Five-Point Inspection: 2014 Buick Enclave

Like all Buicks, the Enclave is easy to overlook. General Motors’ alternative luxury brand currently sells five models in the U.S. and is almost entirely supported by its sales in China. In spite of that, the products it offers probably deserve more credit than they get.

The Enclave is a perfect example. It has downsides, but if you’re in the market for a premium crossover with three rows of seats, the Enclave checks of most of the important boxes and undercuts other premium high-capacity passenger vehicles from its own parent company.

With all the peaceful silence of a padded room, the Buick Enclave lets little more than a whisper’s worth of road noise into the cabin. Like other products in the tri-shield brand’s portfolio, you’ll be aware of the outside world, but gobs of sound deadening material make acknowledging it optional.

Get on the throttle a little bit and you’ll hear the 3.6-liter V6 growl, but it’s just enough to remind you of its presence.

GM offers three crossovers of Paleolithic proportions on the same platform: the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia and Buick Encore. Of the three, Buick’s spin is arguably the best looking. The waterfall grille, aluminum wheels and body proportions are best executed over a large utility vehicle body. The bumper integrated exhaust and overall shape end up hiding how big the Enclave actually is.

The interior can be equally as stylish. Wood inserts on the steering wheel, an analog clock and wraparound ambient lighting on the dashboard all create a relatively rich-feeling space. It’s still leagues behind premium German products or even something from the Lexus product list, but it really is pretty darn good.

At least that’s the case if you’re painting with broad brush strokes. Buick misses the little details. For example, it’s shift lever is shared with the less expensive Chevrolet Traverse and the gear indicator it leads to is made of hard clear plastic that looks out of place in something purporting to be a luxury product.

The rear-view mirror housing in the car I borrowed also came loose by itself during the week I had it. I managed to muscle it back into place, but it took a firm slap to make it stick.

The Buick IntelliLink system’s interface also looks disappointingly old. It feels like Buick is stuck in the 16-bit world when most of us have moved into the world of next-generation graphics.

This is where the Enclave really starts looking good. Its interior volume sits between the Escalade and longer wheelbase Escalade ESV. Its true that comparing the two on a quality bases is sort of like saying a t-bone and rib-eye are the same because they both come from a cow and are served bone-in.

Here’s the thing: unless you’re towing a boat, horse trailer or an ego of equal girth to one of those things, there’s really no reason to buy a truck-based SUV. You’re never going to use more than a sliver of its capability.

At most, you’ll load it up with a variety of cargo. Believe it or not, the Encore offers an interior that sits between the two lengths of Escalade or perhaps more appropriately, the GMC Yukon Denali and Denali XL.

Granted, the interior materials lack the rich, buttery soft feeling you’ll get with the Cadillac and they still fall short of the recently-upgraded Denali interiors. But at $39,815 (including delivery) to start, you’ll realize a savings worth much more than the marginal downgrade in cabin quality. For example, the GMC Yukon starts at $47,330 and that price gets you the standard wheelbase version that has less interior volume than the Enclave.

There’s always the mechanically similar GMC Adadia Denali that can offer a comparable features list at a lower price, but its interior still has sort of a work-a-day styling that is absent in the Buick product.

Compared to GM’s more capable large utility vehicles, you’ll probably end up burning less fuel with an Enclave. That said, it’s still a pig. The on-board computer reported an average of 15.7 MPG. That includes roughly five hours of constant-speed highway driving and a week’s worth of short trips to and from the AutoGuide.com office in city traffic.

For perspective, the city rating is 16 MPG. That means in the real world, you might see average fuel consumption below the worst-possible officially estimated rating.

Interested in buying a Buick Enclave? Check out our new car buying page. You can see the whole Buick lineup or go straight to the Buick Enclave by clicking here.