2008 Buick Enclave: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2008 Buick Enclave as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- This One's Just Right
- Hauling Nuts
- Cool Buick SUV
- Oregon Trip Contender
- Blue Light Special
- Racking Up The Miles Fast
- Christmas Tree Duty
- Sit Back and Relax
- Nautical No More
- Oregon Holiday Trip, Days 3 & 4
- Oregon Holiday Trip Day 5
- Oregon Holiday Trip, Day 6
- Oregon Holiday Trip, Day 7
- Oregon Holiday Trip, Home Again
- Oregon Trip Wrap-up
- Chameleon Paint
- This is the Best Vehicle GM Makes
- Plenty of Useful Cargo Space
- Roof Rack Rails
- Hot Date
- Rear Seat Review
- Roof Rack Redux
- Dual Pane in the Glass
- Car of Steel?
- Smooth Operator
- Lasting Impressions
- Hello, Enclave? Your DVD is Overdue
- Not the Same as GMC Acadia
- Easily GM's Best
- My Eyes! My Eyes!
- Quiet Room
- Much Better Than the Outlook
- The Nittiest of Nitpicks
- Family Truckster
- The Joys and Minor Inconveniences of Checking the Oil
- It Frightens and Confuses Me
- Power Steering Failure
- Power Steering Repair.
- More Power Steering Fluid
- Fuel Economy Update
- Hands Free
- Why No Comparison Love?
- Seating Options and an Oil Change
- The Engine Cover and Oil Cap
- Oh Yeah, Much Better Engine Cover Location
- The real reason...
- Dirt. Power Steering Failure. Coincidence?
- Back to the dealer
- Power Steering Repair Redux
- 22,000 miles and Ticking
- Back Again
- Labor Day Trip
- Reunion Stand-in
- All Things to Most People
- Helping Me Move
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
Ever since the Buick Enclave debuted at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show, there's been one thought on everyone's mind: When did Buick get hot? Seriously, we haven't seen this sort of style out of the famed Detroit marque since Eisenhower took office. With a sleek, upscale interior and a styling theme aimed at a younger, more hip (and less hip-replacement) market, Buick has created a new benchmark in design and packaging with this full-size crossover utility vehicle. Or is it a very large wagon? Or is it an SUV?
Who cares what it's called? The 2008 Buick Enclave manages to seat seven and sport a larger cargo volume than its full-size cousins, all the while providing a smoother ride and returning better fuel economy than a conventional sport-utility.
We knew right there on the show floor in 2006 that Buick needed the Enclave in the same way a grown-up former child star needs a reality TV show. To capture a new audience. To break new ground. To regain relevance. The Enclave serves to breathe new life into a once-great franchise and show a whole new generation what a Buick really is.
What We Bought
Taking a cost-conscious path, the process of outfitting our 2008 Buick Enclave was a game of give-and-take. We like leather upholstery. We like 19-inch rims. We like an eight-way power driver seat. We really like heated seats. These are all things that make a luxury vehicle a little nicer, but we didn't need them. Opting for the CX trim level voided all of these options, but put $2,200 back in our pocket.
Of course, that $2,200 wasn't going to last very long; the optional touchscreen navigation system with back-up camera, Bose speakers, rear-seat audio controls and satellite radio cost a cool $3,025. With the way the Enclave soaks up highway miles, we figured navigation and satellite radio were necessities.
The next item on the chopping block proved to be all-wheel drive (AWD). Crossovers are designed to be the kinder, gentler SUV and we wanted one that would tread a little more lightly. With an EPA fuel-economy rating of 16 mpg city/24 mpg highway for the front-wheel-drive (FWD) Enclave versus 16 mpg city/22 mpg highway for the AWD model, the FWD alternative sounded good to us. Besides, we live in Southern California, so we don't really need AWD.
Once we had the $2,000 savings in hand, we spent it on things you really need in Southern California. Like a sunroof! Handing Buick $1,300 gets you not only a power sunroof, but a nifty second-row skylight to entertain (i.e., cause motion sickness for) your second- and third-row passengers.
The sharp, blue-gold Crystal Metallic paint clashed with the stock wheel rims, so we shelled out $225 for a set of shiny polished 18s. Again, we only spent for what we needed. For the interior, we chose the ebony cloth upholstery, as we've had some issues with light-color seats in the past. A cargo net and a cargo cover were each $45 options that were well worth the price if they prevent one break-in or keep one gallon of milk from smashing around the spacious cargo hold.
The Enclave comes standard with second-row captain's chairs. They leave enough room for rear-seat riders to walk straight between them to the third row, and tilt forward to offer entry from the doors. Of course, if you opt for the second-row bench, you increase capacity to eight passengers and save $495 on the bottom line, a twisted reverse-pricing structure scheme that only a bureaucrat could love. We stuck with the captain's chairs to make the second row more suitable for adults.
Buick offers one engine option for the Enclave: a 3.6-liter V6 with variable valve timing that produces 275 horsepower and 251 pound-feet of torque. We picked that one.
When all was said and done, our well-optioned Buick that might otherwise have easily pushed $45 large instead rings the cash register to the tune of $37,430.
Why We Bought It
Crossovers are hot and Buick has generated an incredible amount of buzz for its new one — something that the Rendezvous never managed — or anything, for that matter, that didn't have a Nailhead V8 or turbo V6. We were excited at the Enclave's reveal in 2006, and our anticipation has been further stoked after a full test. As we said, "If luxury, safety and pleasant manners are the trifecta of road travel, the 2008 Buick Enclave is a good bet."
Stay tuned to our Long-Term Logbook for the next 12 months and 20,000 miles to see if Buick has, in fact, created the finest luxury crossover ever.
Current Odometer: 3,590
Best Fuel Economy: 19.4 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 14.3 mpg
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 16.7 mpg
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purpose of evaluation.
As soon as I got into the Enclave I knew I would like it. The size, ride and comfort are perfect for me. I think it looks great too. I'd rather drive this than our Q7 - seriously... I recently drove the Enclave on a 3 hour trip and once I arrived, I wanted to keep going.
My only quibble - it can be hard to back out of a tight parking space. Get the rear parking sensors, they're worth it.
As Nut Mom for Girl Scout Brownie Troop 421,I was tasked with picking up the entire troop'sfall fundraiser order from the local Long Beach, Calif. warehouse.
Usually minivans are my first choice for transporting cases of Girl Scout goodies, but since our trusty Kia Sedona left the long-term fleet in July we've been minivan-free, sothis time Iturned to our new 2008 Buick Enclave instead.
With just the third-row seats folded down, the Enclave had no problem swallowing 588 cans of nuts shrink-wrapped into 49 cases. And best of all, thecargo floorheight was perfect for my 5'7" nutty self toload all of the cases into the Enclave during my assigned 8:36-8:40 a.m... (four minutes?!) pick-up window.
The Girl Scout Council of Greater Long Beach sure runs a tight ship.
The title of this post contains words I never thought I'd utter. At least not together. I love sport sedans, and don't care for SUVs, particularly huge 3-row SUVs like the Enclave. Also, a Buick is the car you get with your AARP membership card, or the butt of jokes, as in Annie Hall when Woody emerges from the bathroom ashen-faced and says "That spider's the size of a Buick."
I am happy to say those perceptions have been wiped away single-handedly by the 2008 Buick Enclave... It is a tremendous car. Physically, of course, but it doesn't feel that way, at all. It's got great sight lines, a very handy back-up camera, and nice style. It looks good, too, particularly those big meaty tires and tasteful wood accents on the dash.
Booming Bose stereo, very intuitive nav system, I even dig the cool blue on the lights. Nothing specific right now, except I'd love to drive it again. Trust me, I'm still reeling.
