HiPer Strut was produced to address four specific issues: eliminate torque steer, reduce sensitivity to rotating assembly imbalance, reduce steering wheel kickback and improve steering feel. Actually, that last bit is a happy benefit of HiPer Strut, but let’s answer the question of what the heck it is. On a typical McPherson strut setup, the points of contact for the spindle (the piece that holds the wheel bearings) would be on the spindles strut mount and lower control arm ball joint. Some applications mount the ball joint directly to the strut itself. If you look at the photos and diagrams, though, you’ll notice the top of the spindle attaches to the strut via a ball-joint and the bottom of the spindle mounts to the lower control arm by what Buick calls a revolute joint. This joint and the ball-joint fixes the location and orientation of the spindle.

It works by decoupling the relationship between the spindle and strut via the upper ball-joint. This allows for a shorter spindle length, which means you can have a more upright kingpin angle. A shorter spindle length means the wheel has a shorter moment arm in which to impact the rest of the steering gear while decreasing the KPA reduces steering effort. In other words, the system doesn’t actually remove torque steer, but it significantly reduces it to the point where a manufacturer will no longer need to resort to torque-mitigation to limit it.

We had a chance to try it out on the winding, hilly roads near Middleburg, Virginia, a quaint town located about an hour west of Washington DC. First impression is excellent, and I have to say that it works exactly as described. If you’ve ever driven a high-powered front wheel drive car, in this case a Buick LaCrosse CXS with its standard 3.6 liter V-6 producing 280 horsepower and 259 lb-ft of torque, you’ll know that getting on the throttle while in a turn that crests a hill is a recipe for torque steer, but but in this case, there was virtually no difference in steering effort as the individual front wheels lightened up. Coming out of tight corners, you could floor the throttle and feel the car just turn, with only road feedback. It was moderately unnerving, at first, but the more I drove it, I could the nuances of the steering itself, versus the motor tugging the steering wheel via the tire.

As a high-end option, expect only CXS trim-level LaCrosse’s to have them by May of this year. Most assuring, though, was hearing Buick folk speaking seriously about performance, ride quality, and design.

The eAssist (Drive On still thinks they need a new name for this that doesn't sound like something for senior citizens) will start at $29,530 with shipping.

That makes the eAssist system, in fact, a $2,000 option on the base Regal with the 2.4-liter four without the system. Unlike the LaCrosse, which is dropping the cheaper, non-eAssist model for 2012, Buick will continue to offer the Regal base model without eAssist as well as the 2.0-liter turbo (Drive On's preference).

As with the LaCrosse, the Regal eAssist package includes improved aerodynamics, different tires, start-stop technology, energy-capturing regenerative brakes, a lithium-ion battery and a small electric motor. In the Regal it will be 25 mpg city, 36 highway. Also in the package is an Eco gauge and powerflow graphics for driver biofeedback.