Keep burying your head in the sand, fellas.
Almost any car can run at 125mph nowadays, so no biggie there. To give you some perspective...the Regal CXL does the same 0-60 (or slower) as the hybrid, slow, Lexus HS250 I'm driving. Are you going to tell me the HS250 is also sporting?? The Lexus IS250 is somewhat mocked for being a a girls car, a weakling and feeling slow..and it's almost a second quicker to 60. C'mon guys...this car is a slug, why are you guys in denial about this? When many of the reviews have "let down" and "just adequate" in them...you know somethings up.
CAR AND DRIVER:
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/10q3/2011_buick_regal_cxl-road_testWhich brings us to even more bad news:
The Regal’s excellent though heavy chassis is let down by its base powertrain. The 182-hp, 2.4-liter direct-injection four-cylinder falls 19 horses short of the TSX’s port-injected 2.4—granted, that one takes premium fuel— and 18 short of Hyundai’s DI 2.4-liter, which doesn’t.
Plus the Regal’s torque peak sits at an elevated 4900 rpm, making the most potent part of the power band the narrow zone between that point and its 6500-rpm redline. A redline, you’ll notice, that is actually 200 rpm below the engine’s power peak (the fuel cutoff doesn’t come in until 7000 rpm, however, but the transmission shifts well shy of that anyway). Plus, it’s not nearly as engaging as the honking Acura engine, and during steep uphill sections of the Nürburgring, or even at highway speeds,
acceleration is discerned more by engine racket than actual thrust. And the transmission, while smooth, could be more prompt, particularly during wide-open-throttle upshifts and while using the manumatic function. Use of the latter becomes necessary during enthusiastic driving because, otherwise, upshifts happen the instant the driver backs off the throttle.
When pressed about this, Buick types tend to mention “responsible performance.”
We have another term for the Regal’s ordinary horsepower and substantial heft: slow. Accelerating to 60 mph in 8.7 seconds puts the Regal at the plodding end of the four-cylinder family-sedan crowd and well off the luxury pace. Even fuel-economy ratings— 19 mpg city and 30 highway— are clobbered by the similarly sized Sonata (22 city and 35 highway) and bettered by the larger and 58-hp stronger BMW 528i, too
CANADIANDRIVER
http://www.canadiandriver.com/2010/09/22/test-drive-2011-buick-regal-cxl.htm/2
Unfortunately, the base Regal is let down by its pedestrian powertrain. The engine’s
power is only adequate, and while there’s nothing wrong with a car not having the most powerful motor in its class, you’d at least hope for one willing to go all out when pressed. Instead, the 2.4-litre four-cylinder never sounds happy about being run out to its 6,500 rpm redline.
Compounding that is the slow-witted nature of this automatic transmission, which also feels completely uninterested in making the Regal go fast. It’s hesitant to downshift when acceleration is called for, and in my car, felt indecisive about the right time to upshift in many situations (which is not something I’ve noticed in other GM cars with this transmission). To be clear, it’s not that the powertrain is poor;
it’s simply underwhelming and has no business in a car being marketed as a sport sedan.CanadianDriver (James)
http://www.canadiandriver.com/2010/08/17/day-by-day-review-2011-buick-regal-cxl.htm/3I’m not sure how this engine and transmission combination can be deemed sporty, though. It really is a letdown compared to what seems like a really well-done chassis. The six-speed automatic
shifts slowly and manual mode is worse than just letting it chose gears on its own.The 2.4-litre engine works fine but there is nothing exciting to talk about here.
It moves the car’s weight adequately but doesn’t feel peppy or eager in any way.AUTONORTH
http://www.autonorth.ca/home/2010/8/30/behind-the-wheel-2011-buick-regal-cxl-review.htmlTry as we might,
we just weren’t able to make the Regal feel exciting to drive, in any situation. Hard acceleration out of a corner resulted in a
lackluster response; downshifting and accelerating hard to pass slow traffic
resulted in a quickened heart-rate, but not because of the thrill of speed. Sport sedan, minus the sport. And it goes on and on and on.
Go read almost ANY car review with a car that does 0-60 in 8.5-8.7 seconds and see if they refer to it as fast, thrilling, exciting, etc...Yes, it will be adequate for the AVERAGE driver...but most people buying sport sedans aren't looking for adequate, average performance.
My Echo does 0-60 in the same time as does my hybrid loaner...and neither of those are exciting in the least. Instead, they are SLOW
