Topic: Day-by-Day Review: 2012 Buick Regal eAssist; Day 1

[whaddaiknow]

I think you will see every car with some kind of eassist
just to have the a.c. , ps ,  and stop,start features run off a larger battery
once it on every  car the price will drop a lot

Agreed 100%, whatever kinetic of friction energy can be recouperated. I would add solar energy, decoupling alternator when battery is full, regenerative braking (of course). Those are all fairly inexpensive solutions that may have a significant cumulative effect. My gripe with eAssist is disbalance between effect on fuel economy and compromised utility.

I checked out the Prius last weekend. Sure the battery is big but Toyota did an admirable job by adding folding rear seats that fold to form a flat surface with the floor in the hatch for all types of cargo. That's what I call engineering, making things work together to serve a purpose rather than slapping parts together at the expense of everything else (performance and utility) just so they can use the buzz word of the day.

[Flinter]

it would be stupid if there was a 1 inch difference...but there isn't...in most cases, it's a half inch.

but again, that wasn't my original point.

once again, my original point is the two cars are essentially the same size...you said they weren't and started this whole Sonata/Elantra thing.

Yeah, because there really isn't much difference between compacts and midsizers in interior dimensions. Park them side by side, and people will know which is the "bigger" car. And some will pay more for that, some won't, but that's reality.

The attached dimension comparo comes from the Buick Canada website. Interestingly it does not agree with the Buick US or the source quoted earlier in this thread by Jaeger with regards to the rear legroom spec. The Buick Canada source shows a 81mm (3.2 in) difference in rear legroom between the 2 cars.

Not sure why the difference in specs, different measurement methodology in the US??? Having sat in both cars I'm inclined to believe the Buick Canada data because IMHO there was significantly more rear set legroom in the Regal compared to the Verano.

[dirtyjeffer]

it does make it difficult to compare.

when using this site: http://www.hyundaiusa.com/competitive-comparisons/

the difference in rear legroom is 0.4 inches (37.3 for the Regal, 36.9 for the Verano).

it would be nice to know the REAL numbers, as it does make it hard to compare, when different sites post different numbers.

[SaskSpecV]

Not sure why the difference in specs, different measurement methodology in the US???

Good point.  I've wondered this as well - where is the front seat adjusted when calculating the "back seat leg room"?  All the way back?  But that would just punish vehicles with a larger range of front seat motion.

Same deal when calculating cargo space - total volume (air) versus usable space.  I like how the Europeans do it - how many 1 L blocks (20X 10 X 5 cm) can you fit in the trunk/hatch?  That is the usable cargo space.

[Jaeger]

Not sure why the difference in specs, different measurement methodology in the US???

Good point.  I've wondered this as well - where is the front seat adjusted when calculating the "back seat leg room"?  All the way back?  But that would just punish vehicles with a larger range of front seat motion.

Same deal when calculating cargo space - total volume (air) versus usable space.  I like how the Europeans do it - how many 1 L blocks (20X 10 X 5 cm) can you fit in the trunk/hatch?  That is the usable cargo space.

Ditto that.

Jaeger

[Flinter]

it does make it difficult to compare.

when using this site: http://www.hyundaiusa.com/competitive-comparisons/

the difference in rear legroom is 0.4 inches (37.3 for the Regal, 36.9 for the Verano).

it would be nice to know the REAL numbers, as it does make it hard to compare, when different sites post different numbers.

After some further searching, I suspect that there are some incorrect specs published out there with regards rear legroom on the Verano. I found the following links that list the Verano rear legroom quoted as 33.9 inches, which agrees with the metric numbers I posted earlier from the Buick.ca website.

http://www.buick.com/assets/en/pdf/brochures/2012/2012Verano_Brochure.pdf
http://www.edmunds.com/buick/verano/2012/road-test-specs.html
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2011/08/rpo-central-gm-releases-2012-buick-verano-rpo-info/
http://car.pikimal.com/toyota-camry/vs/2012-buick-verano
http://www.automobilemag.com/am/2012/buick/verano/compare/make.html
http://www.truedelta.com/comparisons301/Verano-vs-Regal-price-comparison.php#specs

The smaller legroom number makes the most sense IMHO given that the Verano is over 6 inches shorter than the Regal and many reviewers have listed rear legroom as a negative for the Verano.