Who knows what took so long, but the Buick Lucerne Super that was first shown over a year ago at the 2007 New York Auto Show is arriving in dealerships this month, and it's brought a friend in the form of a the new Lucerne CXL Special Edition. To refresh your memory, the Lucerne Super is the super duper counterpart to the LaCrosse Super, which we've already tested in the Autoblog Garage. The Super features the venerable 4.6L Northstar V8 tuned to produce 292 horsepower and 288 pound-feet of torque. It's also equipped with higher-grade steering components, high-rate front and rear coil springs, a larger front stabilizer bar, 18-inch aluminum wheels and Magnetic Ride Control. The Lucerne Super also features a base price of $39,395 sans destination charges, so go easy on those options if you want to keep the price as low as possible.

Arriving with the Lucerne Super will be the just announced CXL Special Edition. What makes it special is that it's the only Lucerne model that offers the option of either the large but woefully weak 197-hp 3.8L V6 (or ye' ole 3800 Series) or the 4.6L Northstar V8 tuned to make 275 hp and 295 pound-feet of torque. The CXL Special Edition also gets some exterior and interior enhancements, though nothing we haven't seen before.

Though Buick has the hot-selling Enclave CUV, its sedans are being ignored by buyers for a number of reasons, not the least of which is poor powertrain choices. The Northstar V8 was a good motor in its day, but its tech is now aged and the same power output with better fuel efficiency can be had with GM's newer 3.6L V6, both in direct-inject and non-DI versions. We're sure GM doesn't want to cannibalize Cadillac CTS sales by offering the same engines in less expensive Buicks, but something has to be done to salvage these sedans.