LaCrosse is unmistakably a Buick sedan, with its trademark vertical bar waterfall grille, long nose, long slopes and simple body curvatures. They've added a tiny third side window behind the C-pillar to add some visual interest. About the only new design theme is at the rear, where there is a discernible dent in the decklid that ties the taillamps together. There is a single, slender chrome side spear on the doors and body in lieu of anything sportier.The base LaCrosse CX comes with 16-inch wheels and bolt-on faux alloy wheel-covers and has almost no decoration at all. Body, door, and fender gaps are noticeably smaller than on the Regal and Century, and the new aero headlamps are said to be 35-percent brighter. CX models can be identified by a grained graphite-color finish on the rocker panels underneath the doors, while other models have these panels in body color. GM's aging W-car architecture has been torn apart and put back together to improve the LaCrosse's ride and handling by several orders of magnitude. The old steel front cradle has been replaced by a lighter, stronger, stiffer extruded aluminum one that holds the engine, transaxle, steering and suspension tighter, controls powertrain rocking, and weighs 20 pounds less. Buick says the new car is designed with more high-strength steel content than Regal and Century, a magnesium cross-car beam behind the instrument panel, another cross-car beam behind the rear seats, steel reinforcements in the rocker panels, interlocking door latch system, high-strength steel door beams, and a double-thick Quiet Steel floor pan and firewalls, all added in the name of crash safety and quietness. Altogether, Buick says, about 40 additional pounds of sound deadeners have been added to the car, including structural foam in the front fenders.
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