All of General Motors brands have been embracing Android Auto, with Chevrolet having it available in all of their models. Now their other brands, Buick, Cadillac and GMC are beginning to push out models with Android Auto included. Buick’s first Android Auto equipped vehicle is the 2017 Buick LaCrosse. Which we’ve just taken delivery of and will be spending the next week with, getting to know how Buick has integrated Android Auto with their own infotainment system and how it works as a whole, from a driver’s perspective. If you watch TV, or even video on the web, you’ve probably seen Buick’s latest commercials, highlighting the fact that their vehicles don’t like cars that older people would drive. And that’s because their line has been fully redesigned.
The Buick LaCrosse is a rather new model for Buick, having launched in 2009, and it has already crossed 900,000 sales globally in that time. It is a full-size sedan, and it starts at about $32,990. So it’s not your cheapest full-size sedan out there, but it does have a decent price. The LaCrosse isn’t quite a luxury sedan, but it’s not quite “cheap” feeling or looking. In 2017, they have removed the cloth interior, so you only have the option of getting leather. Which may affect some buyers’ choice on whether to get the LaCrosse or another vehicle.
In 2017, the LaCrosse was fully designed. The reason for this was to give customers a “striking, all-new design, sophisticated technologies and more-responsive performance.” It really is a nice looking car, it definitely doesn’t like the Buick sedans from a few years ago. The 2017 model is also longer, lower and wider than the previous model, but also 300 pounds lighter. This continues GM’s trend of putting their vehicles on a “diet” as of late. It’s actually a trend that has been sweeping the auto industry in recent years. As lighter cars mean less gas is needed to make them go (essentially), which means better gas mileage. Speaking of gas mileage, the LaCrosse is rated at 21 MPG in the city and 31 MPG in the highway, for a combined average of 25 MPG. With the tank holding 15.8 gallons of fuel, that should get you over 300 miles on a tank (when we took delivery of the LaCrosse, it stated we had about 310 miles left).
Now we’re checking out the 2017 Buick LaCrosse Premium FWD which is one step from being the top-of-the-line model, which means we have all of the bells and whistles thrown in. Android Auto is one of the features that is part of every 2017 LaCrosse, so you don’t need to worry about paying extra for it. That’s something that GM has been doing a lot lately with their Android Auto-compatible cars, making it available for no extra charge. And for those that own an iPhone or maybe have a significant other that has an iPhone, it does also do Apple CarPlay. The center display has all of your infotainment there, including Android Auto, which is pretty easy to navigate to and use. So far, in our limited time with it, the LaCrosse works pretty well with Android Auto. Of course, we’ll have more on that in our full review.
One of the more interesting features of the 2017 Buick LaCrosse is the heads up display on the driver side. This display shows you all sorts of information, including your current speed, what music is currently playing (and this even works with Android Auto, it’ll show what’s playing with the Android Auto icon to the right of it) and much more. It’s a pretty interesting feature to have in the LaCrosse, maybe not something everyone will love, but you can turn it off easily. This heads up display is something that we haven’t seen in any of the other vehicles we’ve reviewed in the past year and a half (since Android Auto launched), so it’ll be interesting to see how the experience plays out for us over the next few days.
The LaCrosse may not be everyone’s first choice for a new vehicle this year, but it’s definitely a great vehicle to take a look at and check out if you’re looking for a full-size sedan, with Android Auto. The 2017 Buick LaCrosse is available now from your local GM dealer, so you can head on out and take it for a test drive right now.
