2017 Buick LaCrosse: First Impressions

The redesigned 2017 Buick LaCrosse is a sleek, low-slung full-size sedan with nice proportions. It's also the first car with Buick's new front-end styling theme. It's good to see the return of the Buick tricolor badge, but the overall design is understated for a luxury car and more reminiscent of something from a mainstream brand.

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Subtle body lines add visual interest, and the hood porthole appliques of the prior LaCrosse have been transformed into contemporary front-fender accents.

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2017 Buick LaCrosse; Cars.com photo by Steven Pham

It took me a while to place the familiar-looking dashboard, but then I remembered where I'd seen it before: the 2009 Hyundai Genesis. There's a flat upper section with vents, wood trim and a touch-screen below. The integration of the touch-screen is really well done; it looks like someone propped their iPad mini on the dashboard.

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2017 Buick LaCrosse; Cars.com photo by Steven Pham

Audio and climate controls are grouped together below the touch-screen, and I'm happy to see that Buick has ditched the touch-sensitive controls for the heated and ventilated seats, replacing them with traditional buttons. The prior LaCrosse's touch controls were maddening to use when wearing gloves.

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2017 Buick LaCrosse; Cars.com photo by Steven Pham

I'm less enthusiastic about the LaCrosse's new electronic gear selector. They're becoming common in luxury cars, but they're no easier to use than a traditional automatic-transmission gear selector. The gear selector is also surrounded by a swath of dark-gray trim that doesn't look particularly luxurious.

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2017 Buick LaCrosse; Cars.com photo by Steven Pham

There's generous legroom in the backseat for taller passengers — I had a lot of room between my knees and the front seatback — but not much extra headroom. The car's roofline is 1.6 inches lower, which may be a factor, but the previous LaCrosse didn't have a lot of backseat headroom either.



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