The choice of a large car guarantees copious space and metal. Yet a
premium large car should offer
more: more comfort; more style; more power; more intelligence in its packaging - more
quality.
Presented at the 2005 Chicago International Auto Show
and new for 2006, the Michigan-built, six-passenger
Buick Lucerne debuted with wind in its sails. After all,
it upgrades the best-selling full-size nameplate in America since 1992, for thirteen years running:
LeSabre, long a paragon of reliability and ride comfort.
Such was owner satisfaction with this
Lucerne predecessor that it won
R. L. Polk & Co.'s Automotive Loyalty award in its toughly-contested segment for two years running (2004 and 2005).
Lucerne, then, is
the flagship of a one hundred and three year old brand committed to premium vehicles with elegant designs; finely-crafted interiors, and exceptional power; comfort; quiet, and quality.
You'd expect it to be something special. It is - and a first glimpse confirms it.
Lucerne's road presence is exemplary: a contemporary expression of American style; performance, and prestige - confidently, unmistakably, Buick.
Discover the graceful nuance of Buick Lucerne's design
Designing a good-looking car does not cost any more than designing an ugly one, but it helps to design for a brand that is conscious of the impetus to uphold a long tradition:
a tradition of powerful presence mated to a certain timelessness in
grace. Penned by 38-year-old Joel T. Piaskowski,
Lucerne's skin is wrapped tightly around its frame, sprinkled with glistening chrome accents and a cue or two from the
2004 Buick Velite Concept. Sparkling polycarbonate headlamp and tail lamp pods and brilliant chrome accentuate a taut, assertive body that appears as though chiseled from a solid slab of steel.
Lucerne is stately, certainly, but it would not do to ignore aerodynamics. A rakish, 60-degree windshield leads into a roofline that flows into a faster 70-degree rear window angle to the deck lid. The shape makes for a 25.6 square foot frontal area, which combines with the 0.33 coefficient-of-drag for a CdA of 8.4 square feet.
Accompanying Lucerne's
thick carpet; soft perforated leather, and its
hand-cut and sewn armrest covers, is a
silk-infused material that in look and feel is virtually indistinguishable from the beautiful hide it borders. Note, too, the
woven roof-liner that flows downward, across the A-pillars.
Precise standards; close tolerances, and tight surface-to-surface relationships are hallmarks of world-class luxury cars.
Lucerne is designed with
some of the tightest tolerances in the industry, emblematic of Buick attention-to-detail.
Discover the precision of Buick Lucerne's design and construction
Buick engineers have a "near fanatical" way of looking at details, reassures Buick marketing director Brian Bowden - all to engineer within
Lucerne a realm of relaxation; luxury, and sophistication: of private luxury and intimacy.
"Someone understands the difference even a single millimeter can make in the way a car looks; drives, and feels, someone as obsessive about quality as we are," says Buick of its new flagship in an advertising spot launched last Fall, intimating,
"and we just wanted you to know... you're not alone."
Hood-to-fender; trunk-to-body-panel, and door-to-door tolerances are
within 1.0mm. Inside, 0.5mm is the largest gap that Buick design director Peter Lawlis and director of interior design Michael J. Burton ever want to see within the upper-center control section of
Lucerne's instrument panel.
Tight interior gaps produce a harmony between the elements. Quality is evident in every joint; fabric, and detail; the leather upholstery is flawless, and exudes the aroma of quality hide, and from door panels to woven roof-liner, all is well thought-out and executed.
In a premium car, one expects premium amenities.
Lucerne delivers.
Discover the luxuries that pamper the Buick Lucerne driver
Behind its gauges' gentle glow, Lucerne's
leather front seats both heat and cool - on-command with 200-foot, factory-installed remote start, if so desired.
Many a Toyota/ Lexus product has committed the error of overly short seat bottoms;
not so the Buick.
Lucerne is also
the first vehicle in its class to offer an available heated windshield washer system, bringing fluid temperature up to 149 degrees Fahrenheit (80 degrees Celsius) to blast snow; ice, and dirt. Forty cubic centimeters of fluid are dispensed, as a spray, four times over a 90-second interval.