The holidays are sneaking up fast. I don't have my shopping done yet, but I am starting to think about which long-term test car I'll use to haul the Edmunds clan up to Oregon. So far, our 2008 Buick Enclave CX is the current front runner.
I'm very curious to see how this one does. On the same run, we've tried a Jeep Commander (sproingy ride, small cargo, stranded by broken starter), a Chevy Tahoe (third-row had to be left at home, flat battery, not nimble) and a Cadillac SRX (very good handling, pleasant interior, but too small for Christmas duty.) Our Enclave has the potential to be the best all-around performer for this task. If I can successfully call dibs for the holidays, we'll find out.
After a weekend preview, Tracy and the kids give the Enclave a thumbs up. The ride seems suitable for the trip, and everyone seems to think the seats have a chance at staying comfortable over the long haul. My wife, however, has already noticed the lack of seat heaters. The lack of all-wheel drive shouldn't be a problem - shouldn't.
There are only four of us, but we'll be hauling presents for 12 relations about 1,000 miles north. If we haven't earned coal this year, we'll be hauling an equal amount back too.I'm hoping the fold-flat third rowgives us the space we need. It had better, because the Enclave has the most cargo space of any of our current crop of vehicles - except the Toyota Tundra and Chevy Silverado, of course. But they're out because we need a dry and lockable present-carrying space.
I flipped on the lights of our 2008 Buick Enclave CX just before I began an evening trip back to Los Angeles from Pahrump, Nevada.
"The Enclave has HID headlamps?" shouted a colleague who was standing just in front.
Yep. Even the entry-level CX comes standard with HID Xenon headlamps...
And they've got these blue plastic rings around the projector beam bulbs that throw offtoothpaste-blue halos.
They got a real workout on the 100-odd miles from Pahrump, Nevadato Shoshone to Baker, California, a narrow desert two-lane with no paved shoulderon which I saw less than a dozen other cars. It was dark. I was driving... fast enough. I had no problem seeing a long ways off and to the sides.
An added bonus was the fuel economy I achieved. At a pace that was far from economical, the Enclave went 400.1 miles on 19. 2 gallons of unleaded. That's 21 mpg andthat tankincluded a bit of notorious Las Vegas city traffic. At a more relaxed cruising pace, the 24 mpg highway rating for our FWD Enclave seems attainable. And the resultant 450 mile range will be more than a match for the bladders of my Oregon co-conspirators.
Today our 2007 Buick Enclave zipped past the 6500 mile mark on its odometer. No big deal right? Wrong. We've only had the SUV for a couple of months... At this rate, the Buick will rack up 39,000 miles during its 12 months with us. Most vehicles in our fleet struggle toreach 20,000 miles in that same time frame.
What does this mean? It means we like the Enclave. A lot.
So far.
Yesterday I learned all about Snow Flocking.
But before I get into that I want to tell you how perfectly our 2008 Buick Enclave served my family on our annual hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. This year we chose a seven foot tall Noble Fur, green in color and handsomely bagged in white plastic for its short time atop the Buick. Last thing I wanted to do was scratch the roof of the Enclave, so I paid the extra $2.95 to have the tree bagged...
I didn't, however, have it Snow Flocked. I didn't even know what it was. Turns out to be white stuff that's sprayed all over your tree to make it look snowed upon. But it doesn't. Instead it looks like it was shot by a fire extinguisher.
Anyway, the Enclave handled the task so effortlessly this blog is basically empty. Next year I'm using our Mini.
Happy Holidays.
I loved having our 2008 Buick Enclave for the weekend. It was a weekend of holiday parties and long training runs and then general laziness and the Buick accommodated with its roominess and plushness, not requiring me to work hard for much of anything. I didn't have to worry about struggling with parking it since it has a back-up camera. I had no problems with getting in and around traffic as it was easy to handle... When I went running, I had that nifty hidden storage area in the cargo to hide my purse. And I LOVE that the trunk lid opens and closes with a press of the key fob button. Made loading food and presents for the parties soo much easier to deal with.
I was sad we didn't get the heated seats option and that its heater seemed to take awhile to warm up but nothing really to cry about.
With regard to its size, outside the SUV looks like any regular SUV but inside, it's huuuge. When I picked up my friend, she immediately looked toward the rear of the car and we both marveled at just how far away the third-row seat seemed to be. The picture above doesn't do it justice.
I already signed up to take the Mini up to Sacramento for the holidays (because I lovvve Minis and figured my folks would get a kick out of it) but now I'm wondering if I should opt for something that'll make my holidays less stressful instead. That is, of course, if someone else hasn't already signed up for the Enclave.
In recent times,Buicks havebeen known for a driving experience similar to this.
However, the 2008 Buick Enclave thunders down the road like this.
Past Buicks (Grand Nationals not withstanding) have gone down the road with a ride and steering more attune to nautical applications. The Enclave, on the other hand, feels like I'm driving a freight train. It feels positively enormous (which it is), but unlike other big vehicles, it feels totally planted as if 204,865 pounds were pushing down on rails rather than just4,865 on pavement. The steering is taut and transmits enough feel to assure me I'm in control, while the suspension eats up road imperfections with a reassuring "thunk-thunk." No ship's tiller steering numbness, no bounding over bumps like you're on the high seas.
In 1992, my then-64-year-old grandfather lamented the Buick LeSabre his company gave him was an "old man's car." While I'm not sure what the Enclave does to that image, it certainly does something to stifle Buick's reputation for creating ocean-going vehicles.
Oregon Holiday Trip, Days 3 & 4
Here on the Oregon coast it has been snowing on and off for the last two days. For a few hours, our 2008 Buick Enclave was stranded. There wasn't much accumulation, but the falling snow melted and re-froze on my parents' driveway. Our Enclave doesn't have all-wheel drive - but even if it did we probably would have waited for conditions to improve a bit.
Why? My folks'1/2 mile-long drive has long stretches of 20% grade, full-lockswitchbacks, is only 8 feet wideand hasnothing but trees for a guardrail. With a ice layer covering the most dangerous part, I could easily have missed that first switchback.
Since we're less than a mile from the ocean, this situation didn't last long. My daughters did take advantage of the white stuff while it lasted. After a few hours we were headed downhill for some thin-crust Octoberfest at the Pizza Deli in Brookings. Yum.
Since I'm normally prowling around California, an AWD Enclave doesn't seem necessary. But here in Oregon, my folks have enough exposure to this kind of weather that they'd want the AWD drivetrain.I come here onceper winter, and it snows one year out of three during Christmas, so I'd have a hard time justifying the AWD option just to make the trip to my parents' house a bit easier.
I've already gone on record saying that the navigation system on our 2008 Buick Enclave carried no weight when I picked it for this trip. After all, I've been coming here 17 years and I think I know the route pretty well. Still, in the name of science, I had to put it to the test.
What you see above is a locked gate. Beyond lies a partially overgrown single-trackgravel path. This has been the case for the entire twenty yearsmy parents havelived in the area. Going beyond this point has always beena good way to earn yourself a butt full of buckshot - if you hada key, that is.
Imagine my surprise when the Buick's navigation system not only gave it a name (Arch Rock Place), it insisted that this is the right turn I must make to get to Grandma's house. Umm, no.
Theoffical public access is areal paved road (with a double yellow line, signsand everything)that lies 1 or 2 miles further north, near the mouth of the Pistol River. Once there, the system didn't recognizeit as a road at all, even though it's beenthe establishedway to go for 40 or so years. Even as we made the turn, the system was still admonishing us to make a u-turn and head back for the locked gate at Arch Rock Place.
We'd have been lost if I had not been familiar with the area. And I couldn't have called for guidance without backtracking becausethis spot hasno cell coverage.Paper maps, on the other hand, have had this area sorted properlyall along.
