ponchoman49

First of all the 3800 is not as smooth as silk. I have owned everything from 1985 Park Aves to 1998 Grand Prixs, a 2000 Lesabre and Impala and have driven 2005 LaCrosses and all sorts of 90's H-bodies and such. These engines are pretty smooth and quiet in the big cars but are downright noisy and harsh sounding in the smaller cars. The LaCrosse was the only exception. It was about the same as my full sized LeSabre. However even my LeSabre had a throb when first started in the morning and didn't always idle smoothly. These engines aren't even in the same ballpark as a Camry V6 or even dare I say it a Duretec Taurus when installed in the W-bodies. They have loud sounding exhausts and are raspy when revved. After they get some miles on them they whine like a blender with bad bearings. My 98 Prix, 00 Impala and LeSabre all did this with over 50K. They all also ate intake manifolds and all but the LeSabre leaked oil out of the pan and used over a quart of oil every 1000 miles when they got up to 100K. Don't get me wrong these are indeed reliable motors but are not the mythical perfect motors that some make them out to be. As far as the Lucerne goes GM should be ashamed offering this engine is series III format with less power in a heavier car. Yes the Lucerne weights almost 400 lbs more than the LeSabre and has the same lazy 2.86:1 gears. This is for sure not going to be a quick or satisfying car in V6 form.

The cloth interior cars I looked at were already showing signs of being dirty from people getting in and out of the driver's seat, especially the super light tan. I never noticed this with any of my older cars which had much darker colors that hide normal day to day wear. Yes obviously they have gear position indicators up above or you wouldn't know what gear you were in at all. Most every other car made except for Chevys new cost cutting full sizers have gear position indicators in both places, even a cheap Cobalt. I said it didn't show what gear you were in on the floor shifter part which makes it look cheap. My 00 Impala and my buddies 01 Impala LS both had major troubles with the keyless entry systems. One day they would work and the next nothing. It's a good thing they had inside release buttons and key holes in the trunk to unlock it. Batteries do go dead in these newer cars on occasion. I see cores sitting outside of local oil and tire change shops all the time. I would hate to be the person with one of these new cost cutter cars with no way to open my trunk if the battery crapped out. These are all things that car companies are doing to cut the cost of making a car. Glove box lights are gone. Cigarette lighters are history. No underhood lights. No keyhole in the passenger door if the driver's side ever failed and you didn't have your keyless fob you would be calling AAA just to get in your vehicle. Bodyside moldings are dissapearing off some really expensive makes and it shows the momment these cars are let loose in a mall or store parking lot with dings everywhere. These are all minor annoyances that you may not notice or care about. That is until one day one of these deleted conveniences would come in very handy for that ride you are paying huge monthly payments on!

The GP's rear seat is an atrocity! With the front seat back more than half way there is little room left. The seat almost touches the floor leaving no room for toes. The afterthought add-on cupholder is just passable. The seatback is painfully hard and there is no fold down center armrest as in the Impala/LaCrosse. The lower cusion makes you feel like your sitting on the floor and even with this my head still touches the ceiling. Pontiac should be ashamed of themselves on this one and be condemed to a month locked up in the back seat of this car with 2 fellow engineers. :rolleyes:

I have looked at quite a few 06 Impalas including base LS, LT, LT-2, LT-3, LTZ and SS. A few thought on what I liked and didn't like. The styling is more refined than before except in the rear where I find it rather bland. LT-2 models should come with lighted visor mirrors. Any base 00-05 model with 1SB package has lighted mirrors. The lower portion of the dash looks and feels cheesy and cheap. The lower end models with cloth interiors have colors that are way too light and will show dirt in the first few weeks of ownership. It's amusing that floorshifter models don't show what gear your in but a Cobalt does. It's also amazing that a Cobalt for 15K has a key hole in the decklid to open the trunk manually but a 31K Impala SS doesn't have this. Very annoying when your looking at these cars at the dealerships with batteries disables and you can't look at the trunk. Other quibbles include indifferent quality control on several cars I looked at including an LS with a poor fitting dash end cover where the fuses used to go and an SS with bodyside moldings that didn't line up quite right. Also how did GM manage to lose back legroom from the previous version and also drop it's once class leading 32 highway rating to 31? This new engine is supposed to be more efficient than the outgoing 1996 designed 3400. It still uses the same old 4T65 tranny and lazy 2.86:1 gears so the decease is weird. Before I get hyped up about this car some of those defficiencys will have to be rectified.

Proof if any were needed that Japan can't style cars or interiors to save there life!

I'll believe it when we are shown an actual preproduction car and not a second before that GM is actually going to make a Camaro again.

WOW just think! By the time i'm ready to retire GM may bring back some rear drive cars like the Camaro or Caprice or even a rear drive Buick sedan. I want these cars now not in 10 years.

It looks like a Tonka toy!

Actually if the LeSabre has leather it must have the Best Seller package which includes driver infomation center, traction control, alloys, lighted visor mirrors and better speakers. There is also a Leather and Comfort group, a leather and Sound group and a Leather and wheels group which has 16" chrome alloys. If the LeSabre has the Touring package I would go with that cause it gives you 3.05:1 gears instead of 2.86:1 and better suspension with 16" tires. I had a 2000 LeSabre with this suspension and loved the car overall. My only 2 dissapointment were lack of rear seat map pockets and a center fold down armrest, something the LaCrosse has in all models.

