First Drive: 2010 Buick LaCrosse CXS

When the original car arrived, those to the south of us called it LaCrosse. Not in Canada. Here, the name of Canada's national sport was dropped because it had (has) a lewd connotation en français. Enter the weakly named Allure. Thankfully, Buick has come to its senses and named its full-sized family sedan what it should have been from Day One. Ironically, the owner's manual still welcomes the owner to the 2010 Allure.

In the past, getting behind the wheel of a Buick made me forget where I was going and why I was going there, such was the drive-the-living-room-to-the-mall excitement of the Allure - it was more overly padded recliner than supportive Recaro seat in nature. Sure, it served a purpose, but, gee, what an anemic form of transportation. The LaCrosse is a very different car as it is, believe it or not, actually sporty and has a sense of purpose, all of which makes it a very distant relative to the Buicks of yore.

Gone are the somnolent interior, iffy materials and cobbled-together feel. Instead, there's a snazzy cabin (the French stitching that runs through the door panel, over the instrument binnacle and across the dash to the other door panel adds a welcome touch of elegance) that boasts rich materials. It's also very comfortable without feeling like an old pair of slippers, and it is very well equipped. In the tester's case, the list ran the gamut - everything from heated/cooled power front seats, a heated steering wheel and a heads-up display to a navigation package that included a very good harman-kardon audio system with a 40-gigabyte hard drive and a backup camera. The hard-drive-based navigation system has a neat twist ­- it warns of impending traffic delays or road works. The coverage area is limited at present (essentially Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver), but it works very well. Perhaps the only downside is being told that a highway that's moving at the limit is coming to a standstill in 8.7 kilometres - it's demoralizing.

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2010 Buick LaCrosse CXS

The LaCrosse comes with a navigation system, heated leather seats, a satellite radio (standard equipment on the LaCrosse) and a backup camera along with all the usual high-end options. -photo © General Motors

It's been awhile since we've seen dealers of American cars excited about their products, and back in the day they were usually excited over the newer, larger cars and engines, though around 1969 they got pumped up a bit on what would become known as "muscle cars" and "pony cars." These were essentially just a mix of large engines in smaller cars, or they were everyone's version of the Mustang, hence, "pony" cars.

There is a bit of that going on now, and the automakers are putting pressure on NASCAR to race what the automakers are building and selling, with hopes of bringing back the concept of "win on Sunday, sell on Monday." The NASCAR Nationwide series will go to pony cars for them that has them, that is, Ford with the Mustang and Dodge with the really neat Challenger. Chevy is balking at running the Camaro in the group, and Toyota will probably go with a version of the Solara.

But the domestic dealers are high on all of their new stuff, and they should be. Chevy's Malibu is a terrific car, maybe the best thing Chevy has ever done, and the new Equinox is a great reinvention of the classic American four-door sedan, particularly as it doesn't look anything like a four-door sedan. And Buick is over the moon about the new Buick LaCrosse, another version of a four-door sedan that really doesn't look like a four-door sedan although it is.

The domestic automakers and a good bit of the rest of the world have also discovered the joys of both direct fuel injection and many-speed transmissions. Previous fuel injection has mostly been "port" fuel injection, meaning the fuel was injected as a spray into the intake ports. Better and more fuel-efficient than carburetion, but not nearly as good (or as complex or expensive) as direct injection.

One of the first shocks was the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, with a 3.6-liter V6 engine, direct injection and a six-speed automatic that cranked out 304 horsepower and got over 27 mpg on the highway. This new Buick LaCrosse has a version of all that but in a different package. In addition, there are smaller engines available, still with direct injection and General Motors six-speed automatic.

In the car provided by Buick for evaluation, the new for 2010 Buick LaCrosse CXS was equipped with the larger V6 and is rated at 280 horsepower with EPA economy ratings of 17 miles per gallon in the city and 27 mpg on the highway. While we didn't get the chance to check highway fuel economy (and the LaCrosse was brand new, with less than 2,000 miles on it when we returned it), we did average 17.9 mpg for the entire week of basically in-town driving.

And, yes, one person did mistake the new Buick LaCrosse for a Lexus, so their ads aren't too far off the mark. What's even more important is that GM and the rest of the American auto world are learning the value of classier interior design and appointments, though the Equinox we tested had rather a downscale and very plastic hood over the instrument pod. No such problem with the LaCrosse; everything is top notch all the way.