue on the 1962 LeSabre. This was an interesting transmission design that traced its origins back to the 1942 M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer and used torque-converter multiplication to provide a CVT-like experience with no perceptible shifts (the driver could select a separate low gearset manually, so the shifter looks just like the one on the true two-speed Powerglide transmission).

2014 Chevy Malibu, Buick LaCrosse recalled over brake mix-up

The recall madness over at General Motors isn't letting up anytime soon, as evidenced by this latest call-back of 8,208 Chevrolet Malibu and Buick LaCrosse sedans. For those keeping track, this is the fifth recall that GM has announced in the past two weeks, not to mention the massive ignition-switch issue from earlier this year.
GM issued a statement saying these sedans are being recalled due to "possible reduced braking performance," according to Automotive News. The problem? Rear brake rotors may have accidentally been installed in the front brake assembly. And since both cars use more robust braking systems up front than out back, braking power could be reduced, increasing the risk of a crash.
Automotive News reports that, of the over 8,000 cars being recalled, about 1,700 are currently in the hands of customers, while the others are still in dealer inventory. GM is unaware of any crashes or injuries related to this problem. All of the affected vehicles are from the 2014 model year.