A Question and More Points

Edited on 1/3/2013 to correct numbers.

Question posted by mike12verano on BuickForums.com, "could you give a few details? state of your car when you traded? miles etc. how much did you get on your trade. How much was the turbo? if you do not mind."

Without going into too much detail about my financial situation...

MSRP on the '13 Premium was $33,200. Due to the rarity of fully-equipped Premium's in this area right now, the dealer also had $2,125 ADM tacked on for a total of $35,325. This claimed to include paint sealer and all-weather mats, a bit of a joke.

I got my fully-equipped '12 Leather for $28,800.  I had it for 7 months (the first month which didn't include a payment) and only got $21,000 on trade.  My monthly payments were NOT $1,000 - you do the math, I carried some negative equity.

After all was said and done I got the '13 Premium for $31,000 -- this included a $500 Credit Union discount.  They also provided me an over-allowance on my base trade-in value to bring me within LTV lending guidelines for my financier (due to negative equity).

In the end, my monthly payments only went up $29 and of course renewed my finance term. No big deal.  All the additional features are more than worth $29/month to me.

This particular time I went with a Purchase deal and not a Lease. I am a huge fan of Leases and in a lot of cases they are more cost-effective than a Purchase, but when I ran the numbers this time the Lease was actually about $850 more costly over the same term and also would have required money down, whereas the Purchase order this time required $0 out of pocket.

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Few more things I've noticed:

• SRC button now longer takes you direct to Now Playing from wherever you are, this kind of annoys me. You now have to hit HOME then click Now Playing to get back to that. SRC actually *immediately* switches to the next source (AM/FM/XM, etc.) versus before I could swear it would first pop-up the menu, then switch.
• Maybe this is an Intellilink feature and not "new", but to me it is "new" because Intellilink wasn't available with Navigation last year. You can dial contacts from your phonebook *without* having to enter them into the car first. It will do intelligent matching based on your voice commands.
• This may also not be "new" (see above), but it is new to me. You can say, "Verbose Off" as a command and it will turn off the robot-lady's long-winded explanation of things when you're doing voice commands and will drop you straight into the *beep* to indicate it is time to talk.
• I reset my Average MPG counter and did some city driving yesterday, ended up at 18.3MPG. Not terrible for City (my Infiniti got 14ish), but a tad less than the advertised 20. Then again, this was me flooring it all the time.  Highway MPG's remains 25+ and since that constitutes roughly 70-80 percent of my driving, this is fine by me!

2013 Verano Turbo Suspension

Per a variety of sources, but mainly http://gmauthority.com - the 2013 Verano Turbo's suspension is 20% stiffer.

Yes, this does change the ride in comparison to other Veranos, but to me it is a worthwhile change.  It isn't really all that substantial and the car just "feels" a lot more connected and stable.

Day 3 - A couple more pictures

Handle: http://i.imgur.com/5oyYd.jpg

Rear-end with wing and dual-exhaust and turbo emblem: http://i.imgur.com/rOHgG.jpg

Day 2 with the new 2013 Verano Turbo

Here are some pictures of XM background which I found cool (maybe the '12 Intellilink had this, but I don't know).  As well as the wireless bluetooth pulling album art and the new separately-colored ignition button.

• https://www.dropbox.com/s/p6fak96fdrojd2x/WP_20121230_002.jpg
• https://www.dropbox.com/s/g73mr12qeklnhk4/WP_20121230_003.jpg
• https://www.dropbox.com/s/5i3ivpypu65ajol/WP_20121230_004.jpg
• https://www.dropbox.com/s/5dhe4rsogh1qolv/WP_20121230_005.jpg

Some other things I've noticed both good/neutral/bad:

