regfootball

yes. the only epsilon HF car i've driven is the aura, and that 3.6 has nuts. but i do know its a thirsty engine. absolutely this is a comparison between v6's. now, using edmunds user reviews as a guide....what i see across the several cars with the 3.9 is that it really doesn't get great mpg. however, out of all the cars that HAVE the 3.9....the Lucerne is among the better. The 3.5 in the Impala is the mpg champ since the 3.8 was put away. The Lucerne gets a bit less with the 3.9 than the 3.8. However, I have never really liked the 3.8. And to be honest the flex fuel option Intrigues me. There is 5+ E85 pumps in town here where i live and the state corn growers association office is here. The only reason flex fuel intrigues me is because lets say your tank is empty but you just want to put in a couple gallons to get you through til payday. You can save a couple bucks, keep your miles down for a little, and then go back to reg gas as needed.

perhaps you best be figuring out how to glue Buick badges on them now. lol

who has the Astra? stick or auto?

my dad just sold his 92 seville, that thing was a tank, too. almost twenty years old, and yeah it wasn't new but GM at least put plenty of solid sheetmetal in those large cars. i should mention that part of what makes the Lucerne pricing good right now for Saturn or Pontiac owners is that its an extra 2 grand as opposed to 1 grand on the malibu, and of course, not everyone is a saturn or pontiac owner either. to be honest, even 2 grand in my opinion is not much considering they shut down the brand. how about 5 grand? now that's showing appreciation. 2 grand won't barely pay sales tax on the lucerne.

i like the Malibu. but its merely a competent light duty midsize. at the price its at, its a good buy. as far as the Lucerne, its generally been overpriced in the MSRP department however, it looks like it might be a good incentivized value at the end of its run. and like the mid-late nineties GM large cars and cars like the DTS etc. it will still feel like a tank 10 years from now.

the altima was a CVT. to its credit (4 cyl), the car had balls, the tranny was responsive and really didn't give away that it was a CVT, and its NVH was pretty good actually. it was just dull. of course, the idea, the Lucerne NVH i would assume would be much better in cabin quiet. by long haul, i mean say a 500 mile trip. could you count on it to touch 30 or at least consistently match the 27? I know the northstar will get the 27 if not closer to 30. in my estimation, as far as interior, Buick should have invested in an instrument panel redo for the Lucerne. The door panels are actually pretty good (even if the wood is fake). Lucerne's leather is quite good. LaCrosse leather and plastic to be kind is mediocre for its class.

obviously the deal. but a lucerne vs. a typical midsize....

what i like to hear. my Altima rental was a 2.5 and at 75-80 mph could only muster the same 27 mpg over close to 900 miles. I would love to know what typical long haul mpg on the 3.9 is.

by the way the back seat is huge on them. i knew they were cavernous, but the seating itself is quite plush compared to any midsizer. I think Buick should redo the front end in the style of the new Jaguar sedans and that would be a nice look on the Lucerne sheetmetal.

the hp and torque numbers are decent. I didn't realize they were that good. I don't know which motor is flex fuel. i might be testing one for research tonight. if not tonight, soon. my angle on this is that if you compare basic line Lucernes to v6 Malibus when factoring incentives, there is not much difference! Obviously the price of the Lucerne goes nuts with a few options. But my premise is that the Lucerne seems to hold its value extremely well on the used market. Buying one at a great price, you might actually have a car worth something when you are done with it. A Malibu is a good car but is in a class of car that generally is a disposable car on the market, and the values don't stay up quite as much. The Lucerne too is a very solid car. All the mid sizers have that slightly flimsy feel to them.

Curious to know, what is the current future status of the Lucerne? I'll be honest I have never really been interested in one before but big incentives on them lately have led me to look into them and it seems like a good buy? Just want to know, is 2010 the last year, or 2011? The 3.9 is new for 2009. ANyone have any experience driving the Lucerne with this powertrain? Decent power? I knows its still the 4 speed........ Will the v8 be discontinued? I think I have seen a few SUpers still on the lots. RIght now with my status as a Pontiac owner, and with my GM card, i can get a new 09 holdover Lucerne CX for 19 and change, and compared with a Malibu, considering resale, its something i may consider.

