biggest complaint about your LaCrosse

[CarbonBlackCXS]

I replaced the OEM Good Year Eagles RS-A2 several months ago with the Pirelli Centurato P7 Plus and am still amazed with the transformation of the ride and quietness of the tires over the Good Year's.
The handling of this car has been simply outstanding.

I agree. From your prior recommendation I replaced the OEM Goodyears with the Cinturato P7 AS Plus a month ago and I'm quite impressed with them. A couple weeks ago we took a trip into the mountains and hit some heavy rain and the tires were much improved over the GoodYears. Ride, handling, and quietness are all improved. If they wear well I'd buy them again.

 

[Benzadmiral]

While I like the look of the curved dash, my wife and I have hit our knees on it several times. I'm also annoyed by no trunk button in the glove box, especially since you have to take the key out of the ignition to use the fob button. Lastly, the DIC fuel mileage is the worst I've seen yet. My last car (Bonneville) was off by about 3/4 gallon too light, so it was usually about 1 MPG overestimated. The Buick is actually way worse. Thankfully it's on the positive side. So far it's at least 1.5 MPG underestimated. Last week I actually filled up with it saying 24.1, but when I filled up it calculated at 25.88.

That big ski-jump of a center console was what bothered me when I test drove the LaCrosse a couple of years back. My Regal, though a smaller car, actually feels larger inside because its console is not so high. A shame, as I liked the LaCrosse quite a bit, and would consider one in the future.

 

[bmbutler]

Have had my 2015 LaCrosse since 12/31/14. Love the ride and styling of the car. Those A pillars are a pain the rump though I will agree. The only thing that really drives me CRAZY is the super sluggish (and that would be too fast for what happens) touch screen system. You will hear the button get "clicked", but does it change anything? NOPE.

The only super weird thing that I have had happen was a few weeks ago when I started the car leaving my local grocery story. Started getting all sorts of warning messages. Climate Control temperature set back to Celsius. I had a new button on the I information for navigation. I don't have navigation. I figured somehow the computer had reset itself to factory settings. Took it to my dealer. It ran okay. Of course, everything was back to normal once I arrived!

 

[InfiniteImp]

The only super weird thing that I have had happen was a few weeks ago when I started the car leaving my local grocery story. Started getting all sorts of warning messages. Climate Control temperature set back to Celsius. I had a new button on the I information for navigation. I don't have navigation. I figured somehow the computer had reset itself to factory settings. Took it to my dealer. It ran okay. Of course, everything was back to normal once I arrived!

Amazing that these electronic gremlins still persist in the 2015 LaCrosse. It's not a shock that they existed with my 2010 as it was a brand new model and you expect that there will be growing pains but it sounds like 5 years later they are still getting mystery computer glitches. I've seen all sorts of them over the 5 years I drove my LaCrosse. Stuff would pop up like '2 keys programmed', 'Service AFL system', etc. I even had the whole dash go dark while driving at night and perform a full reset (complete with needle sweeps, as if you'd just turned on the car). I always assumed that there was some sort of intermittent short or ground issue but I would have thought after 5 years they'd get that addressed.

It worries me that GM is not taking quality control seriously enough. I've owned my current car just over a month now. You know how many things aren't working right or required a visit to the dealer? Zero. Everything works the way it should. The LaCrosse has a lot going for it.. it should not be brought down by quality control issues.

 

[bmbutler]

I completely agree.

 

[CarbonBlackCXS]

Amazing that these electronic gremlins still persist in the 2015 LaCrosse. It's not a shock that they existed with my 2010 as it was a brand new model and you expect that there will be growing pains but it sounds like 5 years later they are still getting mystery computer glitches. I've seen all sorts of them over the 5 years I drove my LaCrosse. Stuff would pop up like '2 keys programmed', 'Service AFL system', etc. I even had the whole dash go dark while driving at night and perform a full reset (complete with needle sweeps, as if you'd just turned on the car). I always assumed that there was some sort of intermittent short or ground issue but I would have thought after 5 years they'd get that addressed.

It worries me that GM is not taking quality control seriously enough. I've owned my current car just over a month now. You know how many things aren't working right or required a visit to the dealer? Zero. Everything works the way it should. The LaCrosse has a lot going for it.. it should not be brought down by quality control issues.

I'm still wondering if it has to do with GM putting batteries in that are barely adequate for the car. Like yourself and others I've had all kinds of gremlins since new. Since putting in the new higher capacity battery I've had zero issues. The car now starts as strong as one would expect, I haven't had to use the battery tender, and I haven't had to disconnect the battery once to get things back to normal. It's been over two months now and its like I got a new car with the battery. Amazing.

I should say I did get a warning message once about the backup sensor not working but I was able to replicate the issue which was caused by putting the car into reverse while the garage door bottom was travelling upward at bumper height.

A larger battery doesn't prove anything but I'm highly suspicious. Too coincidental for me to think otherwise.

