General Motors is making a push to get on top of the quality curve with its new range of products and Pulitzer-prize winning Los Angeles Times auto writer Dan Neil thinks the company has a winner with its new Buick LaCrosse CXS.

"Buick's 2010 LaCrosse - a near-luxury, mid-size-to-large sedan - was built to put the cross-hairs on a single bogie, the Lexus ES350, and I'll tell you right now, it blows the Lexus out of the sky. Pow. Parachute. Smoking crater," he wrote last week.

The burning question is whether GM can get over its image problems and move this car in a top-end market dominated by established names like Lexus, Acura, BMW and Mercedes Benz let alone newcomer Hyundai's Genesis.

Neil told NPR the other night he reckons GM has about 30 days to get the LaCrosse off the ground in the North American market. If it fails to catch on in that time, he implies it never will in terms of substantial sales.

But as he argues in a video segment of his online review, GM's decision to stay with Buick (rather than Pontiac) was its huge market in China which is growing fast. Buick's popularity in China dates back to pre-Revolutionary days.

Indeed, he said the new LaCrosse was designed jointly in China and the U.S. with the interior almost totally destined in China. He pointed out that the extra room in the car is largely devoted to the rear where he can comfortably stretch out and cross his legs despite being 6 foot 1. Chinese owners, it seems, like to be driven in their Buicks.

If GM can get the word out on the LaCrosse and make serious sales it will be a solid first step for the company to get back on its feet. We shall see.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth