Comments on: Buick Lucerne CXS Review

By: rick la komy

rick la komy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:46:43 +0000

Well I guess it’s been a couple of years now since GM had to buy back our Lucerne CXS and I have to say I don’t miss it and all of it’s problems one bit. We ended up buying a Lincoln Towncar Signiture L series. I’ll tell you, we both really like it. And it’s bullet proof. Just get in and drive.

By: Sajeev Mehta

Sajeev Mehta — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:04:15 +0000

ponchoman49 : I applaud your comments, but some of them are actually detrimental to GM and Buick in particular.

1. That’s your opinion, and people actually seem to like the new Camry. (for some reason)

2. I have yet to see anyone outside of GM PR events get excited about OnStar.

3. Tough sell when you consider this market’s driving habits and the Toyota’s super plush ride.

4. Tough sell to most folks these days. And the Northstar isn’t exactly the pillar of long term durability.

5. Agreed, but I still like the 6-speed better when you mash the gas.

6. That’s not gonna swipe any market share from the imports, sorry.

7. The Camry’s JBL system isn’t much far behind, seriously.

8. If you believe in JD Power’s short term results, I think you should buy some GM stock juding by their Q3 report in 2005. It’s a GREAT buy!!!

9. And it has longer overhangs that are (tragically) out of fashion these days. Just ask people with Panther Chassis cars.

10. The base line Lucerne is an abomination. It never did and never will appeal to Toyota buyers and spits in the face of the V8 CXS. Pure rental car.

By: ponchoman49

ponchoman49 — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:25:03 +0000

Interesting write up but I have to take exception to the following:

Quote:The Lucerne certainly outclasses its clueless Park Avenue predecessor, but what does this sub-$40k whip do that a fresher-looking Camry can’t?

Well I can come up with 10 things actually
1)Considerably better exterior styling
2)Onstar
3)4 link rear suspension vs Camry/Avalon 2 link
4)Available V8 engine that actually sounds great and has some soul vs Toyotas put you to sleep boring sounding V6 only Avalon
5)Far more reliable and smoother shifting 4 speed automatic vs Toyotas unreliable indecisive 6 speed.
6)Bodyside moldings with chrome inserts, port holes and some actual exterior trim vs Toyotas….
well they do put pig like grilles on there cars these days so that says something
7)A 100% better optional sound system in the Harmon Kardon
8)Better customer satisfaction according to JD Power
9)A 17.0 cu. ft. trunk vs Avalons stunningly huge 14.4
10)A dual personality. V6 and softer suspension for the conservative folks and heartier V8 and firmer suspension for the grand tourer vs Toyota Avalon one suspension for all.

By: Jose from Miami

Jose from Miami — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:32:31 +0000

The Buick is WRONG WHEEL DRIVE.The bulk of you here don’t get it and never will in a million years!

I have a large family and we own Grand Marquis,Town Cars and Crown Victorias.We get over 300k miles on them and even after 300k miles they still ride good and everything still works fine.

Drove a Buick Lucerne the other day a neighbor bought and it did not handle as well as the Panther Cars.

LONG LIVE THE CROWN VICTORIA,GRAND MARQUIS AND TOWN CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: armadamaster

armadamaster — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:36:17 +0000

I know I am a day late and a dollar short, but great writeup! I love how you nailed what I call the “GM name game” in the opening paragraph. The post 2005 Buick lineup is more proof of Buick becoming the new Olds, and we know where that finished out at. GM needs to pass the crackpipe around for peddling yet another 30K+ FWD econoturd.

I’ll keep enjoying my 1994 Roadmaster whilest GM continues to try and make my next purchase a Panther assuming Ford hasn’t deepsixed those at that time.

By: Sajeev Mehta

Sajeev Mehta — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:31:47 +0000

Personally, I would skip the warranty too…but I paused for moment because of the expense and complexity of all Northstar-powered vehicles.

