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PHOOEY! They got rid of the whimsy. Bunch of wimps! I’m talkingabout the Buick design team. They changed the Buick Skylark for 1996.They turned it into a regular ol’ compact suburban car. Danged thangmight as well be a Honda.

This is what they did: They dropped the wild, snaggletoothed frontend that graced the 1995 Skylark. They rounded and smoothed out thecar’s face, and did much of the same to its rear end. They fooled aroundwith the Skylark’s interior.

I mean, I don’t mind that they put in a front-passenger air bag.That’s needed equipment. But they screwed up the dashboard! The Buickfolks don’t see it that way, of course. They believe they’ve made thedash more mainstream — more acceptable to the National Association forthe Advancement of Nerds, whose members want a dash that looks likesomething from Toyota or Honda: an oval thing with big analog gauges,buttons and dials. In the 1996 Skylark, they got what they wanted. Toobad.

The old dash was a bit wacko, but a lot more fun. It had vents thatbulged left and right of the steering wheel. Its gauges were nestled ina feline face. The thing reminded me of Cat Woman.

Background: Unfortunately, whimsy didn’t sell. Traditional Skylarkbuyers — conservative, fortyish, middle-class types on a budget — wererepelled by the early 1990s remake of the compact, front-wheel-drivecar. They said it was too forward, too goofy, that it didn’t fit intothe Buick family.

There weren’t enough nontraditional Buick buyers to go around. Thecar bombed. Thus, the return to inoffensive styling, the warm embrace ofthe Japanese School of Automotive Design. I suppose it’ll work,especially considering the numerous other changes in the 1996 Skylark.

There’s a new standard engine and automatic transmission. Theengine is a 2.4-liter, twin-cam, inline four-cylinder job rated 150horsepower at 6,000 rpm, with maximum torque set at 150 pound-feet at4,400 rpm. A 3.1-liter, 155-horsepower V-6 is sold as an option. But whyspend a few hundred dollars more for five more horsepower?

The three-speed automatic transmission in the 1995 Skylark has beenreplaced by the four-speed automatic in the 1996 car. This is good. Thenew car changes gears without any bumping and grinding.

Other standard equipment includes a traction control system, powerfront discs/rear drum brakes with anti-lock backup, an onboarddiagnostics system to help repair people do a better job of figuring outwhat’s wrong with your car, and a Passlock anti-theft system designed toshut off the engine in the event that someone attempts to start the carwithout the proper key.

There are three Skylark trim levels for 1996: the tested SkylarkCustom base model, the upscale Skylark Limited and the wanna-be-sportySkylark Gran Sport. The Skylark can be bought as a sedan or a coupe.

Complaints: The blandness of it all.

Praise: An overall excellent compact car. Competitive with any carin its category, especially now that it looks like all of them.

Head-turning quotient: Not even a slight twist of the neck.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Very decent, all-aroundperformance in the tested Skylark Custom sedan with the 2.4-liter,inline four-cylinder engine. Very good braking. Bottom line is that itperforms as well and, in some cases, better than its compact rivals.

Sound system: New, four-speaker AM/FM stereo radio and cassette,GM/Delco. Excellent, especially considering that the sound system was abase model.

Mileage: About 24 miles per gallon (15.2-gallon tank, estimated350-mile range on usable volume of regular unleaded), running mostlyhighway, driver only, with light cargo.

Price: Base price on the 1996 Buick Skylark Custom sedan is$15,495. Dealer invoice on base model is $14,798. Price as tested is$15,995 including $500 in destination charges. There were no options onthe test car.

Purse-strings note: Subjective criticisms aside, the Skylark really isa very good compact. Compare with Chevrolet Cavalier, OldsmobileAchieva, Pontiac Grand Am, Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique, the Chrysler”cloud series” (Dodge Stratus, Chrysler Cirrus and, for 1996, thePlymouth Breeze), the 1996 Honda Civic, Subaru Legacy, ToyotaCorolla/Geo Prizm, Vokswagen Golf and Jetta and General Motors Corp.’sSaturn sedans.