Moreover, moisture automatically activates Lucerne's wipers, a feature which first debuted in the
1997 Park Avenue. A light-emitting-diode sensor enables the wipers to respond to road splashes, increasing speed automatically if a light drizzle turns into a downpour.
With the menial tasks taken care of,
Lucerne becomes an auditory canvas for the rich textures and brilliant aural colors of a
280-watt, nine-speaker
Harman Kardon system, precision-tuned and equalized for this specific cabin. Jazz; pop; rock, or classical; Lucerne is a private concert hall - and one that, courtesy a front-mounted auxiliary input jack, is open to all your sources.
One source available to you is XM Satellite radio, which beams over 150 channels of clear, digital-quality sound across 800 terrestrial repeaters to the
Lucerne. Sixty-seven of these channels are commercial-free music and news; sports; talk; comedy, and instant traffic and weather updates. Consumers can subscribe to the basic service for $12.99 a month. In addition, Buick customers with GMAC financing can choose to include the XM subscription in their car payments. Select XM with
Lucerne, and receive three trial months of service.
Optional DVD-based touch-screen navigation is available, its screen wide enough for the XM radio feature to display both title and artist simultaneously.
Lucerne's nine-speaker Harman Kardon system is truly a stereo that befits a premium automobile.
Your brain may not believe what your ears are hearing
- but what you do not hear may be more incredulous still.
Discover the quiet of Buick Lucerne
The first clue lies in the capacious, seventeen cubic foot trunk, beneath whose lined lid is a floor coated with thick pad not dissimilar to that beneath household carpet. It is part of
a comprehensive Buick process designed to minimize noise and vibration:
QuietTuning.
Acoustics play a critical role in defining the character of an automobile.
"Apart from the look of a vehicle, its acoustic behavior is the aspect most directly observable to the user,"
confirms BMW Director of Acoustics and Vibration Dr. Peter Zeller. For Buick, quiet is an important
ergonomic quality. Yet
Lucerne is available with a V8 engine, and under acceleration, its glorious voice must be noted. As BMW's Dr. Zeller suggests,
"engine noise tone and amplitude in relation to the level of wind/ rolling noise is a major factor in defining the character of the vehicle.
"The goal is to set the acoustic target so that engine noise becomes the dominant sound during acceleration while masking by wind/ rolling noise at constant speed."
For BMW's Dr. Zeller, as for Buick, a quiet comfortable sedan should have low wind/ rolling noise, and subdued engine growl. Yet a vehicle whose high wind/ rolling noise conceals the engine even at full load is lacking in character.
With regard to less pleasant sound, Buick's QuietTuning process is designed to
reduce or tune out unwanted noise and harshness throughout every area of the vehicle. Attention to areas such as exterior aerodynamics; component isolation, and fine-tuning of all related elements achieve the quietest ride and most desirable frequency ranges for every Buick. While actuation (windows and other devices, for instance) and engines are to be tuned, gearbox noise; load reversal; auxiliaries; road noise; resonance effects; mechanical squeaks and rattles; idle noise, and pass-by noise must be minimized.
Components of Lucerne's QuietTuning process include a
rigid body structure; an extensive wind-sealing system; a
double-isolated powertrain mounting system;
composite nylon baffles in the roof
pillars; rocker panels, and cross-car structures, and
laminated glass in all four side windows. This is no mean feat for this class. The $62,495
Jaguar XJ has only just - for 2007 - received acoustic laminated side glass.
Engines are mounted fully to the cradle, rather than to a
combination of body and cradle. A QuietTuned engine cover enforces the silence of the cams,
while the 4.6-liter
Northstar V8's cam chain tensioner is revised, and the engine has
received camshaft-cover isolator mounts and Grafal-polymer coated pistons.
Care is taken in the design of the outside rear-view mirrors, a common source of noise.
