As of this year, Buick no longer sells any sedans, coupes, or wagons in the North American market. Considering it dispassionately this makes sense as the buyers simply stopped showing up for them some time ago. A little over a decade ago when the first Buick Enclave SUV was introduced it was noted that it became a bit of a success and also brought some newer, younger blood into the marque. Then a few years ago the small Encore was introduced and became a surprise hit, it has been the best selling Buick for several years now.
The lineup was also expanded with the short-lived Regal and Tour-X courtesy of Opel (since cancelled again once Opel was sold) as well as the Envision mid-size CUV. And lastly, our featured vehicle, the Encore GX, which confusingly is not just a fancy Encore but a completely different (and larger) model than the Encore you are likely familiar with already, which continues to be sold alongside this one. Perhaps GM should have looked to their GMC Yukon model and simply badged it Encore XL to make it more obvious. Or Encore Encore. Or perhaps Encore²?
The Encore GX is larger than the regular Encore in every dimension (Wheelbase +1.6″, Length +2.7″, Height +1.8″, Width +1.3″, Track +0.4″F and 1.3″R). When seen by themselves it’s not obvious and even side-by-side it takes a few glances back and forth to see, thankfully besides the general shape being similar, there are enough detail differences to make it obvious once you know what you’re looking for.
There are three trim levels (Preferred, Select, and Essence), FWD and AWD options, and two engines as well as two transmissions on offer. We were graced with a top of the line trim level (Essence) with an upgrade to the larger of the two engines, but FWD which was interesting insofar as usually if something is available, it’s on the test car. Absolute base price is $24,100 but ours was obviously more, we’ll get to that in a couple of thousand words so refill that coffee cup now.
Having owned two Buicks myself over the years (’88 LeSabre T-Type and ’98 Regal GS), as well as having considered an Enclave at one time, I’m no stranger to the more modern era of Buick but do admit to some surprise when the original Encore was introduced along with the bigger surprise that it turned into a success. Then I actually looked at a slightly used one a year later and began to understand the attraction.
The same thing occurred here. As delivered in my driveway it looked good in its Deep Azure Metallic paint. The Buick grille is there. The Tri-Shield is once again in color. There is some chrome but it isn’t dripping with it. The 18″ wheels look good, the stance isn’t goofy, and while it’s small, it doesn’t come across as ridiculously tiny unless there’s a Roadmaster in the garage.
Pulling the door handle with the fob in my pocket unlocked and opened the door, presenting the Ebony interior with Ebony accents, i.e. black on black. Hopping in was easy with just a simply lateral slide and after pulling the door closed again it became obvious that there is simply a fairly large amount of room around the front seat occupants, it’s as if there was a large cockpit bubble.
Legroom aplenty, logical places to rest elbows without banging into things, good sightlines all around, and a generally chair-like seating position. For a small car, it’s very usably large inside especially as compared to a few recent small luxury sedans that cost quite a bit more and while larger outside felt smaller inside.
The black leather seats which were perforated with a pattern were easy to adjust and stayed comfortable, this model included seat heaters for the front occupants, a heated steering wheel, and every expected power accessory including powered seats (10-way driver, 8-way passenger, both with 2-way lumbar) paired with a memory setting for the driver. The dual-zone HVAC was logically laid out and easy to adjust, and the GM 8″ touchscreen atop the dashboard was its usual model of clarity and user-friendliness with perhaps a backup camera that could be of somewhat higher resolution, especially at night.
The radio for once was not a “premium”-branded system and while thus not as loud or clear than many of what are available, worked just fine for my slightly damaged ears. Hooking up the phone to the Bluetooth system was easy (it almost always is nowadays) and making a hands-free phone call was and is easy with good voice clarity both ways. The electronic Voice Assistant confirmed the correct recipient immediately upon my verbal request and connected the call.
At the bottom of the center stack was a large cubby that came equipped with a wireless phone charger that fired up after just sort of dropping/tossing the phone in there, precise placement didn’t seem to be a requirement, and allowed an easy grab to retrieve it at any time. Two cupholders and a storage bin under the elbow with an internal removable shelf unit along with door pockets and a decently sized glovebox rounded out the storage options up front along with providing USB A and C ports and an Aux input in the lower cubby.