• Tone is no longer a dash button, but is a shortcut on the Home panel.  At first I thought, "Oh, nice, they finally centralized it".  But no, Bluetooth/FM/XM all still have separate Tone profiles, so placing that shortcut on Home is actually kind of unintuitive.
• My bluetooth driver must suck on my rooted/customized Android phone, because sometimes it either 1) stops playing, 2) disconnects, 3) gets my phone stuck in a state where the screen won't go off, or 4) forgets it's playing music and doesn't power the subs for bass.
• I am going to transfer my music over to my Lumia 920 Windows phone and try again tomorrow (I may also try the USB approach, I noticed when I plug my phone in by USB it tries to scan for music under the guise of "Windows Vista" capable phone, so maybe this would work too).
• Worst case scenario, I go back to AUX, no big deal, except I liked the album art and being able to seek tracks with the steering wheel.
• The navigation is superb, maybe it is just updated for my area, but for most of where I went today it not only showed me arrows, but showed me actual lane depictions when approaching intersections (like highway exit depictions, only more detailed).  I would love to get a picture of this for you, but kind of dangerous to do while driving so this will have to wait until I have a passenger.  A lot of this helped me prepare better for turns because I could better anticipate where to be lane-wise.  Don't kill me, but I never used the nav voice on my '12, in fact, it was the first thing I turned off.  I used it today on the '13 and I was surprised that it told me what lane to "bear" in to in preparation for the next turn, super handy (can't comment on whether the '12 did that or not, of course).
• One downside to the nav I noticed...in the '12 I could turn off the Voice Prompts in Config and with nav running my music would play just fine.  In the '13, with Voice Prompts off, it still quiets the music/makes it click when a voice prompt would have occurred.  This isn't a *huge* deal because my Infiniti's both did this as well, but I was really excited when my '12 *didn't* and was sad to see this disappear.  OTOH, this could be another oddity with my bluetooth issues, so I will report back after trying AUX, USB, and/or bluetooth with my other phone in the next day or two.
• I was expecting a significant drop in MPG's with this Turbo model.  My '12 averaged 24-26.  I drove a bit over 80 city/highway miles today (sometimes a little more aggressively because I was enjoying the turbo), and I am seeing an average of 25.2mpg right now.  This makes me pretty happy (if you'll remember, I was getting 18.7 - 19.2 on my Infiniti, so I see 25.2 as a welcome improvement).
• I think the engine is quieter when sitting idle.  It could be because it is the 2.0L turbo, though, and this isn't really a big deal because inside the car you don't hear it.  I only ever noticed when remote starting.
• Blind spot monitor actually saved me during a lane change today, I just did not see a motorcyclist, even after checking my blind-spot manually.  But the light was on, and even though my instinct was to trust my own eyes versus technology, I said screw it and stayed in my lane.  1-2 seconds later, the motorcycle zoomed into view.  That could have been bad.  If I never use the blind spot monitor ever again, ever, that one incident still made it totally worth it.
• There were a couple of complaints about the bass being too high in the '12, even when turned down, and even with the volume down.  I'd say it is much more even in the '13, and listening to the same songs as before I actually felt like something was missing.  In turn, I cranked up the bass under Tone, to each their own, but I thought some would be happy to know that has been smoothed out.  Now let's hope that rear speaker cover doesn't come lose and vibrate on this model too :P

I need to remember to check if that "running over an aluminum can" sound still happens at ~13mph. *mental note*

Traded 2012 Verano Leather for 2013 Verano Premium

I just traded my 2012 Verano Leather with nav, split multi-spoke wheels, and sunroof for a 2013 Verano Premium with nav, intellilink, all-weathers, cargo net, sunroof, and split multi-spoke wheels. Both automatic. Both diamond white tricoat.

Yup, I liked my Verano *that* much.

It was this or a Cadillac ATS. I chose this, because I would have had to pay over $50k for an ATS + more to re-do the exhaust, wheels/tires, and custom work to insulate it for road noise. With the Buick I get a personally preferred exhaust/wheels/tires right out of the box + most ATS features, for a MUCH lower price tag.