NAVTEQ, the folks who supply the data forour 2008Enclave's system (and more than half the market), has a webpage on their siteto report such errors. Isubmitted this one and a handful of others some time ago, but I don't know when or ifany of themwill get fixed. I'm wondering if anyone out there has seen errors fixed in navigation system updates. I haven't.
Not much new going on today. Mom and I braved the near-constant rain and drove the 2008 Buick Enclave into town for provisions. The road between their driveway and US 101 is a tight two lane with 30 mph corners that's even more buckled and contorted by land movement than any other stretch of pavement we've seenon this trip.
Over this sort of road, two of my earlier impressions of the Buick Enclave are confirmed. At a moderate pace, the Enclave rides smoothly and stays composed through the tight and narrow asphalt bends, but itdoesn't like being hustled through these sorts of turns. It doesn't fall to its knees or wallow, but the driver gets themessage that this suspension isn't sport tuned. And while the steering isfairly precise, there isn't enougheffort buildup in corners toengage the driver.
No suprise really. This is a Buick, after all. It retains enough of the ride smoothness and quietness fans of the brand expect without crossing over into yacht territory. All-in-all, it's a nice ride - as long as you're not a frustrated leadfoot rally driver. Mom liked it a lot.
After 7 days and some 1,500 miles in the saddle of our 2008 Buick Enclave, I've developed a few gripes.
1) I'm not a fan of fake wood in any car interior. The Buick annoys me in two ways: the "wood" on the dash is particularly shiny and plastic-looking; the "wood" on the steering wheel rim looks more authentic, but is too hard and slick. And they aren't even the same species of simu-wood! On the steering, we've got Fauxhogany, while the dash is trimmed with Bird's Eye Fakle. Don't get me started about the eyeball clock with its tiny face and its humungous blingy surround.
2) I likeplaying withthe onboard trip computer - a lot.Checking the range, looking at how the average fuel consumption changes as I go up or down hills, comparing the trip odo with the miles-to-go on the nav display to see how far we've come- these are the things that keep me occupied on a drive I've done several dozen times.
The display has a perfectlocation in the gauge cluster, right where the driver can see it. But the controls are located just below the radio. I guess I could get used to it, but I still have to hunt around to select one of four same-sized buttons. This mid-cabin location has another disadvantage that GM engineers might not have thought of: I'm using it so often (every couple of minutes) that my wife started asking me things like "Why are always playing with those buttons?" and "What are you doing?" and "Would you just stop already?" If the buttons were on a stalk (more on that later) I could press them to my heart's content without having to undergo the Spanish Inquisition.
3) It rains in Oregon - alot. So I'm always using the rear wiper, which is...where, again? It's not on the stalk with the front wiper. Oh, here it is, by the shifter. And what's this - a rocker switch? Again, I could get used to it...
What 2) and 3) need are a second steering column stalk. The Buick Enclave has only one on the left-hand side of the steering column. Perhaps it's a throwback to the days when all GM automatics were column shift. This one isn't (in any version or configuration), so a second stalk wouldn't interfere with the works. And it would allow moving related and oft-used controls like these up where the driver could easily find and use them without taking hands off the wheel.
Enough griping. How about fuel economy? Today I diligently followed the speed limit and used cruise control. I went 65 where it was posted 65, and 55 where that was the limit. Even as we got intoOakland, where the big-city "black hole" effect seemed to draw cars in with ever-increasing speed, I stuck to my 55 mph guns while others went flying by. "What's up?" asked my wife, "Are you feeling OK?"
With an average speed of 57.0 mph, we went 398.1 miles on 17.31 gallons. That's an even 23.0 mpg folks. On the trip up I hadn't been as diligent with my speed, going with the flow of traffic instead of the posted limit,andwe only managed 19.5 mpg.
We're done. The 2008 Buick Enclave is home and sitting unloaded in our driveway. It would be an understatement to say that we're glad to be home.
Since the final leg from the San Francisco Bay area to where I live in Orange County is mostly straight and flat, I decided to see just how many MPG I could squeeze out of the Enclave...
The rules were simple: judicious use of cruise control and a set-point equal to the posted speed limit (mostly 65, with some stretches of 55 and 70).
It wasn't easy. Even though we were running the legal limit, we were at least 10 mph below the prevailingf low of traffic much of the time. Trucks and folks pulling trailers can only go 55 in Cali, so we weren't the slowest. Still, it felt like we were crawling. "Are you really gonna do this all the way home?" asked my wife, "We are a rolling chicane!"
Yeah, I stuck with it.Our average speed for the day was 58.2 mph. Upon arrival at my home gas station, we'd run 427.2 miles. The Enclave's onboard meter said it had used 17.6 gallons for 24.2mpg- the best fuel economy of the trip so far. But the gas pump shut off at just 16.69 gallons. That calculates to 25.6 mpg. Wow!
I'm not sure I believe it.I'll refill once more near the office on Wednesday to see if a missing gallon shows up.
Driving the same leg on the trip up, we ran with the pack, averaged 68.5 mph and burned fuel at a rate of 21.2 mpg - using 4 gallons and $13.37 more than we did on today's leg.
Happy New Year!
Wouldn't you just know it? After a 2,000 mile there-and-back-again trip to Oregon in our 2008 Buick Enclave, I get sick just as I'm getting home. Nice. I'd wanted to wrap-up this a few days ago, but better late than never. Here goes:
The Buick seems optimized for those who are not in a hurry and prefer a somewhat relaxed pace. This doesn't mean the Enclave is a clumsy yacht or a rolling couch, because it isn't. The Enclave is coordinated and balanced up to a certain point. If you push harder, it doesn't "lose it", it simply fails to reward the enthusiast driver - not a serious flaw for a family truckster such as this.
Ride: The Buick rides smooth and quiet, just like you'd expect, and it feels well-balanced with one or two aboard and no cargo. But itgoes a bit soft and underdamped in the rear when four plus presents and luggage are present. This seems about right for the comfort-minded, but it leaves me wondering if my personal preference would havebeen better served by the GMC Acadia or Saturn Outlook. I smell a follow-up.
Steering and handling: The Buick has good coordination and feels more agile than any truck-based SUV, but it doesn't respondin kindwhen pushed - it simply starts toshow its weight. Steering accuracy is there, but feedback is not. I didn't like the slick, cold and spindly feel of the wooden segments of the steering wheel, either. Full-leather wrap for me, please.
Cargo and seating: This is a true 3-row vehicle. When we get to my folkshouse, the six of usmake the 25-mile run into town forpizza in whatever I bring. Unlike the Commander I brought two summers ago, everyone had plenty of space. Last year, the Tahoe couldn't make the pizza run at all because I'd had to leave its suitcase-style third seats in my California garage in order to carry as much as the Enclave can withits bigger third seats merely folded into the floor. Still, my folks' 2005 Honda Odyssey minivan holds a lot more in any seating configuration you care to compare.
Engine and transmission: I never lacked for power or torque, but I found the economy-minded transmission reluctant to kick-down. Sure, I could have used the +/- buttons (and I did), but I would have had to do thatoften on the rolling terrain of US 101. C'mon, this is an automatic - a six-speed automatic - and I want to leave it in "D". The manual overridemodeshould serve those who want to use it. One shouldn't have to use itfor miles and miles at a time. Coming home, however, I drovea slower paceand ran afoul of the transmission calibration less often. And I got significantly better...
Fuel Economy: On the trip up, I drove semi-aggressively, swore at the reluctant kickdown, used manual shifting from time to timeand overrode the cruise control often. I achieved an even 20.0 mpg average over 2 tanks and 821 miles. On the way back I used the cruise control religiously, set it at the posted limit, drove my wife nuts ("I want to get HOME"), watched the traffic sail past, felt more at ease with the transmission and achieved 24.3 mpg, a 20% improvement.Over the same two-tank distance I used 7.0 fewer gallons and spent $26.17 less. And yes, that 25.6 mpg best tank turned out to be legit. I actually beat our 2WD Enclave's 16 city / 24 highway EPA ratings.
