Buick's Forgotten Gem
That fast car they built after the Grand National was long gone.

The Buick Grand National is a car like none other. It is a car that everyone likes. It manages to transcend generations and classes to appeal to almost every American. Rappers love it, baby boomers love it, hipsters love it, and rednecks love it. This post is not about the Buick Grand National, this is about another fast car Buick made after it was long gone and why it isn’t idolized in the sense the Grand National is. This is about the Buick LaCrosse Super.

The Buick LaCrosse was a midsized FWD sedan that debuted in 2005. It was based off GM’s outdated W-body platform. Other cars using the W-body at the time included the Chevy Impala, Monte Carlo, and the Pontiac Grand Prix. Most models came with a V6 but who cares really because the Super isn’t most models. The Super was given the engine that car guys still will bow down to, chanting “we’re not worthy, we’re scum, we suck,” for it was given an LS.

More specifically it was given the LS4. The LS4 is a 5.3L V8 that was designed in 2004. The thing that really made it different was that it was specifically designed for a transverse mount, FWD setup. This is the only example of a small block GM V8 being used in a FWD setup. The LS4 is part of the fourth generation of LS engines and shares many parts from previous models including the aluminum block, cylinder heads, and oil pan. Many changes had to be made to accommodate the transverse setup including a smaller camshaft and a water pump that had to be mounted outside of the engine bay. The first car to receive this beauty was the Pontiac Grand Prix GXP in 2005. The Monte Carlo SS and Impala SS would follow suit in 2006.

The Buick LaCrosse Super debuted in 2008 as the last W-body to receive the small block V8. In this iteration the LS4 makes 300 horsepower and 323 lb feet of torque. The engine is coupled to a four-speed automatic transmission that can be considered functional at best. Besides the engine upgrade, it received other performance boosters including larger breaks and re-tuned suspension. It also included many visual changes such as an aggressive front and rear bumper, deck lid spoiler, and duel exhaust. Being a Buick, the interiors are well equipped with wood dash and leather seats. The LaCrosse Super never forgets to remind the driver that it has more to offer than dumb muscle.

So, it’s a FWD luxury car with a LS V8 and 300 horsepower, what exactly makes it so special? Well what if I were to tell you that it was the quickest production Buick ever built! Unfortunately, this is not the case, the 1987 Buick Grand National Experimental still holds this record by one second. This still means that the LaCrosse Super still has a respectable 0-60 time of 5.7 seconds. For comparison here are a few competitors that this grandpa’s car beats or matches to 60 MPH.

2008 Audi TT Quattro
2004 Cadillac XLR
1990 Ferrari 348 TB
2010 Ford Focus RS
2004 Honda S2000
2007 Jaguar XJ Super V8
2001 Lotus Elise
2009 Porsche Cayanne
2012 Tesla Model S (Base)

Source: https://www.zeroto60times.com/

Besides the Super’s quick acceleration, it can also achieve a top speed of 150 MPH which IS faster than the 1987 GNX but still not the fastest Buick ever that being the 2012 Regal GS. Make no mistake though, the Super is a high-performance vehicle that is loaded with options that additionally won’t break the bank. With no extra options a Buick LaCrosse Super would have only ran you $32,000 in 2008. Even when adjusted for inflation it still prices out below $38,000 today! Overall it is not hard to see why this is a very special car for Buick. It has a unique transverse V8 that was rarely used in cars while at the same time having elegant and subtle Buick styling. In short, it has brains and braun for a decent price. This being said, why does no one talk about it in the way we talk about the Grand National?

Unfortunately, poor sales were the start of an unknown reputation for the LaCrosse Super. The Super package would have been first conceived in 2006 or 2007, when an inflated American economy meant that the auto industry was doing rather well. A luxury high performance Buick may have been in demand had it debuted in 2006 with its sister cars. In 2008, General Motors estimated that the Super package would make up about 10% of total LaCrosse sales. This seemed like a very reasonable task at the time considering that the Monte Carlo SS with the new V8 had been a huge success so far, selling almost 15,000 units during its two-year run. Overall, the Impala SS and Grand Prix GXP had sold well enough to be considered worth the investment. The Buick was meant to be the top trim level and the most expensive of General Motor’s transverse V8 fleet, being about two grand more expensive than its next lowest sister, the Grand Prix GXP. This would be perfect for the American economy of 2007, just like how the Grand National fit in perfect with 80’s excess. OH NO!!! Here comes the mortgage crisis of 2008! This caused Americans to lose faith in the economy and become very conservative with their money. Men who had been considering upgrading to a new Mercedes this year were now having to look at Toyotas instead. Overall, not many Americans were willing to spend their money on a new car unless it was necessary. Sales fell across the board in the American marketplace for all companies and all vehicles, including all LaCrosse models. Buick only managed to sell 2,277 units with the Super package in 2008, falling short of their now low goal of 3,687 units (10% of the 36,873 LaCrosse’s sold in 2008). In 2009 they managed to only sell 139 units and after that Buick dropped the Super name on the Lacrosse calling it a financial flop. The car made sense when it was designed but by the time they hit dealerships the US economy was lower than a Honda Civic owned by a 17 year old and no one wanted to buy one.

Poor sales aren’t the only reason that the Super is not recognized the way the Grand National is today. To summarize, the Super just wasn’t “special” the way the Grand National was. The Grand National made a name for itself as the Bad @$$ Buick, if you need further proof of this it has the nickname Darth Vader. With the Grand National’s iconic black on black styling it stands out to anyone who sees it. Many forget that at the end of the day it’s just a modified Regal. The Grand National went beyond the Regal name though, far enough to argue that it could be a standalone vehicle. The LaCrosse Super has a much subtler design that at first look may not look like anything besides a normal LaCrosse which is why it just doesn’t match the Grand National’s awesomeness. Performance is another area that the LaCrosse falls short. Not only is the 1987 Grand National Experimental faster than the Super, but the GNX was faster than every car built in 1987 besides the Lamborghini Countache. The Super is a fast car but it cannot hold up to the standards of the Grand National. Keep in mind the Grand National could do all of this with a turbocharged V6. This was the car that brought turbocharging to the attention of the mainstream American market. The Grand National deserves a place in history just for doing that. The super doesn’t have that “X-factor” that the Grand National did. In fact, the Super wasn’t even the only Buick with a transverse V8 that year because the Lucerne was given a Super package with the Northstar V8. On top of this, the Super had three other sister cars to choose from making it just the luxury variant of the four models. All of this results in a car that is not out of the ordinary, it’s just a luxurious W-body with a V8.

There is no doubting that the Buick Grand National deserves a place in the history books for proving the capabilities of turbo charging in the American market and its overall bad @$$ nature. Everyone knows when they look at a Grand National that it is something special, that this is a car desired by many. In a way though, this makes the Super more special that the Grand National. A LaCrosse Super is more than just a performance car, it’s a conversation piece. It’s a car that has curious people at car shows coming up to you to ask what exactly your ride is. All you got to do is pop the hood to showcase that LS engine and people will come and ask, “What is this?” “Is this an engine swap?” “Is this really a Buick?” The Grand National may have gone down in history as one of the most Iconic American cars of all time but at the end of the day, it is the obscurity of the Super that makes it a forgotten gem in Buicks history. Personally, I would rather have the forgotten gem over the standard diamond any day.

Additional source: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/future-classic/future-curbside-classic-2008-09-buick-lacrosse-super-do-300-horses-and-8-cylinders-change-your-mind/

Thank you for reading all the way through, let me know if you have any comments, I’m always trying to improve my writing skills.