Cx 3.9l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2017 Buick LaCrosse an evolution of sharp Avenir concept

After years as a bloated, uninspiring, but comfortable near-premium sedan, Buick has taken the wraps off a leaner, lither, far more stylish LaCrosse. The third-generation model has just made its debut at the 2015 Los Angeles Motor Show. While there's a lot to talk about, let's first address the new, Avenir-inspired sheetmetal. The fascia is basically the concept car smoothed over into production form, featuring the same winged trishield. In place of the chrome-trimmed waterfall, the LaCrosse gets a blacked-out, recessed grille with a chrome surround. It looks good in photos but it's better in person, adding a real sense of complexity and depth to the front end. The headlights and lower fascia, meanwhile, adhere closely to the concept. The same cannot be said of the LaCrosse's tail. While the taillight lighting pattern is similar, the overall shape of the lighting element is radically different, refining the design featured on the back of the Regal. Also gone, sadly, is the Avenir's boattail rear deck. Instead, the LaCrosse gets a small rear deck that curves up into a pleasant duckbill spoiler. The rest of the tail is pleasantly restrained. Perhaps the weakest point is the profile, where Buick has instituted a "split-spear" design, featuring a strong shoulder line above the rear wheel well, which sits below an even stronger character line that curves down and towards the front of the car. It strikes us as just a little too much, like the Impala. Underneath that sheetmetal, Buick has managed to trim nearly 300 pounds of body fat, nearly half of which came from the vehicle's actual structure. That 300 lbs, according to Buick's engineers, is equivalent to a Kenmore side-by-side refrigerator, in case you needed a helpful comparison. Despite the weight savings, Buick has upped the torsional rigidity for this new model by 15 percent. The LaCrosse's cabin features a strong, cockpit-like design, with a high, floating-bridge center console. This is possible due to Buick's adaption of the Electronic Precision Shift system, introduced earlier this month on the new Cadillac XT5. Despite the new-fangled console design, Buick's retained the wraparound cabin style introduced on the second-gen model. Based on a quick crawl around the interior, space is great in front, although ingress in back is somewhat difficult due to the roofline. You're probably wondering why we haven't said anything about the mechanicals just yet.

Consumer Reports no longer recommends Honda Civic

Consumer Reports annual Car Reliability Survey is out, and yes, there are some big surprises. First and foremost? The venerable publication no longer recommends the Honda Civic. In fact, aside from the walking-dead CR-Z and limited-release Clarity fuel-cell car, the Civic is the only Honda to miss out on CR's prestigious nod. At the opposite end there's a surprise as well – Toyota and Lexus remain the most reliable brands on the market, but Buick cracked the top three. That's up from seventh last year, and the first time for an American brand to stand on the Consumer Reports podium. Mazda's entire lineup earned Recommended checks as well. Consumer Reports dinged the Civic for its "infuriating" touch-screen radio, lack of driver lumbar adjustability, the limited selection of cars on dealer lots fitted with Honda's popular Sensing system, and the company's decision to offer LaneWatch instead of a full-tilt blind-spot monitoring system. Its score? A lowly 58. The Civic isn't the only surprise drop from CR's Recommended ranks. The Audi A3, Ford F-150, Subaru WRX/STI, and Volkswagen Jetta, GTI, and Passat all lost the Consumer Reports' checkmark. On the flipside, a number of popular vehicles graduated to the Recommended ranks, including the BMW X5, Chevrolet Camaro, Corvette, and Cruze, Hyundai Santa Fe, Porsche Macan, and Tesla Model S. Perhaps the biggest surprise is the hilariously recall-prone Ford Escape getting a Recommended check – considering the popularity of Ford's small crossover, this is likely a coup for the brand, as it puts the Escape on a level playing field with the Recommended Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Nissan Rogue. While Ford is probably happy to see CR promote the Escape, the list wasn't as kind for every brand. For example, of the entire Fiat Chrysler Automobiles catalog, the ancient Chrysler 300 was the only car to score a check – there wasn't a single Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati, or Ram on the list. That hurts. FCA isn't alone at the low end, either. GMC, Jaguar Land Rover, Mini, and Mitsubishi don't have a vehicle on CR's list between them, while brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Nissan, Lincoln, Infiniti, and Cadillac only have a few models each. You can check out Consumer Reports entire reliability roundup, even without a subscription, here.

How to hack a Buick Regal with CarKnow

If you own an Apple iPhone or Android device, perhaps you've been tempted to jailbreak or root it. This process gives you access to the the software's code, and can be used to make minor or drastic changes to its operating system. CarKnow, a company in Boston, is working applying a similar concept to the automobile.
Translogic recently took a look inside CarKnow to see just how it can tweak the computers inside a car and what sort of things can be done. As our transportation tech sister site explains, CarKnow basically created a digital duplicate of their Buick Regal in the cloud, while harvesting data generated to create custom apps and infiltrate the deepest function of their test car.
And before you freak out about people maliciously taking over your car, CarKnow's founder, Josh Siegel, stresses that it isn't quite so easy as driving up alongside someone. Take a look at the full video below to see just what it's like to jailbreak a car.