2008 Buick Lucerne Review

Specifications

Not that I was ever there, but Buick’s Lucerne offers a pretty good
viewpoint to the brand’s heritage a few decades back, a four-wheeled ticket
down memory lane to the good ‘ol days of North American motoring. Call
it an opened door to the past if you like.

It’s
pretty amazing what’s happened to the Buick lineup over the past few
years. Its offerings are half of what they were prior to 2005, but this
is by no means a shadow of what the brand used to be. Before the price
of gas spiked, Buick shed its Terraza minivan and Trailblazer-based
Rainier, and gone too was the Rendezvous crossover. Not that I harbor any ill
will against them, but good riddance - they merely weighed down Buick’s
lineup with product. Collectively, their appeal can’t touch that of
their replacement, the excellent Enclave.

Buick’s
other two cars are the Allure and Lucerne. The Allure is the oldest
product in the Buick portfolio, dating back to 2004 (though, arguably,
it is one of the freshest as it’s been updated for ‘08 with a
facelift). The other vehicle, and the subject of this test, is the
Lucerne, the successor to the grand Park Avenue sedan. The Lucerne
rides on a platform that was developed just prior to the widespread
application of platforms named after Greek letters (the new large RWD
platform named “Zeta”, specifically). Both it and Cadillac’s DTS sedan
ride on the same G-Body platform, and are produced at the Hamtramck,
Detroit assembly plant. They’re large, spacious and designed for
comfort - two peas in a pod.

Unlike
Chrysler’s 300 or the recently revived Lincoln split grille, Buick
doesn’t really have any distinctive or noteworthy styling
characteristics, perhaps other than its waterfall grille and the fender-mounted Ventiports. That
said, this hasn’t stopped GM from producing a nicely styled,
well-proportioned vehicle. It doesn’t look anywhere near as long as a
DTS despite being fairly close in length, and it neither appears as bulky
or slab-sided. It’s also less garish than that aforementioned 300, and
has more flow that the dome-like shape of the Taurus. I mean, I
appreciate the DTS’ Art & Science styling as it’s a very unique
approach, but I think the Lucerne’s more classic European-influenced lines have greater appeal to the general
public.

Much the same applies to the
interior of the Lucerne. It’s conservatively styled and fairly nicely
appointed, but it isn’t going to land any two-page spreads in an
interior design magazine. The controls are simple and easy to figure
out, not to mention they’re very familiar. Because it is Buick’s
flagship sedan, you’ll find a few nice touches; the quality of the
materials used is better than that of the Allure with a softer finish
on the grained areas of the dash, while the door panels have a nice
stitched trimming. If space is what you’re after, the Lucerne has
plenty of it, in front and in back. Though it’s not quite at the top of
its class, you’ll be hard pressed to want more. Low door sills mean
that there’s good visibility too. Although the Lucerne isn’t a
performance vehicle, I firmly believe that GM could instantly improve
things by offering seats with more lateral support. They’re about was
wide and as flat as Kansas, and surprisingly, there’s no lumbar
support, manual or power. But, you can get them heated and/or
ventilated, which is a nice, premium touch. So is the availability of a
heated wood-rimmed steering wheel. In true full-size American tradition, you can get a Lucerne equipped with a front bench too.


In
fact, if you’re a bit surprised to hear about ventilated seats in a
Buick sedan, you’ll be happy to know that you can get the
Lucerne with quite a few unexpected high-end options. For instance, it
can be had with radar-based blind-spot cameras, which keep tabs on
what’s around you but not in your direct line of sight, and, it has a
lane departure warning system. Sounds like the kind of stuff you’d likely see on a high-end Infiniti or Volvo, but these items are available straight across
the board on all Lucernes, and not just as an option on the most
expensive models.

The easiest way to
tell what’s under the hood of a Lucerne is to look at its fenders, not
its exhaust pipes. Three chrome-lined holes mean it’s a V6-powered
car, and four mean that it’s got an extra two cylinders helping out.
The engine is a General Motors classic, the Series III 3800 V6 (a
la Grand Prix), which makes 197 horsepower. It isn’t necessarily new,
but it does the job, using its reserves of torque to effortlessly waft
along. With Quiet Tuning, you don’t really hear the growly nature of
the 3800, except if you’re on the outside. And, considering that its
227 lb-ft of torque is developed at fairly low revs, the Lucerne moves
along well enough that most won’t be bothered with a need for more.


After
the V6, it’s a big step up to V8 power. You go from the old Series III
3800 engine (a la Grand Prix), to the high-end, technologically
advanced 4.6-liter DOHC Northstar V8 engine that rates just shy of 300
horsepower in the new for ‘08 Super
model, which heats things up with a more performance-biased ride and
handling setup. In previous years this engine was offered in the CXS model with 275 horsepower, but now the Super makes 292. This is the same engine that you’ll find under the hood of the
DTS, but it’s rated a little lower in the horsepower count. The Super
package also includes a slightly elongated and pointy grille. For the glory of the cylinder count, it’s Super or
nothing. If you want the old 275 horsepower V8, it’s solely reserved for the CXL Special Edition. And yes, the CXL Special Edition can also be had with the V6, just in case you want all the luxury without any penalty on the fuel bill.

I am a bit surprised to see
that there isn’t a little something to bridge the gap between the two
engines; GM’s 3.6-liter high-feature V6 engine, as found in the
mid-range Allure and a whole host of other GM products would be a good
fit here. In fact, if it were me that were planning things out, I’d
make it the standard engine, as it would allow the entry level model to
compete evenly against its rivals, such as the Avalon, Maxima and even
the Taurus, which all put out figures in the 260+ horsepower range. The
fact that there isn’t going to be a fourth-generation version of the 3800,
due to emissions control, means that the 3.6 is probably going to take
its place anyway.

I will say from the
outset, the Lucerne is not a car designed for speed, but for comfort.
If you like cars that feel like they’re hovering on a cloud of air,
then the Lucerne should be right up your alley. Similar comments apply
to the steering; having gotten out of a Jaguar XF prior to my drive,
it feels unusually light. This tuning works well at low speeds; just
twirl your finger and the wheel quickly responds, but at higher
speeds the steering conveys your intentions to the road in an odd
manner. You end up sawing through what would otherwise be constant
radius corners, correcting your action. This is a trait I’ve noticed in
a couple of bigger GM cars, so it’s something that its target buyers
must be used to. The ride quality is nothing short of plush, eating up
the bigger bumps with ease, and what’s more is that the car is library-quiet.
It’s exactly what you’d expect of a Buick, and nothing less. Though
this tester didn’t have it, the Lucerne is offered with Magnetic Ride,
which uses the same magnetorheological suspension (magnetically charged
particles suspended in a damping fluid) as in the DTS and other Cadillacs, not to mention the Corvette. StabiliTrak is an option on
all V6-equipped Lucernes, and is standard when you step up to models
with V8 power.

With North American buyers
shifting into smaller and smaller vehicles, you might not think that
there’s much of a bright future for big Buicks, but you don’t need to
look too far down the road to see that plans are well in place. What
might surprise you even more is where they’re coming from - China. Just
a month ago, across the pacific, GM’s international design studios came
up with the Invicta, a stunning looking Buick that’s embraced the
brand’s heritage, but has instilled it with international tastes and
cutting edge components, the sort of things that Buick needs to keep it
pertinent in the coming years.

Specifications (Buick Lucerne CXL):