Enjoying the Buick, then, is all about getting in synch with its personality. Considering the driving habits of the traditional Buick(or Camry/Highlander)buyer, I'd say they'll have many satisfied customers. I don't think I quite fit the mold this CUV came out of, however, and I see room for improvement.If they ever made a Cadillac version of this, for example,with some of the feel of the SRX webrought to Oregon last summer, I'd be right there.
Blue
Gold
Crystal Metallic?
Getting out of our 2008 Buick Enclave in the parking garage this morning, I saw a distinct pearlescent shimmer in the paint that got me thinking that maybe, just maybe,the color differences depicted in the various photos I've taken of the Enclave weren't entirely the result of my shoddy amateur blogtography.
Generally, shots taken under clear skies show the Buick to be a lightish metallic blue color. In the low-angled sunlight just before sundown in the desert near Vegas, however, itunmistakeably took on the golden tone ofthe surroundings. And in Oregon, under low cloud cover thick with mist, the Enclave looked for all the world like it's painted a rich steely gray.
I just pulled the file on our Enclave andam now lookingat the window sticker. The paint color name is... Blue-Gold Crystal Metallic. Yep. That makes sense.
OK, this isn't a full-blown color-changing paint like you might see at a car show or a racetrack -the kind that changes color as it wraps itself around the contours ofa car. The effect is much more subtle here. Still, you get at least three hues for the price of one - depending on the weather and time of day, of course.
We've had our Buick Enclave for months now, but I've only recently had the chance to get some seat time. Between my limited need for seven-passenger seating and the fact that it's a Buick, I had pretty much avoided the big crossover.
Turns out, I had no reason to fear the big brute. In fact, I was missing out... The Enclave is not only the best Buick in the lineup, it's probably the best overall vehicle GM makes. And it's not because of all the new features or the monstrous interior. This Buick is impressive because it gets all the small things right.
The V6 is not only strong and quiet, it's refined at full throttle. The steering isn't overboosted and the suspension is well tuned. The windows are one touch on the way up and down, and even the cloth seats are nicely shaped and comfortable. Nothing in the interior screams cheap and the doors shut with a solid thud. It all sounds so basic, so obvious, but this is the kind of stuff GM has been getting wrong for years.
And with that, I will no longer avoid the Buick. See GM, it's just that easy.
Now that I've put myself out there as a genuine fan of the Enclave, I thought I would take a moment to highlight another well thought out feature. Took it to the grocery store last night and when it came time to load up my bags full of gin, tonic and limes, I discovered this handy underfloor storage bin. Not only did the recessed well keep my precious cargo from rolling around, the lid was sturdy and it stayed up on its own. Seems simple, but I've been in numerous SUVs that didn't even have cargo nets let alone underfloor storage, so this was a nice surprise...
Just about every new SUV can be had with a roof rack, but very few of these racks actually come with cross rails. This is the case for our 2008 Buick Enclave. And since we were in need of a way to properly secure cargo on the roof, we had to buy cross rails from the dealer.
Wanna guess how much they were? You're the next contestant on The Price is Right.
They were $204.08, with tax.
I asked our testing director, who has worked for a couple of automakers before, why they don't come standard. He speculated that installed cross rails create wind noise, and noise is bad for test drives and customer satisfaction. So automakers leave them off and get the added bonus of offering them as pricey dealer-sourced accessories.
Installing the rails was straightforward, though the bolts have Torx security-style heads — better hope you don't lose the included wrench.
As for the pictured cooler and suitcase, they were accessories for a fuel economy test we performed earlier this week. The Enclave was one of three vehicles we used to test a variety of situations such as driving style, aerodynamics and tire pressure. (We're working on an improved and expanded version of our original We Test the Tips article.)
We haven't run the final calculations yet but I'll do an Enclave post once the story is published. Oh, and in terms of wind noise, I couldn't detect a difference with the rails on. The Enclave is impressively quiet.
Three years ago, Buick's lineu - the Century, LaCrosse, LeSabre, Park Avenue, Rainier, Rendezvous and Terraza - was a collection of all-star rejects. If you were in high school, having to use any of these as a loan from mom or dad to pick up a date would be a source of major teenage embarrassment.
But now there's the Enclave. Near as I can tell, everybody on our staff likes it...
And in the past week, two women have told me - unprompted - that our Buick is "pretty." One, who looked to be in her twenties, also said that it was upscale and "classy."
Suddenly, borrowing your parents' Buick for a hot date doesn't seem like such a bad idea anymore.
Our 2008 Buick Enclave is one of five, three-row vehicles we have in the fleet right now. In general, we've been very impressed with the comfort and roominess of the Enclave. But having not sat in the back myself, I was curious to find out how well it all worked.
Here's what I learned.
Design: Our Enclave has the typical seven-passenger setup, which includes two second-row captain's chairs and a third-row 60/40-split third-row seat. The captain's chairs slide fore and aft and have reclining seatbacks. One can also fold the second- and third-row seatbacks down to create a flat load floor.
Ease of use: The seat operation is well thought-out. Sliding the chairs forward for access to the third row is easy (you just pull a lever) and it opens up a decent walkthrough. Pulling a strap flips the seatback of a captain's chair flat. If you're already in our Enclave, you can get to the third row pretty easily by slipping past the two captain's chairs. A second-row console is optional.
Comfort: The Enclave, Outlook and Acadia have been praised for their roomy interiors. This shows up most in the third row. I'm 5-foot, 10-inches tall. Sitting in the way back, I have enough headroom and legroom to be respectably comfortable, especially if the captain's chairs are moved forward. The high perch created by the rear wheel wells also serve quite nicely as armrests.
I'm actually disappointed in the comfort of the captain's chairs, however. Yes, they recline and slide, but they are mounted low to the floor to enable the flat cargo floor. This results in a "knee's up" seating position. The head restraints look like they are adjustable, but in fact aren't.
Accessories: The Enclave comes standard with rear-seat audio controls and an accessory climate control unit. I've previously posted my opinion of GM's rear-seat audio here. I was impressed by the climate system, though. There's a roof air vent for each outboard rear passenger and a big heater vent underneath the third row. Fan speed and temperature range seem to be quite useful.
Our vehicle also has the optional double-pane sunroof. The rear glass is fixed with a power-operated sunroof. It's nice. But is it $1,300 nice? Well, I guess that depends on how much you or your family likes to have glass above your heads.
Conclusion: One reader previously suggested that we compare our Enclave's seating to our CX-9; unfortunately, the Mazda wasn't around when I was evaluating the Buick. Still, the rear seating in our Enclave is pretty impressive. For a stylish minivan alternative — and that's really what the Enclave, Acadia and Outlook are — they work quite well. Just don't expect the upmost versatility of a minivan.
Our 2008 Buick Enclave was part of a recent three-car fuel economy investigation. I'm helping Phil Reed update the We Test the Tips fuel economy article that appears on the Edmunds.com website.
Anyone who's ever put their hand out the window of a moving car can surmise that putting stuff on the roof of a car hurts fuel economy. But how much? I don't want to give the farm away, but our test of driving with luggage on the roof produced a much more significant fuel economy penalty, in pure MPG terms, than we'd expected.
In order to back-up those results, I just finished repeating the comparison using our VBOX GPS data logger and a different method:a "coast-down" test. A coast-down is similar to a stopping-distance test, but instead of using the brakes you throw the transmission in neutral and coast. Aerodynamic drag provides the braking force. Oh, and you don't actually come to a stop.
