ponchoman49

Instead of mucking about with the grille and taillights how about a nice chrome door molding on the luxury version at least and a better interior. Those two simple changes would make this car stand out a lot more than it does now.

When Toyota gets off there high horse, builds cars with decent styling and America starts putting on there glasses and laying off the crack pipes then maybe yes I will have something good to say about Toyo, but not before!

The cloth seat material that GM uses in the Malibu and G6 makes this and the new Optima look pretty good to me. At least it doesn't feel cheap and harsh and collect lint like a piece of cheap velchro. Also GM could learn a thing or 2 by studying the way Hyundai and Kia do there dashboards without resorting to lots of hard plastic, harsh grains and big slaps of plastic with nothing to break it up like in the new Impala and Lucerne on the passenger side. Sorry but the Sonota and new Optima positively kill the Malibu and G6 in interior materials, dashboard style and quality and interior room and comfort. And thats coming from somebody that isn't a fan of foreign makes!

So now the almighty Toyota is behind GM in only offering a 4 speed automatic in it's base versions while GM's Equinox and Torrent come std with a 5 speed automatic. And the Equinox/Torrent annihilate it in the looks department. Oh what a feeling!

The 03-06 Quest had an interior that was designed by a 5 year old and exterior styling designed by a blind man. Aside from the engine it has been a royal dud in the marketplace too. Even my uncle, who is a huge Nissan fan and a current owner of the older generation Quest, can't stand it.

The color looks hot, the car does not!

Looks better than the 07 Camry. Needs a bodyside door molding to break up the bland looking side of the vehicle.

Say what

At least it's hp and torque are acurately represented. And I have never been able to duplicate C&D's 0-60 times on any car I have driven, GM's included. They even admit to using calculations and formulas to derive the times to adjust for altitude, temperature and road surfaces etc.

Still more proof that styling is unimaginative and unoriginal. It makes it even worse that the sides of all these new cars are all going over to the naked unprotected side look which is so dull.

Can barely tell which interior belongs to which car.

If only that was a 1980 notchback 4 door Century, a far better looking car.

Actually the 1981-1985 Old 350 diesels produced 105 hp@3600 rpms and 205 lbs ft torque@1600 rpms. This 1981 Park Ave also could be ordered with the Buick built 4.1 liter 4bbl V6 with 125 hp and 205 torque or the Olds 307 4bbl V8 with 140 hp and 240 torque. Sadly the Buick built 5.7(350 cid) 4 bbl V8 was scratched after 1980. I have driven a few of these cars with the 4.1 V6 which litterally had NO passing power and the 307 which was just adequate but never a diesel version. That was from an era that make big stately looking cars with real interiors and colors other than dull boring gray or tan.

A 2.4 stick is a great idea here. I drove a 2.4 automatic sedan and was surprised at the power it had! It would make a great daily driver for the money. It had a sticker of $16990 and had a windshield price of $15699. Try getting a Camry or Accord brand new for that price. The stick would only improve the power and mileage.

Producing an AWD Monte Carlo sounds silly but it would make some sense on an Impala. Hopefully with the demise of the Grand Prix in it's current W-body form, Pontiac doesn't swallow more retard pills and call it a G8.

Reg, what is wrong with the Lucerne's seats. They are some of the best I have ever sat in and the cloth is very luxurious and high quality. I agree with the engine though. The sooner they toss out the 3800 the better in this car.

I looked very closely at an Azera and was for the most part impressed. It was light years nicer looking than the dull/bland odd duck Avalon with it's naked decontented doors and hideous way too light fake wood and silly silver door coverings. The 2 examples I checked out even had better interior fit and finish than the Toyota which had larger gaps in a few spots and one even had a crooked seam on the door. The Azera has a much nicer/flashier look to the side of the vehicle because they weren't cheap like Toyota in decontenting the moldings and chrome trim and I much prefer the look of the front and rear instead of Toyotas droopy/dopey look. It even has a bigger trunk than the Avalon. This car would be my second choice to the magnificent looking Lucerne.

Any A/G body 1978-1988 Cutlass or 1977-1985 Delta coupe, especially the older Holiday coupes. A modern example would be the second gen Aurora.

I wish Pontiac would give the option of an all tan or all gray interior with two-tone accents. The black steering wheel and dash look kind of cheap unless it's all black of course. The chrome surrounds added for 06 help make the interior look a little higher class for sure but that darn rear seatback needs way more padding to be taken seriously.

My buddy and I put a 87" full sized sofa in his same sized 01 Olds Silouette so it can't be all that small and the Buick with a 3900 and side curtain airbags is a pretty decent buy if you can get some money off the sticker. Hopefully GM has dealt with some of the 05 models quality issues. Other than an intake manifold gasket at 100K my buddys Olds has been pretty trouble free and it drives really nice.

As a guy who constantly is repairing things I can tell you that a lot of this made in China stuff is very cheaply made. Hello.. thats why it costs so much less. If they are trying to sell a car for half price then guess what...it's very cheaply made too! That means everything from window regulators to sound insulation to engine quality to body integrity etc is below standard and won't last. It won't take people long to figure this out.

Toyota Reports with it's yuppie appliance writers gets there much deserved bitch slap. Yeah!

I would like to see an entry level Epsilon II car prices below 20K maybe with the 3500 VVT and a normal helping of std features for the money. Call it a Century. Then have the same car available as a LaCrosse with more features and a std 3.6 DOHC engine and sportier handling. Keep the Lucerne and add the rear drive full size model called Invicta or whatever with std V8 power and top shelf luxury as Buick's flagship maybe replacing the Lucerne CXS version. With the dissapearance of the Ranier truck, maybe a 2 door coupe called Riviera also on the same rear drive chassis as the Invicta. The Enclave can be the crossover and take the place of the defunct Terazza and there you have it. Also for 07, lets kill and bury the tired 3800 engine, make the 3.6 std on the Lucerne with a 6 speed automatic trans, give the current LaCrosse the 3900 as std with the 287 hp 3.6 as the uplevel engine, clean up the exterior of the LaCrosse and make a sendoff special edition Terazza with 3900 motor and lots of emenities for a final 500 run.

Please tell me the lackluster 3800 and old 4 speed automatic aren't returning for 07. Please!