2010 Buick LaCrosse
Buick’s 2010 LaCrosse -- a near-luxury, mid-size-to-large sedan -- was built to put the cross-hairs on a single bogie, the Lexus ES350, and I’ll tell you right now, it blows the Lexus out of the sky. Pow. Parachute. Smoking crater. --Dan Neil (Jeff Amlotte / Los Angeles Times)
Born in a blizzard of pink slips and a tsunami of tears, the LaCrosse -- the first new car launched by GM since it emerged from bankruptcy -- has to be more than on par with some middling Lexus. It has to be fantastic. --Dan Neil (Jeff Amlotte / Los Angeles Times)
There are moments that the cabin, with its Aqua Velva-blue ambient lighting, thick chrome instrument bezels, luminous LCD screens and spread of glowing buttons, looks like the flight deck of some drug-addled dirigible. --Dan Neil (Jeff Amlotte / Los Angeles Times)
The LaCrosse has an insanely fussed-over interior. Example: The dash material is synthetic leather but its French stitched with real thread. --Dan Neil (Jeff Amlotte / Los Angeles Times)
In the cabin, the two-tone materials are bisected by a lyric bow of ambient lighting and wood grain that plays into the doors, looks great, especially at night. --Dan Neil (Jeff Amlotte / Los Angeles Times)
No corners are gracelessly cut here -- no ugly cover plates, no exposed fastener buttons and the barest minimum of seams. --Dan Neil (Jeff Amlotte / Los Angeles Times)
The exterior styling is really strong -- masculine, well planted, with a lovely roof arch -- in every direction but the front. I can’t quite fathom the headlight design, which looks like Dame Edna’s spectacles. --Dan Neil (Jeff Amlotte / Los Angeles Times)
