2010 Buick Lucerne - Safety Review and Crash Test Ratings

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The 2010 Buick Lucerne has crash-test scores that are decent-though not noteworthy in a positive sense-crash-test scores for such a large, overtly secure-feeling sedan. The 2010 Buick Lucerne features a wide range of protection, offering two-stage front-impact driver and front-impact passenger airbags with passenger sensing system, plus driver and right-front passenger side impact and front and rear outboard head curtain airbags standard on all models. A few corners are cut, however:; though traction control is standard on all models, stability control isn't available at all on CX models and is an optional upgrade on the standard CXL. The CXL Premium and Super feature stability control as standard, however. Similarly, only the two upper-end models are equipped with Buick's lane departure warning system and blind-spot obstacle detection are only equipped on the two upper-end models.

The 2010 Buick Lucerne earns four- and five-star ratings in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash tests, and "good" and "acceptable" ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for frontal and side crash protection, respectively-middling results at best considering the Lucerne's size and price.

Optional upgrades can help improve the situation, however. Cars.com points out the Lucerne's "Ultrasonic Rear Parking Assist and an electronic stability system" as examples, while noting that "six airbags are standard in all Buick Lucernes, including side-impact and side curtain airbags," plus "all-disc antilock brakes."

The higher-tech features such as lane departure warning and blind-spot detection are only "mildly useful," says AutoWeek, whose reviewers go on toalso note that "unlike the lane-departure system offered by Infiniti, the one Buick uses is not nearly as intrusive."