Introduction

The Buick Lucerne is a highly competent sedan with smooth, clean lines and driving manners to match. Underway, it's smooth and quiet, but with precise steering and a chassis that handles winding roads with aplomb. Inside, it's elegant, comfortable and easy. The Buick Lucerne comes in several models. The Lucerne CX is tuned as a traditional Buick, with the Premium Ride Suspension. The Lucerne CXL comes with a firmer Ride and Handling Suspension, and is positioned to compete with the Toyota Avalon and Lexus ES 350. We found it a very enjoyable car to drive, with agile handling and plenty of performance. A full-size, front-wheel-drive sedan, the Lucerne benefits from a larger, more powerful, and more efficient V6 for 2009. Horsepower is up 15 percent from 197 to 227; while fuel economy has improved from 16/25 mpg city/highway to 17/26. The Lucerne comes loaded with more standard features for 2009, including a Bluetooth hands-free phone interface. XM radio with NavTraffic is available. The V8-powered Lucerne Super, first introduced as a 2008 model, delivers even more performance for 2009, plus Magnetic Ride Control, an adaptive sports suspension developed for the Corvette. Advanced safety systems are available on all models. Side Blind Zone Alert uses radar to provide drivers with more information about vehicles in hard-to-see areas around the car. Lane Departure Warning uses a camera to warn drivers of inadvertent lane changes. StabiliTrak with Brake Assist is offered as well. Buick has a long history of innovative engineering, handsomely conservative styling, and premium luxury at below-premium prices. Lucerne follows these Buick traditions.

Walkaround

There is no mistaking the Lucerne for anything but a Buick. The Lucerne has a handsome appearance with a good stance thanks to its long wheelbase and wide track. The classic, Buick waterfall grille blends in well with the large integrated headlamps. The side profile, with its steeply raked windshield, is reminiscent of several recently introduced European sedans such as the VW Passat and Audi A6. The rear of the Lucerne features a high trunk line with nicely integrated tail lamps. Chrome trim is kept to a minimum. Beside the grille, the only stylistic link to Buicks of old is the row of small portholes on each of the front fenders. They are also the only clue to what's under the hood: the V6-powered CX and CXL get three portholes on each side while the V8-powered Super gets four on each side. Flashback to the Fifties, when more powerful Buicks had more holes. They didn't serve any real function then and do not today, but we still like them. The Lucerne Super is distinguished by a larger grille that cuts deeper into the front bumper and features fewer, thicker vertical bars. These grille bars turn sharply inward at the top, giving more definition to the waterfall effect. Below the new grille, the look is more familiar, with twin lower air intakes accentuated by chrome slashes that seem to point to the outboard foglights. The smaller main grille of the CX and CXL is finer in texture, and is now chrome on the CXL as well as the CX. The twin lower air intakes on these models hide behind horizontal grillwork cut into the lower bumper. The Buick Lucerne is built on the same platform as the Cadillac DTS and benefits from modern build techniques for a quiet luxury car. These include hydroformed frame rails for a stiffer body, and use of laminated steel with plenty of sound deadening material placed in strategic locations. Buick engineers shaped the outside of the door mirrors to lessen wind noise. These quiet-tuning efforts were evident in our test drives.

Interior Features

Lucerne's cabin is cleanly designed with just enough touches of wood and chrome trim to make it luxurious without being opulent. The dashboard is fairly traditional in design with a smallish instrument pod containing three round gauges in front of the steering wheel. The center stack is located high for easy access, and contains large knobs for operating the climate control and audio system. Bucket seats are standard, but buyers who want seating for six can order a traditional front bench seat. We found the bucket seats provide a good level of comfort and come with an armrest in the center console. Rear-seat passengers are well taken care of with good headroom and excellent leg room. Lucerne's long wheelbase allows for a wider-opening rear door with almost no intrusion from the wheel well, making it easy to get in and out of the car. OnStar with Turn-by-Turn service comes standard and allows customers to talk to a live advisor who downloads complete step-by-step directions to the vehicle through the OnStar system. Audio directions are then automatically played through the vehicle's stereo as they are needed, triggered by the OnStar system's GPS capabilities. Drivers can be directed to their destinations without having to take their hands from the wheel or eyes from the road. New OnStar eNav allows subscribers to find and save destinations on MapQuest.com, and have those destinations sent to their vehicle's OnStar system. A touch-screen navigation system is also available, giving the Lucerne driver the best of both worlds. New OnStar Destination Download enables OnStar subscribers with screen-based navigation to quickly input their destination via the press of a button; while new XM NavTraffic (available in 80 major North American markets) delivers real-time information about accidents, traffic backups, and road construction directly to the navigation screen. With or without navigation, all 2009 Lucernes come with an enhanced XM display that delivers more channel and artist information. Bluetooth comes standard on all models and enables true hands-free calling. It uses OnStar's voice recognition to dial phone numbers, conversations are played through the Lucerne's audio system.