I have no qualms about the Lucerne's exterior styling nor its panel gap fit and finish. The aforementioned coat of Crimson Pearl paint, a $995 option, is more or less flawless. Certainly its stylish trunk

Lots of room and some nice switchgear detailing, but the faux wood is really faux, if you know what I mean. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

lid sounds a bit tinny upon closure (although it conveniently pops open on its own when the keyfob button is clicked - but GM, take the interior remote button out of glove box and put it somewhere that doesn't require the driver to stretch across the centre console) and the cargo area isn't as nicely finished as the Avalon, Hyundai Azera or most others it is up against; a list that dauntingly includes Lexus' superb new ES 350 due to the CXS model's rather steep $42,685 price point. The V8-powered Lucerne CXL, mind you, starts at a very approachable $36,235, putting it right in contention with its Japanese and Korean competitors, as well as Volkswagen's superbly crafted Passat - large enough to be considered for this category, although among the most costly. It's just that the Lucerne's cabin is a bit uninspired from a styling perspective, and the generous helping of oh-so obviously fake plastic woodgrain is a tad more retro-GM than I care to remember. Other not so welcoming features include the rear armrest that exposes a set of extremely cheap looking, moulded plastic cupholders when folded down, and the foot-actuated parking brake

The centre stack features nice buttons and knobs, but its design, like the rest of the cabin, is hardly inspirational. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

upon release snaps back letting off a twang loud enough to make a steel guitar player feel upstaged.

On the other hand, all of the switchgear is quite nice, especially the rubberized centre stack knobs and buttons, but if you're moving up from any number of less expensive General Motors vehicles, such as the Saturn Vue I drove last week, it's exactly the same interface and therefore hardly much of an upgrade. You could say that this bodes well for GM's lesser vehicles, and in many ways it does, but Toyota, for instance, totally changes the look of its new Camry when morphed into Lexus trim, and, while I like the faux light bird's eye maple and green glass-like accents in the Toyota a bit more than the dark woods (authentic wood, by the way) and teardrop shape of the ES centre stack, both are a far cry more stylish and upscale than that the dash and centre stack design in the Lucerne. Will Buick customers mind? Probably not, as the Lucerne is better than the LeSabre and Park Avenue models it replaces, but it won't necessarily conquest potential buyers away from other brands too easily, or at least those who care about such things. Its roof liner, mind you, is made up of a Euro-style woven

The Lucerne certainly drives nicer than my Mom's '63 Strato Chief wagon, which pulled out of my elementary school parking lot many a time. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

fabric that is more to my taste, and it flows down right over the A-pillars, unlike the Chrysler 300C. Very nice Buick.

What's more, most of the above are not available with V8 power. This may be a moot point of course, as the new V6 engines in the respective Asian sedans, lone German and base North American cars are potent enough for most performance-oriented drivers, plus Ford's Five Hundred should get the new 265-horsepower V6 for 2007. Actually, thanks to the integration of sophisticated five- and six-speed transmissions, the latter more common now than the former, Buick's flagship

This was the field where I ran free as a reckless child, and was also picked last for the baseball team for the first of many times. Again, some memories are better than others. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

actually finds itself staring down the tailpipes of Toyota's new 268 horsepower Camry/Avalon duo, for instance. Buick hasn't made 0 to 100 km/h times available, but we posted a fairly consistent 7.8 to 8.0 seconds to 100. The less powerful Camry does the same task in just under 7.0 seconds and the heavier Avalon at just over the 7.0 second mark, quite a bit quicker than the Lucerne CXS. Hyundai boasts its Azera takes the lead with a 6.7 second sprint to 100 km/h, but our tests show that it's right in line with the Avalon - in good company nevertheless. And while I don't normally go on at length about performance specs when reviewing luxury cars, I thought it important due to the Lucerne CXS model's sporting pretensions. Just the same, at only a second or so behind its peers, it's still not at all slow, and when taking off from a rolling start actually feels quite powerful.