Notable additions that drove my decision, with comments:

Intellilink available with Nav
--I love being able to wirelessly play music without an aux cable.
--It pulls album art/song name and displays on-screen!
--Pandora!
--Movie showtimes (I don't know yet if this is using my phone or using OnStar).
--NOTE: The navigation is no longer loaded from an SD Card in the center console. I don't know what this means in terms of upgrades or upgrade cost. OTOH, the navigation experience loads a lot faster now, which is nice. Or maybe the SD Card slot is somewhere else on the car now? If so, I haven't found it.

Refined UI
--The UI seems...clearer. The font is nicer.
--The nav looks much more detailed.
--Options are a little better organized, only slightly so.
--Overall it seems a lot more responsive.

Turbo and performance
--I always missed the power of my V6 Infiniti G37x. Now I essentially have it, with better MPG.
--The transmission seems more refined from 2012, it seems to shift more like when I would shift it as a Manual.
--The suspension is tighter, but not uncomfortably so, turns just seem less "floaty". I sense less body roll and I don't bottom out as easily going in and out of steep driveways.
--Steering is more responsive and I like the extra degree that I feel connected to the car. It is just enough sport edge, while maintaining the luxury-journey feel.
--The brakes seem a little nicer as well, I don't know for a fact if they are, and maybe its just the mechanisms behind the now chrome sport pedals, but they seem tighter.

Dual-exhaust
--Last summer I was going to shell out $1,000 for custom work to give my '12 Verano Leather a dual-exhaust appearance. Now I don't have to.
--It has a much more guttural exhaust note/tone now, I like it.
--It seems to have *less* exhaust "smoke" on a cold start-up, maybe its placebo. But pulling UP and out of my driveway on cold mornings I would actually have to stop periodically and let the smoke or whatever it is clear. Maybe it is just because there are two pipes and it dissipates faster.

Blind spot, cross traffic, back-up camera monitoring
--I missed the back-up camera from my Infiniti's, this is much appreciated because I suck at parallel parking and I have a long driveway that I back out of.
--I've never owned a car with Blind Spot alert, it is actually really nice. I drive on the freeway a lot each day and do a lot of lane-changes just to get where I'm going and this extra level of protection is nice.
--I've never owned a car with cross traffic alerts. At the end of my driveway, though, this should be helpful "just in case". Better safer than sorry.

Smart key
--The smart-key system is better on this. The 2012 didn't always recognize touches, it was also a white square that stood out from the door handles. It also had a bad delay. This new one fixes all that by using a chrome-color-matched button that not only has the benefit of tactile feedback, but also seems to respond instantaneously.

Misc.
--Rear-spoiler is a nice addition.
--The start button is now a silver color to give it contrast from the dash. This is actually a welcome addition, when valets or friends would drive my car, it took them FOREVER to find the start button.
--Glove box top shelf is now removable, but as such, also doesn't seem to stay put as well. Also, it doesn't hold pens the same way and for the particular pen I was keeping there, it doesn't exactly fit. Not a big deal, but again, thought I'd mention it.
--Still "Buick-quiet". As much more connected to the road as this feels, the cabin is still nice and quiet. I commute A LOT and this is a necessity for me.
--The horn sounds different...maybe its just me? It sounds more succinct.
--They gave me all-weather floor mats to go with my carpeted ones. Much appreciated, especially here in the pacific NW.
--Where the heck did my Tone button go?? Probably buried somewhere in options.
--My Verano Leather had a weird issue where lowest brightness would make the dashboard lights flicker. Seems fixed on this.
--The turn signal is a little easier to flip.
--Same split multi-spoke 18's. These are hands-down one of the best looking factory wheels on a car I've ever seen. I really like them. It's these: http://i.imgur.com/rXItb.jpg

Things I wish I still, but aren't a huge deal
--Color-keyed trunk button...on/near the trunk itself
--Lumbar seat adjustment
--Front parking sensors (I will probably add these myself aftermarket in the future)

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All the benefits below and after trade-in and a variety of other discounts, I am only paying $29 more a month.

Totally. Worth. It

Remote Start - Love It

I know a lot of cars these days have this remote start feature on their premium models.  But this is the first car I have owned with it (neither of my Infiniti's had it).

