Same Company, Very Different Childhoods; 2016 Buick LaCrosse vs 2016 Cadillac XTS Vsport

February 18, 2026February 18, 2026

Same Company, Very Different Childhoods; 2016 Buick LaCrosse vs 2016 Cadillac XTS Vsport

I started writing this post on the Amtrak Auto Train headed north after my Florida pilgrimage to see the 24 Hours of Daytona, hang in Florida for weeks, and attend the Daytona 500 in one fell swoop. Done. I was intrigued by the Buick LaCrosse below, a low-mileage, low-priced car with a surprising number of features for a 10-year-old GM product. Thought I would be in and out with a “quick hit” piece. Two things sidetracked me. First, I learned that the Buick shared a platform with the Cadillac XTS through 2016, and I wondered how they compared. Second, our train just hit a pedestrian in the woods southwest of Jacksonville, Florida. Tragic, although I have more time to write. I’ll try to keep it short. Like life.

Same platform, different lines. My preference is the Buick’s soft curves over the Cadillac’s sharp creases, even though I once bought a loosely similar 2018 Cadillac CT6. All personal preference. The Buick is your trustworthy, quiet, cardigan-wearing uncle up against his younger Cadillac cousin, who also bought an espresso machine and crypto. Honestly, if it weren’t for the Vsport these would be the same car – although Buick stopped making sedans in 2020 and Cadillac continues even now.

To be fair, although I’m being a little unfair with this comparison, the Cadillac XTS is the top of the line Vsport Platinum – but it’s not the CTS-V with the Corvette V8, so it’s not completely outrageous. This Cadillac has the same family DNA as the Buick. And clearly this family favored the Cadillac with a driving coach.

Switched the order up on you. The interior shot above is the Cadillac, the Buick below. Here’s what they have in common: heated and cooling seats, heated steering wheel, heads up display, auto cruise control, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, driver assistance packages, Bose audio and navigation. A lot for 2016. The XTS also has seat massagers. We love seat massagers. Just like the exteriors, the interiors are soft and circular, or sharp and linear. The Buick’s cupholders are for decaf. The Cadillac all Red Bull.

Let’s look under the hood: both start with a 3.6-liter V6.

The Buick LaCrosse (above) stays with a naturally aspirated engine that ekes out 304 horsepower, which isn’t nothing, and, with GM’s Hydra-Matic six-speed, pushes 60 mph in the mid-six-second range. Not for me, but not horrible. The XTS (below) has the same 3.6-liter block (Car and Driver says it is – Cadillac says its a better block), but with twin-turbos added that increase horsepower to 410. Coupled to GM’s 6T80/6T75 series automatic with manual-shift mode, necessary for the additional power, the XTS zooms to 60 mph in a very respectable mid-four second time. Oh yeah, another difference is the Buick is front wheel drive, and the Cadillac AWD. Another reason for the upgraded transmission.

Which one would you drive? The Buick, with the added “Ultra Luxury Package”, sold new a decade ago for perhaps $45,000. Surprisingly, MSRP on the XTS Vsport Platinum was perhaps $73,000 – a whopping surcharge for the performance and complexity. But used they are within a thousand bucks of each other. Maybe the Buick is for retirees and the Cadillac is for retirees who still need to get somewhere? For sure the XTS warrants a MaxCare warranty. And with such low mileage, you could get MaxCare for another 120,000 miles on the Buick – but should you? Seems like a pretty straightforward car to maintain and fix. The Cadillac caps out at 88,000 miles of MaxCare, if that matters. I’d do it. With five years of MaxCare you could drive over 17,000 miles annually without risk of paying for a major repair. (And by the way, the Cadillac was wrecked once back in 2018.)

The 2016 Buick LaCrosse Premium is currently on reserve here in Norcross, Georgia. You can track it by the link or the Stock Number below. If you choose to. BTW – there’s an intriguing stupid low mileage LaCrosse I’ll add at the bottom of this piece if you’re interested.

Stock No: 27950006 VIN: 1G4GF5G30GF254367

The 2016 Cadillac XTS Vsport Platinum is also on reserve here in Winchester, Virginia (near me!).

Stock No: 28141142 VIN: 2G61W5S80G9128888

Amtrak Update – there is no update as of the next morning. A five hour delay into the night as the accident becomes a crime scene. The crew believes the “trespasser”, as Amtrak calls it, was a suicide. So sad. Googling it brings up nothing, except at almost exactly the same time an Amtrak train hit someone in North Carolina. Seems not infrequent – second time I’ve been on a train that hit someone on the tracks who wasn’t supposed to be there.

February 11, 2026February 13, 2026

Quick Hit – 2015 Mercedes CLS550 Beauty

Sometimes a car’s color and design combine to make a striking package, and that’s what got my attention about this 2015 Mercedes CLS550 unicorn. CarMax has 88,000 cars for sale today, around 6,000 are red, and of those, only 100 are Mercedes.

As an aside, I created an innovative tool I’ll call a “pie chart” to illustrate the color breakdown. I would patent it if I were smart enough to make the slices match the car colors. Two points to be made here: one is that three-quarters of the cars on CarMax lots are your basic black, white, gray, or silver. Not much interest in colorful cars in the US at the moment. The second is that there are technically eight “pink” CarMax cars. There really are four; the others are mislabeled. The four are “Barbie” pink Jeep Wranglers – one a diesel and one a PHEV! Enough already.

The CLS has been one of my favorite designs since its introduction in 2004. The second generation launched in 2010 and ran through 2018, and the one above is a facelifted model. It’s a lovely red over tan. Eyecatching.

