I think for a luxury brand such as Lexus or BMW or MB etc etc, leather or real wood should be standard. And they sure as hell should not be charging extra for it. Buick and Toyota with their Avalon, a bit of a different story.

 

I agree they won't get rid of it anytime soon. I just question if the discounts by GM and Buick will get out of hand. They already kinda of are

 

For reasons which we have discussed at length, over a number of posts, real leather is not necessarily better than the fake stuff. Same with the fake wood, if it is done well enough. Of course, there are some exceptions, like the M-B-Tex, which appears to be little more than simple vinyl.

 

 

The traverse is a bread and butter vehicle. Everyone here has to know at least 3 people who have one. One of my friends swears by GM, and again, he said he got his moneys worth out of his extended warranty because many things have broken. From memory, rear AC evap, AC condenser, all actuators for the hvac, rear hatch arm, steering rack at 20k, power steering, he actually says that when you factor in the price, huge discount, and a $2,000 warranty, for all the room it has, he feels it's worth it. I get where he's coming from. When I go on cars.com, there are Enclaves approaching 200k, so it can be done with some maintenance. I'm just curious that if it's still worth it without the size advantage. Seriously, a family of 5 can put very little into the Pilots of the world, but they can still manage with Traverse and Enclave sized vehicles...he also said it gets 12-14 on a bad day of stop and go. Seems like the new decouple technology and start stop could easily bump that up by 2 mpg or more.

 

Omission of rain-sensing wipers in this class of vehicle is inexcusable; as would any rationale that they "don't want to compete with Cadillac". My '12 CX-9 has them. Silly.

 

 

Not just in a Lacrosse, but I'm stating that, in general, IMO, fake stuff (IF it is done well), is preferable to the real stuff. The fake leather may not smell as nice, but it does not dry and crack as easily with age, usually doesn't need special preservatives (though some occasional treatments with Armor-All or an equivalent liquid certainly won't hurt), and is usually easier to clean if Junior isn't very careful with his or her ice-cream cone, or if Fido decides to shed some of that winter fur.

Now.......would I take the fake stuff over the old Buick interiors, with the Velour/velvet cloth and pillow-soft padding? Well.........................I'll let you figure that one out for yourself.

 

 

For MY purposes, yes. But, given the choice, I'd still prefer the old-style Buick velvet-cloth.

 

 

They can have their own opinions. I have mine. And bit has his.

That's not to say I don't respect other reviewers....I certainly do, particularly Alex Dykes, and, to a lesser extent, John Davis of Motorweek. But, in the end, I evaluate a vehicle myself.

 

 

That's where you and I are (apparanty) going to disagree. While Lexus does, as you say, use nice real leather, IMO the NuLuxe fake stuff is just as good (or virtually as good)....at a lower price. That has NOT been the case, though, with some of the German fake stuff...particularly the Mercedes MB-Tex.

 

at least it still has an actual shift lever.


but at the end of the day it's still a GM product..