I love it.  It was ~100 degrees today and I knew my car would be a scorcher, so while I was finishing getting ready to leave (putting on clothes/feeding the cat), I started it from my house.

By the time I got out to my car and in it, it was icy cool inside. Yay!

Furthermore, I was at the store and my friend wanted to wait in the car, despite the 100 degree heat and a warning, he insisted. Well, about 5 minutes later I got a text saying, "omg its hot". I remote started the car for fun (from inside the store!) and shortly after got another text, "ty" (thank you).

Just like to say that for future vehicle purchases, I just might have to make this a hot button feature to shop for.  I love it!

Blown rear sub :(

I have never turned the volume past 20 (which is still I think less than half of the total max volume).  I generally keep it on 12.

Just passed 5000 miles and it appears my left rear sub-woofer (up near the rear window) is blown.  Unless the song I'm listening to has very little bass or I turn the bass way down via Tune - it makes terrible vibration/buzz/rattle noises.

At first I thought it was just loose and bouncing around, but accessing it from the trunk proves that it is mounted quite solidly in there so it must be blown.

Sad day. :(

2012 Buick Verano - Months Later

No qualms.  No additional issues.

I am approaching 4000 miles and have not had anything break or malfunction.  No rattles or squeaks have surfaced.  Just as great as the day I got it.  This is my commuter car and my daily driver.  On the odd nice day or weekend, I drive a 2002 Honda S2000.

They are both great cars.

But...I just caught wind of the new 2013 Buick Verano Turbo...

Intellilink available with Navigation?  Yes please.

Back-up camera?  Yes please.

250 horsepower and 260 ft-lb torque?  Yes please.

Blind spot alert?  Yes please.

Honestly, I'm giving serious thought to trading-up when this new Verano comes out.  That is how much I like the Verano, but also how much I wouldn't mind paying a little extra for those additional features.

Hope everyone out there is enjoying their Verano as much as I am!

Long trip experience

Well.  I've had my Buick Verano for over 1000 miles now.  I just got back from a 2-day trip of sorts that had bouts of 2 hour long drives.

Still having issues with back comfort.  But that aside...

Car handled well.  Smooth ride.  Would do it again.  For the price, the car is a gem.  In terms of ride quality and some features I'd say it's easily worth $5000 more.  Sure, there are a ton of nuances missing or oddly implemented, but for the most part they're easily not worried about.  And that statement is coming from someone who is an extremely picky consumer.

My only beef right now is that on highways or rough roads, the seatbelt height adjustments rattled - on both sides.  It is weird to me that Buick spent all this time on NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) and then put these seemingly flimsy plastic on plastic in plastic seatbelt height adjustments in the B pillar. Don't get me wrong, I love seatbelt height adjustments, but I've never before had issues with one rattling in previous cars.

My solution:  Turn the radio up.  But I shouldn't have to do this.  I will probably try fitting some tan-colored (my car interior is coccachino) felt dots inside to stop the plastic-on-plastic rattling.

So overall, I would label that trip a success.  I also like the car.  I really can't wait until the Turbo model, though, if only for the factory dual-exhaust.  I'm an odd stickler for symmetry and looking at the car from the back is jarring (not to mention my trunk still doesn't close in perfect alignment).

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As noted on a couple of forums, if you're switching too quickly between AM/FM <-> XM stations, the menu pointed seems to get completely dropped.  The station will still play, but you will have no visibly selected channel, and when you go to select one, no matter where you were before, you go back to #1.  No big deal really, and probably something that can be remedied in a future software bug.  I'd definitely say its not as bad as Infiniti's terribly inconsistent steering wheel controls for menu items that aren't actually a bug, but just an extremely poorly designed feature that they have no plans of "fixing".

Just to prove it's probably just me...

