"Pimp GM's Ride"

[wildcat]

The Flint Journal today posted an article titled "Pimp B) GM's Ride" to the website Mlive.com Everything Michigan. Included are some suggestions from various people on how to improve the exterior of the Buick LaCrosse.

[Brandon Lutz]

I keep saying give it the velite styling treatment. Velite Rear, Velite nose styling and body lines. Just make it fit the Lacrosse. Dont hack it up and make it ugly. Basically what I'm getting at is do what Caddy has done with Art and Science kinda base everything off of one car so there is a brand identity. The Velite was dead sexy and all the Buick cars need to look like it. If they did a lot more people would want one. Just my 2 cents. Buick's styling has been ho hum boring and bland now for almost 2 decades. The Velite's styling IMHO is the cure to that. Edited October 9, 2005 by Brandon Lutz

[wildcat]

Good idea, especially if the Velite is not to be produced.

Do you think it's too late to do anything with the 2000 Buick LaCrosse concept design? Is that dated or inappropriate now?

[mjdecker]

Good idea, especially if the Velite is not to be produced.

Do you think it's too late to do anything with the 2000 Buick LaCrosse concept design?  Is that dated or inappropriate now?

[post="26132"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

I love the LaCrosse concept's design (possibly more than the velite)..
I think maybe give it a refresh more toward the concept but with a grill more like the Velite

[caddycruiser]

In all seriousness, the one core design concept at Caddy has worked WONDERS, mainly because it's so unique (still), distinctive, and fitting of the caliber of vehicles it is applied to. Taking that into consideration, Buick, among others, BADLY needs a similar strategy to finally get rid of the mish-mash, blobby, droopy, okay, ugly, boring, dis-proportioned, etc. looks that always seem present on every new car they introduce. The Rendezvous, while not horrid, is certainly still quite ungainly and quite dorky unless outfitted in the right color and trim--but this is excused, I guess, because of the mechanicals GM had to work around (the pathetic minivans). HOPEFULLY, the new one won't suffer from such poor and ungainly proportions and strange stance, but we'll certainly see. Similarly, as was said, a perfect example is the Lacrosse--not offensive at all, but regardless of how mad it makes GM'ers to hear, it can easily be mistaken for a boring old rental fleet Taurus--just with standard fare DISGUSTING Buick design wheels and a few new chrome bits. And just like the Rendezvous, it too suffers from having to have its skin stretched over old, inflexible architecture, and looks downright weird from some views--like a nose that's too long and poorly meshes with the contours of the rest of the body, at least from certain angles. Again, HOPEFULLY, the next will fix this. And now we have the Lucerne. FINALLY, it does look like someone deep inside GM finally found a way to take an old platform and wrap decidely tasteful body lines around it that, shockingly, are actually PROPORTIONED CORRECTLY (imagine that...and from Buick :o ). The only problem is, this car too suffers, looking like everything was complete until someone said "Oh crap, we forgot the front"--having to do a quick and easy rush job and put a nose on the otherwise crisp body that seems to have taken the worst ques of other Buicks, most notably a too plain and blobby grille from the Terrazza, and headlights that are so indistinct and plain, they could have come from any one of a number of new trucks. Not a bad car, and certainly showing that they're getting somewhere, but it still could be BETTER. Taking the Velite look and maybe making it even a bit more crisp and finely tuned, and then PROPERLY applying its ambiance to every model (not just an awkward stretch or shrink job), would probably do wonders for Buick. Well that, and powertrains that actually matched their image....and weren't just basic Chevy pieces.... B)

[caddycruiser]

And another thing I touched on above, that would also help Buick:

HIRE SOME FREAKIN' NEW WHEEL DESIGNERS!!!!!

Above anything and everything else, one problem that seems to plague Buick more than any other automaker on the face of this earth is a decent looking line of cars riding around on wheel designs that just make you wonder why they even bothered. Perfect example:

These U-G-L-Y P.O.S.'s look like a BAD reincarnation of something from the 60's or 70's, something that was even ugly then:


Even if the cars had to stay passionless and poorly proportioned, a beautiful set of FACTORY wheels would GO a long way towards helping out the grandma brand's cars.

[Paolino]

Yeah, I do not like any of Buick's new wheel designs. Just not a fan.

[Paolino]

Also, 18's should be an option on the LaCrosse--the size gives the car a more muscular stance.

[caddycruiser]

Also, 18's should be an option on the LaCrosse--the size gives the car a more muscular stance.

[post="26476"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

EXACTLY. Remember the pre-production Lacrosse CXS they kept taking around to shows before real production that had the EXACT same 18 incher that will now be on the Lucerne CXS? That should still be the case, the silver and chrome version of that 18" on the CXS, and then the current CXS 17's put on the CX and CXL.

On a similar note, I'm yet again reminded by your sig pic of the Lucerne's one BIG flaw--it's homely, overly basic front fascia. Why, oh why, does such an overall beautiful car have to have such a bland, de-characterized nose... B)

[Paolino]

EXACTLY.  Remember the pre-production Lacrosse CXS they kept taking around to shows before real production that had the EXACT same 18 incher that will now be on the Lucerne CXS?  That should still be the case, the silver and chrome version of that 18" on the CXS, and then the current CXS 17's put on the CX and CXL.

