Paolino

Not digging the new face. Upset they left the TGIFridays/Outbacks "your-table-is-ready" buzzer LED taillamps. Very upset they left the interior the way they did. Smartphone holders, good. The ridges in the dual cockpit look... no. The plood, no. Power improvements, good. Fuel economy, good... although I'm surprised with start/stop tech, they still didn't get higher from the city. And now the Malibu turbo has more torque than the 2014 Regal GS? Bad. EDIT: ... unless the numbers they gave for the 2014 Regal Turbo/GS were premature and it'll be like the Malibu, 259/295 instead of what they said originally for the Regal, 259/260.

Love the interior update. HATE the exterior update.

I wish I could see a cashmere interior with woodgrain. Wonder if this will get ambient lighting as well (as far as I know, the current doesn't have it). LOVE the update, inside and out.

I have a question... if plood is plastic wood, what would you call the sprayed on wood-looking paint that was on the door switch panels in my 1994 Century? Underneath it was metal. Spray Wood? Sprood? Edit: Maybe it was a decal...

I don't really care much for the LaX update. HATE the wheels. Prefer the current taillamps/chrome. Think the headlights are almost too gaudy from the refresh. Awaiting interior pics.

Hey 'blu, been a very rough year. I'm here surviving. Hoping to get into the Verano soon as well

I saw my first Encore on the road last week. Thought it looked horrendous.

I never liked the new spindle grille and the "F-sport" thing is old already.

Unless there is only one engine, like the G37 has just the V6. They could do the Q50 with the V6 for example, then the IPL trim has more power. Or maybe they do regular and turbo, like Sonata or Verano turbo options but same model name. So you have a Q50 and Q50 turbo. The G also has the 2.5L 4-cylinder....

After putting about 1,500 miles on the Lucerne in the past week... I have some additional notes I'd like to add to my original review. They're not good. 2006 Buick Lucerne CXL, 3800 V6, 4A, 93,700 miles Pros: Quiet ride Very comfy seats Rainsense Fuel economy (new) Cons: Ridiculously shallow, almost useless cupholders Almost no storage cubbies in the car Brakes (I'll explain later) Material quality Seats (little support) 3800 passing power Okay, for the positives: The ride is quiet... holding a conversation is easy and pleasant. The only sound that grates on your nerves is the unrefined 3800 which is not getting any smoother with age. The seats really do feel like you're sitting on a pillow. Rainsense, with the intermittent torrential downpours, was a huge pleasure. Now, hold onto something when you read this... how is it possible (yet I did the math myself), I got 36.4mpg highway with 3 adults and a full trunk of luggage?! We filled up once on our way down (but barely touched that new tank of gas), and I believe it was about 650 miles one way. I feel like part of that was from only turning at 2,100rpms while going 80mph. Negatives... Seriously, you can't put two cups next to each other without them touching each other and pushing against each other outwards. The cupholders are very shallow, so cornering caused them to spill a few times. Storage... where is it? You have the glove box (which is small), the center armrest and the extremely shallow, almost pointless, pockets on the door, that whatever you put in there tends to fall out when opening/closing. Brakes... what exactly happened with them? By the end of the ride there, they were extremely rough, caused excessive vibration through the cabin/steering wheel, and they scraped loudly (not like they needed to be cleaned, but more like you were sanding them with very coarse sandpaper... you know, a real "premium" sound to hear). Apparently, according to my parents this happens whenever they take the car through any sort of hilly/small mountain driving. By the end of the week, the brakes returned to normal by themselves. WTF? The material quality in the car is just so subpar for the class. I know I picked on it before, but seriously, I feel like it was just barely a step above the early 2000 Buick's. Step inside the "newer" Buicks and you wouldn't even believe they are the same brand (thank God). The seats, while they are comfortable, provide almost no support to keep you in the seat when you're driving on turns in hills/mountains. And although they eventually put in the 3900 and there was the option of the Northstar, the 3800 really did feel winded when it came time to pass cars or play catchup when you're already doing 65 and need to hit 80, or if you needed to gain a bit of speed while going up a gentle grade. That's the update. The car is showing its age. It's not a horrible car, it's just no longer the great boulevard cruiser I originally thought it was.

So, basically someone could own a Q50 and have either the big engine or small engine, and they can't boast about it with a model code... I mean, people know the main difference between a SL500 and an SL600. Same car basically, but we know the latter comes with a bigger engine and probably more tech. A lot of people who buy luxury cars like to boast... Infiniti's new naming scheme won't allow that.

I'll be putting several hundreds of miles on the Lucerne starting Saturday. I'll let you know my updated impressions after spending a good deal of time with it again.

Wow... wow. Just stupid. So everyone who wants to proudly say they're buying a G sedan or coupe now has to call it a Q and have every non-car fanatic say, "Q what?"

With numbers like 197/191... and the specs of the 3800 SIII in the LaX being 200/230... that's not really so darn close. Props to GM for recognizing the problem and actually doing something about it quickly. Hopefully they will seriously address the areas of concern. Next gen though must go on a diet. Can't play the mpg game with the big boys until you drop the pounds.

That Dodge interior is AWESOME! Not digging the "new" Chevy/GMC...

What do you think about the gray plastic moulding on the bottom of the Encore?

I won't lie, I kind-of like the idea of the Buick "David". I think something like that done right could really keep Buick's momentum going and drop the average buyer age even further. I'm dying to see what they do to the revised LaCrosse--it's a winner already--hopefully they won't screw it up!

I know it's a small detail, but I can't believe they didn't replace the old key/fob with the new one all other Buicks use.

Love this car. Haven't read a bad review on it. Until I can afford a LaCrosse, this will have to do. And as a daily commuter, I think I'll be happy.

Not to sound like a Debbie Downer, but how many times do we get our hopes up for something like this that's so far away, and then you get something lackluster? True, the ATS is loved by critics, but we're talking about the 2014 Auto Show... that's quite a bit of time away.

Update the tri-shield. Put back the color but don't make it a flat color. I don't think they can deviate too far from the current without causing some confusion amongst people who are finally starting to look at Buick.

Very true... my friend had a 99 turbo-four eclipse manual and that thing was a joy to drive. It was the first manual I ever drove.

They did nothing to make the Galant relevant with the current market... the eclipse was stuck with odd looks and again, not much that was competitive. I don't understand why they just "gave up" it seems.

The refresh seems nice... but I wonder why they couldn't update the steering wheel to the one used in the new sedans?

It's amusing because when I looked at this thread, I saw "Im-Paula" and I was thinking, "Who on earth would ever pronounce it like that?!" Then I read another comment on it depends on the region, and I realized being a New Yawker, people probably aren't saying "Im-Pawluh" like my brain is thinking...