rivieraranch

I noticed that there are a good many unsold Lacrosses on the GM BuyPower website, just over 40 here in Florida. They are mostly vehicles with goofy equipment packages that raise the MSRP without making the car worthwhile. An example of this is a CXS without the Gold Convenience Package but with sunroof, MP3 player, stabilitrack, etc. I thought they cleared all these out with their employee pricing scheme. How do they think they'll sell this orphaned inventory?

I noticed that they made the redemption allowance $2 Grand on both Lucerne and Lacrosse. This is a wise move.

Somebody is suing ipod, alleging that the product is inherently defective because if used as intended it can cause permanent hearing loss. If you don't care about your hearing read no further. Otherwise, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if one spends all day with an amplified source blaring high sound levels into the ear (or ears) from a headset, audiophile headphones, bluetooth, etc. that will cause gradual, permanent hearing loss. Add that to all the other noise everybody is subjected to. Think it over.

I think there will be enough interest in the car, but maybe "when the novelty wears off" would be a better way of putting it.

May God damn me for suggesting that GM offer incentives toward Lucerne. I saw 2 of them today; a 3-holer in silver parked outside my office and a burgundy CXS in traffic.

The only incentive on Lucerne now is a lousy GM interest rate program. Why a chimpanzee could don a suit of clothes and apply to a bank or credit union and beat the lousy finance rates GM is offering on Lucerne.

The automotive market here in Southeast Florida is saturated with lemming-like individuals who have allowed themselves to be deluded into believing that imports are superior to domestics. Consequently, it was no surprise to see that the Lucerne VIP night at the local Pontiac/Buick GMC dealer was lightly attended. I do not like this dealer, having had an extremely negative experience with the sales department approximately 13 months ago, and snafus with service work. The only reason I set foot there is because the dealership cleaned out the rotten apples that were spoiling the place, although I am uncertain whether buying from them would be different. We became fond of one of the salesman who works there; he sold us the Mercedes Benz wagon that my wife drives. Soon after the sale he left MB and this GM dealer hired him. However, if the front office is still populated by jerks, albiet different ones, I will never be able to buy from them. I am disappointed by the turnout at this event but it is not the dealer's fault, not totally GM's fault and no fault of the product. It is the consumer climate; people make automotive choices based upon the perceptions of others. Then the higher end pays for image . . . I will be one of the consumers who weighs each new product to see whether it is for me, regardless of what these idiots down here think. I, for one, strongly believe that the Lucerne will assure that Buick survives. The materials and design are far superior to the Lacrosse, as we compared the leather in both cars last night. The cashmere leather in the Lucerne looked and felt like soft butter; the leather in the Lacrosse was harder, although still stitched nicely. The Lucerne dash design was head and shoulders above the Lacrosse, althought the latter's dash was not objectionable. Obviously Buick has built further on the Lacrosse with Lucerne, and both cars almost completely fill the void left by the Century, Regal, LeSabre and (to a great extent, but not totally) the Park Avenue.

Poor Gas Mileage is the consistent complaint with regard to the CXS with the 3.6 if you read all the consumer comments in the Edmunds website. Even where the consumers do not specifically mention bad fuel economy in their discussion, they invariably rate fuel economy as a numeric value below what they rate the car for other categories.

I envision quite a few people going chrome aftermarket.

This is the dumbest decision that has been made with respect to the car.

I didn't check the sticker very carefully but I doubt it is an option.

Yes; Yes; Red & green (although nobody has a green one yet) The fabric I saw on the base model in cashmere with cashmere interior was very upscale looking. On the other Lucernes the vinyl, fabric and leather in the interior and the way it is stitched tightly together shows a lot of attention to detail. I think anybody who is curious about the car should spend some time at the dealers looking at it.

From seeing the inventory at a local Buick dealer I noticed that the base model has a chrome grille and the other 2 have shiny black grilles. This is ass backwards; the CXS, which has a chrome strip on the lower trunk edge, chrome exhausts, etc., is the one that should have the chrome grille, not the base model; what are these people thinking!

During a lull in work this afternoon I was nosing around a Buick Pontiac dealer in West Palm Beach. A CXL V-6 model was in the showroom. It was platinum with a gray interior, six person seating. To tell you the truth it did not look bad for a base model with leather, chrome wheels and driver confidence package. The seating is comfortable and the dash and interior looks a lot cleaner than what I am accustomed to. The body lines are interesting in person. The horizontal body crease just below the belt line flattens out, disppears, around the wheel wells. The creases in the hood flatten out and disappear as they go down toward the grille. I looked at a black Lucerne CXS that was outside. A salesman approached me and was very nice; he offered to take me for a test drive in it. It was as quiet as they are saying it is and it handled very nicely on steering and turns. The V-8 has a nice healthy roar and more than enough pickup. We drove on the back lot to see some others that had just been delivered. They had a CX in sandstone with cloth interior. It did not look bad. The car does look better with the 17" inch wheels in the CXL version. However, the base model has the chrome grille! The CXL and CXS have a black shiny grille.

It died down here (S.E. Fla.) roughly when disco died.

You're evaluating the car based upon an ebay listing? It looks much better in person than the deceptive snaps that the dealer's internet manager took. I agree that these dull perpetually dirty looking wheels are the pits. Better to reserve final judgment when you do see on in person.

[quote name='I hope GMRULES again' date='Nov 18 2005, 06:41 PM'] You can see Mr Aachen head on GM TV today,[ Wasn't that guy in the picture in "The Deer Hunter?"

You could support the argument that GM's neglect of the division caused Buick's problem. They do need a "halo' car though.

Finally it appears that these people get it: communicating their real message instead of using meaningless catchwords and slogans layered over with music.

Our salesman at Mercedes Benz told me (after he went back to a GM dealer) that when he came to work Monday Morning at the Benz place he saw the line of S classes at the service department and he would just cringe. . . . .

I doubt she drives herself anywhere.

That's why I think these red tag events are not good. A tough negotiator should be able to get a car for a few hundred over invoice anyway; with this event a good negotiator will have to pay (in the case of the Lacrosse mentioned above) a thou over invoice. This event is just to attract the lemmings that don't want to or don't know how to negotiate.

They need to die to be reborn. Some of the most successful companies have emerged from bankruptcy; remember this would be a reorganization, not a liquidation.

I'll be Lucerneing soon. JCP

[attachment=103:attachment] 36,000 miles and going strong.