2025 Buick Encore GX Avenir Review: Premium or Not?

The verdict: The 2025 Buick Encore GX Avenir is unlikely to disappoint buyers, but it feels equally unlikely to delight them: It’s a competently executed vehicle with upscale looks, but it does little to stand out.

Versus the competition: Even though the Kia Seltos provides more bang for your buck, the Mazda CX-30 offers greater driving enjoyment, and the upcoming Acura ADX looks set to run the upscale Encore GX Avenir off the court, the Buick’s only real misstep is the performance of its available nine-speed automatic transmission.

With an as-tested price of $37,085 (all prices include destination), the 2025 Buick Encore GX Avenir I drove doesn’t come cheap. That price — especially for a subcompact SUV — suggests a measure of sophistication somewhere, be it in materials quality, refinement or performance, and we wanted to see if the Avenir could deliver on that promise.

Related: 2025 Buick Encore GX Unchanged, Priced From $27,295

The Avenir trim level of the Encore GX was introduced for the 2024 model year during the SUV’s first refresh since joining the Buick lineup for 2020. I reviewed that first Encore GX, too, and this time around, I hoped Buick had done enough to it in the intervening years to make things a little less ho-hum.

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Drives Better With AWD

Our test vehicle came equipped with a turbocharged 1.3-liter three-cylinder engine and optional all-wheel drive. The peppy engine makes 155 horsepower and 174 pounds-feet of torque, which are mild increases over the standard turbo 1.2-liter three-cylinder’s 137 hp and 162 pounds-feet. More significantly, AWD-equipped models have a nine-speed automatic transmission instead of the continuously variable automatic that goes in front-drive models.

The bright side of this powertrain is that it’s the best one available in the Encore GX. It’s peppy enough to zip around town without issue, and it’s just strong enough that highway driving doesn’t feel unsafe. Also nice is that its acceleration from a stop is much more manageable than in FWD versions with the same engine; those models have an aggravating amount of torque steer — so aggravating, in fact, that in my initial Encore GX review, I suggested  springing for AWD just to avoid dealing with it.

The not-so-bright-side is that the nine-speed automatic that comes with AWD feels a lot like a CVT to the point that I actually thought it was a CVT the first time I got behind the wheel. Gears blend together and acceleration is elastic, with a noticeable buildup before the Encore GX darts forward. Lots of similarly sized vehicles have CVTs, so this isn’t a deal breaker to me, but every press of the accelerator pedal feels like twirling the propeller on a toy airplane before letting it go.

As for the rest of the driving experience, it’s fairly bland. The ride, even with the Avenir’s 19-inch wheels and tires, is comfortable but not especially composed, and despite a fair amount of body roll, the Encore GX handles corners well enough that you won’t feel like a Citroen Ami careening around the Fairmont Hairpin in Monaco.

On the downside, there’s a fuel-economy penalty with AWD in the Encore GX. The EPA rated our test vehicle at 27 mpg combined, down from 30 mpg for FWD versions. Similarly sized vehicles (that are also more fun to drive) include turbo-engine-equipped versions of the Kia Seltos and Mazda CX-30, both of which earn an EPA-estimated 25 mpg combined.

More notable is the significant power advantage of the Kia and Mazda over the Buick. The Seltos turbo produces a healthy 195 hp and 195 pounds-feet of torque, and the similarly efficient CX-30 turbo makes a whopping 250 hp and 320 pounds-feet on premium gas (or a still-much-greater 227 hp and 310 pounds-feet on regular gas). Both SUVs back up their extra power with more enjoyable driving dynamics than the Encore GX offers, all for what the EPA estimates is a measly $150 extra per year in fuel costs.

An Actual Premium SUV?

The Encore GX’s 2024 refresh gave it attractive exterior styling cues reminiscent of Buick’s Wildcat EV concept, making it look nice and upscale on the outside. We’ve seen this look on other Buick SUVs, too; to my eye, of all of GM’s SUV lineups, Buick’s is the most attractive.

