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2013 Buick Verano Turbo

Not Luxury. Not Sport. Not Buick. Not Bad.
Those of you who still think of the Buick Verano as some sort of callously badge-engineered, gussied up version of the Chevrolet Cruze ("Why would anyone spend that much money on Buick's Cruze?" you may have been heard to mutter) have got the wrong idea. Entirely. Even in its most modest form, the Verano turns out to be a sedan that is feature-rich, insulated from wind and road noise in proper luxury car fashion, pretty good to drive and not bad to look at in the new school of high-nosed pedestrian-impact-regulated fashion. In a less modest form then, one that attaches the word "Turbo" to the moniker and plops a force-fed 2.0-liter four-cylinder under the hood, the Verano is downright interesting.
Of course, "interesting" is rarely a descriptor that fills one with lust - and so it goes with this example. There are two competing forces within this near-premium subcompact sedan, and the balance struck between them must resonate with any potential customer before the Verano Turbo can become a serious purchase consideration.

2016 Buick Cascada convertible isn't afraid of Detroit's snow

It's the great irony of introducing a convertible in Detroit – while the assembled media might look at the car and imagine warm weather and clear skies, the atmosphere outside is anything but. Such was the case Sunday as Buick rolled out the 2016 Cascada in Detroit's Eastern Market. Snow didn't dampen the atmosphere, though, as we clapped eyes on the sleek, Astra-based convertible for the first time. While this is far from the first product Buick has borrowed from General Motors' European operations, unlike previous vehicles, changes for the Cascada were kept to a minimum. There is no waterfall grille or four-way portholes, which Buick was sure to install when converting the Insignia and Mokka to the Regal and Encore. Then again, neither of these styling treatments were really necessary, as the Cascada remains a handsome and stylish offering. Its cabin is typical of other Buicks, and features a few too many buttons on the center stack. Still, a thick-rimmed, flat-bottomed steering wheel, similar to what's found in the Verano, is both attractive and functional, while the perforated leather seats looks quite comfortable, as well. Take a look at our gallery of live images, which includes shots of the Cascada with the top up and down, and then head back to our original post on the new convertible for all the mechanical details.

Junkyard Gem: 1985 Buick Somerset Regal Limited

The Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac divisions of The General's mighty army got serious about their attempts to compete with futuristic and stylish German and Japanese coupes during the second half of the 1980s, with cars such as the Cadillac Allante, Oldsmobile Toronado Trofeo, and Buick Reatta. They featured edgy styling, wild digital dashes, and other interesting gadgetry. Before them, however, came the Buick Somerset. Built for the 1985 through 1987 model years, only the '85s were badged as Somerset Regals. Here's one of those ultra-rare cars, spotted in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service wrecking yard. This badging confused many Buick shoppers at the time, because the 1985 Regal was a "traditional" midsize rear-wheel-drive car, based on the increasingly antiquated G-Body platform, and the Somerset Regal was an N-Body front-wheel-drive compact. For 1985 and 1986, the car became the Buick Somerset. The interior is your standard Whorehouse Red velour, a theme used by everybody from Nissan to Chrysler during the 1985-1995 period. This cloth looks pretty nice for a car from sunny California. Digital dashes became very trendy during this period, with Mitsubishi, Subaru, Nissan, and even Toyota getting into the act during the first part of the decade, and everyone else jumping on the bandwagon a bit later. The radio face went into this weird pod perched over the HVAC controls, which looked like something from the Mars Base and made aftermarket audio-system installation nearly impossible. The factory cassette deck, if desired, had to go elsewhere in the console. The base engine in the Somerset Regal was the decidedly un-European Iron Duke four-cylinder with 92 horsepower, but this car has the optional 120-horse 3.0-liter V6. In theory, a 5-speed manual transmission was available, but I'm guessing that the quantity of so-equipped Somerset Regals was numbered in the high dozens. There's plenty of hard red plastic and fake wood inside, of course. Base price on a V6 Somerset Regal Limited came to $10,026 (about $24,000 in 2018 dollars). Meanwhile, a Pontiac Grand Am LE with the 3.0 V6 was nearly the same car and listed at $8,970. If you wanted even crazier electronics and an interior that looked like something out of a jet fighter, the 1985 Subaru XT GL had a $9,899 price tag. Give me savvy. Give me cool. Give me a car that breaks all the rules. Give me the look. Give me the feel. Give me the magic. Give me the wheel.