Note the creases in their surface which, Buick engineers found,
considerably reduced wind noise. There are
lower-profile, structure-less windshield wiper blades with flexible airfoil surface.
Multi-layer steel laminate is used for the dashboard and cowl stamping. At the wheels, find
composite wheel-housing liners. Even
the noise of the blower motor has been considered.
Proper ventilation and temperature control requires good air flow, and
Buick was unwilling to compromise on this. Yet good air flow can mean a
noisy fan; thus the very ducting of the Lucerne's
ventilation system has been carefully designed to meet both quiet and
comfort targets.
CNET magazine recorded a reading of 65dB in highway driving at 60mph
(CNET, May 5th, 2006).
Edmunds has measured 42.7dB at idle; 72.7dB at full throttle, and 65.6dB at a 70mph cruise in a
Lucerne CXS
(Edmunds, April 3rd, 2006).
One could spend a fortune on a full-size, front-wheel-drive sedan and not get V8 power.
Then, there is Buick's Lucerne. As the flagship modern Buick,
Lucerne returns eight-cylinder power to a segment that has been without it for years. Thus does
Lucerne conquer distances with an eight-cylinder,
while its engineering ensures that the car does not apologize for its power, but rather expresses it with aplomb and dignity, and the uncanny silence of
QuietTuning is broken only by a gloriously authoritative voice under full throttle.
Lucerne's V8 is a
dual-overhead-cam unit of Cadillac breeding.
Meanwhile, the V6 is the overhead-valve Buick 3800, renowned for its
torque and robustness, and
the benchmark for overhead-valve V6 engines in packaging; efficiency; smoothness, and reliability.
Overhead-valve or dual-overhead-cam - the choice is yours.
Why the choice? The better to fit your driving style.
Overhead-valve engines, which have one intake and exhaust valve per cylinder, are generally described as torquers, touting strong low-end performance.
Meanwhile, dual overhead-cam engines have two intake and two exhaust valves per cylinder, allowing more air to flow into the combustion chamber and more exhaust gas to flow out of it; their strength is better performance at high rpms.
Lucerne's is a choice between two of the best engines of their type -
and a choice no other premium manufacturer offers.
Discover the power of Buick Lucerne
Lucerne is available with either V6 or V8 engines, both of which offer the precision of drive-by-wire
Electronic Throttle Control.
Lucerne's V6 is the overhead-valve Buick 3800 (L26). With 200 horsepower @ 5,200rpm and 230 foot-pounds
of torque @ 4,000rpm,
Lucerne CX and CXL V6 attain an
EPA-rated cruising range of 518 miles. Now in
Series III form, with aluminum intake manifold; aluminum oil pan, and a transmission brace, this is an evolution of the same engine that occupied
Ward Auto World's 10 Best Engines list for a decade:
one of the 10 Best Engines of the 20th Century, as they called it.
Now, it is thirty percent quieter than its predecessor - and, as we've seen, quiet is an important
ergonomic attribute at Buick.
Moreover, it is designated a
Super Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV)
engine.
For more on the continuous development of the legendary 3800, you might enjoy
The Life and Times of the 90-degree Buick V6.
Lucerne's available Northstar V8 (LD8), a dual-overhead-cam motor of Cadillac breeding, produces 275 horsepower and 295 foot-pounds of torque. Yet this is no snarling beast; rather, a smooth and powerful companion, its power managed with the intelligence that Buick owners demand. The
Lucerne CXS' Variable Valve Timing (VVT) system adjusts the timing of
both intake and exhaust valves,
in contrast to that of Nissan/ Infiniti's
VQ family through 2006.
VVT enhances the existing balance of power; efficiency, and low emissions engineered into
Lucerne's V8 motor, optimizing combustion for performance and economy.
Discover the fluid roadability of Buick Lucerne
Don't think that Lucerne's front tires cannot handle the power, either. Buick is a master of eliminating torque steer, thanks to
more than a quarter-century of experience with front-wheel-drive, beginning with the
1979 Riviera.
Versus the extended-Camry layout of
Lexus' ES350 and Toyota's Avalon, which
reprise the two-link rear MacPherson suspension of a car that costs half as much, the
Lucerne's are Cadillac-shared underpinnings, massaged by Buick under Chief Engineer Edward J. Zellner in spring and damping rates; bushings, and engine mounts for the Buick brand's own space and refinement requirements.