Here's an article about the Buick Verano's seat R&D:  http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/buick/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Oct/1018_verano

Here's an article where someone has driven it across a state and his back was just fine:  http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/autos/the-daily-drivers-buick-verano-is-quiet-in-a-good-way/1215611

It seriously just must be me.  I really am sad about this.  I want to love the car, but my body is just screaming "no!"

Buick Verano, a little over a week later...

New positives:

• If you adjust the windshield wiper speed faster and they aren't mid-swing, they will swing.  This is perfect given that I usually know I need to adjust it faster when I'm approaching no-visibility.  Also, adjusting the speed *down* doesn't cause them to wipe.  Also perfect, since I generally do that when the windshield is drying up.  Nice touch.
• Remotely starting the car does not turn off as soon as a door is opened.  This is different than, say, Toyota's which actually shut off as soon as a handle is pulled.  I prefer it.  Keep in mind, you can't drive off until you sit in the car with the key and push the power button anyway - so the car is still safe.
• Average fuel economy has dropped from around 26-27 to 24.6 right now.  Still better than my previous car which averaged 19.2.
• Heated seats and steering wheel heat up *fast*.  My Infiniti took minutes upon minutes, especially on a cold day.  These tend to heat up practically before I leave a parking lot.
• The way the doors shut.  It's smooth and solid.  I shouts stability and refinement, and I like it.
• The factory tinting to the windows is nice.

Some negatives:

• Navigation, Weather, Traffic, etc. cannot be operated unless the radio unit is turned ON.  So the only way to use the touch-screen features (including access to any options) is to have the radio on.  If you don't want it on, you have to turn the volume to 0 or press the mute button to continue operation.  When the radio goes off, so do the touch-screen features.
• As previously mentioned, you also cannot dim the touchscreen independent from the other dash back-lighting.  For me, the perfect nighttime touchscreen brightness is unfortunately at the same all the dash/meter back-lights go completely out.  Not exactly ideal.
• The left/right blinker switch is too stiff.  Maybe I am not used to GM vehicles in general (I come from Toyota, Mazda, Infiniti, MItsubishi) - but it takes quite a bit of force to click it on to signal.
• Voice commands related to navigation, weather, and traffic relate to and only work with OnStar.  For example, if I say "traffic" I would expect to go to the XM Traffic menu, but infact, it dials up OnStar.  If I say, "cancel route" while using the touchscreen navigation, it will say there is no route because it is expecting to cancel an OnStar Turn-by-Turn route.  There is no way to configure these commands, thus, they are useless for my use case.
• Hardly any cup holders!  Might not be a big deal for some, but there are only two for the front and two for the back (and only if the middle armrest is down).
• The "joystick" you think might be used to navigate menus is a useless addition.  The reason being, you can't push it in to select things.  It also doesn't let you navigate menus.  In fact, the only thing I've figured out that it does is let you move around the crosshairs while viewing the map.  Also, the dial surrounding it can be used to select things (versus pushing the joystick itself in), but it is recessed so pushing it in to select takes a little finesse while driving.

Oddity:  There's a black knob on the dash panels that one would normally use to cycle through the various informative screens near the speedometer - however - this doesn't cycle.  In fact, its only purpose so far seems to be to clear or reset whatever screen you're on.  The funky part about that is that to get to those various screens you use the left steering column lever buttons, which also includes a clear button.  I can't for the life of me figure out if there is a point to that extra knob.

Possible goodbye:

Unfortunately, the back pain is actually starting to become unbearable.  The aches have become shooting pains.  And whereas they would go away shortly after exiting the car and walking around, they're now sticking with me for hours.  This is despite attempts at using a lumbar cushion and a bottom-seat ergonomic cushion.  I sit while at home and work, and experience 0 pain.  5-10 minutes into driving this car now, the pain becomes...well...painful.

This is likely going to be a deal-breaker for me.  Tomorrow I am going to look into possible service options to remedy this.  But to be honest I think I just want to walk away.  As such, I am also going to look at another car and, depending on how the numbers work out, I may be saying good bye to the Buick Verano.

