Buick LaCrosse

dispencer1 · July 2005

Our local dealer sold a lot of Centurys this year and LaCrosses are doing well too. I had a 1997as well as a 2000 LeSabre and there was a light year of difference between the 1997/99 and the 2000. They drove differently, the interior was totally different, and the body was totally different. The frame may have been the same - I don't know, but Buick called it all new at the time.
The perception that old people buy Buicks is totally true. The statistics in the dealer books bear this out. The median age buyer of a Century was 70 . Buick targets the LaCrosse for a buyer 55 which will probably be the case. Regal buyers were 64. I assume that LeSabre buyers without checking was about 60. Most of us over 60 went through a number of car "phases". I had Jags, Audis,big Chryslers, Cadillacs, small Japanese cars, sports cars, and so on. I finally decided that my life does not revolve around cars. We own a real estate business (I'm not a realtor -my wife is the broker and we have 14 agents), we like to travel, we are building a house, and have five grandchildren. I have a 2000 V6 Mustang red convertible I fool around with and put in shows but the other cars are designed all for a specific purpose. The Avalanche is the company truck, I have a Deville for road trips, and have a 2001 Malibu to run around town in. I'll replace that with a LaCrosse this winter. Bottom line is that each vehicle has to meet a specific criteria. If I had to pick the best all around car that does virtually everything, it would be a LeSabre. If I had to have only one car that is what it would be. I could care less about the demographics of other owners. It doesn't matter to me in the least whether the cars I buy are driven by yuppies or geezers. If it does what I need for it to do I'll buy it. Why spend $80,000 for a MB 7 series to impress the neighbors when it doesn't serve any more of a purpose than a LeSabre or LaCrosse and isn't as big as my Deville (a "certified" '03 I bought in Jan. '04 for $27k)
Some of us have reached the point- financially and age-wise where we don't have to prove a prove a point by the cars we drive. We just drive what is comfortable and meets our specific needs.

pat · July 2005

away from our subject, which is the LaCrosse ... not the demographics nor the history of Buick purchasers ...

Thanks.

dispencer1 · July 2005

Buick is trying to reduce the median age of buyers of its cars and LaCrosse is the first of the new sedans. I think that demographics has a lot to do with appeal since a lot of buyers steer away from vehicles that are only purchased by "old" people. I agree that this is a LaCrosse forum but there always seems to be cross-comparisons between Centurys and LeSabres for some reason. Anytime we get in a discussion about a particular GM car the thread seems to gravitate to GM's financial troubles, what it ought to do to get fixed and so on. All I was doing was pointing out some of the reasons why people choose LaCrosses, LeSabres, and other Buick sedans . They are the cars that seem to do everything well and lots of purchasers have to buy a car that meets specific criteria, not what is currently fashionable or popular with car writers.

pat · July 2005

Understood, but the discussions on the News & Views board are where the philosophical discussions of all things Buick belong.

Indeed, this discussion is about the LaCrosse.

Thanks.

imidazol97 · July 2005

I saw a smaller Mercedes that looked like a LaCrosse on Saturday around town. The front had similarities; then the rear had the same shape to the taillight group as the LaCrosse. Later in the day I saw a convertible with the same appearance to the taillights. Nice similarity although LaCrosse has a much better repair record than Mercedes.

vanman1 · July 2005

You are dead on. I don't care if people have BMW on the hood of their car. I never did care much and I do even less now. Buick offers big bang for the buck with the LaCrosse. All the luxury and space I would need for a reasonable price. At 36, I could help Buick bring down it's average buyer age also. Still another 3-4 years till I will buy a car again though.

dispencer1 · July 2005

I may look around for a used '05 LaCrosse in January rather than losing money on a new '06. When you look at the list of standard equipment for the CXL you would get a fully equipped car regardless whether it is an ex-rental or a lease return. Rentals rarely have any optional equipment so it is important to chose a model of car that has the proper level of standard equipment. The CX doesn't but the CXL does.

1487 · July 2005

Gm will extend the warranty on 2006 Buicks and make onstar standard. I am thinking the Lacrosse's price will be dropped by $1500-$2000. I just priced a fully loaded 2006 CTS and it is about 5K cheaper than a 2005. I expect the same thing will be true with the lacrosse. If you look at the impala's pricing you would think Buick will make some adjustments to the lacrosse. an '06 Impala LTZ with 17s, remote start, leather, power seats and Bose can be had for less than $27K.

dispencer1 · July 2005

Buyers of the LaCrosse who are considering XM satellite radio should be aware of the fact that although there are no commercials there are a number of announcements and commentary concerning the songs . It is NOT nonstop music. It is sort of like a radio station without the commercials. I had it briefly on a Toyota that I drove for a month and got rid of. I will not get it again on anything -I'd just as soon play CDs with no commentary.