It shows.
When the wheels of a car are subject to a rearward force - when one drives over a bump, for instance - they tend to toe outward. Such a change interferes with the car's stability. Buick engineers wanted to address this problem, and thus does
Lucerne's 4-link rear suspension offer a toe control link, to counteract the tendency to toe out and to hold the rear wheels in a neutral position to help hold the car on track.
Certainly, at 203.2 inches in length; 73.8 inches in width, and 58 inches in height,
Lucerne is a large car.
Lucerne's wheelbase is almost two inches longer than
Park Avenue (one of the cars it replaces), yet its body is more than 3.5 inches shorter in overall length, providing an impressive
forty-one inches of rear legroom and an additional two inches of front seat travel.
Lucerne's 115.6-inch wheelbase is a full four-and-a-half inches longer than the
Camry-extended platform of
Toyota's Avalon, offering
another inch of leg room up front and, thanks to an extra inch of width, two-and-a-half more cubic feet of cargo capacity.
Yet it is in the intelligence of Lucerne's packaging that it distinguishes itself, as much as in the presence of its footprint.
Lucerne's extra trunk space over Toyota and Lexus - not to mention considerably more comfort at the rear, over
Lexus' ES350 - does not come at the expense of gasoline capacity: with an 18.5-gallon tank,
Lucerne touts an EPA-rated cruising distance of 518 miles.
Front passengers in Lucerne gain an inch of headroom, too, despite a body that is lower - more streamlined - than
Avalon's.
On the road, Vehicle Performance Director Bill Peterson and his team have ensured fluid dynamics. Lucerne CX comes with FE-1 suspension, with 16-inch wheels.
CXL models with the V6 engine benefit from
F-41 suspension with slightly firmer calibration, complemented by 17-inch wheels.
Lucerne CXL V8 models also are equipped with 17-inch wheels, but with even firmer damping, and the benefit of
Buick's magnetic assist steering system.
An electromagnetic controller senses the amount of effort needed to turn the wheel and applies the correct amount of assistance based on vehicle speed. The technology first debuted at Buick on the
1996 LeSabre and
Park Avenue Ultra, and has since evolved to offer superlative handling and roadholding.
Magnetic variable-effort steering provides a variable torsional rate in the steering gear through the operation of a magnetic machine incorporated within. A coil within the machine electronically regulates the torsional rate of the device, subtracting torsional rate during parking maneuvers, and increasing in rate as vehicle speed increases. Depending on the polarity of the current in the coil, the resulting alignment force is either additive or subtractive to the existing torsion bar rate.
This is graduated power assist; steering that knows when to step in and help the driver - and when to step back. Exert a greater degree of turning force on the wheel, and the unit will feed in as much help as requested. Yet when the steering lightens - at cruising speed - it cuts back on the power assist, for tauter road feel. One feels the road through the hands; feels the amount of grip that the tires have on the road.
Magnetic variable-effort steering offers an extremely wide range of assist; uses noncontact mechanization for smooth power steering from one effort level to another, and features few moving parts to minimize friction; to provide exceptional reliability, and to ensure symmetrical loading.
Lucerne CXS is the first Buick to feature a
Magnetic Ride Control suspension system, employing sensors that read the road
1,000 times per second and
adjust the damping of each individual shock absorber accordingly. This is technology that Buick parent company General Motors has fielded for a decade, and yet which has only just begun making its way to Ferrari; to Audi's second-generation
TT coupé, and to Acura's MDX crossover for 2007.
The typical shock absorber works by pushing fluid through
a smaller orifice. Buick's Magnetic Ride Control changes the thickness
of the fluid. Magnetically-charged particles are suspended in a synthetic hydrocarbon-base
magneto-rheological (MR) fluid to continuously adjust the fluid's viscosity to varying road surfaces and driving characteristics; to instantaneously adjust to best suit acceleration; braking, and cornering forces.
