NextAutos caught one of GM’s Buick LaCrosse mules last week on a freeway in Plymouth, Michigan. The second generation of the four-door sedan, based on the Epsilon II platform and set to launch next year as a 2010 model, was undergoing durability testing near the company’s Milford Proving Grounds. Please excuse the grainy phone camera shots, but sometimes a good opportunity to take a spy photo can't be undone by the limitations of your equipment.
We followed the Buick down a freeway near Plymouth, Michigan but were unable to take a picture of the front of the vehicle. However, matching our side view of this car (particularly the roofline and C-pillar) to shots that appeared on Autoblog last week indicate a match.
Note the trapezoidal exhaust pipes and the relatively high trunk height, signaling a more refined design statement that should have the LaCrosse looking like a front-drive alternative to a Lexus GS—visually, at least, although in messaging and price point it will continue to go after the smaller Lexus ES sedan. We’ll learn more about the LaCrosse when it launches at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.
Make note of the Buick engineer’s keen sense of non-verbal communication. Perhaps he was just using numeral values to tell us which brand is #1 for American buyers of the age 55.2 years?