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We consider ourselves seasoned, not senior. We have many miles on us, but that’s because we drive more than most folks. We were eligible for The Washington Post’s recent buyout offer. We didn’t take it because we’d rather have a Buick. That is, we’d rather have the opportunity to continue driving as many Buicks as possible — as long as they are as good as this week’s test car, the 2008 Buick Lucerne Super.

Forget nostalgia. We are not wistful for the days when Buick was a metaphor for Middle America.

Buick now symbolizes upwardly mobile China, where Buick automobiles are hot sellers. That’s okay with us.

Please hold the jokes about Buicks and slow drivers. We’ve heard them. We aren’t laughing. We — I and my associate, Ria Manglapus — can tell you from experience that you can speed your way to jail in a Buick Lucerne Super just as quickly as you can in any other luxury sedan.

Had it not been for another speeding driver attracting the attention of the Virginia constabulary before it fell upon us, at least one of us could have shared some time with the police along the side of the road. (Okay, this time, it was me instead of Ria with the heavy foot.)

We wish to say here that speeding is not our thing. We do not advocate it. In fact, we abhor it. We do our best to avoid it. But sometimes we err.

That error usually occurs in cars such as the Buick Lucerne Super, cars so seductively smooth and sneakily fast that you can be over the limit miles before you know it.

Go on, laugh your heads off. It matters not if you are members of the AARP or are decades away from joining, you can get into trouble by underestimating the competence and prowess of this car. It can move.

That might seem an odd thing to boast about in an era of rising fuel prices. The conventional wisdom now is to slow down and save gas. We endorse that advice. But we also recognize that driving never has been and never will be solely about saving gas. There remains a tactile aspect, a sensory pleasure to movement, particularly movement that is wondrously fast and smooth.

Appreciation of those aspects defines people who love driving. It separates them from people who see driving as a chore, a necessary evil, or as a mobile insult to Mother Nature.

We love driving. We love cars. It is with that affection that we tell you the 2008 Buick Lucerne Super is an honest-to-goodness fine automobile, worthy of consideration by anyone willing to spend $40,000 on a full-size, front-wheel-drive sedan.

It hits all of the right product-appeal notes. Fit and finish are superb, right down to the microfiber lining that, thankfully, has replaced the ugly mouse-hair headliner covering in previous Buicks. Ergonomic common sense rules the interior, where taste and beauty also reign in a work of supple leather, suede and mahogany wood inserts. The seats are among the most comfortable we’ve occupied in any car at any price.

We note here the complaints of a few fellow automotive scribes who contend that the Buick Lucerne, of which there are four iterations — CX, CXL, CXL Special Edition and Super — can be a tad sloppy in turns and corners. We disagree.

The tested Lucerne Super handled beautifully — “really surprisingly good for such a big car,” Ria said.

We suspect that the sloppiness experienced by our fellows had more to do with their driving than with Buick’s engineering.

Automotive journalists too often demand that cars, regardless of their design intent, respond as if they were engineered for Formula One racetracks. It is a ridiculous requirement, one that unfairly penalizes good cars for doing well exactly what they were meant to do — transport people and goods quickly, safely and comfortably through civil society.

The Buick Lucerne Super does all of those things and does them with class. We like class. The older we get, the more we appreciate it.