Junkyard Gem: 2006 Buick Lucerne CXL

When The General’s Buick Division axed the LeSabre and Park Avenue names in 2005 (after 46 and thirty many years, respectively, though the Park Avenue returned a several many years later in China), the alternative top rated-of-the-line Buick sedan grew to become the new Lucerne. It wasn’t the Buick with the most important price tag tag that year— people honors went to the Terraza minivan and Rainier SUV— but it grew to become the flag-bearer for a bloodline of cushy, prestigious Buick sedans that stretched all the way back to the early times of the American auto market. Lucerne profits for the 2006 and 2007 product many years went rather nicely, and now sufficient time has handed that some of these automobiles are showing up in the self-support automobile boneyards I frequent. This is a 1st-calendar year instance with the optional Northstar V8 engine, discovered in a Northern California garden previous summer season.

Plenty of American automobiles have been named after metropolitan areas in Italy, France, and Spain, but the Lucerne is the only 1 I can imagine of that bears the identify of a Swiss metropolis (to be fair, the total Chevrolet Division is named after a Swiss man, so Switzerland failed to definitely get shortchanged by The Basic in the naming section). CXL was the Lucerne’s mid-quality trim stage, sandwiched amongst the CX and CSX.

The significant-zoot Lucerne CSX bought the 4.six-liter Northstar as common devices, but this quad-cam V8 and its 279 horses value excess on the CXL. The foundation engine for the CX and CXL was the good aged 3.8-liter pushrod Buick V6, rated at 197 horsepower. No US-current market 2006 Buick could be purchased new with a manual transmission this automobile has a four-pace automated.

In a Buick custom stretching back to the late 1940s, this automobile boasts flashy “Ventiports” on the fenders. In earlier many years, the variety of ports on each and every facet specified the car’s supposed swank stage setting up with the Lucerne, they indicated the variety of engine cylinders. So, when you are crawling all around your nearby Ewe Pullet and hunting for Northstars, request out the Lucernes with the four-gap Ventiports.

“Leather-based-appointed” electrical power bucket seats and “wood-toned” trim have been common on the CXL, as nicely as an MP3-capable CD player with six speakers. By 2006, most American auto purchasers looking for a little something huge and lavish chose vehicles and truck-like devices, but the current market still supported fairly a several sedan models these as the Lucerne.

Most US-current market GM autos bought these small square “Mark of Excellence” fender badges during the late 2000s. Before long after The Basic filed for Chapter 11 in 2009, though, they disappeared. 

The automobile the press can not quit talking about.

Heated washer fluid. Seem out, snowflakes!