[MagicRat]

They're turning Buick into BMW !

Those attributes you mention are all pretty personal. But many buyers, especially the younger ones prefer a firmer feel in the areas you mention, so Buick is simply fulfilling market preferences, and the younger buyers.

GM learned their lesson on this a few years ago, when they saw that their average Cadillac buyer's age was creeping ever - upwards. Cadillacs then were simply not considered by the middle-aged buyer, and, if GM did not reverse this trend, the core Caddy buyers would eventually stop buying their cars because they would all be dead.