With badge engineering gone and the new GM focusing on its four core brands, Buick has been making quite a splash, starting with the Enclave people/cargo hauler, followed by the plush, cavernous LaCrosse, then the Regal, the sportiest Buick in history, (plus the Regal GS in 2012), and now here comes the 2012 Verano.

 

The all-new Verano is Buick’s first luxury sedan designed to compete in the compact luxury segment, bringing premium features along with luxurious appointments. When compared on paper to comparably sized luxury vehicles, the Verano outshines them all as an amazing value. With its high-end features, premium media and connectivity, and a level of refinement unheard of in this segment until now, the loaded Verano is wrapped in a quiet, solid, and beautiful Buick body.

 

This Buick isn’t bland or boring in any way whatsoever. The Verano is like a cool buddy who brings over a box of hot pizza and refreshing soda unexpectedly when you’re famished & parched.  It’s hard to tire of people - or cars - like these, who seem to take pleasure in making our lives so much easier!

 

Design
The Verano team referred to their brainchild as a “baby LaCrosse”; we couldn’t agree more. This newborn babe’s styling is best described as tasteful, classy, yet unpretentious.

Designers took cues from the entire lineup, leaving nothing behind as a hint of “cost cutting” simply because this is the smallest Buick in the family. Verano sports Buick’s tri-shield logo proudly on the brand’s signature black chrome waterfall grille.

 

The 2012 Verano uses GM’s Delta platform, as does the Cruze, but that’s where the similarities end. The Verano has an entirely unique, suave, and stylish envelope of sheet metal dressing its beautifully engineered structure like a custom tailored Italian suit.

 

A translucent blue ring surrounds the projector beam headlights like a precisely ground contact lens, giving the Verano a modern, crystalline twinkle when illuminated. The happy face up front is matched with a long-eyebrow wink at its rear.

Besides looking cheap, steel wheels are noisy on harsh roads; back in the penny-pinching days of GM, they would’ve made it to the base trim level, but not anymore. Buick is serious about being the best premium brand, therefore 18-inch forged alloy wheels are standard, giving the Verano better ride/handling characteristics, while additionally improving road noise.

 

FtD
The Verano's naturally aspirated, direct-injected 2.4-liter, 180-horsepower four-cylinder engine serves up linear power all the way to its 6,700-rpm fuel cutoff. The engine feels like a completely appropriate and effective one for a car weighing in at about 3,400-pounds, at least in terms of power. It’s difficult to say how mileage panned out, as the Verano guided and mesmerized us through Oregon for hours of serene bliss on the most beautiful roads imaginable.

 

The Buick’s transmission felt highly refined in every situation: city acceleration, passing, and cruising up and down hills. It delivered quick upshifts and rev-matched downshifts, making this one of the better manual modes we’ve tested in a GM vehicle. Gently squeeze the throttle and you get a quick single-gear downshift. Push a little more and a surge of power arrives with barely a whisper from the engine compartment.

 

Steering feel has never been a strong point for Buicks, with the new Regal being an exception. Most of the time this was irrelevant, as Buicks weren't intended for fast driving, anyway. That wouldn't bode well with today’s luxury automobile, however, so the Verano has been tuned accordingly — and tuned very well. On our Fun to Drive measure, we found steering linear, with a good amount of feedback that was slightly on the soft edge but with plenty firmness to ensure we were in control of all situations.

 

This comes from both mechanical and electric pinions acting on the same steering rack — an attribute of rack-mounted electric-assist power steering on systems done the right way; we believe it was with the Verano’s 15.5:1 steering ratio.

 

Unique to the Verano is a lightweight and compact Z-link rear suspension which helps enhance fuel economy and maximize trunk space, while delivering responsive rear suspension control. The Z-link is carried on a small cross-member attached to the vehicle’s under body, just behind the rear wheel center line. It consists of a short, pivoting center link with a ball joints at each end, to which the lateral links from the wheels are bolted.

During cornering, the Z-link provides greater lateral stiffness that results in more positive vehicle responses to steering inputs and helps keep the front and rear suspensions aligned.  

 

When the Verano is traveling on a straight road, this allows the suspension to travel up and down freely for excellent ride comfort.
Verano uses MacPherson struts up front to help manage road inputs, and high-strength aluminum components that help improve handling and durability, preventing vibrations while contributing to better fuel economy, due to their light weight.

 

The Verano’s ride benefits from the use of urethane cushions on the top and bottom of the springs to reduce vibrations, and a 10-percent larger twin-tube damper to increase ride control and isolate road noise.

 

Over almost every surface we encountered, the Buick Verano exhibited a refined, compliant ride. We attribute this to the Verano's additional weight, demanding stronger suspension components that work to better control and create a serene ride.

 

For anyone concerned with long-term operating costs, the Verano demands premium only in luxury, not fuel, so 87-octane is all that is needed.