 

[DoctorWho]

While I like the look of the curved dash, my wife and I have hit our knees on it several times. I'm also annoyed by no trunk button in the glove box, especially since you have to take the key out of the ignition to use the fob button. Lastly, the DIC fuel mileage is the worst I've seen yet. My last car (Bonneville) was off by about 3/4 gallon too light, so it was usually about 1 MPG overestimated. The Buick is actually way worse. Thankfully it's on the positive side. So far it's at least 1.5 MPG underestimated. Last week I actually filled up with it saying 24.1, but when I filled up it calculated at 25.88.

haven't done a road trip yet to find the high mpg but I too had a 04 bonnie and got 22mpg on my normal work week avg the trip computer said 24mpg. now with my 2013 I get 23 to 24 trip computer said 23.5 and I have 300hp vs 200 in bonnie. the long trip is going to be the test. I drove 500 mile with bonnie on one tank and got 31mpg the trip computer said I got 33.5mpg

 

[Rcer2]

2014 lacrosse. Too many gremlins in the electronics. Have had vehicle in 7 times but of course they are intermittent problems that can't seem to be fixed. Bluetooth sound with phone, black screen on display, noisy interior, havoc vents only change when they want to, radio changes by itself, voice recognition button on steering wheel does not work. This vehicle is a disgrace to gm and pushing people away. Tried to get in touch with company who made the software but will not talk to consumers you must go through buick.

 

[InfiniteImp]

Reliability is probably the top issue for most people when it comes to car ownership. Sure, we want a really nice looking car (the LaCrosse has that covered) and we want a comfortable one (ditto) but if we have to keep bringing it back to the dealer to fix bugs in the hardware or software, it's a deal-breaker, especially when those problems don't get fixed! I've now been driving my new car for over 5 weeks. Not a single issue has come up that required a visit to the dealer to repair. In fact, nothing is wrong at all. This is the second model year for this particular car's re-design and they solved all the issues that they introduced in its first run (the 2014 model year). Looks like Buick still hasn't fixed theirs 4 years later. Very sad. Funny enough, the last time I had issues like this was with another GM (98 Grand Prix GTP). Same story... took about a year for them to address the various problems it had. It took 2 years with the LaCrosse to address most of them (some remained til the end).

I can only imagine what the next GM car would be like, were I to buy one (which I will not). Unfortunately for GM, their lack of quality is pushing them back to their previous reputation of being far behind the Japanese and European auto makers in terms of quality. I really felt good about supporting the North American auto makers.. after all, I live here - I want our economy to be strong - I want to support the people that build these cars. I'm just not going to do it at the cost of an unreliable product.

If GM said "Ok, we're going to sell the same features to you at half the cost of the imports as long as you realize that you'll have problems with them and we'll solve them if possible" then people could make the choice to pay less and knowingly accept the fact that there will be more problems. However, it's not like that.. North American cars are somewhat less expensive but not enough to justify the headaches associated with ownership.

All this is based on my own experiences only so don't take this to mean that all North American cars are unreliable. All I can report on is what I've gone through.

Rant over.

 

[lbeck]

Disregard this post. I tried to delete.

 

[lbeck]

I

1) Door arm rests are a little narrow.
2) I've adjusted the lumbar as far away from me as possible and I can still feel it digging into my back after a few hours of sitting.
3) I never ever get 17 city mileage as stated on window sticker. I have
however achieved 27.1 highway average over past 1000 miles which crushes the expected 27 🙂
4) Sunroof tint could stand to be a little darker. That high tech electricly-switched opaque glass would have been a killer feature to implement.
5) I wish the car had intelligent cruise control.
6) In-dash Nav almost never matches google maps or Garmin and consistently suggests longer, poorly chosen routes. Not set to avoid anything so no idea why it suggests these longer routes. On the plus side, fantasy Nav lady sounds super hot 🙂
7) Ventilated seat fans could blow stronger.
8) Would very much like an interior trunk popper. I'm considering paying some ghetto car electronics shop to add one for me if they can convince me they won't blow up the car's brains in the process.
9) Storage is woefully lacking.

Despite these complaints, I absolutely love our LaCrosse. The positives are many, I would buy one in every color if my wife would let me!!

1000 miles over past 2 days and aside from the rare Caddy, Merc, BMW... our LaCrosse is pretty much the nicest car out here on I-70. Of course where I'm at right now in Columbia Missouri folks are still driving teal Chevy Berettas 🙂

I'll reply here rather than writing my own post. My complaints are very similar. My 2015 solved the inside trunk popper and there is an option for adaptive cruise control. Dittos on the bad nav routing. It'll always get you to where you're going but if you know the roads you frequently know a better way.

My biggest complaint on the 2011 is the playing sequence for the HDD and USB music. Always alphabetical. I've needed to go back and rename songs with a numerical sequence to get them to play the way they're written to the cd. This is especially aggravating for CDs that play a story like phantom of the opera, but also for live performances where I've expected a track to play in the order that it was recorded.