rwisem · July 2005

Depends on your personal preferences whether XM is worth it or not. My wife is a news junkie and loves the ability to listen to CNN, etc in the car. I'm a music lover and can play my whole collection without talk from my ipod with an FM modulator. I listen to XM radio to get turned on to new music artists and the info provided is invaluable to me. I hate the way commercial radio will play a song and not tell you the name or artist most of the time.

dispencer1 · July 2005

Well, you will be certainly be able to hear the name of the artist and song title with XM radio. I agree that the news is important but frankly I'm tired of all these monthly options - OnStar -agreed that it would be important if the air bag went off but I've had my Cadillac for a year and a half and have NEVER used On-Star. XM Radio is another monthly cost of dubious (to me) usefullness. I certainly won't bother with it again on a LaCrosse or anything else.

dispencer1 · July 2005

You know, I've been thinking about gas mileage again with gas prices going up to $2.24 here in New Mexico. I'll probably scrub the LaCrosse plan and get a Honda Civic EX coupe. I drove one the other day - it obviously isn't a mid size car but rides smoother than an Accord coupe and is rated at 38 on the road and is 31 in town. It also is $18k and has lots of standard equipment. The good old 3800 does well on the highway but is no great shakes around town. I doubt that gas prices are going to come down anytime soon.

vanman1 · July 2005

How do you go from a LaCrosse to a little Civc compact?? They aren't even close to being in the same league. :confuse:

monts · July 2005

I just bought a Buick le sabre 1997 ltd. Ofcourse it runs great. And for a change, I am under 30

.
I wanted to know how long lasting are Buick engines. I have 85k miles on it and the rate at whcih I drive, it will be near 92k by the end of year. Am wondering how long do Buicks (1997) go before they start coming up with repairs every now and then.

Monts.

mrrogers · July 2005

Buick 3800 engines last a long time. I see used ones on the web for sale with 200,000 miles. Of course they love clean fresh oil and a good oil filter. Some people overlook the transmission fluid and filter, but I have heard that the engines as so good that the transmission is sometimes the first major thing to go. Enjoy your car!

62vetteefp · July 2005

pretty dead here but here is some data to chew on.
May June
LaCrosse 6000 10600
Grand Prix 9600 9500
300M 13000 11500
Ford 500 8900 8600
ES330 6000 6000
TL 7000 6200

LaCrosse is sizzling. The employee pricing seems to have made quite a difference. Bet for '06 GM reduces the price like they keep saying. 300M is starting to drop off. May be due to folks finding the laCrosse pricing to good to pass up.

Also if you add up the Grand Prix and LaCrosse sales you can see that the plant is running at capacity if the sales continue at this level. Of course sales will fall off when the pricing stops. Then again, when there are more out there folks will see them and might keep the sales going.

imidazol97 · July 2005

>300M is starting to drop off.

maybe the ugly or unusual car buyer market has been saturated -- depending on your point of view. A lot of drivers in 300s that I see seem to watch to see if they're getting attention or not. I keep remembering all the unusual, earth-changing designs out of Chrysler through the decades--wonder how many months this one will last before taste catches up.

vanman1 · July 2005

The 300 is getting tired to look at for sure. I think it's a good car but like any retro styled car it's time comes and goes. I don't think sales dropped off, it's more that LaCrosse sales shot up from employee pricing.

1487 · July 2005

I wouldnt say the lacrosse's sales are sizzling but they are improving. I dont think it's going to do much better than 8000-9000 units a month withou big programs. They did not drop the '06 pricing and I dont know why. If they had reduced the price of the lacrosse by about 2 grand the car would continue to be successful. As I said before the Impala's pricing makes the Lacrosse look bad. Granted the Lacrosse CXS has some features not found on the impala LTZ like automatic dual zone and stabilitrak but they arent enough to justify the price difference.

I do think it's interesting to note with the discount pricing the lacrosse's sales are close to that of the 300.

vanman1 · July 2005

The 06 does add equipment though like standard ABS and head curtain SABs

fredvh · July 2005

Where are you gentlemen getting the price and equipment information on the 2006 LaCrosse?
When will the 2006s be in the showrooms?

rda27ne · July 2005

Just curious what other Lacrosse CXS owners, 3.6 VVT engine, are averaging for fuel economy on the highway. At 70 mph I turn around 2200 rpm and avg 26 - 27 mpg.

bigdaddycoats · July 2005

cars.com

jmw4 · July 2005

I show about the same range, 25 - 27 mpg. Have owned the car for 5 months now and after 4000 miles it has been problem free and a joy to drive.

exalteddragon1 · August 2005

will get standard ABS on the entire range,
and standard side curtain airbags aswell!

ITS ABOUT TIME GM!

this with the longer warrenty defenetley will help raise buicks image.

Here is the info

vanman1 · August 2005

All Buicks should have ABS, SABs and OnStar standard. I think alloys also, plastic wheels cheapen the cars. Buicks should not be glorified Chevys.

lacrossecxs · August 2005

:lemon:
Afraid to say that while there have been multiple attempts at resolving the problems with the leaking doors, the car is still FAR from fixed to factory standards. Only bought it in March of 05, but since it's been in for service on 10 occasions for a total of 24 days. The dealerships have replaced door seals, adjusted the doors, bondo was applied. Then Buick shipped a new pair of factory doors which also leaked. They re aligned the doors, and still needed to bondo the second set of doors to make the water stop infiltrating the cabin. Then it took another visit to the body shop to get the doors to line up visually. Now the car finally does not leak, and the doors do line up visually. However, there is a lot of wind noise, and the doors feel like they drop 1/4 inch when you open them and it takes a pretty heavy amount of pressure to get them to close. I can't believe this is the only car produced with problems of this kind, but nobody else seems to be complaining of leaks or bad fit issues. Anyhow, I really did get a lemon, and am now pursuing the lemon law repurchase option through the BBB.
If you buy this car, I strongly recommend you test drive it on a rainy day!

exalteddragon1 · August 2005

im sorry you are having problems with your car. Its so odd since buick is tops in quality. I'm sure you don't want to hear that now

You know, buying a car no matter the brand is alwayse going to be a roll of the dice. You could buy a 'lexus' or a buick and get horrible quality yet drive off in a horrible (quality wise) jaguar and have no problems. it really depends on the roll of the dice.

A friend of mine had problems with his cobalt (wipers hurled the water toeard the drivers side of the glass, really bad on rainy days) and like you with your door he tested out various fixes that all failed. GM offerred to updrade his car to a malibu! He told me tha he called them, explained the problem and was very frustrated. I don't think GM wanted to go through the lemon law deal (to keep image afloat) and they were so nice to him. BTW the dealer would not budge so now my friend is suing the dealer, but the point is try to contact GM first, and explain the situation to the right people.

let me know if this helps...

vanman1 · August 2005

Lemons suck but there are always one or two here and there, especially with a new model.

Hopefully they will offer you a new car.

62vetteefp · August 2005

GM is upping the premium image on the LaCrosse/Buick's. They did not lower the base price to the new "value" pricing strategy. In fact the base price increased $100, but is offset with about $1000 in increased content of ABS and Side air bags. They also put leather on the shifter on the CX and made available more premium equipment on the cloth car. Other GM cars such as Chevys dropped their prices. Then again the LaCrosse only had $1000 in incentives while the Chevys had $3000.

Buick is also greatly limiting the fleet penetration to increase resale value.

This non value pricing shows GM is allowing the Buick volume to stay at a lower level and not go after high volume like the Chevrolet brand. Over time hopefully Buick will earn back their premium position of old.

vanman1 · August 2005

There are not a lot of LaCrosse / Allure rentals that I have seen. They seem to be sticking more with Malibus and Impalas which is indeed good news.

imidazol97 · August 2005

I don't understand the negativity toward rental cars. I was behind, I believe a Mazda 3 with a National sticker on it. Does that mean Mazda 3s are no good because they're in a rental company?

62vetteefp · August 2005

Nothing wrong with rental cars. Issue is Domestics overuse them to get rid of overcapacity of their cars. These rentals then go into the used car market which kills resale. It also is a place to put vehicles that have been around to long in their lifecycle like the Century.

It is a good way to get possible customers into your car. LaCrosse had a special executive program whenb it was introduced.

imidazol97 · August 2005

>good way to get possible customers into your car.

That's what I would think. But sometimes the rentals sound the extra-stripped models rather than a normal model most people would want to buy...

62vetteefp · August 2005

Yes, that is one of the reasons that some have gotten bad opinions of a vehicle. Used to send stripper, bench seat Centurys to rentals. Changed that to relatively loaded Regals which helped sell them later to customers. Also better/easier to sell in the used car market.

LaCrosses were well equipped CX's and CXL's (of course even the base versions are well equipped) for the executive rental program

vanman1 · August 2005

It only concerns me if a model is over sold in the rental and fleet market. It usually means resale will suck.

imidazol97 · August 2005

I usually have kept a car for 8-10 years. So I've justified the extra cost of a new vs 1 or 2 year-old car with the average cost per year being only some higher for the pleasure of a new car that first couple of years. Do you trade early enough in the life of a car that other people's valuation would vary by much due to a greater number lowering value of used models?

