Buick with un-Buick-like performance

The LaCrosse tested – it was known as the Allure here until the arrival of this all-new, second-generation model – was the line-topping CXS model with 3.6-litre, 280-hp V-6 and equipped with handling and other upgrades that raised its base price from $40,795 to an as-tested $50, 960.

I drove it on the road for a week, and sampled a nearly identically one at last fall's Canadian Car of the Year TestFest by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada.

A $47,600 version was entered in the Best New Family Sedan over $30,000 category that I helped judge, up against a $35,999 Ford Fusion Hybrid and $37,399 Ford Taurus, which won. As price is factored into the outcome, I'd have been interested to see how a base LaCrosse would have fared against the Taurus. The LaCrosse was one of the three finalists in the separately run 2010 North American Car of The Year competition, along with the Ford Fusion Hybrid and the Volkswagen Golf/GTI; the Fusion Hybrid won the title.