MT makes a lot of mistakes like that. they rush everything to print and never bother making sure its right.

i think the focus of the 6 is fuzzy in the consumers mind now. the last 6 had a rep as a performer. but the new one is bigger and doesn't have any buzz as being a performance car. in fact, the new 6 has no buzz. i don't think people even know the new 6 is out, or it hasn't registered...i think their marketing for the launch didn't reach anyone! the old 6 was unique in that it was a little smaller. now they went big. they used to focus on manuals and had the speed6. now you can only get the stick on the 4, and there is no speed 6 yet. the new car is both attractive and anonymous at the same time. a new grille would help (no, not the fugly one of the 3). the new 6's interior is a little mundane too. again, the new 3's interior catches your eye. this new 6 has velour on the seats....wth? its almost to me as if Mazda tried to make the new 6 some sort of Altima. and the Altima is really well defined in the consumers mind already.. There is not really room for an 'Altima 2'. And its always going to be second fiddle to Accord no matter what. And Camry buyers won't really cross shop Mazdas much I don't think. And Subie has the AWD card now and is doing big as well too. AWD is still 'the big thing' on a Subaru. For me, I really kind of want to test drive a Mazda 6 now that its new but its styling while new really makes me yawn. I really would almost prefer an Altima to the Mazda 6. Mazda needs to develop some facet about this new 6 that makes it a difference maker. For me, i would really be interested in the 5 door hatch version of it.

yeah, 304 mazda miata buyers can't be wrong. and they can't bring lots of sales volume either. the nichey market of the early '00's has really done a 180. methinks any company that is way too fragmented and not strong in volume segments might be in a bit of a pickle the next few years.....and now that ford has cut them almost entirely loose.......

well, think. they probably have interns in charge of their press releases because they likely don't have enough cash flow as an entity in the US to hire real full time people with credentials to do it. Or if they do, they probably are not of the savvy as say TOYOTA's PR department...LOL

It's weird, but Mazda has a marketing problem. Sometimes we have heard them referred to as the 'Japanese Pontiac'. I wonder if the popular 'zoom zoom' image tends to limit their esteem to a more mainstream group of buyers (i.e. brain dead consumer reports followers, also I do not think Mazda registers with women, etc.). Mazda also has the problem of not only competing with 'all the other brands' but I bet people would only 'perceive' them to be 4th or 5th at best in pecking order of all the Japanese brands.....think about it, where does Mazda fall? -Honda -Lexus -Toyota -Infiniti -Acura -Nissan -Subaru as decent as Mazdas are, remember that car buyers practice extreme racial prejudice when shopping. 'Japanese cars are good'. But it hurts Mazda because they then sort out all the Japanese makes and Mazda...even though they are as good as Honda and Toyota on a lot of stuff....tends to get put down the list. I don't think cars like the Mazda3 help grow a wide age demographic either. At least the Civic gets SOME older folks besides the Fast Furious or video game charged teens. In fact, the popularity of the Mazda3 with the utes could potentially make Mazda a big turn off to other groups of buyers. Again, to use Pontiac as an example.

Toyota does lie though. It's possible they are lying about their sales figures.

By mid April it will be over 3.00. Last crash, 3.50 was the back breaker point for larger car sales.

neither car has a very good interior considering the price. the buick's is a nice design but the leather and plastic are really cheap.

amusing how much the Fit is down. I thought the Fit was going to save the world for small cars everywhere! there is an ultimate limit to small cars in this country as far as the market. Fiesta, Aveo, Spark, Mazda 2 beware. Essentially the Fit drop is somewhat offset by Insight sales. So Honda didn't really create new buyers. Seems more like the fuel sippin crowd upped on the Insight instead of more Fits. That, or the fad is dying down. Everyone who thought the Fit would save the day has one now and I'm guessing that sales will be flat on those now unless they drop the price.

43 quests....LMAO all the versas? WHY? ( i know our enterprise rents them a lot ) i don't get the popularity of the Maxima. too each their own though.

any way you slice it though, ford clearly is on a positive track.

me too. no 'best evahs'?

this is quite puzzling, but kudos i guess. I guess how do explain avenger and sebring sales rises? possibly that in Feb 09 they had not fleeted any and now they are back to it? The Journey and Caravan / TC are not near as big a percent rise. I think the AWD for free and increased AWD production helps them move more Chargers and 300's. Good cars, they needed to make the adjustment and get more AWD ones out there.

VW should be concerned that their sales are so Jetta heavy. But VW wants to double their sales. I am sure they will do so by flooding the market, devaluing it, and watering it down for the masses (i.e. next Jetta) i guess you could say the bright side of that is the Routan almost sold as well as the GTI and therefore validates their watering down the market approach. You can say their attempts at diversifying have some positive aspects. Not rippin on the Routan, BTW....that is my favorite minivan. actually a little disheartened at the sales slide of the CC. The CC is a fantastic sedan. Perhaps they just need to adjust the pricing to keep the momentum.