Don't get me wrong.  For its price and class, it really shines.  I would definitely recommend this car to people (granted they aren't as seat-picky as me).  But I bought this car for myself, to use as a commuter vehicle, and I since can't go 5-10 minutes in it without feeling like I've just been beat in the back with a bat, I think it has to go.  As much as I like the car and want to love it, it just doesn't seem like it is going to work out.

It has been fun.

Buick Verano - A few more things...

Seat is still terribly uncomfortable.  Will probably end up using a towel or pillow until I can find a shop willing to pad the seat some more.  Hopefully, future Verano models address this by adding up/down tilt to the rear part of the seat, as well as lumbar adjustment.

Auto-dimming rear view mirror is top notch!  It is more sensitive and faster to change than my Infiniti G37x was.  There were many times headlights were shining in my eyes and the Infiniti mirror didn't seem to do anything.  Have yet to have that issue with the Verano's.

Tinted strip along the top of the windshield is a nice addition.

Car has a rough shift point around 21mph both when accelerating and when braking, nothing too bothersome.

Shortly after starting the car, as I'm driving away, I always hear a weird mechanical crumple.  I'm not sure what it is - I assume something or other is engaging, but its definitely a really awkward sound.  In other cars its barely audible, this almost sounds like I ran over a few aluminum cans.  Every single time.  I actually thought I accidentally hit something the first time I noticed it.  Might mention it to service next time I'm in and get a better explanation.

I've dropped down to about 25.6mpg.  Not complaining though.

2012 Buick Verano - Day Three

Climate control only let's you adjust in increments of 2.  Or, even numbers.  This may be an issue for some, but I love it because I have a weird aversion to odd numbers.

Still not liking the fit/angle of the seat.  May need to go the DIY route and fix it with a towel or something.  Perhaps look into aftermarket covers or modifications that add padding.  Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Seems to be a weird rpm blip around 21mph when downshifting while braking (meaning you're slowing down faster than maybe it expects).  Not a big deal, may give tip-shift a try and see if I can narrow it down.

Blind spot of A-pillar bothering me less.

Still averaging about 26mpg!

Buick Verano Forums

Buick Verano Forums I currently frequent:

• 2012 Buick Verano Forum (Excelle) - Buick Forums
• Verano Talk Forums : Buick Verano Forums
• Buick Verano Forum

2012 Buick Verano First Impressions

I have owned a new 2012 Buick Verano for about 2 days now and I'd like to share first impressions.  However, I'm sure I will have more to add or change as time goes on.

First off, I am coming from a 2011 Infiniti G37x AWD Sedan with Premium/Navigation packages.  What I was looking for in my next car was to lower my overall debt and monthly payment without sacrificing too much in the way of features.  As I commute roughly 50 miles or more a day, bonuses would be an increase in gas mileage and ride quality.

I also wanted to get away from Infiniti's god-awful 7AT transmission which has been noted by numerous reviewers as well as Infiniti themselves in a public statement.  It tries to mesh luxury journey shift timings with high-performance sport timings, and fails miserably.  You're in 4th at 35mph, so stop-and-go traffic and city cruising are non-stop lurches and shifts.  At around 23mph, the car does some weird things where it engine brakes when you hit the gas or lags for a little over a full second and does nothing.  Really awkward when accelerating out of corners or in stop-and-go traffic.  I had it serviced for the above 3 times and wrote a letter to Infiniti corporate, the response was always something akin to "it is what it is" and "that's just how the 7AT works".  Keep in mind that a high-gear transmission doesn't have to suck - Chrysler has an 8AT with a 9AT on the way, and its smooth as butter.  A web search for Infiniti 7AT issues will yield multiple forums with hundreds and hundreds of posts with users complaining of the same thing.  It isn't just me.

I paid around $41,000 for my fully equipped G37x brand new pretty much when they first came out.  Not the best deal, but I was rolling some negative equity which offset any savings on the car's actual price.  My credit was not the greatest at the time and I was financed for 72 months at 5.49% to net a payment of about $670/month.  I was also paying roughly $60/week in Premium gas and getting an average 19.2mpg mixed city/hwy.  Range was roughly 360 miles on a 20 gallon tank.

