Video: 2025 Buick Enclave First Drive: Luxury Interior, Average Powertrain

ady driven. So, we've come here to Portland, Oregon to drive the new '25 Enclave, and to see if the most premium, nicest on-road version of General Motors' big crossover SUVs really lives up to its billing. First thing to know is that there are three trim levels of Enclave for 2025. It starts with the Preferred version, that's the base model, but it still comes very well-equipped. You get things like 20-inch wheels, a really nice interior, some really good colors as well. And then it moves up to something called the ST, the Sport Touring trim. All the chrome gets blacked out, you get a black chrome mesh grill, you get wheels that are a little bit different, you get a flat-bottom steering wheel inside, and it's meant to be a little bit more sporty looking. And then it tops out with this one, this is the new Avenir version. This is the super luxurious, top premium, ultra trim level of the new Buick Enclave. It's basically the super-premium version. Think of it as the GMC Acadia Denali version of the Buick Enclave. Some styling changes you can identify in Avenir, because all the chrome has been put back onto it. You also have standard 22-inch wheels. And overall, the styling itself, it's really meant to be inspired by something called the Buick Wildcat EV Show Car. Now, that thing is a coupe, but it has a lot of very similar styling elements, especially in the front end, in terms of the shape of the grill and the headlights, and it's meant to be a lot more of a flowing, luxurious look to it, instead of the Traverse and Acadia, which are a bit more blocky and trucklike. There is no off-road version of the Enclave like there is for the Chevrolet and for the GMC, so this thing is really meant to be more about on-road, luxury, premium experience. And from a looks standpoint, I think they pretty much nailed that. One of the most important aspects of any premium SUV experience is, of course, its interior, and this is where the Buick Enclave absolutely excels. Now, the Chevy Traverse is nice, and the GMC Acadia, especially the Denali, is very nice, but the Buick Enclave Avenir, the top version of this Enclave, is exceptional. This is one of the nicest interiors in this category. And it's not just in terms of material quality, it's also in the artistry of how everything looks, how everything is fit together, the design of everything itself. It really does feel like a special product in here. Front and center is this interesting thing; it's a 30-inch curved digital display and touchscreen, all combined into one. It's a seamless display from end to end, and there's also some touch-sensitive stuff on the left side here, for like, adjusting the heads-up display, On the right side you have the multimedia system, featuring Google Built-In. Some of the aspects of Google Built-In we like, some we don't. I don't like the fact that everything is cloud-based, including a lot of the voice commands, so sometimes you don't have that ability if you're in an area that doesn't have great data. But in terms of clarity and function, and the various kinds of things you could do with this system, it really does work quite well. The whole thing looks fantastic. This digital gauge cluster is reconfigurable. And the material and design quality in here, again, fantastic. The big, chunky steering wheel is nice, but it also is a bit problematic, especially in this version of the big SUVs from General Motors, because this display behind here has a lot of information, but you can't see half of it because the curvature of the steering wheel blocks a lot of the data (chuckles) that it's displaying to you. What this thing really needs is what we call a squircle wheel; it kind of acts as a squared-off top. You could see it in the Chevrolet Corvette, you could see it in the Lincoln Nautilus, you can see it in the Kia EV9. It allows you to see a lot more of this amorphous-style display than you can with just a round steering wheel, so I'm hoping that they will actually switch to something like that, maybe for the next generation. One thing we do like in here that General Motors is pretty consistent on lately is combining touchscreen controls and physical, actual hard buttons for things that you use frequently. Climate control has some limited hard buttons, but they're the ones that you use fairly often, ON/OFF, AUTO, temperature, fan, things like that. Anything more complicated than that gets put into the actual touch screen, but that's actually okay. You still also have a volume knob and power knob. That's down here on the center console, along with wireless charging, a cup holder, and a great, big storage case as well. In terms of the interior space, there's plenty. This is a big SUV, so up front, second row, even the third row has adequate space for humans. It's easy to get in and out of. It's actually very easy to see out of, because this dash is actually fairly low. So, overall, in terms of the premium experience of how nice the Buick Enclave is, I think they've knocked it out of the park. So, the Enclave is really nice to sit in, given its luxurious materials, but is it any good to drive? 