Just don’t expect the Lucerne to be as bullet proof as your ‘92 Century and you’ll do fine.

By: Steven Lang

Steven Lang — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:41:17 +0000

Stay as far away from the extended warranty as possible. GM currently offers a 5 year / 100,000 mile warranty on their vehicles and besides that, the overall quality of your Buick should be exceptional.

On a more personal note I do have to congratulate you on keeping your vehicles for a long time. There is a constant desire in this industry to make consumers trade their late model vehicles for the newest piece of metal. The drive to make the new things seem old in a matter of a few years used to be called planned obsolesence. Now it’s just a healthy combination of spin and lies.

Fact is, most folks should be more concerned about their footware and their mattress than the type of car they drive.

One other thing… my in-law’s bought a 1996 Century with 29,000 miles on it for $3,000 a few months back. It’s the perfect vehicle for them because they simply do not care about cars. So long as it has good safety, the seats comfortable, and it’ll get from point A to point B in a relatively efficient manner. there’s really little else that matters.

Enjoy the Lucerne. Hopefully you’ll sell the Buick to someone who will take good care of it.

By: dlvhi

dlvhi — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:31:06 +0000

Hello all

Just bought a new 2006 Cx Lucerne, the dealer had some extra inventory, GM rebates went up for a couple of days, and the price was right, especially compared to other sedans that “might” hold three car seats in the back.

You all know so much more about cars (especially Buicks) than I do so I hope you don’t mind me asking for some advice.

Do you think I need the extended warranty? I can get a pretty good price from the web but unless this car has unusual problems, I would rather not spend the money.

By way of reference, I kept my 1978 Century about 16 years, kept my 1986 Skyhawk for 18 years and will now need to sell my 1992 Century. Never had enough problems with any of those to require the warranty.

I did get the extended warranty for my Aztek 3 years ago after several folks on the Aztek Fanclub site talked about A/C problems that hit after 3 years. Love the Aztek for what it does, took it to the beach today and filled it full of stuff.

The Aztek will be my play car and the Buick my “adult” car.

Any insight on the extended warranty will be appreciated.

Dennis

By: Sajeev Mehta

Sajeev Mehta — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:33:45 +0000

What a shame…

By: rick la komy

rick la komy — Sat, 05 May 2007 03:10:13 +0000

Well lets see……….after, I forget how many attempts at three different Dealerships they still had trouble fixing that leaking northstar engine. So all my service records went to a Lemon Law Attorney, and in just a few short weeks we received all of our money back from GM.
So after all the GM Dealerships attempts to aggrivate us and try to make us to stay away, they have finally succeeded.

By: Sajeev Mehta

Sajeev Mehta — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:48:38 +0000

Looks like the dealer messed something up…almost inevitable when they remove so much stuff to get to the engine in a FWD car. Bummer.

By: rick la komy

rick la komy — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 17:44:29 +0000

it’s about time to put a drip pan under our new cxs not only is the engine still leaking oil now the power steering components are leaking

By: rick la komy

rick la komy — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:36:38 +0000

We’re still enjoying our CXS and now have 6,316 miles also a Northstar engine that still leaks oil. It’s back to the Dealership again and according to them, this time they are going to replace the engine. Oh boy! As if we did’nt have enough with the oil leak , now they are going to dismantle the cooling circuit, the a/c circuit, all the electrical components for the drive train, pull the entire engine and transmission out along with removing the hood and all the front facia pieces, dismantle the transaxle again. And for our trouble what do we get?
Guess we should have bought a car with a 3800 v/6 and get 35 mpg so we could balance pennies and nickles and quarters on it and have so much torque that we have to put extra heavy duty engine mounts on it that will last for at least 350,000 miles. And if we go on vacation we can load up as much junk as we can and still have power enough to pull a trailer full of pigs, chickens, goats and enough corn to feed us and Gran Pa.