That's OK because we're interested in the aerodynamic effects caused byroof-bound luggage while cruising on the highway. My coast-down test began at 75 mph and ended at something like 50 mph. I was most interested in the 75to 65 mphslice of the data. I averaged twoopposite-direction runs to cancel out wind and slope effects.Here are the results:
Bare roof: 75-65 coast distance= 1,235 feet; coast time = 12.0 seconds. Loaded roof (see photo): 75-65 coast distance = 1,024 feet; coast time = 10.0 seconds.
Coast performance was 21¾tter without luggage. The only variable here was aerodynamics,sothe dragdifference was the culprit. Drag is proportional to the mathematical product of frontal area and drag coefficient, and the presence ofluggage on a car's roof worsens both factors.
How did all of this impact MPG in our fuel economy test? I'll spill a few beans:we used exactly 21% less fuel with the luggage removed. Inmiles-per-gallon terms, the difference was significant: almost 6mpg.
Wind noise is well-tamed in our 2008 Buick Enclave. The sleek shape of the body, of course, has a lot to do with it.
Butour Enclave has something a lot of others cars don't: Dual-pane laminated front side glass. This is more expensive than the usual single pane stuff — expensive, but effective at quelling noise... GM must have found a more-affordable supplier, because they're beginning to use it liberally in products residing at a lower price point than is typical for this material.
And it works. The Enclave's interior is quite a quiet place. Little wind and road noise comes to the driver's ear via the side windows and doors — this despite largish tires with aggressive-looking, no-I'm-not-a-minivan tread.
Yes, some wind noise can still be heard from the region near the top of the windshield, and all bets are off when luggage is strapped to the roof rack. But all-in-all, the use of this side glass is awelcome decisionthat will directly benefit consumers.
Another bonus isthe greenish tint indicates that this is solar-controlglass as well, another more-expensive material not always found in front-door glass that will benefitoccupants by reducing directsolar radiation and making the A/C more efficient.The Enclave hasn't been with us through a summer yet, but I'm surethat cross-desert summer trips to Vegas will no problem, comfort-wise.
It's good to see that some of the detailed design choices in the Enclave, more-costly though they may be, have been made with customer satisfaction in mind. It would have been so much easier, and typical,for the bean-counters to say "No. Too expensive." I'm glad the engineers won out.
Last night I got into a little fender bender, or so I thought, with a Nissan Altima. I was clearly signaling and turning left down a side street and he was coming out of that side street and turning left onto the busy street I was leaving. I was almost completing the turn when he decided to go on ahead. I felt his car hit the rear driver side of mine. It jolted the Enclave a little.
Immediately I pulled over and got out. Fortunately, he did the same. I looked at the area of the Enclave where I thought he hit but since it was night and raining hard I couldn't get a good look. "Looks like there's no damage," he said quickly. "Not that we can see. It's dark. Can I get your information?" I said calmly. "Look, you're making me late for a dinner. There's no damage," he reiterated. "I didn't see you signal left," he added. "Oh, I signaled left." It was funny how he tried to make it my fault when he was the one who was clearly in a hurry somewhere. But after much insisting on my part and many complaints about how I was making him late, I was finally able to get his driver license number, name, address and phone number.
This morning I checked the car again to see if there was damage and ran my hand over the sheet metal. Nothing. "Wow! This car is nigh invulnerable!" I thought. I had felt an impact and yet there was nothing to show for it. Later when I told Vehicle Testing Coordinator Mike Schmidt about the "accident" he theorized that maybe the Altima ended up hitting the Enclave's wheel instead. And when he went to inspect the car he did notice a gouge on the wheel cover. Thank goodness that was all. But we're holding onto the guy's information "just in case."
This weekend I put a substantial number of miles, both freeway and city street, on our 2008 Buick Enclave, and I am so impressed with its ride. It's remarkably smooth, and a perfect exemplar of why crossover platforms make so much sense. It's huge, no doubt about it, but it rides well, it slides around corners, and it feels confident and composed at high speeds.
In the past, I have taken issue with some modern sedans, like the Camry, because they're so smooth anddisconnected from the roadthat you can go 100 and feel like you're going 40...
Due to its size, the Enclave never feels that way. It's remarkably soft and comfortable, but always transmits enough feel that it won't catch you off guard.
Different passengers this weekend all commented on how lush and well-appointed it looks inside, its ample front legroom, and its smoothness. One friend even lavished it with his highest praise: "Pimpin'." Whoever thought a Buick crossover with three rows of seats could be *pimpin'*?
What do American IdolcontestantKristy Lee Cook and our long-term Buick Enclave have in common? They've both been labeled "absolutely forgettable."
Although it's AI judge Simon Cowell who delivers the bad news to Kristy on a weekly basis, it's my friend Lydia who's continuously unimpressed with the Enclave. Not that she doesn't like the Enclave, it's just that as many times as she's been in it, she can't seem to remember what it is.
"What is this?" she asked yesterday when she climbed into the passenger's seat for the umpteenth time... "Oh, it has a third-row seat," she said nodding her head in approval.
"Yeah," Ithought to myself. "Same as it did last week."
Once we were on the road, she again commented about the pleasant interior, comfortable seats, good-looking controls.
As much as she likes the Enclave in the moment, it just doesn't seem to leave a lasting impression.
As I pulled into a Target parking spot, I thought I heard my cell phone ring. Just as I realized that it wasn't my ringtone, the ringing stopped and an automated message from a Blockbuster video store started to admonish me for not returning a DVD on time, warning me that if the movie wasn't returned by Monday, I would be charged full price.
Curious, I thought, because I don't rent movies from Blockbuster. Even curiouser because the message was not, in fact, coming through my own cell phone, but instead it was playing through the Buick Enclave's audio speakers...
A bit thrown, I calledRoad TestEditor Brian Moody.
"The Enclave is accepting its own phone calls," I complained.
"Yes," explained Brian. "That's the peril of having a phone number assigned to a vehicle through the OnStar system instead of using Bluetooth through your own cell phone.Someone who was desperate to keep a "Blades of Glory"DVD forever may have given your Enclave's number to Blockbuster, uh, accidentally."
Huh. The Enclave better pay its own late fees.
Our long-term 2008 Buick Enclave is a mechanical twin to the GMC Acadia. They share the same basic chassis, suspension geometry and powertrain. They drive much differently, however.
This could be due to myriad factors like damper valving, bushing durometer, stabilizer bar endlinks and more, but I suspect it's largely down to the tires. The Acadia, which I drove extensively for our recent Crossover vs. Minivan vs. SUV comparison test, sported optional 255/60 Goodyear RS-A tires on 19" wheels. Our Buick wears the 255/65 Goodyear Forteras on 18" wheels, a base package shared with entry-level Acadias.
The upshot is that the Acadia turns in much more crisply and exhibits less steering imprecision than our Enclave, which has sidewalls that wind up like a torsion spring. This results in steering effort in the Buick that doesn't build up as linearly as that of the GMC.
I much prefer the Acadia's dynamic character, but I'd argue that the relative numbness of the base tire/wheel package is appropriate for the Enclave considering that it is a Buick, and as such needs to ride like a Buick. A Buick customer is historically an older demographic more concerned with a smooth, quiet ride than steering precision. That would help explain the Enclave's fake wood and pencil-thin steering wheel rim, too.
GM knows this, too, which is why the optional 19-inch wheel package for the Buick includes Michelins that you can't get on the Acadia or Outlook. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that they have softer sidewalls than the 19s on the Acadia.
Our 2008 Buick Enclave has just busted through the 15,000 mile mark. That's 15,000 miles in just six months, which means we like this truck.
But here's the best part, the Enclave has been as reliable and problem free as a car can get. It's only been to the dealer once and that was for a scheculed maintanence visit for the usual oil change and tire rotation...