The door panels were soft in the upper half or so as was the dashboard. Perhaps the plastic coverings atop the doors and dash had a little too much gloss, toning that down a bit more would make things appear richer. Along the upper dash is a glossy plastic textured-metal-look panel that worked in the overall scheme of things. All in all not an uncomfortable place in which to go about one’s day. One unexpected but very welcome occurrence was that somehow when the air vents were adjusted just right the combination of airflow, my particular seating position, and the interior architecture created a sensation of air circulating right around my head instead of just being pushed toward it.
Rear seat access was decent, and once back there, contained enough space for shorter trips. Or longer trips with shorter people. My 6’1″ with 32″ inseam frame fit, but legroom was on the tight side. The upper door panels back here are of harder materials than up front, however there was still a soft fold-down center armrest with cupholders and headroom along with lateral space aplenty for two, but three would be a tight squeeze. Once again there are USB A and C charging ports back here. Again a car without a sunroof (it’s an option), these guys are getting to know my personal preferences!
Cargo room around back was abundant, there is a hard cover that lifts out of the way on top to hide valuables, and the trunk floor panel could be rearranged in some sort of shelf format if desired as well. A spare tire is under the floor and the rear seatbacks can be folded down in a 60/40 split format. The liftgate on this one was powered so I didn’t have to work up a sweat when opening or closing it. There’s also a feature wherein a small Buick logo is projected onto the ground when within range of the pocketed keyfob and if you kick your leg into that image just right, it causes the liftgate to open. Handy when both hands are filled with large items and the ground is wet. A button closes it again.
Gauges ahead of the driver are clear and easy to understand and between the two main gauges is a digital interface that curiously only uses the lower portion of the available area. This looked odd to me but worked just fine. Various menus are toggleable via steering wheel controls in order to display various bits of information as desired. This car was equipped with stop/start and GM uses a welcome system wherein the tachometer needle doesn’t just go to zero, rather it holds in a “stop-start” zone just above “off” to make it known at a glance that the engine is merely slumbering and not actually off.
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It’s interesting that an “American brand” vehicle has so little content, 3% is negligible and that assembly occurs in Korea, while many Korean cars sold in the US are assembled in the US by American workers.
I’m not sure what the value proposition is here versus a Hyundai or Kia, with their long warranties. Perhaps nostalgia for Buicks of yore, but we are a long way from a Park Avenue or Electra, baby.
I see a lot of seniors in Korean cars, not only the Soul. I think they appreciate the warranty and for the number of miles they drive typically, 10 yrs/100K miles won’t be reached before they get a new car, or stop driving altogether.
It really makes no sense for separate divisions and dealers to exist (I know, the franchise laws in many states make consolidation difficult). I think the grand plan is to simply winnow down the product so eventually, there will be only GM dealers offering all of the brands. I mean why does Buick need to have so many SUVs?
Again, the real reason sedans are dying or dead is the styling and lack of practicality. It wasn’t always this way. Sedans weren’t always so low or hard to get into or out of. They didn’t always have useless trunk openings.
What Buick needs to do is design a tall sedan with a trunk – something different that doesn’t look like every other SUV on the road (as they all pretty much do look alike). Someone should do a test with all the badges removed and ask the public to identify each brand of SUV.
“What Buick needs to do is design a tall sedan with a trunk – something different that doesn’t look like every other SUV on the road (as they all pretty much do look alike). Someone should do a test with all the badges removed and ask the public to identify each brand of SUV.”
You mean, like the Ford D3 sedans (Five Hundred/Taurus, Taurus, Montego/Sable, MKS)? I owned a 2014 MKS myself. It did have the H-point of a subcompact crossover. It also had awkward proportions, was difficult to drive–because you didn’t know where the corners were–and handled poorly. It worked for Ford, until it didn’t…which is why every one of those vehicles is now gone and the automaker will soon be a truck-and-SUV company, apart from the Mustang.
“(as they all pretty much do look alike).Someone should do a test with all the badges removed and ask the public to identify each brand of SUV.”
How would that be any different than if you removed the badges on every sedan or hatchback and asked the (non-enthusiast) public to identify them? What is it about CUVs/SUVs that somehow makes them magically more generic in your eyes?
