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Pre-owned bargain alert: Buick Regal

For the past couple of years, Buick has been very aggressive in promoting short-term low-mileage leasing. The plan was to get people in the door to experience the new Buick. Once they realized Buicks are now sleek and full of Euro Chic, people might want to buy one. It's debatable if that plan worked, but one thing is for sure: There's a massive amount of low-mileage Buick Regals out there. The price of Regals is all over the map due to lease returns and dealers aggressively discounting 2015 models to get rid of them. But at the $17,500–20,000 range there are a good number of 2013 to 2015 Regals with under 15k miles for sale. The Regal might come with 2.0L Turbo or 2.4L Hybrid. The Hybrid is a bit slow; stick with the Turbo and drive with the traction control off. They all come moderately equipped with leather, heated seats, alloy wheels, and dual-zone climate control. If you have a little more cash to spend, go for the 2012/2013 Regal GS, which is based on the Opel Insignia OPC. The Regal GS comes with 270 horsepower and 295 lb-ft from a turbo engine and a HiPerStrut suspension to reduce torque steer. They all come standard with Brembo brakes, navigation, sunroof, and premium sound system, in automatic or manual. Just make sure you budget money in your savings to replace the front tires. Trust me on this. You can purchase a Camry or Accord with some equipment for under $20,000 with a bit more miles and years than the Regal. But ultimately the Regal feels more premium, drives better, and is less boring. Make the right choice and buy something unique.Related Video:

2017 Buick LaCrosse First Drive

The 2017 Buick LaCrosse seems destined to never get the credit it deserves. It's bound to be dismissed as just another full-size sedan relic, ignored by those who habitually visit their Lexus dealer every few years for a new ES. This new LaCrosse will inevitably be overshadowed in the Buick showroom by SUVs and never fully appreciated by the majority of its buyers who simply want a big, comfy, and quiet car. That destiny would be a shame. The completely redesigned LaCrosse is now a legitimate luxury car, not because advertisements say it is, but for the way it drives, the way it looks, and the way it cossets you inside. The former is really the most impressive, since it's also the most surprising. During the LaCrosse press launch in Portland, Oregon, Buick boasted how comfortable and exceedingly quiet the car is, and indeed, it isolates road imperfections and allows for a pair of low talkers to converse in subdued tones. The big Buick sedan's low-effort steering will also satisfy the nice-and-easy tastes of most drivers. The best way to describe driving the LaCrosse is "unwaveringly pleasant." Yet, during that pleasant drive, road dips and mid-corner undulations don't make the comfort-tuned suspension bob and bound like its competitors might. Its body control and generally planted nature encourage speeds and confidence to creep ever so higher through successive sweeping corners on Oregon's densely forested Mist-Clatskanie Highway. Even that low-effort steering demonstrates precision, linearity, and just enough feedback to further spur on such a pace. This unexpected capability is best observed on cars equipped with the optional 20-inch wheels, which supplant the standard 18s and, more importantly, bring with them Continuous Damping Control (CDC) and GM's HiPer Strut front suspension, which is designed to quell torque steer and further improve cornering grip. You don't even have to engage CDC's firmer Sport mode to appreciate the LaCrosse's surprisingly sharp road manners. "We unleashed the engineers," chief engineer Jeffrey Yanssens said after our test drive. "I told them, 'I don't care how much it costs. I want you to know your system and I want your system to be the best it can be. What do you have to do to make that happen and what can I do to enable you to make that happen?'" Yanssens is honest and clearly proud of his team's work.

The last Buick Cascada unceremoniously rolls off the assembly line

Motorists in the market for a new Buick Cascada need to act fast. Peugeot-owned Opel has built the last example of the drop-top model in its Gliwice, Poland, factory, and there's no replacement in sight. Buick announced the Cascada's demise in early 2019, and GM Authority learned the model went out unceremoniously. There's no indication that the final example received a commemorative plaque on its dashboard, or is headed to a private collection; photos of it aren't even available. The dealership who ordered it might not know it's about to receive the last specimen of the breed. As a non-luxury, front-wheel-drive convertible, the Cascada was marooned on an island that Buick's rivals abandoned halfway through the 2010s. The Chrysler 200 Convertible and the Volkswagen Eos were discontinued after the 2014 and 2015 model years, respectively. Landing in a class of one likely raised more than a few eyebrows in Buick's product planning division, but it was a semi-enviable position that helped the firm sell about 17,000 units of the Cascada between the 2016 and 2019 model years. It proudly pointed out about 60 percent of buyers were new to General Motors. Left-hand-drive examples of the Cascada were sold under the Buick and Opel banners. Right-hand-drive models joined the Vauxhall range in the United Kingdom, and they wore a Holden emblem in Australia. The four flavors were identical with the exception of some brand-specific trim pieces and powertrains. None will get a successor; the aforementioned carmakers are no longer operating under the same roof, and the global convertible segment is steadily shrinking.  The Cascada's multinational provenance made more sense before General Motors sold its Opel and Vauxhall divisions to PSA Groupe, the Paris-based carmaker that owns Peugeot, Citroen and DS. The French firm pledged to keep producing cars for Buick for as long as necessary, but the former sister companies tacitly agreed to stop co-developing vehicles. The sedan and station wagon variants of the Regal are now the only Opel-designed, PSA-built model left in the the Buick portfolio.