So, does the interior live up to the Encore GX’s premium packaging? Not really. Even in the Avenir trim, the Encore GX trails competitors like the Seltos. Things aren’t all bad; its leather upholstery feels high-quality, and the front seats are comfortable. The rest of the cockpit, though, feels similar to Chevrolet’s Trailblazer and Trax SUVs, with lots of hard plastic surfaces below waist level and low-quality materials on the doors. The overall experience is nicer than in the Chevrolets, but not by much. In the backseat, space is at a premium for adults, and materials quality dips even further.

Unlike some SUVs in this segment, the Encore GX doesn’t appear to be aimed at growing families, either. My 1-year-old son’s Nuna Pipa RX infant seat fit in the back, but accommodating it required significant adjustment of the front passenger seat. My wife didn’t have much room in the back behind my driving position, but she still preferred that spot to the front passenger seat’s now-awkward position. It seems the ideal buyer for the Encore GX will be someone with only one adult passenger or occasional child-sized ones.

Cargo space is adequate, at a Buick-reported 23.5 cubic feet behind the backseat. An optional Avenir Convenience Package ($1,295) includes a hands-free power liftgate — a rarity for vehicles this size. I appreciated the puddle light under the rear bumper showing where I needed to place my foot to activate it, too.

Modern Tech

The Encore GX’s technology is first-rate; the 2024 refresh saw it gain Buick’s Virtual Cockpit System, which is a fancy name for a digital instrument panel and infotainment touchscreen combined into one large unit. Both screens look great; my one complaint with the instrument panel is that, from my seating position, it’s oriented in such a way that it feels like I’m peering down at it. The 11-inch center touchscreen has the added bonus of not using a Google-based operating system, which means it worked entirely without issue during my testing — something we can’t say about many of the Google-based systems we’ve tested in other GM vehicles. It’s not the most modern GM screen out there, but I prefer its operation to some of the newer ones.

Our test vehicle had the Avenir Technology Package ($1,395), which includes adaptive cruise control, wireless device charging, a rearview camera mirror and a 360-degree camera system — which helped me get out of a few tight parking spots. That was on top of this Buick’s suite of standard safety features, including blind spot warning with lane change alert, as well as rear cross-traffic alert, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and lane departure steering assist with lane departure warning. Also standard are GM’s Teen Driver suite of features and, my favorite bit of tech, a following distance indicator that measures your distance from a vehicle ahead of you in seconds.

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Value Proposition

All of these features gave our Encore GX Avenir an as-tested price of $37,085. That’s thousands more than a loaded 2025 Kia Seltos SX Turbo, and while it’s nearly $2,000 less than a loaded 2025 Mazda CX-30 Turbo Premium Plus, that Mazda is significantly more powerful and fun to drive than the Buick (and it comes in less expensive Turbo trim levels, too). The upcoming 2025 Acura ADX is another premium tall hatchback, and the Chevrolet Trailblazer (the Encore GX’s twin) is every bit as good as the Encore GX and also less expensive. The Chevy Trax is nearly as good and more affordable still.

Can you at least feel good knowing the Encore GX is American-made? Not exactly; although Buick is one of the oldest U.S. brands out there, our test car’s window sticker revealed it has just 2% U.S. or Canadian parts content and that it’s assembled in South Korea. What does that mean? To me, not that much, but it might mean a lot to someone focused on domestic manufacturing, and it drives home something we always talk about in Cars.com’s American Made Index: Just because an automaker is American doesn’t mean all of its cars are.

The Encore GX doesn’t offer a better driving experience, a more premium interior, or significantly better fuel economy or utility than either the Kia Seltos or Mazda CX-30 — or really any small SUV. It’s not especially bad, but it’s not especially good, either. Opting for a Encore GX Avenir means paying a lot of money for not a lot of substance. It probably won’t disappoint you, but there are better options out there.

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