'Cause a premium SUV has to have a premium driving experience, so has Buick achieved that as well with the new '25 Enclave? Partially. (car rumbling) of any premium SUV has to be the premium driving experience. And it is here that the Buick Enclave really only partially delivers, I have to say. Ride and handling is outstanding. This is one of, if not the best riding full-sized, three-row crossover-style SUVs, frankly, in the nation. It is absolutely super smooth, and it doesn't even matter which version you're driving. The ST uses what they call the FE4 suspension, it's a steel suspension, coils and things like that, and it is absolutely smooth; it absorbs bumps, it handles well, great body control. This, being the Avenir, has what they call the FE5 suspension, and it has computer control electronic dampers, and, quite frankly, I don't really detect any difference between this one and the ST, (chuckles) because they're both excellent in terms of driving feel, and comfort, and the whole ride and handling balance. There's two areas, however, where the driving experience doesn't match up to the premium feel that I am expecting from, well, frankly, everything that Buick has told me that I should be expecting. First is the powertrain. This uses a turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, making 328 horsepower and 326 pounds-feet of torque. And if that sounds familiar, that's because that is the exact same engine that you'll find in the Chevrolet Traverse and in the GMC Acadia, and even with the same power output as well. There's no difference between these vehicles in terms of their powertrain, which is kind of a miss, in my opinion, because you're paying more for this than you are for either of the other two, you should get something a little bit more. It's made it up to an eight-speed automatic transmission, which is perfectly fine, it's a great transmission. You can get front- or all-wheel drive; all-wheel drive an option on each of the three trim levels, really just depends on where the country you're living as to whether or not you think you need all-wheel drive. But the powertrain in this vehicle is not refined. It is not quiet. It is smooth, but not as punchy or powerful as you think it should be given how much power they say this thing is putting out. It doesn't feel it, it feels like it's struggling to move the vehicle when you really put your foot down. Power is adequate, it's not slow by any means, but it is also kind of just, (engine roaring) That's not what I expect in a premium SUV, and it's not what you get in something like an Acura MDX, or even a top-level Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy Edition. It's coarse, it's unfortunate. Because with a little bit more powertrain refinement, or if this was potentially an electric, or a plug-in hybrid, this wouldn't even be an issue at all. The other aspect of it that I expected to be a premium experience is the quietness of the vehicle, and Buick has a lot of things that they do to this SUV that you don't get on the other SUVs to specifically make it quiet, things like special laminated glass, extra insulation in various parts of the vehicle, but it's still loud in here. I get a lot of road noise up through the tires. I mean, yeah, they're 22 inches, so they're fairly large, but this doesn't feel any quieter than the Traverse or the Acadia, and it doesn't have that kind of real isolated sensation that I have frankly expected Buick to deliver with a vehicle this expensive that they specifically say has been quiet-tuned. Now, part of that is, I think, pavement dependent. Super-smooth blacktop does, you know, help a little bit, but out here in Oregon, everything is pretty much super-smooth blacktop. Some of it's more pebbly, some of it's more smooth, but it's still generating a lot more road noise than I think it really should be, given what they've promised for this vehicle. Those are really the only two things that I have a quibble about in terms of the driving experience with the Enclave. The rest of it is just fantastic. It's comfortable, it's relaxing, it handles very well, it's not numb on center at all, you've got really good steering feel, you've got excellent body control. But the other problem is, so does the Traverse, and so does the Acadia. This really doesn't feel any different than the other two versions of General Motors' big three-row full-sized crossover SUV. It just looks different; the interior is different, the interior is nicer, it's got different kinds of materials, it's got some different technology in here. You've got Super Cruise as well, that's available for the first time in a Buick. It's optional on all three trim levels, but you can also get that in the other versions of this SUV, the Chevy, and the GMC as well. So, really, the reason to get the Enclave over the other two is simply because you want something that is really a little bit more nicer to the touch, something that looks more on-road, instead of looks more off-road and trucky. At the end of the day, what we have here is a premium SUV, probably one of the nicest ones out of the three that General Motors is offering in this category. But that's let down by that one aspect that really is important for a premium SUV, and that's its powertrain refinement. Now, it starts at around mid $40,000 level, and it culminates with this one right in the mid $65,000 level, which is, quite frankly, a lot of money for a vehicle like this that doesn't have the refinement, in terms of its powertrain, that it really should to command that kind of price tag. If you'd like to learn more about the new 2025 Buick Enclave, or any of the new Buick lineup, make sure you go check it out at cars.com. (electronic dance music)