…I mean intense action-packed race? Read on to find out.

We already know Buick has come a long way with the exterior design of autos – moving away from the great white whale looking rides your grandparents drove to smaller, economical vehicles with luscious curves and fat grills. The Lexus keeps its usual fluid design back to front; we like the downward angle of its rear-to-front end slope, but we have to give style points to LaCrosse.

Under each hood is where this contest starts to get tricky. Both the LaCrosse and ES 350 have a 3.5-liter V-6 power plants with 280 horses for the Buick and 272 for Lexus. Both share six-speed automatics and have curb weights of 4030 for the Buick and 3694 pounds for Lexus. Lexus and Buick handle just as splendidly around those tight factory curves and shift smoothly in higher RPM’s.

Of course you won’t need to outrun The Joker on a daily commute, so let’s get to the realistic stats. Buick outshines Lexus with a price around the low $30,000 – over the import’s luxury $35,000+ sticker. That and LaCrosses’s impressive fuel economy (17/26 MPG ) makes it our pick for the top new sedan in 2010.

Source: Motor Trend