Features I really wanted to keep:

• Heated seats
• Leather seats
• Turn by turn navigation
• Dual climate control
• Good sound system

Other cars I considered and why I didn't go with them:

• Lexus IS250 AWD
• What I liked:
• Ventilated seats!
• Turning circle of 34.8 ft.  Better than the roughly 36 ft of my G37x.
• Lexus brand reputation which thus far in my experience has been a reputation of reliability and stability.
• What I disliked:
• Price.  For safety and handling, and not sportiness, I would have wanted either FWD or AWD.  In general, I dislike FWD, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.  The Lexus IS line does not offer a FWD model, thus I only felt comfortable with AWD and going with AWD and the features I wanted I was already north of $42,000.
• The size of the left/right control parts of the steering wheel.  Because of how I sometimes hold the steering wheel, I like to curl my index/middle finger and thumb around that part.  However, the Lexus is fat in that area and it was uncomfortable to do that.
• 22mpg combined fuel economy.
• Lexus reliability was lower than Buick/Jaguar.  What?  Yes.  I learned that Buick and even Jaguar in a lot of reliability ratings scored higher than Lexus over the last couple of years.  I am still unsure what I think about this, honestly, but it was definitely interesting to hear.
• Infiniti G25x AWD
• What I liked:
• Pretty much the exact same car if I wanted it to be.
• What I disliked:
• Little to no gain in gas mileage (only 1mpg more).  In loaner G25x's I'd driven, I was getting a combined 20.4mpg.
• Price approaching $40,000.
• Infiniti's god-awful 7AT transmission.
• 2012 Camry Hybrid XLE
• What I liked:
• Better road noise and wind noise versus prior Camry's.
• Technology dream, it made driving a fun game.
• Amazing fuel economy.  I got a combined 38mpg in my test drive.  Reviewers have noted getting as much as 48mpg.
• Price fully-equipped ~$33,500 with discounts dealers were willing to give me.
• Blind-spot monitor.
• What I disliked:
• Sound system was just mediocre.
• Premium navigation is impossible to find (then again, so is a fully equipped Verano, right now).
• Wheel well road noise was weird.  Ride was generally pleasant, but when I would drive over water or a puddle I could hear it splashing as if my window was rolled down.  It was odd.
• 2012 Kia Optima SX Turbo
• What I liked:
• Feature rich.  Everything I wanted and more.
• Fully-equipped with dealer discounts and manufacturer rebates, I could get it fully-equipped for around $30,000.
• Gas mileage was nice, despite very little sacrifice in Horsepower/Torque.
• Styling.  I really like the new Kia.
• What I disliked:
• Steering wheel was plastic and super slippery.  On the test drive, I messed up a couple turns because it flat out slipped out of my hands.
• Head room is oddly off.  I'm short, 5'4, and my head hit the ceiling if I was sitting up extra straight while parallel parking or something.  I felt cramped in the driver seat despite my tiny stature.
• Brakes felt like stepping on a balloon.  Way too squishy.  I had a few super sudden stops on the test drive because I couldn't for the life of me gauge the brake feedback, and had to slam them to avoid slamming the car in front of me.
• Learning Kia is owned by the same company as Hyundai.  I have a visceral dislike of Hyundai.  It's probably entirely unfounded, but every recent-year Hyundai I've driven has been a bad experience and every Hyundai dealer I've dealt with has been blatantly unprofessional.
• Other cars in similar class:  Probably not even given a thorough consideration due to dislike of brand or overall car styling.  More than happy to provide feedback on a particular Make/Model if someone asks.

Now, the 2012 Buick Verano.  New model for the 2012 model year for Buick.


What I got:  Fully-loaded 2012 Buick Verano with a Diamond White Tricoat exterior and Coccachino 2-tone interior.


