Buick Verano - On death row

[Obelisk]

The parcel shelf is there to hide what you have in the boot for day-to-day use. If you need the huge cargo area, leave the shelf at home and you're good to go. BTW every hatchback/wagon has a parcel shelf or a blind.




I don't know. In my country people buy more wagons.

Let's agree to disagree and chalk this up to cultural differences, shall we? We're cluttering this thread.

 

[SagarisGTB]

2. Limousine is just what VW calls their sedan.

As an aside, "Limousine" is simply german for sedan/saloon/berlina etc.. In english, "Limousine" means a luxury saloon/sedan, often with the driver/chauffeur compartment being physically separated from the passenger compartment. A stretched limousine is a version of this that is stretched in the middle for additional passenger space.

 

[Crash]

As a single point in the large dataset of vehicle owners and vehicle use cases, on a day to day basis, I'll rather have a sedan than a hatch/wagon. I regularly have valuables with me, and the ability to lock that in the trunk completely separately and inaccessible from the passenger cabin is an additional peace of mind that I vastly prefer over just a parcel shelf or a cargo cover over the trunk area, but otherwise still accessible via the passenger cabin.

Agreed that wagons and hatches offer more cargo space, but frankly, I personally very rarely need it.

Now letting the thread move on back to the Buick Verano...

 

[Grandea GTR]

I got in a new Verano recently and...

The Center Console.

What were they thinking? It has to be, of all current-gen cars, one of the busiest center consoles I have ever seen.

Doesn't help that they decided to go the same route with the Cascada.

 

[Cale]

With the amount of features new cars have, you can either choose mass buttons, or annoying on screen menus.

 

[JC_Dude]

AFAIK the Verano and Cascada were based on the Opel Astra J, produced since 2009, and now replaced. That car also had a similar system.

To be honest I prefer something like this instead of a fully touch-operated infotainment system, but ideally I'd want something like BMW iDrive or Audi MMI.

 

[mustafur]

They really need to learn something off Mazda, The only Button I have on the centre console in my mazda 2 is the hazard lights the rest is done on either the Wheel or the iDrive like knob.

 

[YSSMAN]

Does anyone know if there will be a Verano replacement? If there is, I'm sure it will be another Opel-based car.

Going back to this for a moment...

I'd be willing to guess that, yeah, GM will probably replace the Verano with another compact very likely based on the new Astra. Although the luxury compact market isn't exactly exploding like the small SUVs have, I don't think GM would want to cede what sales they did have to the A3 and ILX right away. A more cohesive effort on the next Verano and Regal would go a long way to make them a very compelling alternative to Acura, Lexus, and so on. But, at the same time, with GM investing so much money into the new Cruze and Malibu, particularly in their Premier models, I'm wondering if they would argue that those are sufficive enough to be considered replacements for each at the moment.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

Sedans are excellent and functional cars. The main purpose of a sedan is to transport both people and cargo over distance, and hatchbacks/estates allow you to choose only one or the other AFAIK.

I drive a sedan to and from work and school, and I cart my friends around in it a lot. You can't do that in a hatchback because the rear legroom isn't good.

Right, I had a read of this thread and these two ridiculous statements stood out to me. A sedan inherently has less usable space than a hatchback, and to say otherwise is erroneous. If you look at interior volume specifications for cars which are offered in both sedan and hatchback form you will notice that the volumes are the same, apart from the cargo space. Hatchback versions of saloons don't have less space in the back seat, because the rear seats are in the same place. The differences start after the rear seats, not before.

You may be comparing small hatchbacks with larger saloons, which is an unfair comparison since the smaller hatchbacks have a smaller footprint and will naturally have less passenger space. It's important to note that smaller cars tend towards the hatchback form factor because it maximises the space yielded from a set footprint, whilst a sedan offers less usable space and so isn't a body style which can be easily applied to such cars without deterring buyers.


With regards to the Verano, at one time I quite liked this car. That was before I found out that it was essentially an Astra, a car which is middling at best.

 

[YSSMAN]

It's important to note that smaller cars tend towards the hatchback form factor because it maximises the space yielded from a set footprint, whilst a sedan offers less usable space and so isn't a body style which can be easily applied to such cars without deterring buyers.

Sedan culture in the US is very likely a weird byproduct of so many different factors, it is tough to pick out any one particular idea as a primary cause. I think the most straightforward one is of styling, where a lot of people seem to prefer the lines of a sedan versus that of a hatchback. Part of that probably comes from the wagon revolt in the '70s and '80s, as tastes shifted towards SUVs and minivans. I think there's also an argument to be made for a lot of people almost always having the "second car," whether it belonging to their spouse, or the truck/SUV that's used on the weekend for going camping/boating/etc. The Jetta/Bora has almost always outsold the Golf here, and that kind of market has pushed many-a-brand to slap together sedan versions of world cars like the Fiesta and Mazda 2 to satisfy American tastes.

It doesn't make us right, it doesn't make the rest of the world wrong, but it seems to be changing. I see more Focus and Fiesta hatchbacks compared to the sedan, sales of the Mazda 3 hatch have been stronger as of late, and it has forced GM to bring over the Cruze Hatch for this generation. I think young people appreciate the practicality of the design and layout, eliminating the need for a second "weekend car," and arguably better styling in many efforts these days.

With regards to the Verano, at one time I quite liked this car. That was before I found out that it was essentially an Astra, a car which is middling at best.

The Astra shouldn't make headlines here, but, it does. A good chassis is a good chassis, and sold as a Buick, it works quite well. That D2XX chassis should be pretty good as a replacement, should they do it. But, I wouldn't expect actual driving dynamics any time soon. If you want a fun "luxury" compact, I think the Honda Civic Touring is the way to go.