Christian Wardlaw’s opinion of the 2006 Buick Lucerne’s Quality:
The crooked “Buick” badge was instantly noticeable, a chrome-dipped icon glinting in the sunlight explaining why Buick’s former flock of loyal buyers now lands in Lexus showrooms. Nevermind how tight the Lucerne’s panel gaps were, how well most of the parts and pieces fit together, the nice leather seats with twill trim, the woven mesh headliner – our particular 2006 Buick Lucerne made it out of the factory with some jewelry askew, and into the media evaluation fleet without anyone stepping back and saying: “Hey. Let’s fix that.”

Then there was the time I thrust one of my gangly legs into the passenger’s side of the car, and my shin smacked into and rubbed against the hard, hollow-sounding, heavily-grained plastic covering the entire expanse of the lower dash. I actually got a bruise from this experience. Hey Buick, if you’re gonna cheap out like that, don’t design the offending piece to jut into the cabin where people might be tempted to touch it, rap it with a knuckle, scrape a fingernail across it, or ram a shin into it and curse you for it. Hide the cheap parts, like Lexus does, and make the pieces that are obvious – like, say, the dashboard – out of premium materials that make people think they got more than they paid for instead of less.

And I haven’t even gotten started on the ragged headliner edges where it met the windshield and rear window, or the sagging plastic kick panel in the front passenger’s footwell – which I spotted from the back seat. Don’t forget that I had written off the Lucerne’s comfort until the power driver’s seat began working properly again. Finally, just how much will it cost to repair or replace those magnetically charged shock absorbers when the Lucerne CXS’s warranty runs out, and is that a bill you really want to pay?

Ron Perry’s opinion of the 2006 Buick Lucerne’s Quality:
Many small things about the Buick Lucerne’s quality, like the headliner having too much play in it and the cheap look of the material, were disappointing. I also felt the wood trim pieces looked more like plastic than wood, and the seat adjustment switches weren’t engaging properly and had to be played with to get them to work. I did feel the quality of the leather used for the interior was up to par and I liked the use of the perforated leather inserts, but didn’t understand the use of a twill cloth at the sides and lower fronts of the seats, which looked out of place and cheapened the interior. There was also the issue of the cheap hard plastic used across the center of the dash. Buick should have extended the use of the soft touch surfaces to cover this area.

Outside I would give the Buick a grade of “B” for overall quality. Seams had consistent gap tolerances and all trim pieces were firmly attached. The doors closed with a good thump and felt solid. The biggest fault was the crooked application of the rear “Buick” badge. Things like this should never make it past the factory’s quality assurance department.

Thom Blackett’s opinion of the 2006 Buick Lucerne’s Quality:
Chances are the tester we had in the office was one of the same cars I drove in Santa Barbara months before for the press launch, so I wasn’t surprised to see the same issues with build quality. Exterior gaps were uniform and the panels fit together well. The interior was much the same, with some slight gap variances around the instrument panel and A-pillar covers that were a bit loose at the top. But, for the most part, everything was tight and secure, a point proven by the rattle-free interior. My main complaint comes with the use of hard plastic on most of the dash. The large expanse facing the occupants, the area that is most visible and most often touched, lacks any padding or soft-touch material. Sure, it may be durable, but in a Buick running in the mid-$30,000 range, there should also be a premium feel to the parts used in the cabin.