Croc

I've always liked short decklids--fastbacks are actually one of my favorite body styles. I also love the side sculpting...this is some serious surface sculpting that pushes the envelope. GREAT JOB GM!!

Wasn't the point of the quad coupe to improve rear seat access? GM developed the seats for the Lambdas, why not use a very similar design?

Stunning.

Yea, this is absolutely stunning. Well done, Buick!

WOW!! BEAUTIFUL!

OK...the profile looks crisper in the second batch of photos, and overall I don't dislike it quite as much...but that's a halfhearted compliment. What is going on with the rear? It looks droopy, yet the "spoiler" is pretty pointy. The taillamps are not flush with the decklid, and overall it just has a very busy, cobbled-together look. Boo. The greenhouse chrome is odd. The door sill chrome extends further than the arcing chrome from the greenhouse. These should line up. Agreed on the hood cutline. It should be lower, lining up with the top edge of the headlamps. As it is, it just looks awkward. I really wanted to like this, but unless this is just bad GM photography, I'm really not impressed.

Looks good!

Oh, I know...but if any car could pull off side vents, it would be the Vette. The biggest problem with them (in general) is they look tacked-on. With the Vette, the side vents already have been made into an element of profile styling...blinging them out with some brushed aluminum or satin nickel or whatever, making them more rectangular, etc, would fit in just fine.

The bolded part is patently false. I get compliments on the interior all the time, and this is 2008...8 years old and the interior still gets complimented regularly. Fit and finish isn't perfect, but the overall design is nice. There's some flair to it. And no, it definitely was not dumbed down for the blue hairs. In fact, my favorite aspects of it are the ones that differ strongly from the GM orthodoxy. The cruise control on its own stalk, wipers on their own stalk, the climate control interface is great...my only gripe about any aspect of the interface is that the backlighting is slowly going out, and replacing it is not easy.

But let's be honest here: all high-end navigation/radio units have the same features: AM/FM, CD(/Tape!), DVD, MP3, aux-in, treble, bass, balance, surround sound, programmable stations, RDS, navigation, etc. So how is it the SRX can cram all these features into a better layout? The touch screen. Using radio favorites on the touch screen instead of using the phone number pad (Europe) to store radio favorites (USA) like the M-B. My father has the SRX touchscreen radio setup in his DTS. Same general unit. It really is user-friendly. And it has a LOT of functions.

Well, the SRX has a touch screen for many of its controls, whereas the MB has labels on the screen, but you have to press the teeny tiny buttons off to the sides. Also, it's the grouping of buttons. The 2001 M-Class has non-radio/entertainment functions placed right next to the radio. The SRX unit does not. By maintaining some logic to the button placement, and placing similar/related functions together, with similar/related functions having similar shapes/textures...it goes a long way. The 01 M was, as I said, an interface that even after 6 years I don't have it all down. And don't get me started on the "sized, shaped, feel-alike" buttons on the center console that control such widely-varying functions as door locks, defog, and seat heaters, and child lock. All feel exactly the same; you must look down to know what's going on. 3 years as a daily driver 24/7/365, then 3 years as a daily driver during most of December, and then May-August. Trust me, I'm very familiar with that pile. And to further make my point, my Aurora has more features and frustrates me far less with its interface. Exactly. Cadillac, and therefore GM, often receive praise on the ergonomics of their interiors. GM also came in first on "best nav system interface" on some website I saw a couple weeks ago. Edmunds has said the interface in the SRX was the best they've ever used for infotainment systems. It's just so stupid to throw that away on a button frenzy. I also fail to see how it's "designed" if the "design" is row upon row of identical/near-identical buttons in an approximate grid. There's nothing creative about that.

If that's what it was, then it's been a long time coming. He was so irritated with certain posters, but he never really did anything about it, aside from a few pranks here and there. Keeping all that inside for so long maybe just caused hm to up and leave.

Yea, and to whom? C'mon...you know what I'm getting at...

Going by current styling trends, I think the most radical one could see is the elimination of the frontmost swoop on the profile. It was added for the C5, and modified for the C6. Given that styling is going towards more minimalist, purposeful lines, the swoopyness of the profile might seem slightly dated. Having a flatter beltline for the front half of the car could lead to an interesting evolution and allow the designers some creativity in blinging out the side vents, since that seems to be another trend. I'd also expect the C7 to feature a hardtop option.

HAHAHA!! Too funny!

I drove my M-Class for 6 years and still had to take an undue amount of time away from the road to push the correct button for a function. When you have a sea of buttons, all sized and shaped alike, you're really not going to get it sorted out and "learned" like if you had groups of similar functioning buttons sized and shaped differently in a logical manner. For example: BAD: BETTER: BEST:

uhhhh... Source: American Heritage Dictionary

The Corvette has such an iconic shape that any revolutionary styling changes at this point would likely cause a massive sales drop. Like people have preconceived notions of what a Camaro or GTO should look like, the Corvette has the same following.

Quoting oneself is generally tacky. It isn't about the number of buttons, but rather the layout, size and placement of the buttons. A well-designed radio has been known to rocket a car to the top of consumer consideration because it's user-friendly. Complicated setups are the bane of the owner's existence, day in and day out. Why? EVERYONE uses the radio. It's too bad, because GM generally makes some of the best radios in the business. Their nav interface has won accolades in the press for its visual appeal and ease-of-use. My only consolation is that GM usually outfits cars with different radios for different regions. Hopefully that will be the case here.

Good luck! So how are you handling your current property in Laguna?

We need a revival of the LX5, stat.

Invicta all the way.

The other thing that gets me is that the front looks so Buick...like how is the Lacrosse front end going to look much different?

That's an idea... They SHOULD be driven...my prom night involved binge drinking and almost blacking out, so they should not be behind the wheel of any car...

Very disappointing. The rear looks especially tired. GM needs to redesign the rear decklid to remove the cheap plastic license plate insert and smoked reverse lamps. Those looked cheap in 2003 on the CTS and they look glaringly cheap on the XLR. The interior refresh sounds more promising, but overall this is a disappointment. I actually think it looks cheaper than it did before, overall.