Solid as a stone, reliable as the sunrise, comfortable as a couch, quiet as a mime, the Enclave is the best SUV GM has ever built. Unless you're planning to tow really, really big stuff, you'd have to be nuts to pass on the Enclave and buy a Tahoe or a Yukon. Now if GM can only build a Buick sedan this good...
Our long-term Buick Enclave took my family of three on a 200-mile round trip jaunt to the Antelope Valley to catc h the peak of the California poppy/wildflower season this bright and sunny weekend. However, the ride was comfortable, the navigation system got us there without a hitch and the toddler-loading was quick and easy. However, we suffered frequent temporary blindness because of the very pretty but impossibly shiny chrome trim that's all over the instrument and gear panels. It was like actual solar flares combined with George Hamilton's teeth (and/or forehead) times 1 million, and I'm not exaggerating.
Fortunately for you, the photos don't really do the trim's cornea-searing abilities justice.It was so bad that we resorted to covering up every exposed piece of chrome with pieces of our daughter's clothing that she wasn't wearing. (FYI: The arm hole in a kid's polar fleece vest affords easy gearshift access while shielding you from trim glare.)
Eyeball pain aside, we enjoyed our trip in the Enclave. Windy conditions at the poppy reserve forced us to picnic in the cargo area with the third-row bench down and the rear hatch up, which was quite accommodating for two sub-5'10 adults, one sub-3' child and all of our food. The ride was smooth, the seats were supportive and the auxiliary jack was easily accessible. But like a hang-nail on your pinky finger,itjust kept coming back to that shiny dash trim: pretty in the showroom, painful on the road. Not sure how I'd cope if I lived with this car every day, especially in sun-prone SoCal.
We have a "quiet room" here at the office. I've never actually used it, but I've checked it out. It is indeed pretty quiet, and there are a couple of plush-looking couches for those moments when you just want chill out and enjoy some personal time without being disturbed.
The Buick Enclave feels like a quiet room on wheels... Road and wind noise? Not even. Close those bank-vault doors, and the world outside may as well be a universe away. Beefy, welcoming seats are another plus. This weekend, they enveloped me like an overstuffed couch would; gotta love having that much comfort and support. And we've blogged ad nauseam about the Enclave's forgiving ride. Almost every road is a smooth one when you're behind this Buick's wheel.
I occasionally get people asking me for recommendations regarding vehicles that are tranquil and composed. The Lexus brand has long been a safe choice in that respect. Time to add the Enclave to that list.
A friend of mine is finally giving up on his thirsty Jeep Grand Cherokee in favor of something a little more fuel efficient, not to mention reliable (it's a mid-90s JGC). So after discussing the needs of his growing family and fragile ego (he really wants a Tahoe), my recommendation was a Saturn Outlook since he didn't like the styling of the Acadia.
We just so happened to have an Outlook here in the office, so I took it for a drive to reassure myself it was the right choice. It drives fine, but then I took our long term Buick Enclave home for the night. Now I think he should buy the Buick instead.
As competent as the Outlook is for family transportation, the Buick feels like a more finished product. It’s quieter inside, feels better on the road and has a far more pleasing interior design. And this is an Enclave with over 17K miles on it. Granted, the Enclave requires an extra $2K to start, but I think it would be money well spent.
The Nittiest of Nitpicks
When I stopped by the office this weekend in a short-term tester, I couldn't help but notice that the Enclave was sitting in the garage unpicked. I just couldn't help trading up because A) I'd rather drive an Enclave for two hours than a Corolla, B) I wouldn't have to take two cars to dinner and C) the Enclave is really really good.
To that last point, the Enclave is so good, my usual long list of automotive nitpicks has been reduced to a pretty sad-sack collection. Bryn reported there's too many flashy trim bitsand that's fairly noteworthy. But, the other (above) is the placement of the windshield washer at the tip of the turn signal.In 100-degree,clear-skies weather, I sprayed the windshield five times for noparticular reason other than the fact I was turning.But that was kinda funny, not annoying.
Ditto the placement of the Enclave'sdriver backrest adjuster. With the seat placed near its aftmost position, the lever is ridiculously close to the B-pillar and specifically an area that juts out from it. I usually have to remove my watch to adjust the seat. Oooh.
Come on Buick, what are you doing making a car this good? You're making my niggling rants more difficult. Jerks.
Something terrible happened to me this Memorial Day weekend: a surprise family visit. My moms words "I'm sure I told you" were still ringing in my ears as I hung up the phone and frantically started to clean my messy bachelor pad.
Praise be to the Enclave. It's seating for seven fit all those kinfolk interlopers in one space... If I hadn't signed up for our Buick, trying to get my family together and do the dime store tour of LA via caravan would have been a nightmare.
While the Buick is no Wagonqueen, it's comfortble seating made touring LA a joy. Signing up for the Buick was possibly the best decision I unwittingly made in the last year or so.
I fueled up our long-term 2008 Buick Enclave CX last night and decided to check the oil. When I released the hood's safety latch, it went right up, no prop rod needed, and there was the transverse-mounted V6 — front and center, and within easy reach.
Then, I reached for the dipstick and it brought back memories of checking the oil in our Pontiac Solstice . It wasn't that bad, of course, since at least the Buick's dipstick is up front... But you still have to reach pretty far into the bay to retrieve it. I wasn't worried about getting my clothes dirty since I'd just come from the gym. But reinserting the dipstick proved difficult, because even under the bright lights at the gas station, shadows kept falling over the area. I didn't have a flashlight in the car, so it was a pain.
The Enclave's oil level was indeed low, so I added one-half quart of 5W30 — enough to bring it back up to the optimal level. This was fortunately very easy, because the mouth is wide and it's higher up in the bay than the dipstick.
As I comfortably drove into work this morning listening to a Podcast of our own Karl Brauer on the Adam Carolla Show, the phone started ringing.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked to myself, knowing full well that I had never paired my Bluetooth phone to the Enclave and that the Enclave doesn't even have Bluetooth to begin with. Then I remembered and looked toward the OnStar controls on the mirror...
Having never used the OnStar phone feature before, I gingerly pressed the phone-looking button. For some reason, I didn't say hello or anything, as if I was an unfrozen caveman frightened and confused by the ringy thing.
Luckily, there was no need to say anything as it was a robocall from Blockbuster informing our Buick Enclave that it had a movie overdue. I couldn't understand what the title was, but I'm guessing it was some sort of soft-core erotic car thriller — I've always had a feeling the Enclave had a saucy side. Actually, Kelly Toepke also received a phantom Blockbuster call in the Enclave and Brian Moody's hypothesis is someone gave Blockbuster the wrong phone number — the phone number that just so happens to be our Buick's OnStar. Or something like that.
I don't really understand how any of this OnStar phone stuff works nor how it's in any way superior to Bluetooth. But then again, I'm just an unfrozen caveman autojournalist, such things frighten and confuse me.
Yesterday, just as I made the left turn off of California's Highway 33 onto Cerro Noroeste road, our Buick Enclave's power steering began to show the first signs of failure. This is not good. Cerro Noroeste road runs maybe 25 miles through the San Emigdio Mountains and gains probably 2,500 feet in elevation. It's a classic driving road — one of California's best...
Now I hadn't exactly planned on shredding it in the Buick, but the immanent deterioration of the power steering assist doomed any plans for remotely spirited driving.
The best part? The failure wasn't comprehensive. Around center there remained enough power assist to lure me into a corner with some enthusiasm, only to result in a complete lack of assist once the road began to truly bendand require more steering input. It was a deadly combination that caught me off guard on several occasions. And when the tires weren't rolling, steering was impossible.
There were no leaks and no significant noise from the pump — just an utter lack of power assist when it was needed most.
We dumped the Enclave at the dealer this morning for a power-steering post mortem. More on this subject later.