By: qeorqe

qeorqe — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 03:39:33 +0000

i would do what gm should do… split it up and double hit.

By: qeorqe

qeorqe — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:56:29 +0000

I rented one. Adequate power. I think it had a V8? Handling so so. Cheap interior. GM is almost there… I am Buick’s target age group, but didn’t hasn’t hit me yet.

By: rick la komy

rick la komy — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:26:32 +0000

doctorv8,
Yes, your right about the Chrysler and Lexus, as we drove both of them along with the Cadillac DTS which in my opinion did not have as comfortable seats or ride as the CXS plus we had to consider the length of it, the Lincoln Towncar which would have been our second choice if it would’nt have been so long that it would’nt even fit in our garage, the Toyota Avalon which was attractive and comfortable but seemed a bit lacking as far as feeling like, well should I say cheap or less expensive. The Chrysler 300C had plenty of power but I really felt cramped sitting in the drivers seat not something I would want to be in for any length of time. The Lexus was just too pretty inside, to point of almost being a large piece of jewelry and you were afraid of getting it dirty. This actually was our first choice if it wouldn’t have been for that. As I can get pretty picky when it comes to taking care of a car. The CXS was the last car we test drove. From then on, all we had to do was decide on what colors and options to get. We ended up with Black on Black, no sun roof or refrigerated seats. I never realised how much work it is to keep this car looking it’s best all the time. My wife wanted Black, so what are you going to do?

By: doctorv8

doctorv8 — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:18:01 +0000

The turning radius is largely a function of the fact that the Buick is front wheel drive with a transverse engine layout. Often this results in the front wheels not having the same range of rotation compared to your rear wheel drive Volvo. Also, the Buick’s track is wider than the Volvo. These factors have more effect on turning radius than the wheelbase.

As for visibility….it may be worse than your Volvo…but it could have been worse…at least you didn’t buy a new Lexus ES350 or Chrysler 300! No one can see out of those things.

By: rick la komy

rick la komy — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:09:57 +0000

UPDATE ON OUR CXS………….WE brought our CXS back to the Dealership, as they agreed to clean up any left over oil residue on and around the upper and lower crankcase gaskets so we can tell where and how much more it may or may not leak. Also the Factory Rep agreed to give us an extended warranty up to 75,000 miles or 5 years which ever occurs first on the entire drive train. They also assured me that the problem has been resolved and hope We will be back to purchase another Buick. Well we’ll see. I’m still getting lots of positive comments on this cars everywhere we go, I guess I’ll try to not be too harsh when mentioning those oil leaks, as it appears that the dealership is actually putting forth an honest effort on resolving this issue.

One thing that both my wife and I miss is the ability to make tight U-turns. I dont know if this CXS has a longer wheel base than previous car ( Volvo 740 GL with 240,000 miles) or what’s going on. We now drive out of our way occasionally just to get where we are going, as to back up and manuever around in this busy place is out of the question. And with the much less visibility from inside the car that we were used to, our driving and mirror adjustments to compensate for this have really changed.

By: doctorv8

doctorv8 — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 04:37:09 +0000

I’m glad you like your 200 HP Buick, Jakk. It was built for exactly your demographic.

Leave the cars with power to those of us that have anti-social needs to hit 100 mph in 8 seconds, and have the option to shift into 6th and cruise at 1700 rpm at 80 mph, getting 30 mpg on 93 octane….with pushrods too. ;-)

By: rick la komy

rick la komy — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 02:33:26 +0000

Well with our V/8 engine the RPM’s go up when you step on the gas pedal then all of a sudden the transmission will shift automatically and then the speed increases from 0 to 10 and 20 and 30 MPH and even more. I dont know about torque but my fuel economy changes all the time. I probably have a multi-speed transmission that really affects how fast I’m going. All this shifting and reving and torque is too modern for me. One good thing though, we can balance 2 nickels, six dimes and seventeen quarters on the tailpipes while at a stop light. Then when the light changes I’ll tell you it sounds like we hit the jackpot with all that change flying around.