What I like:

• Price.  Fully equipped I was looking at about $30,000 MSRP. 
• Requires only regular gas, instead of Premium like the G37x.
• Range better than the G37x on only a 15.6 gallon tank (versus 20 gallons).  Not bad!
• Styling (except for one piece), not too shabby.  Hood scoop things are a little cheesy.
• Brakes seemed to provide feedback on-par with my Infiniti and leagues ahead of the Kia Optima.  Other reviewers have mentioned the brakes feel mushy, but at least for the two Verano's I've driven I have not noticed this at all.
• 15.6 cu-ft trunk space.  Up from 13.5 cu-ft.  I can fit my golf clubs and then some quite easily.
• 18" factory Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires with the packages I chose.  Up from the Eagle RSA 17's on my Infiniti which looked too small and offered a terrible ride (again, any forum search will yield how much people hate those tires), the Buick's fit the car nicely and offer a nice blend of grip and quiet ride.
• Ride quality.  So quiet.  So smooth (except for speeding over speed bumps...).  Granted, I'm coming from a car meant to offer sporty performance.
• Let me elaborate on this a little.  It's not just the pure decibel rating of the noise or the "quietness" of the noise that sets the Verano apart.  Because, you can still hear things.  What's interesting, but hard for me to explain, is that the noise you hear is easy to ignore.  It's...muffled, but not gone.  Audible, but not always quiet.  But seems to only ever be in a frequency range that you just easily drown out, ignore, or don't care about.  It's like they took the jarring highs and lows and compressed them down to a low quality MP3, then played it back under water.
• Auxiliary port.  For some reason most cars these days that offer Bluetooth and/or USB connectivity, disregard the auxiliary port entirely.  The Buick doesn't.  Good.
• Gas mileage.  So far I am getting a combined 26mpg up from 19.2mpg.  Not too shabby.
• Remote start via keyfob up to 200ft away or cellphone even farther.  Very cool.
• Bose sound system seems to be on-par with the sound system I had in the Infiniti.  With the addition of a Mid-range tone adjustment.

What I dislike:

• The chrome-ish things that extend out PAST the tail lights and onto the trunk.  They look weird.  Also, the trunk doesn't really shut or sit perfectly (depending on the weather I guess, because of the padding inside).  Thus, where the chrome piece goes from the left/right rear of the car and out over the trunk doesn't always line up perfectly.  And it is noticeable (to me).
• No brightness adjustment for the screen independent from the interior lighting.  The screen is the right brightness to me when at its lowest setting.  But at its lowest setting, the backlights for the console keys go off completely and then I can't see those.
• Due to my short stature, if I sit comfortably, I can't use the center console storage as an arm-rest because it is too far behind me.  Darn.
• You can't adjust when the heated seats/steering wheel turn on via remote start.  It appears to only be sub 45F degree temperatures, when I would probably prefer to set it at sub-60.  Personal preference.
• Noise from the trunk area of the car seems louder than the rest of the car.  I may look into Dynamat-ing it to see if it reduces that.  It isn't bad by any means, but seems oddly inconsistent with the sound-dampening of the rest of the car.
• No lumbar adjustment.  This is actually killing me.  After a 70 mile drive yesterday my lower back hurt like crazy.  I'm going to experiment with height/angle/steering wheel adjustments and see if I can lessen or eliminate this without needing to go buy something like a pillow to keep in the car.
• The left A-pillar is an incredibly terrible blind spot.  It's thick, large, and always in your face.  I find myself leaning left and leaning forward and to the right to constantly look around it.  It seems for most of the places I go, it is in the perfectly wrong spot to block exactly the things or places I need to see.  Aside from the non-existence of a lumbar adjustment, this is probably my biggest gripe with the car.
• No back-up camera.  This seems like it would have been an easy thing to add and would not have cost *that* much extra.  It is one of the bigger things I miss from the Infiniti.  I am going to look into possible aftermarket solutions (anyone have recommendations?)

And there we have it so far.  I will report more as time goes on.