{"id":9259,"date":"2021-10-30T12:03:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T16:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/auto\/?p=9259"},"modified":"2021-10-30T12:03:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T16:03:48","slug":"junkyard-gem-2006-buick-lucerne-cxl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=9259","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 2006 Buick Lucerne CXL"},"content":{"rendered":"

When The General’s Buick<\/a> Division axed the LeSabre<\/a> and Park Avenue<\/a> names in 2005 (after 46 and 30 years, respectively, though the Park Avenue returned a few years later in Chin<\/a>a<\/a>), the replacement top-of-the-line Buick sedan became the new Lucerne<\/a>. It wasn’t the Buick with the biggest price tag that year\u2014 those honors went to the Terraza minivan<\/a> and Rainier SUV<\/a>\u2014 but it became the flag-bearer for a bloodline of cushy, prestigious Buick sedans<\/a> that stretched all the way back to the early days of the American auto industry<\/a>. Lucerne<\/a> sales for the 2006 and 2007 model years went pretty well, and now enough time has passed that some of these cars are showing<\/a> up in the self-service car boneyards I frequent<\/a>. Here’s a first-year example with the optional Northstar V8 engine<\/a>, found in a Northern California yard last summer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Plenty of American cars have been named after cities in Italy<\/a>, France<\/a>, and Spain<\/a>, but the Lucerne is the only one I can think of that bears the name of a\u00a0Swiss<\/em> city (to be fair, the entire Chevrolet<\/a> Division is named after a Swiss man<\/a>, so Switzerland didn’t really get shortchanged by The General in the naming department). CXL was the Lucerne’s mid-grade trim level, sandwiched between the CX and CSX.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The high-zoot Lucerne CSX got the 4.6-liter Northstar as standard equipment, but this quad-cam V8 and its 279 horses cost extra on the CXL. The base engine for the CX and CXL was the good old 3.8-liter pushrod Buick V6<\/a>, rated at 197 horsepower. No US-market 2006 Buick could be purchased new with a manual transmission; this car has a four-speed automatic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In a Buick tradition<\/a> stretching back to the late 1940s<\/a>, this car boasts flashy<\/a> “Ventiports<\/a>” on the fenders<\/a>. In past years, the number of ports on each side designated the car’s intended swank level; starting with the Lucerne, they indicated the number of engine cylinders. So, when you’re crawling around your local Ewe Pullet<\/a> and looking for Northstars, seek out the Lucernes with the four-hole Ventiports.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“Leather-appointed” power bucket seats and “wood-toned” trim were standard on the CXL, as well as an MP3-capable CD player with six speakers. By 2006, most American vehicle shoppers seeking something big and luxurious chose trucks<\/a> and truck-like machines, but the market still supported quite a few sedan models such as the Lucerne.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most US-market GM<\/a> vehicles got these little square “Mark of Excellence<\/a>” fender badges during the late 2000s. Soon after The General filed for Chapter 11 in 2009, though, they disappeared<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The car the press can’t stop talking about.<\/p>\n\n

Heated washer fluid. Look out, snowflakes<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When The General’s Buick Division axed the LeSabre and Park Avenue names in 2005 (after 46 and 30 years, respectively, though the Park Avenue returned a few years later in China), the replacement top-of-the-line Buick sedan became the new Lucerne. It wasn’t the Buick with the biggest price tag that year\u2014 those honors went to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}