Five days after our Long Term Buick Enclave CX was dropped of at Santa Monica Chevrolet Buick (click the link to rate this dealership) for a complete failure in the power steering system, the Buick's back in our garage.
As we suspected, the power steering pump was at fault and would have to be ordered. The majority of time spent at the dealership was waiting for the pump, their supplier was closed for inventory. vWhen I picked up the car yesterday the new pump had a familiar groan...
They hadn't properly bled the system. It's not a long or difficult process, but it should have been done before I picked the car up. I called them just to hear them out on the issue, the service advisor told me to drive it for a few days and the bubbles will work themselves out.
We're just going to bleed the system ourselves the right way (and add more fluid as the trapped bubbles leave the system — volume you know) and call it a day.
Total Cost: 0.00
Days out of service: 5
More Power Steering Fluid
The new power steering pump in our Buick Enclave continued to make noise through the weekend. I added a very small amount of fluid to the reservoir this morning which didn't seem to change anything — the fluid level was slightly below the "low" indicator markon the dipstick. Noise from the pump is noticeable if you know what to listen for and when to listen. Otherwise, if it weren't for this failure making me paranoid, I'm not certain I'd notice... All this is to say it seems to be improving as air works its way out of the system.
It's been over eight months since the Buick Enclave first pulled into our garage. Since then, it's racked up over 20,000 miles on its odometer and at least a couple of glowing blog posts; we can safely say that the SUV has won itself a few fans on our staff. Here's a snapshot of its most current fuel economy numbers:
Current mileage: 20,582
Best over life of test: 29.66 mpg*
Worst over life of test: 11.33 mpg
Overall average (combined city and highway): 17.52 mpg
Official EPA estimate: 16 mpg city, 24 mpg highway
*Note that the Enclave's best mileage was earned during a fuel economy test that involved lots of highway miles and some pretty judicious driving.
Now that it's illegal to talk on a hand held phone while driving (here in Calif), OnStar suddenly seems worthwhile.
For those of you who read the Full-Size Crossover Comparison, you no doubt wondered why we didn't include a GM Lambda. Well, a Saturn Outlook was slated to be in the test, but a week prior to testing, GM phoned and said it was in an accident. No other Outlook, Acadia or Enclave could be furnished in time that equaled the other assembled crossovers in terms of feature content and all-wheel-drive configuration. That criteria also left our long-term Buick Enclave out of the equation, not to mention it has more than 20,000 miles on it.
Although we couldn't give the Enclave a fair shake in a full, official comparison with the usual litany of scoring sheets and calculations, the Edmunds.com editors decided to take it and the long-term Hyundai Veracruz on a comparison drive with the official test's three crossovers. We then ranked what vehicles we would personally buy and which we thought would best suit the average consumer.
As a side-bar of sorts to the Inside Line test, check out the Edmunds.com Strategies Blog throughout the week at noon (3 p.m. EST) as we countdown the comparison test contenders.
For some reason, my six year old son insists on riding in the third row of seats even when he's the only passenger. Thanks to seats that quickly and easily fold and slide I can accommodate his odd request. The rest of the car ride is spent with me saying "I can't hear you buddy, you've got to talk louder."
The Enclave was also due for an oil change so I took it to Cerritos Buick, GMC, Hummer in Cerritos, CA. Total cost for the oil and filter change plus an inspection - $65.41. We declined the dealer recommended service items which would have put the bill closer to $200. I don't like the "Dealer Recommended" service sales tactic, it bothers me.
"I wouldn't take it down if I were you. That's a load-bearing poster." - Bart to Rod (or Todd)
Like the Krusty the Clown poster holding up the walls of the Flanderseses poorly rebuild home, the oil-filler cap has more responsibility in the Enclave's engine bay than a filler-tube cap should probably have.
See, in order to remove the engine cover (the thing that lets people pretend engines are neat, tidy, clean and sanitary; not smelly blocks of metal bursting with tangles of wires and, literally, full of devastating explosions) you have to unscrew the oil cap. The cover is sitting atop a few posts that are fairly secure, but the cap is the only thing that screws, latches, or clamps it in place. Not a big deal you say? It's a clever way to access the tube without removing the cover, you say? Well, yes, that's correct. Also though, with the cap located at the bottom of a shallow well, each time you open it small bits of sand and dust fall into the tube. I refuse to Hoover my engine before checking the oil. I don't know how much sand the Enclave can tolerate in its oil, but if it's more than none this is a pretty poor design element.
If it were my Enclave the first piece to go in the trash would be that silly cover. But then I'd have to look at this:
Remember last week, when Magrath discovered the Enclave's oil cap is all that's keeping on the engine cover? Remember when he said, "If it were my Enclave the first piece to go in the trash would be that silly cover."
Well,he didn't put it in the trash. No no, he put it in theEnclave's trunk.Yeah buddy,much better.When I took my first turn in the big Buick last Friday, a great big plastic thwack eminated from behind the erected third row. "What the hellwas that?" I pondered, not used to items being left in our fleet vehicles.
When I popped thehatch Icame upon the sight above. Does this have any real effect on Buick Enclave ownership? Not really. I just felt like airing inter-office grievances on the World Wide Interweb. Tomorrow I'll be complaining that Josh Sadlier leaves the cap off the non-dairy creamer.
There's been some discussion of late as to my reasons for removing the engine cover from our long term Buick Enclave. One commenter said, "I think it's silly the stuff he complains about." While another backed me up "I think it could make a nice plant potter or recycle bin filler. It has no reason to be in the engine bay." But nobody hit the real reason the engine cover now lives in the trunk of the Buick: After only a few minutes of driving, the cover gets far too hot to touch.
Well that's not a problem, right? I mean, with the oil filler and dipstick available without removing the cover, what's the problem?
The problem is the power steering. It's still not right and we've been monitoring the fluid for the past few weeks. After a proper bleeding procedure there was still some air in the fluid that had to work itself out. Now that the fluid is running clear and the level is correct, there's still a problem. The assist is notchy and all the boost is all over the place. It goes from far too over-boosted to nearly power-free in the span of a 30-degree rotation. There are no set "good" spots, assist will fluctuate mid-corner without changing steering angle. I hate to say this, but it feels exactly how our Aura felt before it went to the shop. Though thankfully there is no clunk.
It will be going back to the shop shortly.
The power steering problems we've been having with our long term 2008 Buick Enclave have been well documented in this blog, but you still don't know the whole story. What we haven't told you is that the power steering trouble started soon after this little off road excurstion.
Now I'm not sure the two are definitely related, and we have no way of knowing if they are for sure, but it wasn't long (a week or two) after we drove the SUV through this silty dirt for several hours that the power steering got funky.
I'll also admit that the front-wheel drive Enclave isn't really geared up for such terrain. Although it never got stuck, it did struggle through some of the deeper sections. And it was clear and no surprise to its passengers that the Enclave wanted back on the highway as soon as possible.
Still, it isour job is to test a vehicle, and any SUV should be able to drive though some dirt without having major systems failure soon after. Again, I'm not saying this off road adventure (for sure) caused our power steering failure, but the timing is suspect.
This morning I dropped the Buick Enclave back at Santa Monica Chevrolet Buick to fix the ailing power steering that's kept the big Buick sidelined for the past few days.
They said they'd have an idea of the problem by this afternoon. We'll keep you posted when we get any news.
Thursday July 24th I brought our Long-Term Buick Enclave back to Santa Monica Auto group to address the continued problems we've been having with the power steering. Late afternoon on Wednesday June 30, our Enclave was fixed and back in our hands.
The wait was expected, Santa Monica Buick called us late Friday to let us know that the problem had been diagnosed and that new parts had to be ordered. Parts included a new power steering pump, a new steering rack, and new hoses. The parts, they said, would be in on Tuesday and the job should be finished Wednesday. A rental car was offered but declined.