The MR fluid flows through a coil in the damper piston.
In a straight line, the magnet is weak, resulting in fluid motion
between sprung and unsprung weight. When the coil is energized, the magnetic field causes the particles to align into fibrous structures in the direction of the magnetic flux. The strength of the bond between the particles in the structures is proportional to the strength of the magnetic field. The result is a variable resistance to fluid flow within the damper piston, which provides a variable damping capability in the damper. Fine-tuning the current supplied to the coil in the damper piston allows the generation of a wide range of damping force. Changes in the damping force occur nearly instantaneously; the result is continuously variable real-time damping.
The system has quicker response than conventional valve-damping systems, while providing
exceptional vehicle control through
increased tire contact with the road surface.
Lucerne thus thinks for itself on the road, adjusting its ride characteristics to changing conditions: soft when appropriate, and firm when necessary, across dips; bumps, and culverts. This is a tribute to Buick's suspension engineers, who have produced a car capable of doing so many things well; and it marks
a flexibility - a certain fluidity of conduct, no matter the situation - that has no competition.
Optionally available is
StabiliTrak, an electronic stability control system that subtly keeps
Lucerne securely pointed in the right direction on ice; snow; gravel; wet pavement, and uneven road surfaces.
The story of
Lucerne's StabiliTrak is one of a multitude of sensors, and of the harnessing of massive on-board computing power.
The measurements of an accelerator pedal position sensor; a brake master cylinder pressure sensor; a steering-wheel-angle sensor; a lateral accelerometer; a yaw rate sensor, and wheel-speed sensors are sent to a computer hundreds of times per second. If the driver is steering
Lucerne through a curve, the system predicts the path the driver intends to take, and continually compares this with the vehicle's path.
When the predicted paths and intended paths are the same, all is well.
On slick surfaces, however, the difference between the steering-wheel angle and the direction in which
Lucerne is actually turning is likely to be greater. The appropriate brake is applied and engine power is reduced to keep
Lucerne on course.
StabiliTrak pulses the outside brake in an oversteer situation, and the inside brake in an understeer situation.
GM Vice Chairman Lutz emphasizes that StabiliTrak is programmed to be
as unobtrusive as possible.
"You just think you're one of the world's best drivers, and sadly the rest of the world doesn't recognize it," he muses.
"Our software guys will define a line all the way around the complex inside perimeter of the physical boundaries of the car so that you can go all the way to the limits in any direction before the system takes over. The system still intervenes to save you from yourself, but you really have to take it to the very edge before it kicks in"
(Corvette C6, Phil Berg, MBI,
2004).
StabiliTrak comes with brake assist, which senses emergency braking situations and boosts the power as needed.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that this type of stability control can reduce single vehicle crashes involving cars by 35%. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has also found electronic stability control systems to be very effective in reducing single-vehicle crashes.
Approximately twenty square inches connect you and your car to the road. Your car's tires are among the most important aspects of your safety and its performance. That's why
Lucerne, like every 2006 Buick, features standard tire-pressure monitoring.
Additionally - 'tis a small thing, but
Lucerne features standard Daytime Running Lamps (DRLs). Buick parent company General Motors cites studies proving that DRLs have helped reduce daytime multi-vehicle crashes by 12.5%, and pedestrian-car accidents by 15%. At time of writing, GM figures that up to 85,000 crashes may have been prevented by DRLs, since 1995.
Like all 2006 Buicks, Lucerne comes with
OnStar as standard equipment. Buick provides not only a complimentary
Safe & Sound subscription for one year but, in addition, with Directions & Connections. Locked-out? Out of gas? Need a tow? Curious about a Check Engine alert? A live advisor can help. In the case of airbag deployment or theft, that advisor works with police to assist in recovery.
