In the landscape of large, 3-row crossover utility vehicles, Buick has stood out with the Enclave for over 16 years, welcoming families who need a large interior space wrapped up in a premium vehicle. That’s just what buyers got over nearly two decades, and for the newly redesigned Enclave for 2025, Buick elevates such a vehicle in many ways, giving buyers something they feel doesn’t compromise even when pitted against some entry-level luxury offers.
For the 2025 model year, the Buick Enclave matures with more efficiency, more power, a serious dive into advanced technology, and a higher level of quality inside that’s all wrapped in a spacious and thoughtfully designed package. The competitive class that the Buick Enclave belongs to tends to be highly desirable deep into the suburbs, and after a week with the 3-row crossover, there’s a lot to like but only a couple of shortcomings that tend to stand out often.
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Just like its closely related counterpart, the Chevrolet Traverse that I reviewed a few weeks ago, the new Buick Enclave gets just one powertrain, a 2.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder that can be had in front-wheel-drive or an all-wheel-drive setup. The engine is good for 328 horsepower and a healthy 326 lb-ft of torque sent through an 8-speed automatic transmission. The powertrain, just as I reported in the Chevrolet Traverse, has good power through the rev range, but you cannot get around the harshness of the sound it makes under power. In fact, the sound that permeates through the cabin is often a takeaway from what otherwise could be a luxurious experience. It’s possible that many can overlook such a shortcoming, but it’s hard if you don’t have the 12-speaker Bose audio system turned up load enough because the cabin is mostly quiet, partly thanks to active noise cancelation. It’s just too bad the cancelation doesn’t do much to curtail such a brash sound from the powerful 4-cylinder turbocharged engine.
Zero to 60 mph ticks off in about 7 seconds flat, which is good for such a class of vehicle. On the road, there’s not much to complain about, as the ride quality is good without any fussy or unwanted body movements over road imperfections. The higher profile 20-inch tires wrapping alloy wheels help to keep things civil while the fixed dampers do well to eat up road rises and smooth out undulations. The all-wheel-drive setup helps to keep the Enclave sure-footed when powering out of turns from a stop or at lower speeds as the vehicle is a front-wheel-drive-biased setup. If you ever desire, you are able to tow up to 5,000 pounds with the new Enclave.
Fuel economy is surprisingly consistent, and you’ll easily match the EPA estimates of 19 mpg city, 24 mpg highway, and 21 mpg combined in the real world, as I did during my time with the new Enclave. A 19.4-gallon fuel tank full of regular unleaded will give you a highway cruising range of about 465 miles if you keep with the 24 mpg figure.
As a premium crossover, the Buick Enclave offers up quite a bit of content but does it so as not to be very flashy in the middle-range Sport Touring (ST) trim level. At such a trim level, you get a decent amount of equipment, which starts with the highlight of the dashboard being a 30-inch screen that seamlessly combines a driver’s digital gauge cluster area and a large touchscreen area for the infotainment system. The screen is nicely integrated into the dashboard, and it almost seems to be floating from some angles with its unique curved edges.
The infotainment system is simple enough to use but has some strange quirks about how it shrinks some displays, like the 360-degree views of the camera system and integration of wireless (and USB-connected) Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Here, the system seems like it could do a better job of using more screen real estate to display such features. Otherwise, the system embeds a good deal of vehicle functions, such as the headlight controls and even the window lock-out feature, which are items I think no one really asked to be placed in a touchscreen interface even though you may never really have the need to toggle the headlights out of their default Automatic setting. One thing that I continue to like in GM vehicles is the use of a wireless smartphone charger that is actively cooled so your device doesn’t overheat when charging wirelessly.
The cabin layout remains to be an inviting space with vast dimensions that are accommodating for most up front in the heated seats, and in the second row captain’s chairs that can be heated in the top-level Avenir trim. Other standout characteristics are some additional soft touch surfaces that play into the premium theme of Buick over the Chevrolet Traverse that shares the same platform, in addition to color LED ambient lighting throughout.
Buyers will certainly take notice to the few differences of the Enclave versus the closely-matched Chevrolet Traverse, and for good reason as the two are very similar offering up similar dimensions for large seating and cargo areas in one of the largest vehicles for its class.
The new 2025 Buick Enclave ST gets all the expected active safety features and looks to continue its five-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA. One thing that helped elevate the Enclave was the availability of the Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving system, which came equipped in my Enclave ST test vehicle. Continuing the literally paved path, Super Cruise, in its latest version, works excellently on pre-mapped highways and interstates and surprises me with its advancements of nudging the opposite direction when a vehicle next to you starts to come into your lane, in addition to the advancement of automated lane changes. Otherwise, you have a full array of active safety features that include the typical lane-keeping assistance, blind-spot warning with rear cross-traffic warning, adaptive cruise control (combined with Super Cruise), forward collision warning/emergency braking, intersection collision mitigation, and 360-degree camera system.
The Buick Enclave has always been a good value for such a large vehicle that gives you a premium theme inside and out, and this year is no different for the redesigned model that starts at $46,395 for the base Preferred FWD trim. Moving to my mid-level Enclave ST AWD test vehicle, you have a price out the door of $53,300, which includes the Super Cruise Package option ($3,255), all-wheel-drive ($2,000), upgraded Cherry Red paint ($645), and a destination charge of $1,395. If you move to the top trim, the Enclave Avenir, you start with a price of $59,395 before any additional options or fees.