I think the LaCrosse is going to do well as a used car when they are 3-5 years in.

62vetteefp · August 2005

....................May......June....July...

LaCrosse......6500....10700...13300..(160,000/year if they keep up this pace)
Impala.........19400....16600...17260
300M...........13000...11500...10600....
ES300/330....8500.....8750....9600...
Ford 500.......9000....8600.....13555..

Take a look at poor Ford. The LaCrosse is selling more than the 500 which is unbelievable. I think folks should be more concerned about Ford going out of business rather than GM. They are selling a lot of Taurus's though. I assume to fleet?? I saw the Fusion this weekend and its not very exciting. G6 is all over it. They need to get away from the Audi look.

What will be interesting is the sales for August. Of the above inventories only vary from 24000(300M) to 31000(500). (no numbers available for Lexus) Not much 2005 stock left. GM is increasing their production for their vehicles. 4rt qtr profitn should be much better.

exalteddragon1 · August 2005

sold 13,555 of the 500 based on your story
the lacross sold 13,300, which is less.

still that is crazy, those are some good numbers for GM, and its customers.

62vetteefp · August 2005

bust my britches :P

I averaged the 3 months of data and got close:)

johnclineii · August 2005

Even if you average the three months of data, the Five Hundred is STILL outselling the LaCrosse....

Then there is the Montego version to add to add to that.

So, why poor Ford?

vanman1 · August 2005

LaCrosse offers great value, especially at the base level. Now with standard air curtains SABs and ABS, I only see sales going higher.

62vetteefp · August 2005

the 500 should be out selling a Buick by quite a lot of cars. A Ford and Chevrolet have traditionally competed head to head with each other.

If you want to throw in the Montego then you would have to throw in the Impala/Grand Prix.

I just think the 500 is not selling as well as it should. It should be a 240,000 cars/year car.

62vetteefp · August 2005

LaCrosse in July had its best sales since launch, with a 25 percent increase over June sales. LaCrosse has set month-over-month sales increases in seven of eight months since its launch.

LaCrosse in July outsold year-ago combined Century and Regal sales by 79 percent (about 5,600 units).

1487 · August 2005

There is no way sales of the 500 and lacrosse should be close. Ford is the volume brand at FoMoCo, while Buick is one of GM's smaller brands. The lacrosse will never sell as much as the mainstream Impala which would be the 500s closest GM competitor.

exalteddragon1 · August 2005

the only thing is, that the five-hundred is a different class of car than the buick (despite what edmunds thinks, since they did a comparo), its just bigger outside and in. In terms of the five hundred, the lacross is long, but thats about it.

It is better to compare five hundred sales to impala, as you said.

BTW that comparo was kindo trashy, the price difference between the lacross and the wineer was a whipping $4,000! I bet things would have been differnct if they equipped the avalon for only 33,000, like the buick :mad:

62vetteefp · August 2005

I think in real life, to most consumers, that if someone was looking at an Impala they would have both the 500 and LaCrosse in the sights. They might also look at the Avalon and the Camry but if price was a concern would drop the Avalon. Impala and LaCrosse are not that much different in interior size. They are the same architecture and share most dimensions except those controlled by styling differences (headroom, etc.)

62vetteefp · August 2005

Have you been in the car? It does not have a pull light switch, It is a 4 position turn switch so that you can turn off the day time safety lights if you want. In fact in most if not all GM cars/trucks you do not use the lightswitch unless you have some reason to. Lights come on automatically at dusk and off when you turn off the car or drive into light for safety. Of course the safety daylight lights are on all the time.

Whats wrong with the beeper that comes on if your turn signal is left on a long time? Another safety feature. Of course somebody my age (47) NEVER forgets to turn the signal off

. Only those old unintelligent, stupid old people ever need the beeper.

Yes, Buick should have done an audi or something else knockoff. The car has some curves unlike most cars today. But styling is one area that is in the eyes of the beholder and anyones opinion is valid!

62vetteefp · August 2005

Just read an article that 50% of LaCrosse buyers had a non GM vehicle as their 2nd choice. That is really high for a GM vehicle.

Also said doing very little fleet on Buicks now. Retail sales are up 3% this year even though total sales are down. Looks like the LeSabre is sold out and the LuCerne will not be here for awhile.

vanman1 · August 2005

Where did you read that? Just wondering.

I like the LaCrosse CXS a lot but looking that the new Impala, I'm wondering if Chevy (aside from the OHC engine) is offering a better car for the buck. I like the interior of the Impala in brushed aluminum form better in many ways. An LTZ with 240hp lists for about C$3000 less than a base CXS.

Buick LaCrosse

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