Buick Enclave (US) review

It’s the Buick Enclave, AKA if the Chevrolet Traverse retired to Boca Raton, Florida.

Buick is still a thing?

Surprisingly so. Judging by the marketing shots above being lazily passed off as press images, you’d be forgiven for thinking Buick had completely given up on trying to convince people its cars were worth buying.

One of the more long-lived nameplates in American auto manufacturing, Buicks of the modern era were positioned to be more premium offerings of the vehicles they shared hardware with. Like Ford with its Lincoln marque, GM’s Buick has been synonymous with a much older demographic, though it’s not had as much success shaking off that stigma as its fellow Detroit-based rival.

Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that Buick is more akin to Ford’s long-gone Mercury line while GM’s Cadillac is Lincoln’s analogue.

Still, unlike Mercury, Buick persists, with four crossovers making up its current line-up. Though incidentally its Regal sedan might be considered for a return.

What’s this Enclave all about then?

It’s about the size of the Cadillac XT5, which is to say, it’s an SUV that’s a bit on the small side. Or a large crossover, if you feel like splitting hairs. Either way you slice it, it’s another chunky people-mover built for daily use that has a touch of class without pushing it into full-on luxury.

It looks… kind of cool, actually.

It does! The Enclave wears the current facia shared across the line-up that’s become the current Buick signature look. Over the years, this has morphed into what you see now, a surprisingly aggressive front end that is oddly Dodge Viper-esque to a certain degree, due to the narrow headlight signature. That’s strictly where the comparison begins and ends.

What kind of heat is this packing?

‘Heat’ might be a bit ambitious here, but all trims of the Enclave are fitted with a turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-four engine that whips up a fairly decent 328hp and 326lb ft of torque. Power is routed through an eight-speed automatic transmission and sent to the front wheels, or to all the wheels if you go in for the $2,000 AWD upgrade.

Oh, all-wheel drive? So this can off-road?

Depends on how ambitious you want to get. And if you want to come back in one piece. Or at all.

Well how is it on the road, then?

With the Enclave’s single engine, the experience across the trim levels is for the most part uniform, and its 328hp does a fairly good job at pulling it around town. Avid readers might recall when we drove the aforementioned Chevrolet Traverse with this same engine/transmission pairing, and how it really didn’t like being pushed beyond a conservative crawl. It's much the same here though the Buick does a better job at masking the noisy power plant.

While the more upscale Avenir trim adds an active damping system to improve comfort levels, the Sport Touring trim adds a… flat-bottom steering wheel. Maybe plan on making your own ‘vroom vroom’ noises while you’re at it.

Is it well finished, at least?

Oh for sure. The Enclave is a fairly elegant thing to sit in. The Buick employs plenty of elements we’ve seen elsewhere in the premium car space, and it uses them well. The highlight being the 30-inch ultra-wide floating display that blends the driver’s info panel with the touchscreen. All in all, it’s very streamlined and stylish in a way that’s fitting for the level of sophistication it’s aspiring for.

With that said, on the move the Enclave doesn’t stand out as either a surprisingly sporty nor particularly cushy, though the top-tier Avenir’s active dampers do smooth out the ride somewhat.

All told, it gets the job done well enough that there’s little to complain about. But excellence? Excellence is the moon to the Enclave.

How about the technology?

There are plenty of available perks with Super Cruise – which makes its Buick debut here – being the standout feature. Contingent on trim, there are neat things like wireless charging pads, up to nine exterior cameras for deft parking lot maneuvering, ambient interior lighting, a 12-to-16 speaker Bose sound system, and ‘Quiet Tuning’ which uses noise-cancellation tech along with sound absorbing materials to make the cabin quite serene.

The Buick Enclave breaks no new ground in the world of premium SUVs, though it does bring just enough style and quality to keep pace with its contemporaries. It’s more of a supplement to what Cadillac provides than a step-up to the standard GM fare, and that’s as kind as we can be about it.

While its engine is sufficient in this guise and there are a number of options available, there’s little to point at and say ‘get this over something else’. All of what it offers can be found elsewhere and mostly done better.

It’s hardly that competitively priced, either, making it an odd choice for anyone beyond the stalwart Buick faithful, which you’d expect would be a dwindling demographic at this stage. As it stands, the Enclave is just fine, though the only reason we could think to get one is to keep the Buick brand going, which isn’t your responsibility. Don’t pity-buy an Enclave.