Well, I tells ya, you can never predict what the Minds of Marketing are thinking. Once you raise to the level of securing a huge contract like a major auto manufacturer you clearly know what you’re doing, so far be it from me to question their judgement. True, not every marketing plan works but my point is nothing like a new automobile goes on sale without a well-considered plan for its image. So the new Buick Lacrosse eAssist must surely have undergone careful scrutiny as to how GM wanted to promote its newest hybrid, and the decision they apparently made was to make the electrically-assisted powertrain almost invisible. I find this fascinating, because it’s a very sophisticated system and you’d think they’d want to advertise it all over the car. But, aside from a few instrument acknowledgments there’s nothing here to tell you there’s an electric motor powered by a 15 kW lithium-ion battery pack helping to boost fuel economy and lower emissions. Strange, that. But then again, there’s certainly nothing wrong with keeping a low profile I guess.

There’s a dandy engine stop feature that (when conditions allow it) shuts down the 182 horsepower 2.4-liter Inline Four at stops and then fires it back up immediately when you release the brakes. The electric motor can add as much as 15 horsepower during acceleration to boost performance, and I managed to get to 60 MPH in an average of around ten seconds. Other than a bit of weirdness on occasion from the 6-speed automatic transmission when coasting to a stop, all hybrid transitions are very smooth which help keep the presence of all that additional e-juju a secret.

The big car (they call it a midsize, but there’s tons of room in them there back seats) handles well and gone is the floaty Love Boat wallowing behavior of Buicks past. Overall the driving experience is quite pleasant, and you get the kind of pampering the nameplate is famous for, along with some very comfortable seating. The EPA fuel economy numbers are 25 MPG city, 36 highway but I only managed a mixed averaged of about 27.4 MPG. Not bad at all for a sedan like this, but not game-changing either. But the bottom line here is I enjoyed my week with the car a lot, and overall thought it was a pretty solid piece. Loaded with goodies like a Navigation System, our sticker came to $36,685.