http://carrentingreviews.com/2012/03...6-premium-iii/

PCAR
17/27

A different breed than the 2012 Hyundai Genesis, but one of my favorite PCARs to date.

Offered this make and trim at Hertz, rented at National, so I wrote a review for the vehicle qualifying for both rental agencies. And I think there was a previous question in the Hertz forum about the Lacrosse.

A lot of the Hertz LaCrosses also have the driver confidence package, which adds active hid lights, blind spot indicators, and heads up display.

I've at least twice received touring level LaCrosses from Hertz, and after driving one of these purely luxurious vehicles every future premium car rental will be thoroughly disappointing for you!

(At 27, add me to the list of kids that doesn't want to wait for retirement to buy a Buick thanks to this car!)

I find it odd that rental agencies will buy fully optioned Lacrosses, while other PCAR vehicles like Maximas generally come in only base trim.

Maybe they get a special fleet discount on Buicks?

You almost have to wonder if Buick writes the discount off as a marketing expense. I used to like Maximas, but now they are my most dreaded premium car since it competes head-to-head with the likes of a well-equipped LaCrosse.

Trying to pass a cloth-interior Maxima that has a slushy CVT and lousy stereo as a premium car is a bad play, IMHO.

I'd very much like to rent a Lincoln with the full THX II stereo suite- the audio is supposed to be quite impressive.

The Harman Kardon setup in Buicks is among the best audio systems I've heard (auto or otherwise), but I just looked up the specs on the Lincoln THX audio:
Sold!

I ask a station manager a couple of years ago why so many differant levels of Lacrosses. He said that Hertz does not own those cars. (turnbacks) After Hertz puts 15,000 to 20,000 miles on them they are sent to surrounding dealers and sold as program cars. That way people have a choice of how much they want to spend on buying a car with differant trim levels.

As usual a very good review.
I recently had the opportunity to rent this car for 2 weeks from Hertz. Most of your observations are spot on. The car also had a Heads up Display which was pretty cool to have and navigation which tells you where and when to turn next on the windscreen.
Extremely comforatble seats
Things I did not like were the fact that the navigation system was painful and not intuitive. For example there was no option for changing the keyboard layout to qwerty... and the address entry was cumbersome and slow. No option to put in dashes '-' which are very commonly used in Canada.
Also changing the speedo to metric changes everything including HVAC temperature etc.... This is very different from the Chrysler 300s information display unit which gives you more options on what to change on the dash and the center console. The Bi-Xenon headlamps were fantastic but I wish they added led driving lamps like many up scale manufacturers.
The keys did not have a proximity sensor and there was no sunroof.
I also noticed that your rental had ventilated seats and steering heaters which my rental did not have.
The automatic ventilation re circulation was a very cool touch that I noticed in the BMWs to keep out odors etc.Nice touch
Also wish it had storage compartments in the center stack. As the armrest storage isn't that large.
Averaged around 24 at mostly highway driving.
Pretty decent car and far better than buicks of the recent past.

gabrielsreign, did you rent the Lacrosse as part of your engagement trip you mentioned a few months ago?