On a similar note, I'm yet again reminded by your sig pic of the Lucerne's one BIG flaw--it's homely, overly basic front fascia.  Why, oh why, does such an overall beautiful car have to have such a bland, de-characterized nose... B)

[post="26481"][/post]

I keep hoping that Buick is just taking small steps to redefining it's look as to not lose customers. I feel the Lucerne is more aggressive, bolder, and a step in the right direction. The next Buick will have an even edgier look (So I hope!)

As for the chromed out wheels, every time I look at them, they remind me of a mid-90's SC400's wheels:

[Cananopie]

The LaCrosse isn't a bad car for what it's trying to accomplish but other members from Cheers and Gears have given me some good ideas of what I'd like to see from Buick as well as a few thoughts of my own.

The first thing is distinction. This is what I mean:









All fairly new General Motors vehicles... all 4 cars have extremely similar looking lights... sure- the cobalt and the G6 share a much more similar design to eachother and the LaCrosse and the Grand Prix share a more similar design. Generally- same size and close enough to the same shape.

Next- look at how the whole back end is in all 4 vehicles. Underneath the lights on all 4 is the similar smooth drop off to the bumper and in all 4 there is a harsh 90 degree angle at the lip of the trunk. They don't even TRY to make the back ends of these new vehicles dissimilar anymore. I don't know how to change the Pontiac or the Chevy, I'm not as big of a fan of them but someone here on C&G said Buick should have long thin horizontal lights that cut across the trunk. The LeSabre, Regal, Century, and PA lights were too bulbous and looking dated- thinning them out would give Buick a very new, unique, and totally individualized style- EVEN if the trunk lip looked the same as all the rest of the GM vehicles (even though they should change that too) but GM has a problem with cutting the sheetmetal even SLIGHTLY different for the LaCrosse and Grand Prix- and that is just going to hurt sales. Period.

Why does GM insist on that stupid GM badge when things like this are GM badge enough?


The second thing- power. Even with no design changes on the LaCrosse if they would've dropped in a more powerful upper-end engine Motor Trend, Car and Driver, every car critic would automatically drop the LaCrosse as "another mediocre grandpa vehicle from Buick" to "The essence of the Grand National" or "This isn't what your Grandpa was buying 5 years ago." I'm not saying Buick needs to be irrationally powerful and I understand Pontiac, Chevy, Cadillac, and Saturn deserve powerful vehicles as well... but right now is the time for BUICK to have a powerful vehicle in a class it leads in. This doesn't have to be the LaCrosse but the fastest way to drop a Grandpa image is to make sure the top line of all your vehicles goes 0-60 in 6 seconds or less. But Buick DOES deserve a vehicle, whether it be the LaCrosse (which I don't think it should be) the Lucerne, or a future coupe/convertible that has power that isn't ECLIPSED not just by EVERY other GM company, but ANY other GM company for its class. Buick needs a powerful vehicle for GM, and it doesn't have to steal the thunder of the GTO or the Corvette or the CTS-V or the Sky or any other vehicle- but give SOMETHING to Buick and let all the magazines and reviewers say "Wow, Buick has a FAST car"

If Buick had a style that looked Buick (look at the Velite, Bengal, LaCrosse concept, these are all ways Buick should've gone and never did) with at least 1 car with extraordinary HP and torque Buick would be more than in the game. and BECAUSE of BUICK doing this Pontiac would get more distinction too and they already have the powerful vehicle. This is what GM needs, not just Buick.

What Buick has down is reliability, quality build, and very good base vehicles and these need to stay with the changes in Buick. The interior quality has been upped but two-toned interiors are exactly what Buick needs as well. Allow a loud interior every once and a while- like black seats and wheel, white everything else, the blue and taupe on the Lucerne's a start, but why can't it be REAL blue and white? That would be classy. And something people would talk about- not everyone would like it but not everyone likes Buick now and now they're just boring.

Also Buick should have a couple loud exterior colors too. Not 6 different shades of gray but a solid blue, or red, or maybe even green. One that catches peoples eyes- Buicks used to do that and other car companies still do it- it's not dated nor is it untraditional to Buick- so do it.

Granted none of those things are about pimping out the LaCrosse specifically... but they're improvements that GM can do to pimp out Buick- as the guy said in there- they don't know what people want.

Edited October 10, 2005 by Cananopie

[Paolino]

What's funny, but actually more sad, is that on the road from a distance, I can't tell the difference between a G6 and the Cobalt. I am VERY good at telling what a car is based on it's taillights, even a mile down the road, but these two are nearly identical! I agree with what you say Cananopie, Buick needs distinctive horizontal lights.

[wildcat]

I'd be all for the return of the full-width taillamp, a former Buick styling cue. In fact, just recently I saw a description of the 1966 Buick Electra and, according to this information, it had the "widest" taillight ever made. (Each of the Electras, '65-'68, were full-width.)

[Cananopie]

What bothers me is not that the tail lights stopped being horizontal but that the tail lights stopped being horizontal BECAUSE GM wants to save costs. If they wanted to try a new styling that's fine- but because the sheetmetal can be used for the Grand Prix or the LaCrosse without a thing being done to it- that will only hurt GM sales. Didn't they realize this when they uniformed all the engines?

[Paolino]

What also annoys me is that the LaCrosse taillamps have like 3 circular parts to them... 1 is the actual light, and two are reflective surfaces. You think they would have done SOMETHING to make it stand apart from the others, like maybe making one of the reflective circles a directional lamp separate from the brakelight. Whatever.