<![CDATA[Jalopnik: Lucerne]]> http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jalopnik.com.png <![CDATA[Jalopnik: Lucerne]]> http://jalopnik.com/tag/lucerne http://jalopnik.com/tag/lucerne <![CDATA[2011 Buick Lucerne With Rear-Wheel Drive Is Not Dead Yet]]> Automakers are gnashing their teeth over how to deal with the second malaise era looming over us like an 800 lb gorilla with a stolen banana. The General's combatting the murky fog by playing switcheroo with some of its product plans — specifically plans for rear-wheel drive. Originally, the 2011 Buick Lucerne was to shift to rear-wheel drive, in an attempt to move Buick slightly out of stodgy territory and into crotchety. Speculation's been that the plan was nixed due to all the doom and gloom lately, but it seems that may be less than true as we're now hearing the next Lucerne's rear-wheel plans are still quite "Fred." As in not-yet-dead. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=394938&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[GM To Idle Hamtramck Assembly Due To American Axle Strike]]> Reuters is reporting General Motors will be idling its Hamtramck Assembly plant on Monday as a result of the ongoing strike at American Axle. The Detroit area plant currently builds the Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne and joins 30 other plants affected by the parts shortages. Though shuttering plants is never good news, the situation will allow General Motors to reduce their bloated vehicle inventories. We're wondering if it's time for embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to join the American Axle picket line, so the media mob following him actually bothers covering a real story. [Reuters] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=373424&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[2008 Buick Lucerne Super Is 2007 CXS with 17 More Horses And Priced At $39,395]]> When Buick's latest version of its big Lucerne sedan hits dealerships in April, it will no longer be called CXS but instead "Super," following in the footsteps of little brother LaCrosse, which received a similar designation last year. According to GM, the Lucerne Super will be priced just south of $40K. The main difference between the old CXS and the new Super is under the hood: the CXS Northstar V8 put out 275 hp, while the Super Northstar V8 does 292 hp. Of course, this is a little like... oh, I dunno, touting your 2005 Cabernet over the '04 because you're at 15 percent alcohol by volume, rather than 14.5. Then calling it "Special Reserve" instead of just "Reserve." Thus, Lucerne Super. But so what? More grousing and the GM press release, after the jump. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=352363&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Report: China Remakes Buick In Buick's Own Image]]> It's no secret China has become the most compelling reason to keep a candle burning for the Buick brand. The superpower-in-training is now Buick's top market, evidenced by the Rivera concept that debuted at the Shanghai auto show earlier this year. Now, Automotive News reports China's influence may feed back into the US market by decade's end. The first Chinese-designed Buick to debut in the states could hit in 2009. That is, the next Excelle, a small, entry-luxury sedan to ride on GM's new rear-wheel-drive Alpha architecture (similar to the Pontiac Solstice's Kappa platform) that'll reportedly host the next Cadillac BLS for Europe. [Note: AN says it's a front-drive platform; not sure what they're smoking]. The next-gen LaCrosse sedan will follow on the Epsilon 2 platform in front- and all-wheel-drive versions, and the next Lucerne in 2011, which will be built on Holden's Zeta platform like the Pontiac G8. That car will be similar to the Park Avenue, recently introduced in China. Does the Chinese market know American cars better than we do? Watch this space. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=283766&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[New York Auto Show Preview: Buick Reintroduces "Super" Designation, Reveals Super-Duper LaCrosse And Lucerne]]> For 2008, the brand that even the General's vice-chairman wonders whether they got to in time, is going retro. The company's reintroducing the "Super" designation from the early 1950s. "Super," not to be confused with its hetero-life-mate, "Duper" was the umm...actually we're not sure what it used to be...as near as we can remember and as near as we can tell from the releases, Buick's "Super designation was:
"The name Super, evoking the glamour and elegance of rail travel of the late '30s, harks back to a time when America was on the upswing, having weathered the trials of the Great Depression, but had not seen the horrors of a second world war that was on the horizon."