The overall driving and performance of this transportation device reminds me quite a bit of the 2020 Malibu 1.5 I just rented. It works insanely well, quiet, efficient, plenty of power, well designed ergonomically, comfortable yet well controlled suspension (a GM strong point for several years now). Fewer creature comforts in a base Malibu, but way more than even a loaded sedan of a decade ago. Mine had heated cloth seats and remote start, but I couldn’t identify anything else that doesn’t seem to come standard. But there just isn’t any feeling anymore. Motor vehicles are largely detail-based cerebral purchases now. I can’t think of anything other than maybe the justification for some of the unreliable, expensive Italian upper mid-market cars that even involves the senses in car buying now. I fear for the longevity of this tiny turbo engine, though the fears of first-gen small displacement turbos of 8 years ago seems to have gone largely unfounded (Hyundai and Kia having the only major problems with longevity, and it applied to their 2.4 and 2.0 n/a engines, too; GM and Ford have had design-related major issues with new cars rather than long term longevity issues). And even the manufacturers wouldn’t admit to expecting cars to last more than a decade before being disposed of. So I guess for 10 years of cerebral, unobtrusive, comfortable, efficient, emotion-free and relatively trouble-free transportation, pick your grille pattern and financing deal and sign on pretty much anybody’s dotted line. The car is dead, long live the perfectly-honed transport pod.
The concern now is a load “bang” noise from the front end. A friends 2020 Encore GX has been back to the dealership and the GM service representative couldn’t fix it. Any bodies thoughts on this?.
Lose motor mount? Turbo blowoff valve malfunctioning? Climate control door slamming?
Thanks for the review.
My wife and I are shocked on how much we love our 2018 OG Encore. We went from Minis and “downgraded” to the Buick, but it just might be my favorite car we’ve ever owned. Maybe I’m having my anti-mid-life-crisis and I’m going to start getting a taste for Old Country Buffet?
This is, admittedly a much better looking car than the OG Encore, although I’m not thrilled with the extra-dimensionality thing (we have a pretty tight shared garage space so every inch counts, especially in the width department) and it’ll be on the short list next new-car-shopping-go-around, but that might be a while. The OG version is so good I’m not looking to trade in anytime soon.
This is interesting on many levels. Micro-upsizing seems to be a thing with these. This one is on a 1.6 inch longer wheelbase than the “regular” Encore, and the engine upgrade gets you another .1 liter. My intuition says that such minor variation would be hard to justify for the higher tooling, manufacturing and parts inventory costs, but it seems to be working for them, so what do I know?
Soooo, this is – what – a Korean car without the good warranty? In its favor, it seems to have done a good job on driver engagement and a nice “feel” to the interior appointments. I have seen a reasonable number of Encores around – now I am going to have to start looking closer to see which Encores they are.
FWIW, we shopped the OG Encore against the Hyundai Kona at a very similar price point. The Hyundai had a slightly smoother powertrain but the cabin in the Buick was much nicer, and along with the Hyundai dealer royally pissing my wife off, was the tipping point to sign on the Buick.
Rumor has it that the OG Encore (the truly tiny one) might be on it’s way out. Just go ahead and discontinue it rather than make a gen 2 (or essentially the Encore GX IS the 2nd GEN vehicle.)
I had figured that was always the intention, along with the Trax vs. Trailblazer.
If true, that’s too bad as the original Encore has increased its sales numbers every year since it was introduced in 2013 from 32k back then to over 100k in 2019 for a cumulative total of over 500k units. Add the significant volume in China for the same car and then the Opel Mokka when that was still owned by GM along with the Chevy Trax and all things considered it was a resounding success especially as the Encore at least was likely profitable and not just developed and sold as a bargain driver.
Of course the GX likely does cannibalize it to some degree due to some people wanting just a skosh more room while the outside dimensions are barely larger.
Looks like this will probably be GM’s strategy; I looked it up and the slightly more powerful turbo engine (which we have in ours) is no longer available in 2020, so they’ll probably segment the lower trim levels to OG and the higher trim levels to GX.
When I bought ours I thought the power on tap was “slightly above tolerable” (then again, coming from a Mini) but maybe it’s a recalibration of the lead in my foot, or a breaking-in of the drivetrain, but it holds its own. I’ve had to make a couple emergency maneuvers and it had the power to do so. I definitely though would think twice about getting the lower-power 4, that would probably put me more in the GX fold already. Which is probably what GM wants.
For undisclosed reasons, I have made four trips to Kansas City in the last eight weeks. While the road is not littered with these I knew they were reasonably popular.
What really drove home their popularity was a large Buick/GM dealer on US 50 in a very rural area east of KC, although it was reasonably close to Whiteman AFB. The entire front row, and a goodly portion of the lot, had every color of Encore imaginable. When an Encore trumps pickups for front row space in rural America, it has something going for it.