 

Interior
With 109 cubic feet of combined trunk and passenger space, this Buick pushes the limit of the EPA's “compact" classification. This is readily apparent up front where thanks to the design of the center stack and dashboard, there's plenty of knee room. The headroom is generous, as well, and the door pockets are large enough for your stuff and a bottle of water.

The 6-way powered driver seat is probably the most comfortable one we’ve ever used, with the right amount of bolstering, thigh support, softness, and firmness in just the right places. It’s as if the seats were created exclusively for the serenity of the Verano; oh wait, they were! Buick took comfort a step further with the Verano, offering what was once only available to the wealthy: toasty warm heated leather seats and steering wheel. A sliding and locking center armrest is also standard, ensuring the driver is completely comfortable in all seat positions.

Buick is offering five upholstery and color variations with the Verano. The standard leatherette seats with cloth inserts arrive in either neutral and medium titanium colors, with the optional supple leather available in Ebony, Cashmere and Choccachino. The Choccachino was particularly delicious: a hue usually reserved for far more expensive vehicles.

 

The rear seat provides ample leg, shoulder, and headroom for passengers, with a large fold-down armrest and good-sized cup holders.

We later peeked inside the trunk of the Verano, expecting to find something miniscule, considering how much space was devoted to the passenger cabin.  Shockingly, cargo space is generous and ranges between 14 and 15.2 cubic feet, depending on whether or not you get the premium audio upgrade and/or tire inflator kit. More importantly, the shape of the trunk is very wide and deep, without awkward niches or humps, and it has a relatively low lift-over height.

Other standard features include a bevy of sound-attenuating measures like triple-sealed doors, an acoustic laminated windshield and front side glass, a woven five-layer acoustic headliner, fabric-wrapped A-pillars, robot applied foam insulation throughout the body cavity, and about fifty-four other QuietTuning measures. Even with the engine off, the Verano is noticeably quieter, and can even be described as tranquil if the radio is tuned to XM 68.

 

Overall, the options list isn’t very large, with Buick even deciding to forgo trim levels. Buyers can select from leather or leatherette with cloth inserts, and from there the options on both are equivalent.

 

Tech
Maintaining a similar feel to the other Buick sedans, the Verano’s center stack is logical, ergonomic, and well labeled while offering a crisp, color touchscreen (even without the optional navigation system). Optional equipment includes SD card-based navigation system with upgraded audio.

 

The sound quality from the premium audio system we heard sounded great with music ranging from jazz to the latest hits, and standard connectivity and infotainment features are the latest available. Bluetooth for phone and audio are standard, as are an auxiliary jack plus iPod via USB, SiriusXM, and OnStar.

Buick’s IntelliLink media connectivity system allows specific smartphone integration including both steering wheel and voice controls for streaming audio from the phone through services like Pandora and Stitcher.

 

A push-button parking brake, dual-zone automatic climate control, and remote start are standard. On models with leather, the heated seats, HVAC, rear-window and side-view mirror defoggers are linked to the remote start system, such that heating or cooling begins automatically as a function of the outside ambient temperature. Keyless entry and push-button start are optional and integrated smartly into the top of the center console buttons for easy access.

 

Safety
As one would expect in a 2012 vehicle, the Verano comes equipped with active and passive safety systems.  Ten airbags are standard, including frontal, head curtain side air bags, front and outboard rear seat side-impact air bags and dual front knee air bags. The head-curtain side air bags are also designed to deploy in a rollover crash.

 

The StabiliTrak electronic stability control system is standard and helps reduce the risk of rollover crashes by keeping the vehicle in the driver’s intended path by applying throttle, braking, or a combination of both. Utilizing the vented front and rear rotors the most are ABS and electronic brake force distribution; these help maintain proper steering control while balancing brake performance as a function of the weight distribution [of passengers and cargo] within the vehicle.

 

Like every new GM vehicle, the immensely valuable OnStar system comes standard on the Verano. Voice prompts and voice calls work far superior in the Verano thanks to the supremely quiet cabin. We strongly recommend anyone who has OnStar and needs to make frequent voice calls from their vehicle to purchase a calling plan; the stronger connection that the OnStar module creates with cell towers allows for voice calls much closer in quality to those experienced with beloved, perfectly clear landline connections. OnStar addresses the aggravating and frustrating difficulties associated with the inferior quality of cell calls made with today’s weak smartphones, which have clearly become more valuable as pocket computers than telephones.

 

theCD's Take:
Verano is stocked with features, handles well, and generally feels a cut above the average small sedan. Verano is not what we would call sporty, but Buick isn't promoting that idea, either;  the sporty niche is filled perfectly by the Regal.   Instead, Verano is being pitched as more of a traditional Buick: a well-built, handsome, tranquil sedan with the latest in modern technology and sophisticated styling.  The Verano fits the bill flawlessly.