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The North American-market Buick LaCrosse is pretty lame. Sporting Jaguar and/or last-gen Lexus GS styling cues in front and Ford Taurus-esque taillamps in back, the car just doesn't get one's heart racing. It's trying much too hard to be something it's not -- or in this case, up to three things it's not. GM can send fleets of Buicks to SEMA and rattle on about how they're trying to get the brand to appeal to a younger demo, but come on. The LaCrosse, like the Regal and Century it replaced, is still pretty much a retiree's car.

What to do For starters, GM can facelift it to look like the Chinese version (TV spot above), which is a lot better-looking than its American counterpart. The Chinese car gets a Lucerne-style front fascia (a good thing) and clear taillamp assemblies that look like the ones you find on the Altima. So, while the rear is still a pretty clear ripoff of something else, at least it's lifting cues from a car that's currently on the market -- better still, one that non-AARP members are actually interested in.

The delicious irony here is that the US-market LaCrosse looks like a Chinese car, while the Chinese one looks more American. Go figure. Follow the jump to see some side-by-side photos of both sedans and let us know which one you think is the better of the two.

LaCrosse vs. LaCrosse








Chinese Buick LaCrosse - Detail