G6 is so dumb and meaningless. And it sounds so silly with the words V6 or GT after it in one sentence. This stupid new fad GM has with renaming all it's cars is going to go down as one of the bigger blunders of the new Millenium.

I have been wondering whats going on with the Monte. Here it is Sept 4th and there is no sign of it at all. And no one seems to know when it will arrive. It probably does have something to do with Nascar regulations. Because the 06 Monte interior is really just the 00-05 interior with a splash of silver here and there and the new Impalas guages and floor shifter I really doubt that wood will be offered with the tan.

I agree 100% about the MC crest. Can't believe they deleted that. I would also like to see those horrid SS rims go. And judging by almost every used 05 MC with door dings galore a friggin bodyside molding is a must on a 2 door coupe with those long doors. I mean how cheap can they be? And why no wood interior trim? This is a personal LUXURY coupe after all. :rolleyes:

Where is Toyota when other companies are offering aid to Katrina? Busy finding more ways to help the ailing GM and Ford cause they care so much! Maybe they are going to raise there prices again. Or maybe lower there already grossly overrated power output on some engines. Maybe they will even admit that some of there engines sludge up if you wait to change your oil at 3001 miles instead of the traditional 3000. Oh what a feeling! :o

I rented a base CX with std buckets and floor shifter and optional alloy wheels and came away with mixed feelings about the car. It's as if Buick only half tried on this one. My 02 Intrigue drives so much better in every way. The Lax's steering feels twitchy and weird. It's handling is so so and the light colored gray plain looking seats just didn't seem Buick. The frontal styling is too Hyundai and the whole car looks more like the 90-96 version of the Regal to me than a new car. My biggest complaint was the tried and true 3800. It felt sluggish and unresponsive at times and the electronic throttle control made it feel jerky when you did floor it. It would barely break the tires loose on gravel and it still sounds gruffer than my 3.5 Shortstar which will litterally blow this car off the face of the earth and gets better mileage to boot. One area where the Buick did beat my car was in interior quality. Everything opens and closes very precisely and the fit and finish is light years better in most respects. It's the whole driving experience that turned me off a bit. Can't wait to try out a CXS which should fix the engine problem and seat color with it's ebony leather. It's handling also should be an improvement. It's just amazing that I would have to step into a 32K CXS just to get handling and steering like my base Olds that was designed in 1998.

My 00-05 gen Impalas had terrific rear seat legroom. The new 06 seems to have slightly less for some reason but it still is far better than the LaCrosse and Grand Prix. The interior plastics are somewhat improved over the last gen also. They are right about in line with the price point with this car. Overall it's a good value.

I just remember reading in one of the periodicals that the Lax was phasing out the 3800 during 2007 and using the 3900 V6 along with the Grand Prix. Also they said the Ranier was done after 2006 and the Terraza was being phased out after 2007. The Rendevous is slated for Lamda and some sort of rear drive full size patterened from the upcoming Aussie full size is due by 2008. Sounds like Buick killed one too many cars off at one time. Why they couldn't keep the Park Ave for one more year until the Lucerne gears up is weird. Even more odd is why they find it necessary to rename there entire car lineup. They even used up 2 names for one car in the case of the LaCrosse\Allure when Regal would have been just fine since the Lax is just a warmed over version of that same car. If I was to asked for a better 2007 Buick lineup it would look like this: 1)A return of a lower priced W-body with the old Century name and just the basics like a 211hp 3500 only engine, no std power seat, no side air bags and a bench seat for around $19995. Limit options to a package with power seat, ABS, side air bags, remote start and a trip computer and a few stand alone ones like alloy wheels and a telescoping wheel so price doesn't go above 24k or so. 2) LaCrosse with std 3900 V6. Upper CXS model uses a 255 hp version of the 3.6. Restyle the front end to look less like a Hyundai. Darked the seat colors as they get dirty real quick and somehow squease an extra inch or so of rear legroom. Introduce 6 speed automatic on the top CXS model. 3) Ditch the gruff lower output 3800 on the Lucerne and give it a 3.6 std. Start off base prices right in line with the Avalon. Pair the upper CXS model with 6 speed auto trans. Have a base model with cloth seats and a lower price. 4) Bring out a full sized rear drive Buick with a 5.7 liter V8 ASAP! Don't care if it's Aussie based or not just give it Buick styling and quality interior. Keep price in line with 300C and hp levels that exceed it. 5) Redo the Rendevous on upcoming Lamda platform and give it 3500 211hp V6 and 255 hp 3.6 DOHC. 6) Drop Ranier, it's just not needed with all the other T360's out there. 7) Keep Terazza and give it 3900 as the only mill. Pair it to 4 speed auto as std and make the top model with the 6 speed auto and better gears for more satisfying power. Put glove box light in and make dash door less cheap feeling. Also ditch those horrid seat inserts on the base model and give it traditional cloth material. 8) Bring back the Riviera coupe with exciting new styling and a V8 and quiet tuning. Utilise the Same rear drive chassis as the full sized sedan. Price in the low 30K range. I know some of this is a pipe dream but it would go a long way in fleshing out Buicks current weak lineup.