Buick has already proven itself adept at luxury on a large scale with the three-row Enclave SUV, and now the brand plans to foray into the compact luxury SUV market with its new Envision.
Transcript
(car engine starts) Among Buick SUVs, the Enclave is pretty big and the Encore is pretty small. There's nearly three feet of difference in length between the two, so clearly, room for something in the middle.
Enter the all-new Buick Envision, an SUV middle child that seats five. The Envision is larger than the Encore, but actually kind of still on the smaller side as SUVs go. A lot of traditional Buick cues up front here, the waterfall grill, these flared headlights out here. We're a little surprised that Buick didn't throw its winged badge up front, as it has on the redesigned LaCrosse, but perhaps that's because the Envision isn't totally new. It's already on sale in China. Cabin materials inside are good where it counts, with lots of padding where your arms, your elbows, your knees land. A few things jump out here. The A-Pillars kind of limit some forward visibility. They're awfully thick up front here. Capacitive touch climate controls, touch sensitive controls here. We haven't been big fans of them in other cars. I can't really see how Buick would be improving on that. But, lots of utility, which is often lost in a luxury SUV. Good to see here, things like a big center console, a bin here behind the cup holders, the rear seats, they go forward and backward, they recline and they fold completely flat into the floor. Nice job Buick. Lots of standard features, heated front and rear seats, a heated steering wheel, tri-zone climate control, but we don't know how much all of that costs. We should, closer to the new Envision's on sale date. So, stay tuned. It hits dealerships this summer. (car trunk slams)