By: doctorv8

doctorv8 — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:02:00 +0000

Why don’t you just actually hit the road, jakk, in one of these modern multi speed cars? They don’t go through all the gears unless you’re at WOT. I shift my 6 speed Corvette 1-3-5 in traffic, and that works perfectly until I need max acceleration.

People like you complained in the 1970s that we were just fine with 2 spd Powerglides and 3 spd Turbo Hydramatics….if you wanted good mileage, you ordered the freeway flyer 3.00 rear end, and if you were a drag racer, you got the 4.30 gears. Why do you need 4 gears in your new Buick when Grandpa’s 1968 Electra did just fine with less?

I’m not gonna start explaining to you about expoiting torque curves and why more gear ratios give you more flexibility. Just do what I mentioned at the top…go drive a new 6 or 7 speed Lexus, Benz or BMW, put your prejudices aside, look at the acceleration and fuel economy (both of which will exceed any current Buick in a comparably sized car) and get back to us.

By: doctorv8

doctorv8 — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 16:07:42 +0000

Where else? How about every Mercedes V6 (268 HP) and V8 (302-380 HP) having a 7 speed auto? Every 400/ 400 ft lb HP GTO, Cadillac CTS-V, Corvette, SSR has 6 speeds. Every 500 HPViper, 390 HP Supercharged 2003-04 Cobra Mustang, V8 Lexus, V8 BMW has 6 speeds…the list is endless. The New Lexus LS460 has a powerful 380 HP V8 and an EIGHT SPEED auto.

None of these cars are underpowered….in fact, they will all leave the Buick V6 and even V8 sucking wind. Could they get by with less gears? Yes….but performance and economy would suffer.

True, the rice burners can compensate for narrow powerbands with more gears, but my point is that even powerful cars need more gears to stay competitive with today’s market….if Buick engineers had the luxury of adding a 6 spd auto to their adequate motors, don’t you think they’d be salivating at the opportunity to do so?

And that’s DocV8 to you. ;-)

By: doctorv8

doctorv8 — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 21:22:10 +0000

So the 6 speed transmission in in my Z06 is only there to compensate for the 7 liter V8s lackluster 475 ft lbs of torque?

Ever heard of “performance” and “fuel economy”? You may wanna rethink your last post, Jakkk.

By: rick la komy

rick la komy — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 01:41:36 +0000

AN UPDATE ON OUR NEW CXS……………..Well, it was back to the dealership today with another 1000 plus miles. I met with the Service manager and the local area factory rep. That all so great Northstar engine is still weeping oil but according the rep, thats not a problem as it does not pose a threat to anyones life, so we’ll just let it go for now. OH, I get it now. It’s OK for the Dealership to jerry-rig the engine in our new CXS as long as nobody gets hurt, and as long as we paid cash for the car and the Dealership has our money whats the difference. This is so typical of GM, as this is not the first time we have been dooped by buying an American car. This car has drawn alot of attention and it appears that everyone I tell, yea it’s cool looking alright but it sure leaks alot of oil and I have some real good digital pictures of it and service records they can look at.

By: Sajeev Mehta

Sajeev Mehta — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 04:37:41 +0000

Actually you didn’t mention that OHV motors came out in the late 1940s (1949 Kettering V8) so technically the OHV motor is more modern than a OHC design.

WHAT ELSE YOU WANT IT TO DO?? CLEAN YOUR FILTHY HOUSE???

I want smooth power delivery.

As doctorv8 pointed out, what Buick has in an inherently unbalanced 90 degree design. Even with balance shafts, the 3.8L rumbles and buzzes.I like OHV rumble in a V8 muscle car, but in a new Buick sedan with two less cylinders?

No thanks. Give me OHC or a 60-degree OHV motor like the Ford Vulcan 3.0L.