OnStar 7.0 with Turn-by-Turn Navigation debuted on the
2006 Buick Lucerne in March of 2006.
With a newly-designed, energy-absorbing engine cradle and extensive use of high-strength steel plus injected structural foam elements,
Lucerne's body structure is engineered to provide maximum occupant protection and minimum intrusion under a wide range of impact conditions.
Buick parent company General Motors
was the first to offer child-friendly side-impact airbags. All
Lucerne models have six airbags: a dual-stage driver front airbag; side-impact thorax airbags; roof-rail curtain airbags, and a
segment-first, Dual-Depth front passenger airbag
restraining front-seat passengers in a greater variety of seating and crash situations than conventional dual-stage airbags. Working with other front-passenger safety features such as a weight-based occupant detection system, the dual-depth airbag deploys in one of two different sizes from behind the instrument panel, within milliseconds, to provide optimal restraint for the front passenger.
Dual-Depth air bags result in improved real world in-position performance for forward and rearward sitting occupants. From Buick's perspective, the technology also enables reduced system development time and burden to allow focus on critical conditions, and the potential for increased architectural flexibility by enabling top-mount module locations in tight interior vehicles; shorter front-end lengths; forward knee-bolster locations; increased windshield rake, and longer seat-track travel.
The Dual-Depth Airbag team includes Scott Thomas; William Barnes; Stephane Vitet; Mike Wolanin; Darrell Rogers, and Daniel Faust, all from Product Development in Warren, Michigan.
This is
first-of-its-kind technology, co-patented by GM.
"We cannot control where our customers will sit in our vehicles or every crash scenario they could encounter," explains GM executive director of structure and safety integration Robert Lange. It's the kind of
reassurance for which Buick has long been known - the same philosophy that lends
Lucerne's platinum-tipped spark plugs a 100,000-mile service life, and its coolant, up to 150,000 miles.
Add Hands-Free Calling to OnStar and stay better connected on the road with a powerful three-watt digital/ analog system and external antenna for superior reception.
In addition to its excellent performance in National Highway Transportation Safety Administration tests,
Lucerne has, additionally,
received the Institute for Highway Safety's highest,
Good rating for frontal-offset crashes. As Buick well
knows, the key to protecting occupants in side impacts is to keep the
B-pillar intact for as long as possible. Thus stiff foam is
strategically placed within a stiff structure (and it has the pleasant
byproduct of subduing road noise further still).
In 2004, J.D. Power and Associates gave the Detroit-Hamtramck Center, which manufactures the
Lucerne, the
Silver Plant Quality award.
Last year, J.D. Power and Associates' 2005 Initial Quality study found General Motors to have swept the top three positions of eighty-four manufacturing plants in North and South America. The
bronze position in Initial Quality belongs to Michigan's Hamtramck plant, home of the
Lucerne.
Lucerne, after all, comes from an automaker that has topped the J.D. Power Initial Quality; Dependability, and Customer Service surveys.
Meanwhile, among Toyota/ Lexus' competitors to the Lucerne,
the Avalon, has suffered from bad U-joint welds; faulty catalytic converters; a leak in the oil-supply line for the variable valve timing; vehicle drifting; rattling; abrupt shifting, and engine knocks (per this article from Automotive News).
This, atop Toyota recalls in 2006 of more than one million vehicles globally for items such as flanges
(whose lack of durability could cause wheels to fall off); for faulty intermediate steering shafts, and
for sliding yokes. U.S. recalls of Toyota cars and trucks rose more than tenfold from 2003 to 2005, to more than 2.2 million vehicles - including a recall for a steering relay rod which could crack under extreme steering maneuvers.
Toyota Avalon owner Kevin Clingenpeel writes,
"I pulled up next to a Ford F-350, and I could hear my valvetrain clicking louder than his valvetrain." Clingenpeel adds that neither Toyota nor its dealers have been forthcoming about the problems.
Indeed, for its part, Toyota appears overwhelmed by the complexity of the luxury car category.