That's certainly uplifting. Whatever it was, with a new 300-hp V8 affecting a 0-60 time of 5.7 seconds, it's clear "Super" will be the high-performance designation for the Buick brand. It remains to be seen whether these newly designated whips and their power-to-the-front wheels orientation will live up to the fantastic naming scheme or whether "NHP" at the end of the Northstar name on the engine means "No Hoonage Potential." Gallery of both the new-for-2008 LaCrosse and Lucerne below, press release below the jump. – Ray Wert More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=247381&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[A Very Special Buick: GM's Oldster Division Looks to Yesteryear for a Modern Spark]]> While Mr. Wert attends some manner of press event at the Buick Home for the Aged, the Detroit News maps the crossroads at which the GM brand finds itself. How will the Buick brass navigate the "damaged" brand (said Bob Lutz) to a more prosperous future? One way is by resurrecting the "Super" tag that once denoted early postwar high-performance. Super models, built between 1940 and 1958, included the Buick Super, the Buick Super Riviera, and the Buick Super Convertible. They were a favorite of city chicks in hunter's caps and the turtlenecked, cardigan-wearing accountants who once took them ice skating in the Catskills (see above). More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=245874&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Broken: Buick Just Sold More Cars in China than in the United States of America]]> The old man used to go on and on about the glory of Grandpa Loverman's 1953 Buick Roadmaster. It was beautifully styled, possessed a powerful straight-eight, had advanced features like... wait for it... power door-locks! Best of all, it was called the frickin' Roadmaster! Car names don't get better than that. Neither, really, do cars. Today's Buicks on the other hand, in the words of Car Tzar Bob Lutz, are damaged. Even if the new rides (like the Outlook Enclave) do manage to follow in the mighty footsteps of their noble ancestor (they don't), they will still have lousy names. Lucerne is reminiscent of dairy products and LaCrosse is only interesting if you recall Jim Brown's college days when he lettered in lacrosse at Syracuse. I won't ruin it for you, but the NFL great enjoyed chasing rich white guys around with a stick. Even so, Jim Brown would never drive a LaCrosse. However, another dominant American athlete, Tiger Woods, would be happy to. My point? I just hope Mr. Woods is aware what they do with tiger dongs in China. – Jonny Lieberman More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=223384&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[LA Auto Show: Buick Lucerne Chop Job]]> While the sliced right down the middle Ford GT at SEMA a while back was certainly interesting, the braintrust at Buick evidently has super sawing ability. Buick sliced up this Lucerne into six parts and encased it in plexiglass to give potential buyers an inside look into all the swell features of this fine and luxurious automobile. Of course magnetic suspension, heated windshield wiper fluid, and those heated-and-cooled seats won't do you a damn bit of good if your car is cut up into six freaking pieces! Perhaps the remote starting system somehow fuses the Lucerne back together for road going amusement. – Mike Bumbeck More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=218712&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Pimp My Lucerne: Buick Bringing Trick Sedans to SEMA]]> Buick is so gangstah it doesn't even know how gangstah it is. Or does it? According to hip-hop digest Brand Week, Buick is having 11 Lucerne models customized by various manner of street mod shops, with a plan to unveil the cars at the SEMA show in Las Vegas later this month. Urban car culture juggernaut DUB has already created a version of the Lucerne to match its existing DUB Edition Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Cadillac Escalade. Brand Week connects the dots in Buick's strategy between Japan's "VIP style" of decked-out luxury cars — preferred by the Yakuza mafia — and American urban culture's fascination of late with sedans. Not that grandpa even cares what the kids are doing: He's driving a minivan. – Mike Spinelli More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=205491&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Mehta Says Meh: The Truth About the Buick Lucerne CXS]]> Honestly, while we were at this year's North American International Auto Show, we would see Lucernes as part of GM's hospitality fleet while out catching frostbite and giving ourselves cancer (stupid cigarettes) and mostly just thought, "Wow, what a Passat-like rump." And then, while up in Sacto for Easter, again outside giving ourselves cancer, we spent some time walking around a family friend's recently purchased Lucerne and thought, "What the hell have they done to the brand which provided our friend Peet with his '72 Electra Land Yacht that looked so bitchen with an Obituary sticker on the bumper? The brand the provided us with what our ridiculously pretty friend Sarah called, 'Dave's Fresh Riiiiiide?' We swear, portholes or no, Buick's brand DNA, much like Luca Brasi, sleeps with the fishes." TTAC's Sajeev Mehta agrees. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=182506&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Insurance Institute Hits Them From the Side; Resulting Headlines Top List of Most Obvious]]> The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety apparently likes it like we do — releasing the results over the weekend of the 2006 side impact crashworthiness (we didn't even make that word up!) tests, and now we're treated to 75 articles in papers across the country all saying "Study: Side Air Bags Improve Safety." Well — umm — yeah, that's true, and thank you Associated Press for your hard work in making it clear to the whole world it's better to smack your head into a pillowy cushion of air than a piece of hard industra-plasti-vinyl with metal underneath. Geez. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=181709&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[DUB Pimps a Buick]]> Old-school suckers to the side! It appears DUB magazine thinks the Buick Lucerne could be the next Chrysler 300C, considering they've applied the time-honored DUBification process to one of Buick's new ships. The DUB edition Lucerne has the typical black paint, 20-something" rims and an AV setup that'd make a middle-school geek spit his retainer. It'll be shown this summer around the country, at only the most "down" golf communities. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=166119&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Buick Lucerne to Get Major Ad Push]]> Buick's newest hopeful, the Lucerne — the Swissified replacement for the Le Sabre — will suck up 20% of the GM brand's first-quarter ad budget for 2006, or $9 million, according to AutoWeek. It'll even get an endorsement from Tiger Woods (don't be so impressed, they're paying him). The company is going heavy in an attempt to gain sales traction for the pivotal new model, considering the relatively weak showing of its smaller Lacrosse sibling. Buick has also dropped Aerosmith's "Dream On" from its ads. A new slogan, "Beyond Precision," which experts say promises to boost wiggle room by approximately 18%, will dominate Buick's newest messaging. More »
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