Buick encore gx review 20212/14/2024 ![]() General road noise is also surprisingly pronounced for a Buick, necessitating cranking the aforementioned entirely inadequate stereo to cover up the ruckus. Head-toss is pronounced and mid-corner freeway expansion joints are met with a spooky combination of pitch and roll. While steering weight builds nicely mid-corner, ride quality is a little more than a decade out of date with noticeable choppiness over minor imperfections over anything larger than the cross-section of a nickel. The automatic transmission has nine gears, although it might as well have four or seventeen as it’s largely seamless. of torque which feels entirely acceptable. It also makes 155 horsepower and 174 lb-ft. The 1.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder makes the coarse notes of pea gravel being fed through a woodchipper when accelerating. Out on the road, the Encore GX exists in the uncanny valley between perfectly sufficient and not quite good enough. As a result, we learned that the standard stereo is entirely unfit for the near-premium segment. Despite our tester being the top trim level, the premium Bose stereo is optional and ours was not equipped with it. ![]() The gauges are legible and the heads-up display doesn’t wash out when viewed through polarized sunglasses. While the volume knob is a long reach away, the Encore GX offers a nice array of redundant controls for the infotainment, as well as HVAC controls that are very intuitive. Look a little less closely however, and certain elements begin to work. The attempts to ‘stitch’ fairly mediocre plastics on the dashboard feel cynically insincere, especially considering material quality elsewhere fails to make up for it. The front seats are a slightly different story, with oddly-contoured backrests that are prone to digging into the driver’s shoulder blades. ![]() Passenger space is quite sufficient and the rear seat is comfortable and well-padded. ![]() The array of available tech is impressive, from a heads-up display to a panoramic moonroof. The fold-flat front passenger seat is an incredibly nice touch that allows long items to be easily carried inside the vehicle. On the inside of the Encore GX, things improve a bit. With a design landscape obsessed with oversized grilles on vehicles not sporty enough to justify them, it’s nice to see a bit of restraint. Another bright spot is the restrained grille that carries a simultaneous sense of intricacy and subtlety. They have enough intricacy to be interesting and don’t fall into the hideous modern car design cliche of bright machined faces with dark painted pockets. That being said, the wheels are quite nice. While it may find favor with some buyers, the Encore GX falls flat for those seeking a touch of passion, or individuality. Derivative designs that work well due to good proportions and occasional daring flourishes exist in the car landscape, but this isn’t one of them. It lacks a defined beltline to visually lengthen the vehicle and elements like the elongated chrome window trim and multi-contoured hood are so de rigueur in the segment that they don’t stand out. Instead of projecting gravitas, the Encore GX is very generic and normcore. However, there is a way to do conservative styling and this isn’t quite it. It sports nothing daring like split headlamps or floating C-pillars, so it fits in well with Buick’s conservative M.O. We jumped behind the wheel to determine if this new entry is the quantum leap necessary to remain competitive or merely an evolution of a now-outdated model?įrom the outside, the Buick Encore GX adopts a very safe form. For 2020 it receives a sequel in the form of this 2021 Buick Encore GX Essence. Launched in 2013, the Buick Encore was arguably the first near-premium subcompact crossover on the Canadian market.
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