Car Concerns Radio Presents...

The Car-Of-The-Week at the Car Concerns Proving Grounds is the 2011 Buick Lacrosse CXL FWD from General Motors. A beautiful Red Jewel Tintcoat with Coca Light Cashmere. Our 2011 Buick Lacarosse has a 2.4 Liter DOHC engine with plenty of power and delivers upto 30 MPG when cruising down the highway.

For the future, the LaCrosse will remain the flagship of the Buick lineup, so at first look, it might seem strange that General Motors is adding a seemingly modest inline-four cylinder engine to the sedan's powertrain list. However, at the time the LaCrosse was being developed in 2007-2008, gasoline prices in the United States had spiked to their highest levels ever, topping $4 per gallon. General Motors product planners were understandably working on the assumption that fuel prices would remain high and continue an upward trend in the coming years.

They got that right!

Buick officials won't say so out-right, another factor that likely played into the decision to offer the 2.4-liter EcoTec four-cylinder engine was the underwhelming response to the new 3.0-liter direct injected V6. While the new smaller V6 is a smooth runner and produces similar power to the company's earlier 3.6-liter port injected V6, it was lacking in torque compared to its larger counterpart and actually got slightly inferior fuel economy. We recently had the chance to sample the new four-cylinder-powered LaCrosse CX in rural Tennessee. At the Car Concerns Radio Proving Grounds we found out that less is indeed more when it comes to Buick's handsome sedan.

Buick is a premium brand trying to compete with the likes of Lexus and Acura, refinement remains paramount. The LaCrosse has generally been praised for its quiet and roomy interior and high level of fit and finish. The obvious concern is that a more peppy four-cylinder could disrupt the serenity that buyers in this segment are likely to prefer. While the DI EcoTec isn't necessarily the most powerful engine in its class (the Hyundai Sonata tops it by 18 horsepower) it is a smooth runner and EcoTec.

Previous port injected versions of the Family Two EcoTec (the larger 2.0, 2.2 and 2.4-liter variants) had used a lost foam casting process for the aluminum cylinder block. Lost foam castings are dimensionally accurate and well suited to complex parts like engine blocks. However, the resulting casting can be less dense, and when General Motors pioneered the process in the late-1980s for the original Saturn engines, it had issues with porosity. Those problems were eventually overcome, but newer direct injected engines have higher internal pressures and there have often been complaints about the ticking sound produced by the injectors on other DI engines.

the direct injected EcoTec block is instead produced with a precision sand-casting process. The resulting part is more rigid and transmits less of the injector and combustion noise, allowing it to run quieter. On the outside of the engine, the engineers have also covered the high pressure fuel pump and injector rail with a high density foam as a noise abatement measure. Along with the variable valve timing, the 2.4 produces the same 182 horsepower and 172 pound-feet of torque as it does in the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain.

Buick started producing four-cylinder LaCrosses at the Fairfax Kansas assembly plant, and for the remainder of the 2010 model year, the I4 will only be available in the base CX model. When 2011 models are launched this summer, however, the engine's availability will be expanded to the mid-level CXL. Our CX tester was equipped with the fabric upholstery that looks like some sort of modern micro-fiber that ought to wear well over time. Leather surfaces aren't available in the CX, so if you want a four-cylinder LaCrosse with hide-covered thrones, you'll have to wait for the CXL this fall.

The 2011 Buick Lacrosse is a Car Concerns Radio Certified great buy presenting the retail auto consumer great value along with performance and styling.

Harry thinks that you will find the same to be true once you test-drive one for yourself at your local Buick Dealer.

www.buick.com

Any questions? harry@carconcerns.com



CAR CONCERNS ROCKS IN THE USA EVERY WEEK-DAY MORNING
CALL HARRY MONDAY THRU FRIDAY...9:00 TO 11:00 A.M.(EST).
BORDER-TO-BORDER...COAST-TO-COAST...
USA TOLL-FREE: 1-877-958-5850
HEARD ON THE CAR CONCERNS RADIO NETWORK:
EMAIL: harry@carconcerns.com