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| Buick's full-size sedan is in good form. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Not that I was ever there, but Buick's Lucerne offers a pretty good viewpoint to the brand's heritage a few decades back, a four-wheeled ticket down memory lane to the good 'ol days of North American motoring. Call it an opened door to the past if you like.
It's pretty amazing what's happened to the Buick lineup over the past few years. Its offerings are half of what they were prior to 2005, but this is by no means a shadow of what the brand used to be. Before the price of gas spiked, Buick shed its Terraza minivan and Trailblazer-based Rainier, and gone too was the Rendezvous crossover. Not that I harbour any ill will against them, but good riddance - they merely weighed down Buick's lineup with product. Collectively, their appeal can't touch that of their replacement, the excellent Enclave.
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| Three holes indicate that this is indeed a V6-powered car. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Buick's other two cars are the Allure and Lucerne. The Allure is the oldest product in the Buick portfolio, dating back to 2004 (though, arguably, it is one of the freshest as it's been updated for '08 with a facelift). The other vehicle, and the subject of this test, is the Lucerne, the successor to the grand Park Avenue sedan. The Lucerne rides on a platform that was developed just prior to the widespread application of platforms named after Greek letters (the new large RWD platform named “Zeta”, specifically). Both it and Cadillac's DTS sedan ride on the same G-Body platform, and are produced at the Hamtramck, Detroit assembly plant. They're large, spacious and designed for comfort - two peas in a pod.
Unlike Chrysler's 300 or the recently revived Lincoln split grille, Buick doesn't really have any distinctive or noteworthy styling characteristics, perhaps other than its waterfall grille and the fender-mounted Ventiports. That said, this hasn't stopped GM from producing a nicely styled, well-proportioned vehicle. It doesn't look anywhere near as long as a DTS despite being fairly close in length, and it neither appears as bulky or slab-sided. It's also less garish than that aforementioned 300, and has more flow that the dome-like shape of the Taurus. I mean, I appreciate the DTS' Art & Science styling as it's a very unique approach, but I think the Lucerne's more classic European-influenced lines have greater appeal to the general public.