From reading this it seems Buick has tapped into their core strength just in a different format.
Good review. FYI, the engines are 3-cylinders.
Yours must work very well for you not to notice, and given your comments about the unobtrusive stop/start. I have not driven the new ones and was hoping to get more perspective on the engine, so I will assume “no news is good news.”
I’ve driven a couple of the original version, including long trips. I think for most Americans, this is the perfect second car. You sit sort of high, it is sort of sporty, it is easy to park in one’s garage, and relatively fuel efficient, and if you fold the seats, it has a lot of room for all the stuff from Costco, if not, 4 doors and 4 seats for 4 people.
While a GTI it is definitely not, I found it a pleasant and very easy to live with car, quite impressive given it’s rather humble underpinnings, and preferable to most of the smaller four-cylinder cars and CUVs on the market. Factors I’m sure have contributed to its success–it’s sold quite well for GM, over 100k in 2019.
If GM had more imagination, they have the hardware and know-how to make GTI competitor, say an Encore GNX (much like once they had the Cobalt SS, which actually outperformed the benchmark GTI). GM has the hardware and the know-how, but not the imagination to make it. If they did, I’m sure it would be overpriced, unfortunately, as the General usually does with “winning” ideas, like the original Cadillac ATS, or the 6.0 V8 in their full-size trucks.
Note to those of you in a position to make a difference: NO ONE has manual-trans, sporting CUV. There is money waiting to be made with one that is reasonably priced (say a $2,000 to $3000 premium max over the everyday engine/suspension).
This “new” one has a nicer interior. The biggest benefit to me though is that the cargo area is 6 inches longer. It doesn’t sound like much, but it makes a big difference with the seats up.
In the original, you need to fold the seat cushion forward first, then the seatback down. Is this how the seats fold in this variant?
Doh! Of course it is an I-3, it just seems so alien to write that even though 3’s are becoming more common again in the market! Corrected, sorry. It was a delightful engine overall with nothing that stood out negatively. Enough power to do a one-wheel peel had there not been traction control, it pulled great.
No, the rear seats fold with just the backrest although you may have to adjust the headrest depending on front seat position. This short Buick video shows it very welll: https://www.buick.com/discover/connectivity/how-to/interior/configure-seating
One “positive” in a turbo 3 is that they sound like a V6 because of similar firing harmonics.
I haven’t been a fan of many recent Buicks, but for whatever reason I really like the look of this. Enough so that I’ve actually built one online. Of interest to me, a power liftgate is not standard in the mid-level trim. As someone who prefers to lift and lower a tailgate manually, this is enough to keep it on my list.
While building, one thing I found very interesting is that every color except Summit White is a premium, extra cost color. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before. Even black and silver were premium, extra cost colors.
GM is getting pretty terrible on anything other than a Chevy for making colors extra cost.
For many years the “standard” colors on GMCs were Red, White, and Black – basically “fleet” colors. Recently I’ve noticed it’s down to white and black. I guess even the Fire Chief would have to pay extra for red on his Sierra or Yukon.
A lot of fleet vehicles seem to be moving to white with just accents in the company’s former color. For example the blue of our local utility company, Forest Service green, etc. I am even seeing fire department pickups and SUV’s in white with red stripes. Presumably the accents are just vinyl. When they auction them off, just peel off the vinyl and no one knows you have a forest ranger’s truck. I’ll miss the old ones.
Being on the Buick forums I’m honestly just irritated by the constant Buick advertising there for their CUVs. Anyone who paid their own money for a Regal or a Lacrosse aren’t going to want one of your CUVs. Sorry. The people at my local Buick/GMC dealer are great but I doubt I’ll be darkening their doorstep again unless I’m having them hunt me a very specific CPO vehicle. (I know, I know, nobody makes money off enthusiasts.)
GM to me is now firmly a commodity vehicle company like Toyota. They could give two shakes if their vehicles have character or soul to them. I anticipate by the time I’m buying again (2025 ish) the only non truck/CUV/SUV GM vehicles will be the Corvette and Cadillac sedans (if they survive.)
Anyone who paid their own money for a Regal or a Lacrosse aren’t going to want one of your CUVs.
Then who’s buying these, in pretty healthy numbers at that? I assume this would make quite the ideal car for the older set, who were the main buyers of Regals and LaCrosses, given the upright seating and easy ingress/egress.
