New Lacrosse offers green boost, fine handling and a shapely body
Eassist Electric Drive system will improve car’s fuel efficiency by 24 per cent, GM says
Sometimes, when I pick up vehicles for test drives, I like to skip looking at the specs sheets and experience the car first before delving into the technical details of it.
That is what I did when I picked up the 2012 Buick LaCrosse, I set aside the media kit f rom General Motors until later in the week.
But early in my first outing with the Lacrosse, I knew something was different – especially when the engine shut off on me at the first red light I encountered on my route. The eco monitor in the gauge cluster was also a pretty obvious clue that I was driving the fourcylinder Lacrosse equipped with eassist, the latest version of General Motors’ mild hybrid system.
The eassist is a technology that aims to reduce fuel consumption, thus saving the consumer money and acting better for the environment, while at the same time providing an electric power boost in certain situations. We’ll get back to that later.
I was happy to be able to put the new engine and the mild-hybrid system to the test through the twisty back roads around Ste. Adèle. And on the routes surrounding the town, I experienced the front-wheel-drive sedan and its commendable handling capabilities on the twisty roads – even when they were covered with snow.
Design:
The Lacrosse is quite a shapely model, with plenty of curves and lines to catch your eye.
The front end is dominated by the large chrome Buick grille, accented on either side by swoosh-like headlights.
A shapely hood is highlighted by chrome vents near the windshield, while the side body panels are nicely shaped.
The back end has oversized chrome dual-exhaust tips and large wraparound tail lights.
Along the lines of the back end, despite what looks to be a large rear window, the view from the inside is actually quite restricted.
Coddled in the comfortable leather seats, all the important controls are within reach, but it takes some time to become familiar with the myriad of buttons that adorn the centre stack.
Two nice features I really appreciated are the blue ambient lighting that accents the dash, footwells and centre console, and the nicely laid out and backlit gauge cluster.
Occupants can be bathed in sunlight thanks to the large double-pane sunroof, which is almost as big as some panoramic sunroofs in higherend sedans.
One of a couple of parts of the interior design that bothered me was the door handles. The shapely design actually makes them hard to grip – and in some cases, find.
The other issue is the fauxwood trim, which I am generally not a fan of but might appeal to some of Buick’s clientele.
Performance:
There are two engines available on the Lacrosse, the larger of the two being the 3.6-litre V6, rated at 303 horsepower and 264 footpounds of torque.
For those who want to save on fuel and don’t need that much power, there is the 2.4L Ecotec inline fourcylinder engine, which develops 182 horsepower and 172 foot-pounds of torque. That engine is equipped with the aforementioned eassist Electric Drive system, which uses batteries to provide a boost of up to 15 horsepower in certain driving conditions. That engine also adds regenerative braking and allows for the engine shut off. All these measures improve fuel efficiency by 24 per cent, General Motors claims.
The listed fuel consumption for the Lacrosse with the 2.4L engine is 8.3 litres per 100 kilometres in the city and 5.4 litres per 100 kilometres on the highway. During my week with the sedan, which included a trip into the Laurentians, I averaged no better than 9.6 litres per 100 kilometres.
By comparison, the frontwheel-drive V6 is rated to consume fuel at 12.1 litres per 100 km (city) and 7.3 litres per 100 km (highway).
Driving/utility:
Driving the Lacrosse was pleasant, thanks to the effective sound insulation that kept the cabin free of too much road and wind noise.
The lack of an all-wheel drive system wasn’t too much of a problem on the snow-covered roads in the laurentians, with the traction control systems providing adequate assistance along the way.
The five-seat Lacrosse feels solid and infuses confidence behind the wheel, and there is rarely a lack of power at your disposal.
With the eassist battery pack you do sacrifice a little bit of cargo space. There are 10.9 cubic feet of cargo space in the trunk of the eassist model, down from the 13.3 cubic feet in the base model.
But that small difference is only a minor forfeiture when you consider what you gain in fuel economy, savings at the fuel pump and reducing harmful emissions.