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Junkyard Gem: 2006 Buick Lucerne CXL

When The General's Buick Division axed the LeSabre and Park Avenue names in 2005 (after 46 and 30 years, respectively, though the Park Avenue returned a few years later in China), the replacement top-of-the-line Buick sedan became the new Lucerne. It wasn't the Buick with the biggest price tag that year— those honors went to the Terraza minivan and Rainier SUV— but it became the flag-bearer for a bloodline of cushy, prestigious Buick sedans that stretched all the way back to the early days of the American auto industry. Lucerne sales for the 2006 and 2007 model years went pretty well, and now enough time has passed that some of these cars are showing up in the self-service car boneyards I frequent. Here's a first-year example with the optional Northstar V8 engine, found in a Northern California yard last summer. Plenty of American cars have been named after cities in Italy, France, and Spain, but the Lucerne is the only one I can think of that bears the name of a Swiss city (to be fair, the entire Chevrolet Division is named after a Swiss man, so Switzerland didn't really get shortchanged by The General in the naming department). CXL was the Lucerne's mid-grade trim level, sandwiched between the CX and CSX. The high-zoot Lucerne CSX got the 4.6-liter Northstar as standard equipment, but this quad-cam V8 and its 279 horses cost extra on the CXL. The base engine for the CX and CXL was the good old 3.8-liter pushrod Buick V6, rated at 197 horsepower. No US-market 2006 Buick could be purchased new with a manual transmission; this car has a four-speed automatic. In a Buick tradition stretching back to the late 1940s, this car boasts flashy "Ventiports" on the fenders. In past years, the number of ports on each side designated the car's intended swank level; starting with the Lucerne, they indicated the number of engine cylinders. So, when you're crawling around your local Ewe Pullet and looking for Northstars, seek out the Lucernes with the four-hole Ventiports. "Leather-appointed" power bucket seats and "wood-toned" trim were standard on the CXL, as well as an MP3-capable CD player with six speakers. By 2006, most American vehicle shoppers seeking something big and luxurious chose trucks and truck-like machines, but the market still supported quite a few sedan models such as the Lucerne. Most US-market GM vehicles got these little square "Mark of Excellence" fender badges during the late 2000s.

Buick Envista Luggage Test: How much cargo space?

First, I am well aware that there is an inflatable hearse on my lawn, which is also haunted. Just go ahead and get used to that background for a few weeks.  Second, the 2024 Buick Envista is a great car! Easily the most surprising thing I've driven this year, and although I'll go into everything else in a full review coming soon, the cargo area contributes to that general sense of pleasant surprise. The specs say it has 20.7 cubic-feet of space, which would be consistent with the subcompact SUV segment it competes with on price (even if it's more comparable to a compact in terms of length). Let's see how that amount translates into actual stuff. At first look, I was not expecting good things. Yes, its ample length is pretty indicative of a compact SUV, but the height is nowhere close. With the rigid cargo cover in place, it basically looks like a trunk -- but more on that cover in a moment.  Unlike most subcompact and compact SUVs, the Envista does not offer a dual level cargo floor that adds extra cargo space while still making a fold-flat back seat possible. In other words, Buick is clearly leaving some cubic-feet on the table here. This cover would be of the gigantic, rigid, nowhere-to-keep-it-in-the-car, hatchback variety. I am not a fan, especially for the Envista. You're about to see why. Bring on the bags. As with every Luggage Test, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife's fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D). That would be the three biggest bags, but that's all you're fitting. I tried to dislodge the cover and let it rest on top, but nope, liftgate wouldn't close. At least the middle bit of the cargo cover has that raised middle bit that perfectly wrapped around my big blue bag. Without that, this result would've been even worse.  So, if you were picking up someone from the airport, they had more bags than this and you forgot to remove the cargo cover, you'd be in trouble. If, however, you remember to chuck the cargo cover ... Holy cow, all the bags fit!  I was genuinely surprised by this result. The Tetris formation is a little weird, but it wasn't hard to fit everything in here.

2017 Buick LaCrosse an evolution of sharp Avenir concept

After years as a bloated, uninspiring, but comfortable near-premium sedan, Buick has taken the wraps off a leaner, lither, far more stylish LaCrosse. The third-generation model has just made its debut at the 2015 Los Angeles Motor Show. While there's a lot to talk about, let's first address the new, Avenir-inspired sheetmetal. The fascia is basically the concept car smoothed over into production form, featuring the same winged trishield. In place of the chrome-trimmed waterfall, the LaCrosse gets a blacked-out, recessed grille with a chrome surround. It looks good in photos but it's better in person, adding a real sense of complexity and depth to the front end. The headlights and lower fascia, meanwhile, adhere closely to the concept. The same cannot be said of the LaCrosse's tail. While the taillight lighting pattern is similar, the overall shape of the lighting element is radically different, refining the design featured on the back of the Regal. Also gone, sadly, is the Avenir's boattail rear deck. Instead, the LaCrosse gets a small rear deck that curves up into a pleasant duckbill spoiler. The rest of the tail is pleasantly restrained. Perhaps the weakest point is the profile, where Buick has instituted a "split-spear" design, featuring a strong shoulder line above the rear wheel well, which sits below an even stronger character line that curves down and towards the front of the car. It strikes us as just a little too much, like the Impala. Underneath that sheetmetal, Buick has managed to trim nearly 300 pounds of body fat, nearly half of which came from the vehicle's actual structure. That 300 lbs, according to Buick's engineers, is equivalent to a Kenmore side-by-side refrigerator, in case you needed a helpful comparison. Despite the weight savings, Buick has upped the torsional rigidity for this new model by 15 percent. The LaCrosse's cabin features a strong, cockpit-like design, with a high, floating-bridge center console. This is possible due to Buick's adaption of the Electronic Precision Shift system, introduced earlier this month on the new Cadillac XT5. Despite the new-fangled console design, Buick's retained the wraparound cabin style introduced on the second-gen model. Based on a quick crawl around the interior, space is great in front, although ingress in back is somewhat difficult due to the roofline. You're probably wondering why we haven't said anything about the mechanicals just yet.