I wouldn’t call the interior dated – more like “traditional” for its time. I once owned, for about 48 hours, a Mercedes E63 AMG with the same interior, and it fit me well. This car has automatic cruise control and automatic parking, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, heated, cooling, and massaging seats, Harman Kardon audio, and the Driver’s Assistance Package. That’s a fairly loaded car only wanting for 4Matic. Like all CLS models, it’s a four-seater only.

Under the hood is a 4.7-liter twin-turbo V8 rated at 402 horsepower. Coupled with a nine-speed transmission (9G-Tronic), the CLS550 hits 60 mph in 4.7-5.0 seconds, depending on who you believe. Quite respectable for a non-AMG car. The engine bay looks brand new.

The 2017 Mercedes CLS550 sold for maybe $74,000 new almost nine years ago. It’s depreciated adequately, and priced at $32k, there’s hopefully room in the budget for MaxCare for another 85,000 miles and four years of risk-free driving. At the moment, the car is reserved here in Memphis, Tennessee. The stock number and VIN are below if you want to track it that way. If you’d like some first-hand feedback from one of my readers and a CarMax enthusiast, check out this exchange I had with Seth Steiner, who owns one of these CarMax CLS550’s. Auf wiedersehen!

Stock No: 27384211 VIN: WDDLJ7DB0HA192000

February 5, 2026February 5, 2026

Quick Hit – Analogue and Digital Audi S6 Unicorns? (Reporting from Daytona, Where No Audis Raced)

Drove to Florida to catch the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona (done) and linger here for a few weeks until the Daytona 500 (not done) and enjoy the sun. Except once the race ended, I relocated to Miami with my wife, who joined me for a week to escape the brutal Virginia snowstorm (she shoveled while I enjoyed the race – I do feel bad), the Florida weather dropped to near freezing, and we dodged giant flesh-eating iguanas plummeting from trees. She flew home, the sun is back out, and I feel guilty….so putting in some “work” blogging.

Just dumb luck, I stumbled on another pair of Audis.

2015 Audi S6 – The “S” stands for Sleeper….in German.

I found a 2015 Audi S6 unicorn with the V8 motor a good month ago, and it’s still available with low miles and a low price. Audi launched the S6 way back in 1999, the third generation ran from 2012 to 2018, and the 2015’s in the middle of that run were facelifted. Interestingly, Audi S6’s started with the 4.2 liter V8, switched to a 5.2 liter V10, the Lamborghini-derived motor (used to see these at CarMax – check this out!), back to a V8 – a twin-turbo 4.0 liter for this generation, and in 2019, transitioned to a 2.9 liter mild-hybrid six cylinder. The six has the most horsepower (444) and is the quickest to 60 mph at 4.0 seconds. But first let’s focus on the 2015 with the V8!

Nothing fancy inside the 2015 Audi S6, though it’s quite well equipped. This car has heated, cooling, and massaging leather seats, a heated steering wheel, auto cruise control, cross-traffic alert, heads up display, and maybe night vision, although it’s not a listed item, and the photographer left out that dashboard shot. The listing says it has a Bang & Olufsen audio system and a Bose audio…..it’s Bose. I’ve driven a few Audis like this and dug the motorized infotainment screen, although I can hear my Dad saying, “Just one more thing that can go wrong,” although it would be covered by MaxCare.

For a mid-size sedan, the S6 has a decent trunk, although the rear seat shot is misleading. When I scoot the seat back, there ain’t nobody sitting behind me. Your leg length may vary.

My best bud had a 2014 Audi A6 TDI (diesel) he loved – it was comfortable and strong and survived the Audi diesel scandal, but not a violent encounter with a deer in Pennsylvania, and like the turbodiesel, has ceased to be. It always felt sophisticated to me. Guess this is a facelifted model, in its own way?

The Audi S6 performs well – 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds – because of the 420 horsepower V8, All Wheel Drive, and a 7-speed S tronic dual-clutch automatic transmission (DSG style). It has a governed top speed limit of 155mph. The car sold new for about $75,000 a decade ago and is holding firm at $32k now. With only 29,000 miles, you can get MaxCare for another 96,000 miles of warranty-covered driving. I’d do it. Oddly, this one-owner lifetime California car is being shipped all the way to Rochester, New York. You can track it here, or keep reading to see what the 2020 Audi S6 has to offer?

Stock No: 28021737 VIN: WAUF2AFC1FN013876

The 2015 Audi S6 is a bit analogue – just five years later, the 2020 model below gives a more digital impression. More modern. To be expected. And $9,000 more expensive and yet still within unicorn territory.

The 2020 S6, the current generation, is six years old and yet still sleek. The dual-screen system below looks as contemporary as anything on the road. The 2020 model is similarly equipped to the 2015, although with more sophisticated driver assistance (hands-free?), Apple CarPlay, and an all-digital dash. Love the quilted seats and the subdued red seats. It does, in fact, have the Bang & Olufsen audio.

The 2020 S6 is powered by a 2.9-liter mild-hybrid six that makes 444 horsepower, and with an eight-speed Tiptronic transmission and again, AWD, Car and Driver made 60 mph in four seconds flat – a half-second quicker than the V8! I asked the net to simplify the choice between the 2015 S6 with a V8 and a 2020 with a V6 and got this:

2015 for classic V8 power and character.

2020 for more tech, efficiency, and refined performance.

The 2020 Audi S6 is a two-owner, accident-free car that split its time between Florida and Illinois before being listed by CarMax in Richmond, Virginia, and now being shipped to Charleston, South Carolina. It sold new for $75-80,000, not much more than the 2015 – and is now listed at $41k – with higher miles than the older 2015, though. Here’s the listing if you want to track it.

Stock No: 27845634 VIN: WAUDFAF24LN041380