mmarshall

Well, Ladies and gents.....after seven years, It's my turn now for a new car. Yep, I took home a new Buick Verano late this afternoon. I went to two different local Buick/GMC shops. Neither had exactly what I was looking for (but I test-drove a couple anyway). Then, at the second shop (which had an enormous showroom, they had a nice Crystal Red one in the showroom with two/tone gray/silver-cashmere Leatherette interior and without a sunroof (I didn't want a sunroof, for several reasons). I inspected it , test-drove it, decided I could live with the turn-key ignition (I had originally wanted the push-button ignition), and settled on it. I like showroom cars, of course, because they are usually detailed and as clean as a pin, and easy-to-inspect for any body or paint-defects.

It was 25K list, and I got a couple of thousand off between their dealer-discount and GM's Verano rebate. Of course, a lot of that was added back in state new-car tax (3.2%), processing-fees (hard to get around them in VA), and a couple of the usual little B.S. $10-20 miscellaneous dealer-fees that it's also hard to get around. I sprang for one service package that offered some BIG discounts on the synthetic-oil-changes that GM now requires for its cars...but no other of the after-sale "packs" (I consider most, but not all, of those packs that they offer you in the buisness-office to be unnecessary and a waste of money)

So, I wrote them a check (they were rather surprised to see someone paying in cash, even for a relatively inexpensive car), transfered all of my old stuff into the new car, spent some time on the radio-speaker phone in the dealer's service-bay with one of the GM On-Star agents (you speak back and forth to them right right through the car's audio-system), got On-Star-registered, and drove home.

Now I've got to spend the next week, with the Owners' Manual, trying to figure out the car's video-screen, though I did some simple functions on it before I drove home. Ah, the joys of technology.

Some of you are probably wondering......why did I buy a Verano? There are a lot of other new cars out there on the market. Yes there are (and you all know, from my reviews and CAR CHAT posts, that I look at and drive a lot of them). I am aware that the Verano is still fairly new on the road (in the U.S. market), and it does not yet have a Consumer-Reports or J.D. Power reliability-rating. But, for the money, and considering its moderate price-tag, I found it one of the most pleasant cars out there to drive for the money. This car makes you feel like the bailout-money that went into GM actually accomplished something. On top of that, it uses, IMO, better materials inside than most other Buicks. The Chinese version of this car, the Buick Excelle, has been #1 on their sales-list ever since it was introduced there. The Buick Quiet Tuning, in this car, is more than just ad-PR....on smooth asphalt and on all but the most coarse surfaces, this car is noise-isolated like a rolling cocoon, although the ride-comfort, with the 45-series tires and 18" wheels is not traditional Buick-smooth. Still, the ride is comfortable enough for my tastes on all but the sharpest road-impacts. And, unlike traditional floating-barge Buicks, this one handles, and responds to steering input....it's Opel-derived chassis has German engineering. No, it doesn't have the wagon-room or raised-suspension/AWD like my Outback for easy bad-weather driving. But it does have traction/stability control and ABS, and I don't really carry bulky items much anyway. The last couple of winters in my area have had very little snow, too, though you never know when a blizzard could strike, and the winter of 2009-2010 did have record snowfall..

So, in short, this car does a lot of things well, and, though not entirely without faults (no body-side mouldings, manual hood prop-rod, temporary spare tire, etc.....), I found its relatively few faults easy to live with. I'll probably just get an aftermarket body-side moulding and stick it on myself.....I've done it before.

(These are Google-images virtually identical to my car, but not actual photos)

scgt652

Congrats! Did you trade in the Subaru?

ArmyofOne

Nice choice Mike! Was it a pleasant buying experience?

bagwell

congrats Mike --- great car! I've seen a few on the road - they look great!

mmarshall

Yep. They gave me what I considered a reasonably good trade-in. I had complete 100% service-records, had taken pretty good care of it, and kept the miles down. It also had fairly new tires and brakes, and recent coolng-fan replacement. The paint was virtually perfect, and the body was in 99% perfect condition...with only a few acorn dings from an oak tree that towers over my condo-parking-space. The only problem (a minor one)was a sometimes-balky twist-**** control for the heater-output.

mmarshall

Thanks.

Generally, yes, at the second Buick shop...not at the first. I did notice, though, that as age catches up with me, my mind is not as quick-sharp with paperwork as it used to be, and I had to be very careful not to forget stuff, during the dealing and keeping track of everything, that used to come to me naturally.

One thing that helped......some people in that shop knew me from earlier car-reviews I had done there on new Chevys and Buicks. They were glad that I finally bought something.

mmarshall

Thanks. The styling is probably too plain and conservative for some people, but in general, I'm not the type of guy that goes after sports-cars. I sometimes review them, but they just aren't for me in my daily life.

LexFather

Congrats on your new car. I guess you liked it much better than the ILX you just drove.

spwolf

Congrats!!!!!!

mmarshall

Thanks, Mike. The ILX (and some lower-line Lexus models) were probably a better and safer long-term prospects for reliability than the Verano, which is essentially a mixture of Chevy, Buick, and Opel. But it's hard to beat the Verano as a small, easy-to-park, inexpensive luxury-car that is cocoon-quiet over most road surfaces, and, while not traditional Buick-smooth and floaty, combines a reasonably smooth ride with German-sharp handling. You do feel sharper road bumps and irregularities, though, from the 45-series, 18" tires....it's not a Park Avenue.

So, in a nutshell, no, I don't think it's screwed-together quite as precisely as an ILX. But it makes up for it in a number of other ways.....one of them, of course, being a silky-smooth 6-speed auto to the ILX's 5-speed. The ILX also has marked road-noise.

Buicks, BTW, now carry a 4/50 bumper-to-bumper warranty, just like Lexus, and a 5/100 powertrain-warranty. Right now, that's about as long as I plan to keep it....I probably won't have it 7 years like my Outback.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Congrats, you finally Pulled the trigger!!

LexBob2

Mike, congratulations on the new Verano. I've liked this car since it came out. I think Buick is on to something with this compact luxury car. I look forward to your observations as you put some miles on it.

mmarshall

Thanks. For the money, considering what it costs, I was more impressed with it, at the D.C. Auto Show last January, than anything else I looked at.

The Chinese have just gone ape over their version of the Verano...the Excelle. It's now the top selling car in that fast-growing market.

It's not a perfect car, though, and, of course, has faults. And I realize that, at this stage in the U.S. market, long-reliability is somewhat of a dice-toss.

Thanks.

I've pulled a lot of triggers in my lifetime....just not in the last seven years (too busy reviewing)

edgeucated

iTrader: (4)

that is a nice interior combo! Hopefully the leather will be easy to keep in pristine condition

KillaIS250

iTrader: (1)

Nice, congrats on the purchase! Be sure to update in the future as you rack up some drive-time/miles on her