"The Avalon is the most complex vehicle Toyota Division sells, so just by definition it's a problematic vehicle," says Toyota spokesman John Hanson
('Avalon shows dent in Toyota quality; fixes sought for problematic vehicles,'
Automotive News, May 1st, 2006).
Avalon owner Alan Seider, a Toyota driver since 1982, is quoted in the article as saying,
"Toyota's build quality has declined in recent years, and there seems to be nothing the dealer can do." Seider indicates that his
2006 Avalon will likely be his last Toyota.
"Seider is far from alone," qualifies Automotive News, explaining that
"Internet chat rooms such as Edmunds.com Town Hall are littered with complaints from Toyota loyalists about the redesigned Avalon..."
('Avalon shows dent in Toyota quality; fixes sought for problematic vehicles,'
Automotive News, May 1st, 2006)
Mind you, Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press noticed problems with the
Avalon as far back as March 24th, 2005.
"Pieces are not supposed to fall off new cars. Particularly not new Toyotas. That's the reason people buy Toyotas. The company's mission statement is practically the pieces stay where we put them," Phelan started out.
"Mission not accomplished," he concluded of the
$34,629 Avalon XLS he was testing, finding
"several quality defects - including a dial that fell out and left a hole in the dashboard - leaving it trailing the competition.
"The dial to adjust the brightness of the instrument panel lights fell out of the dashboard the first time I touched it. The result was a hole the size of your index finger and the certainty of a visit to the service department.
"The ceiling-mounted buttons for the front dome lights squeaked, and they were made of what felt like the thinnest, cheapest plastic I can ever recall in a Toyota.
"The spring-loaded drawer that holds the controls for the navigation system never came all the way open on its own, and several pieces of colored trim on the dash and doors did not quite align."
Product is king,
except when it is not, and it is stereotyped for other reasons (see our
FAQ section for information on the
perception gap). Test-drive a Buick Lucerne, and we predict you might be still further convinced that this is not a good time for a Toyota Avalon's dashboard to be coming off in its driver's hands.
Lucerne is available in ten exterior and four interior finishes (one of which, inside, is two-toned).
In contrast, the top Toyota Avalon (Limited) comes in half those colors - shades of gray and beige, in fact - eschewing understatement with presence, for near-tedium.
What does the color of your Buick say about you?
General Motors color trend manager Christopher Webb spends up to two years studying and testing every Buick color, for durability in both senses of the word.
It is important work. Webb estimates that 34% of customers would walk out of the dealership if they could not get the color they wanted, up from 27% ten years ago.
In a recent copy of Buick's The Style Review in-house magazine, Webb cites studies that color influences mood and behavior.
Blue, for example, is known to be calming, while fiery oranges and yellows stimulate. White suggests purity; green is associated with nature and money, and purple is thought to represent royalty.
While such cultural associations tend to endure, trends in taste and preference change over time, reflecting the fluctuating moods and priorities of a society. Metallic car colors, for instance, soared in popularity during the recent tech revolution.
Today, Webb notes that "brown is an ascending luxury color and is making a big comeback... especially in interiors."
Yet Webb admits that color trends are currently in a state of flux.
"It's a generation change," he told The Style Review.
"Formerly, the more mature, luxury market wanted conservative colors - silvers; grays; blacks - while the youth market wanted high impact. That's been reversed somewhat."
It is worth noting that Lucerne's available two-tone interior
recalls that of the limited-production
1982 Buick LeSabre Formal Edition, offered inside and out in two-tone blue and gray.
Lucerne is a clear articulation and moving celebration of what Buick thinks a luxury car should be.
And who better to define post-Millennial luxury than a brand with a 103-year history of uncompromising magnanimity in automotive design; engineering, and build?
As Lucerne Chief Engineer Ed
Zellner notes, care has been taken in "some of the
things that are beneath the surface, that the customer will never see,
but they are the things that make the difference." Zellner
adds, "every part, every interface, every
interaction was thought about; worked through, and optimized to provide
the right kind of balance for this new vehicle."
If care; craftsmanship, and pleasurable ease of ownership are an agreeable definition of a luxury car, there is no better.