Or maybe they’ve moved on to something else?
If you believe GMs press release hype, the original Encore has largely been bought by folks who never owned a Buick before.
The same GM PR machine claimed at one point that buyers of this final generation of Regal had a higher average household income than any other product that Buick was selling at that point. (Interesting in that it was priced largely in the middle of Buick’s line up, not the cheapest model and not the most expensive.)
If true it didn’t stop GM from abandoning them.
“Anyone who paid their own money for a Regal or a Lacrosse aren’t going to want one of your CUVs.”
Just because you have a car doesn’t mean that you have zero interest in utility vehicles. Many families have more than one vehicle and many of those choose to have some variety in the types of vehicles. So a CUV and a sedan isn’t an unlikely pairing.
I paid money for a Regal and a LeSabre and considered an Enclave some years ago. This seems to absolutely be the right move for Buick, people for the most part seem to have lost interest in the sedans. You yourself bought the Tour-X wagon that was semi-marketed as a crossover with the cladding and all over the sedan version.
As a fan of tall, short and narrow cars, I admit to seeing this as a pretty compelling package, and did so since the first Encore. And this one looks a bit better too.
I would have liked to see the back seat be able to slide in order to increase leg room back there at the expense of cargo room when carrying passengers.
That highway mileage seems kind of pitiful these days. I rented a Pacifica from Enterprise last week for a work trip up to Riverside (from San Diego). It got over 29 mpg on the freeway, rolling a safe and sane 74 mph. Granted around town is only low 20s, but still…
I’ll probably never buy a Buick, but as someone who has never owned a car with fewer than four cylinders, or wheels larger than 16” (and our fleet is quite late model, so the latter is unusual), that may not be true much longer. It reminds me of the Road & Track “Ampersand” humor photo, with a picture of a stout retired 1950’s Grand Prix driver (maybe Fangio?) looking at a newer race car, and captioned: “In our day, the drivers were fat and the tires were skinny”. Today, even Buick engines are skinnier and the tires fatter than an F1 car of the 1960’s 1.5 liter era.
I have no idea what buick means any more. Gm hasn’t, in my opinion, given Buick a brand identity. Blah blah buick China China Buick blah blah but in the united states, is buick considered premium any more? Nobody under the age of dead seems to think so. The last people I remember thinking of buick as aspirational were my greatest generation neighbours. My baby boomer parents think of buick as for the olds with floppy lesabres and think of Lexus or infiniti as aspirational. Buick for a while was offering a longer warranty than chevy so that was a reason to go buick. Honestly, the two things I know about the encore are that it gets good consumer reports ratings and has whacking rebates on them. I’d definitely recommend it as a cheaper alternative to its Honda or toyota equivalent, or even a better known hyundai or kia. But that seems like a bad marketing position for buick. It’s considerably cheaper than the equivalent toyota and just as reliable! Ughhhhh.
I don’t think the sedan is coming back just because this is considerably roomier and has more cargo capacity than an equivalent sedan would be and this ends up being a world car and can be sold all around the globe. Perhaps the better solution is do what buick was always good at, and add layers of extra plush to the existing chevy. It wouldn’t hurt to offer a better warranty, lexus dealer service, and more prestigious styling.
I think Buick did a good job here. The styling is smooth and not at all overwrought or dorky–unlike that of the regular Encore–it seems to make the best use of the available space, and it feels like a premium product.
And are those honest-to-goodness *amber* rear indicators? Be still my beating heart.
My grandmother bought a brand-new Soul Plus w/navigation in 2014. Were she still alive and were she shopping for a new car in 2020, I’d have steered her toward this. It’s a lot more livable and comfortable, from the sound of it.
A very appealing house. The first of this architectural style that I have found attractive.
There was an Encore at the dealer while I was getting a recall notice looked at today and I gotta tell you, it looked really good, and wasn’t any longer than the car I have now. Lots more room to carry things for camping and trips and it sits higher than my car. I think an Encore just moved to my short list for when I go car shopping in 2024.
Oh oh.
Straddling a train track in the lead photo initially lead me to believe a bad review is coming.
…and these decisions to cater only to the SUV crazed sickness of the populace is why I’ll NEVER purchase a new American branded vehicle.
Laws of physics cannot be trumped by technology.
Nothing like giving away a market to your competitors.
I guess I’ll buy used (and old!) only or do Toyota again.