I've only had my 2015 for a little over a week so I'm still learning it. But the fact that I bought a second car that looks the same except for the color attests to the fact that I can't find anything that has the sum of my favorite features. I really wanted a DIFFERENT car because I'm somewhat like your wife. But I looked at other models and even other brands and the lacrosse has them all beat. One of the things that I really like is the heads up display. I'm amazed that this technology hasn't penetrated the market further. It's on the Impala super sport and corvette, but I don't need a muscle car and the price with that option is more than the lacrosse premium 1. Also the bmw and Mercedes has it but I prefer the other features on the lacrosse.

On the left leg issue I agree, but every car hat I have owned has that problem for me. I usually pull my foot forward but then my knee hits something uncomfortable.

I also agree on the hotness quotient of the nav lady 😊

 

[McKinneyDoug]

My biggest issue with my 2014 Lacrosse is the way the trunk randomly opens from time to time, even if the fob is sitting on my desk. People at work have gotten used to
Closing my trunk for me. I always lock my car, but what is the point if they have access to the trunk?
Second worst is that the A pillars are so large they create blind spots when turning or crossing an intersection.

 

[scandalous]

My biggest issue with my 2014 Lacrosse is the way the trunk randomly opens from time to time, even if the fob is sitting on my desk. People at work have gotten used to
Closing my trunk for me. I always lock my car, but what is the point if they have access to the trunk?

A lot of us had this problem, but there is a TSB and the dealer will take care of it for you. Check out this thread start on page 8 for the good info http://buickforums.com/forums/threads/23151-2011-Lacrosse-Trunk-Mysteriously-Opens

 

[InfiniteImp]

IMy biggest complaint on the 2011 is the playing sequence for the HDD and USB music. Always alphabetical. I've needed to go back and rename songs with a numerical sequence to get them to play the way they're written to the cd. This is especially aggravating for CDs that play a story like phantom of the opera, but also for live performances where I've expected a track to play in the order that it was recorded.

I never had that issue with my 2010. In USB mode it always played back in the correct order (album order). I used Folder mode though. Maybe if you use a different mode it plays back alphabetically. My current car plays back in alpha order if I use USB but if I plug in an old iPod it plays back in album order so I now use an old iPod classic and everything plays back as you'd expect.

One of the things that I really like is the heads up display. I'm amazed that this technology hasn't penetrated the market further. It's on the Impala super sport and corvette, but I don't need a muscle car and the price with that option is more than the lacrosse premium 1. Also the bmw and Mercedes has it but I prefer the other features on the lacrosse.

I totally agree. I REALLY wanted the head-up display in my next vehicle. The LaCrosse's implementation is excellent. Out of the cars I looked at only the 15 Genesis and 15 RLX had it and I eliminated both cars pretty quickly (the Genesis due to problems on the test drive and the RLX due to price). I really hope more manufacturers go with a HUD - I wish my current car had one.

 

[zitsky]

Maybe it's my cell phone but I find Pandora doesn't work very well. It's slow and doesn't always connect with my phone. If I do Bluetooth audio, it doesn't show song info ever since I updated my Android phone to 5.0 Lollipop.

 

[lbeck]

I've had my 2015 a couple of weeks. Love the car in general, but have two major complaints: 1) very sluggish and frequently unresponsive touchscreen, 2) no way to have conventional cruise control if you have a car with adaptive cruise control.

 

[etsfl]

Purchased a 2015 Lacroose with eAssist because I wanted the advertised fuel economy of 25 city 36 highway, 29 combined.
After checking my mileage for 500 miles I discovered that the advertised fuel economy of 36 mpg highway is easily achievable,but he city economy is not.
The city fuel economy is only in the high teens if I drive with AC set at ECO and temperature set at 70, and combined fuel economy is only 23 mpg.
I noticed that the engine auto stop did not work if the AC was on but would work if the AC was off. So rather than saving gas when at a stop it continues to run and consume gas which accounts for the poor city fuel economy
I live in central florida where the summer temperatures are in the 90-95 degree range so AC is a necessity.
I took car to dealer and was informed car is operating as designed,namely engine stop will not work if AC compressor is running.
The GM sales brochure did not mention that the engine stop would not work if the AC compressor was running.
However I did find a GM document that does state conditions under which auto stop does not work. Had I known this prior to purchase I would not have purchased the eAssist

http://www.gmfleet.com/content/dam/gmfleet/global/master/nscwebsite/en/Home/Shared_Resources/PDFs/gmc1-12-01151-229-eassist.pdf

 

[ZoomZoom Diva]

So you were expecting the engine to shut off at stops, but the A/C to continue to run? How would that have been feasible on a automotive A/C system?

 

[etsfl]

So you were expecting the engine to shut off at stops, but the A/C to continue to run? How would that have been feasible on a automotive A/C system?

The buick brochure states:
The eco A/C setting balances fueleconomy and air conditioningcomfort. In warm weatherconditions, auto stops may occurmore frequently and the vehicleinterior may be warmer ascompared to the comfort airconditioning. This setting allowshigher humidity inside the vehicleand window fogging before theengine restarts.

 

[tomtella]

Rear quarter visibility! I have almost clipped a few cars when changing lanes on expressways. Even with a full turn-your-head check AND a mirror check. It's seems tough to maintain 360° awareness in this car.