2015 Buick LaCrosse Quick Spin Review

The 2015 Buick LaCrosse remains a particularly stylish choice when it comes to the larger entry-premium sedans, as the Tri-shield brand continues to keep its current flagship sedan well-provisioned with today’s latest technologies. For the 2015 selling season, that includes adding a major connectivity upgrade from OnStar that will help the LaCrosse stand out even further from its rivals while complementing Buick benefits like a standard eAssist powertrain and a hushed cabin that fully braces QuietTuning design principles.

Showcasing the brand’s modernized design language, with porthole-style accents, signature LED lighting and a bold execution of the Buick waterfall grille, the LaCrosse elevates those details with an especially expressive character line along its flanks and minimalist approach to its lower grille that’s surprisingly effective here.

As for the cabin, it also boasts a clean and uncluttered appearance, with the center stack and instrumentation neatly clustered together, but the real eye-opener is the available Ultra Luxury Interior Package that lives up to its name by coddling occupants with rich, semi-aniline leather and Shadow Tamo Ash wood trim.

The 2015 Buick LaCrosse offer two distinct driving experiences: The standard powertrain enhances a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine with some light hybrid assistance to post EPA ratings of 25 mpg city/36 mpg highway/29 mpg combined; that setup also serves up 182 hp and 172 lb.-ft. of torque, managed by a six-speed automatic transmission.

LaCrosse owners who would rather go fast than go green can opt for a 3.6-liter V6 that makes 306 hp and 264 lb.-ft. of torque, then dial up the driving dynamics yet further with available performance enhancers such as real-time damping, the sophisticated HiPer Strut front suspension (on front-wheel-drive models only), a “Sport” driving mode and Haldex all-wheel drive with an electronic limited-slip differential.

Leveraging camera- and radar-based technologies, the latest LaCrosse can offer driver-assistance measures such as forward collision alert, lane-departure warning, lane-change alert, side blind-zone alert, rear cross-traffic alert, a collision preparation system (with collision-mitigation braking), full-speed adaptive cruise control, and the GM “safety alert” seat. This last feature provides an additional level of safety warning to the driver by using physical vibrations in the seat bottom to indicate the direction of a potential hazard.

Key standards safety advantages are a rearview camera, a six-month OnStar trial subscription that includes automatic crash notification and a robust body structure that allowed the LaCrosse to earn a five-star overall safety score in NHTSA crash testing.

The starting price of the 2015 Buick LaCrosse is $33,635, and yes, that does cover a full IntelliLink infotainment system with a trial subscription to the 4G LTE connectivity service from OnStar, complete with a mobile wi-fi hotspot. Among the other new enhancements for 2015 are text-messaging assistance, capable of “reading” incoming text messages over the LaCrosse’s audio speakers, and sending pre-prepared replies, as well as Siri Eyes Free, for select iPhones. Also new and also standard are four-way adjustable front head restraints, adding yet more comfort to a front row that already featured an eight-way power-adjustable driver’s seat with a separate four-way lumbar adjuster.

Needless to say, the upper-level trims provide an even higher range of comforts, highlighted by a driver’s head-up display, navigation, heated and ventilated front seats, a powered rear sunshade, and an 11-speaker Bose Centerpoint Surround Sound audio system.