2012 Buick Regal Eassist

2012 Buick Regal Eassist rear view

2012 Buick Regal Eassist side view

2011 Buick Regal CXL front view

With a base price of $26,245, the midsize Regal CXL is surely an affordable entry-luxury sedan. It’s turned out well enough that we can certainly see it tricking the uninformed into thinking it costs much more.

2011 Buick Regal CXL front view 2

The Regal makes a good enough first impression, with several visual cues to tell you it’s a near-luxury sedan, like the chrome window trim and attractively simple alloy wheels.

2011 Buick Regal CXL side view

Buick’s color palate is heavy on metallic earth tones, no doubt chosen to make sure that every Regal on the road at least leaves the factory looking classy. Inside, the problems are more basic.

2011 Buick Regal CXL rear view

The instrument panel, seating and door trim are all stylish, but the materials are uneven in quality and color. The interior of our tester was a brown-over-tan GM calls “Cashmere” (the car we used for photos came with a different and darker color combination), but like so many two-tone interiors, the shades of color varied depending on the type of plastic or the finish of the material.

2011 Buick Regal CXL interior

While the design of the Regal’s dashboard “button field” is nicely symmetric, there’s neither rhyme nor reason to the layout. Even more random is the rotary controller on the center console behind the gearshift lever, resembling an even more dimwitted iDrive knob.

2011 Buick Regal CXL interior 2

But even when the Regal feels best, zipping past traffic on a freeway commute, it still feels like a pretty average, everyday car. GM’s list of Regal competitors is a pretty uninspired group, consisting of the Acura TSX, the front-wheel-drive version of the Audi A4, and the Volkswagen CC.

2011 Buick Regal CXL engine

A look under the hood and shall confirm a quick call to the powertrain engineers that two cylinders Easy-Fit to the front. Unfortunately, the days of the free V-8 are most definitely are over. A 182-hp, 2.4-liter inline-four are based on the CX models come in standard later this year. The CX starts at $ 27,835 with the 3.0-liter V-6 that also powers the mid-level CXL $ 30,395 (nearly four-wheel drive adds $ 2200, the CXL). The top-of-the-line CXS has exclusive access to the 3.6-liter. Base price on the front-drive-CXS is $ 33,765, easily optioned test car screamed and our $ 36,130.

The LaCrosse Buick can be shown that our best days yet. A little derivative, on the outside, but simply stunning on the inside, this is the first Buick in a while that is good to go. One could even say seductive.