When I was young, I loved what my wife refers to as "Old Man Cars". I guess old habits die hard because the other day this 2009 Buick Lucerne grabbed my attention when it popped up on Facebook Marketplace.
This ain't no run-of-the-mill Buick Lucerne, mind you, she's a Lucerne CXS meaning she's chock full of junky gadgets you don't need like a heated windshield wiper fluid reservoir, "Magnetic Control Suspension" and the last thing any car needs, a "Northstar" V-8 engine.
Seeing I've always been about value, what intrigued me as much as anything was its $5,999 asking price. I could do worse seeing this thing has just over 100K on her digital ticker and the poster of the ad said everything worked as it should. Bonus, the check engine light, ABS light and other cryptic and expensive to stop blinking sentinels weren't on ether. Fly in the ointment, though, when I told my wife about this car she was like, "don't you dare".
In lieu of my wife's sentiment, if I was in the market, I wonder what I'd think of this car. As I've gotten older, my taste in cars has gotten younger and this makes no real sense for me given my insane commute; I drive upwards of a thousand miles a week. No doubt a comfy, serene cruiser, the Northstar wouldn't give me the mileage I need. And, let's be honest, this is a sixteen-year-old, Northstar V-8 powered Buick as opposed to the sixteen-year-old Toyota RAV4 I'm currently driving into the ground.
Buick's Lucerne was their top-of-the-line model from 2005-2011, a really short period of time considering how long other Buick range-toppers like the Electra (1959-1990) and Park Avenue (1990-2005), were their biggest dogs. Built on GM's updated-for-2006 "G-platform", our Lucerne here shares a ton, I mean that literally and figuratively, with the Cadillac DTS of the same vintage.
Big difference is, in my opinion, as old-farty looking as the Lucerne is, styling wise, it's far superior to the Cadillac DTS; Northstar or no Northstar. Lucerne's came with GM's 3800 Series III V-6 engine in 2005-2008, their 3.9-liter V-6 in 2009-2011. Given the Northstar's dubious reputation, I'd take a far less powerful V-6.
Given my wife's sentiments and the Northstar engine, it's just as well it appears this car has been sold. The wife, by the way, is thrilled.