In a past life Director of Vehicle Testing Dan Edmunds (no relation) developed steering systems for a major manufacturer and, upon road testing the vehicle, said that when the first pump failed it had probably contaminated the fluid with pump-parts that were now lodged in the rack. Turns out he was correct, that was the exact diagnosis that GM came up with and remedied.
After the fix we were contacted by GM to discuss the situation. They let us know that replacing the pump first is standard operating procedure as contamination is not a guarantee. The dealership, however, should have road-tested the vehicle further, found the flaw, and replaced the rack on the first visit. None of this should ever have hit the consumer. They also made it very clear that errant dust from our dirt road trip had nothing to do with the pump's failure, though the high-rpm churning required to not get stuck may have exacerbated the issue. Bear in mind that the same amount of wheelspin and engine use will be required by every driver to keep momentum up in the snow-belt.
All-in-all it was a fine visit with a good amount of communication and information from the dealer level. And the best part is, the Buick is back and it feels just as solid as it did before.
Days out of service: 6
Cost: 0.00
Last night I pulled in my driveway after a pleasant drive home and watched the odometer on our long-term 2008 Buick Enclave click exactly 22,000 miles. Brought a tear to my eye. Not really, but I thought I'd give the haters out there something to comment on.
Anyway, the power steering problem, which as been the truck's only reliability hiccup, is fixed and everything on the vehicle seems to feel as new. Brakes, suspension, engine, transmission? It all feels good. Even the SUV's tires still look new.
And we're not finished yet. We've only had the Enclave since November first, which means there's still three full months left on this 12 month test. We'll keep you posted, meanwhile I'll continue my quest to acclimate to the Buick's fuzzy cloth seats. Who the hell ordered this thing without leather anyway?
Ever take a break from a car and come back to it only to find that it's not quite how you remember it? That was me last week when I took the keys to our Buick Enclave. I had last driven it six months ago. When pulling out of the Edmunds parking garage, the Buick seemed like a big bowl of mush, with a squishy brake pedal, a wallowing ride and vague steering. I didn't remember it being this bad.
Then again, I had been driving our Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution around for two weeks prior to the Buick. My perspective had been skewed.
Now that I have acclimated to the Enclave (again), we're best friends.
I put about 600 highway miles on our Enclave over the Labor Day weekend. There were
no surprises — the Buick was enjoyable for the entire trip. Given that the Enclave has almost 23,000 miles on it, I kept an ear out for squeaks and rattles. I heard only one intermittent rattle coming from the lower part of the center stack.
I had my wife and one-year-old daughter with me, and the Enclave easily handled a weekend's amount of stuff. In the photo are two suitcases, a folded Pack 'n Play playpen and two duffle bags. Buick officially lists cargo capacity behind the second-row seats at 67.5 cubic feet. That's pretty much what you'll get out of a typical small crossover with all the rear seats folded. For this trip, the Buick's interior roominess actually felt like overkill for a small family.
You may recall my earlier post in which I ruminated over which long-term vehicle I would take to my high school reunion. Nissan GT-R? Audi R8? Cadillac CTS? Pontiac G8? Benz C300?
Would you believe, the 2008 Buick Enclave CX? I know, I know. I can hardly believe it myself. Ever since I graduated I've dreamed of rolling up to the valet at my high school reunion in a fine Buick SUV. Haven't we all? And now my wife and I have lived that dream.
Actually, it went like this: The 2009 Nissan GT-R was (and is) broken and waiting for fuel system parts, so the Audi R8 was my backup plan. But a last minute testing schedule change Friday afternoon left me 120 miles north of the office (and the Audi) in a Ford Flex. Another editor who lives near me needed the Flex for the weekend for a story he was working on. I was the logical choice to trade vehicles with him, and he happened to be rockin' the Enclave.
So my wife and I stepped-out, in fine style, from a minivan-esque SUV. That's about where we are in life anyway, so perhaps karma had something to say about the whole thing.
Besides, for the other things we did this weekend, the Enclave was just great. We checked out a ranch that gives riding lessons and we went to the beach, tracking damp sand onto the floor mats. No bigee. It'll vacuum up.
In less than one week we'll be saying goodbye to our long-term Buick Enclave.
Surely I won't be the only one who'll miss the Enclave's inherent versatility, so eager to carry five kids and new Pottery Barn dining room chairs in the same weekend.
Despite anever-ending supply of test cars rolling through our garage, it's always hard to let a good one go.
I'm currently in the middle of a move (fun!) so was semi-pleased when my choices for a car for the night were between our 2008 Buick Enclave, the Rondooo and the Smart. I wish we still had our trucks. Why O why did they have to go away at the same time? Anyway, the Enclave didn't let me down.
I was only going to fill up the SUV as much as I could since I was doing this by myself and I think the Buick, and I, did pretty well. Look at all those boxes in there. I even folded down the second-row seats and moved them out of the way so that I could put more boxes on the floor.
They were all very easy to unload, too. Not too high up.
And there was even a place in the center console for me to store the bottle of bubbly that I was bringing over to celebrate with my new housemates.
Wrap-Up
We just wrapped up a 12-month, 24,000-mile road test of the most interesting Buick in decades, the new Enclave crossover utility. Did it live up to our high hopes, or did a year with one of the most anticipated vehicles from the 2006 Detroit Auto Show reinforce a sneaking suspicion that Buick's days are numbered?
Why We Bought It
When the 2008 Buick Enclave was released in the waning months of 2007, a downward spiral of the automotive industry had begun. High gas prices and rising demand for green (or greener) vehicles was already stifling the usually strong sales of full-size truck-based SUVs. Car-based crossovers had become the hot ticket for the family on the move. This SUV sucktide surely would have doomed General Motors but as luck would have it, the exodus from body-on-frame trucks played heavily into its favor. That's because the much-anticipated Lambda crossovers were just hitting the road — the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook (soon to be joined by the Chevy Traverse).
In many ways, the Lambda represented GM's most important new vehicle in a decade, a full-size people mover meant to supplant GM's truck-based utilities like the Tahoe and Yukon. At 201 inches long and packing 275 horsepower, the all-new GM-engineered crossover was virtually without competition when it came to combining carrying, hauling and towing into a single package. As the most luxurious and stylish of these new GM vehicles, the 2008 Buick Enclave easily outgunned the Ford Edge crossover in power, size, options, fit and finish, and ride quality. And when we saw the Buick Enclave, we thought of Lexus, not Ford.
This represented not just a dramatic turnaround for Buick but also for General Motors. The Enclave offered excellent quality at a reasonable price just when market demand for vehicles like this was surging. We had to get one (it wasn't easy), and finally acquired a 2008 Buick Enclave CX.
Durability
"Solid as a stone, reliable as the sunrise, comfortable as a couch, quiet as a mime." So goes a classic advertising description of Buick. Unfortunately we didn't enjoy the same perfect reliability.
As the logbook entry from Senior Road Test Editor Josh Jacquot reads, "Yesterday, just as I made the left turn off of California's Highway 33 onto Cerro Noroeste road, our Buick Enclave's power steering began to show the first signs of failure. This is not good." Though he was in the Los Padres National Forest and about as far away from civilization as you can get, Jacquot managed to get back home.
The power assist worked with the steering on-center, but trickled away to nothing at full lock. The Buick dealer replaced the power-steering pump, which kept the vehicle out of service for a couple of days. When it was returned, though, the system had not been bled properly — the dealer actually told us that it let the consumer do that — so we had to constantly monitor the level and health of the fluid in the system.
Vehicle Testing Assistant Mike Magrath removed the plastic engine cover and kept it off to help us keep track of this: "After only a few minutes of driving, the cover gets far too hot to touch. Well, that's not a problem, right? I mean, with the oil filler and dipstick available without removing the cover, what's the problem?" The problem is, an ugly plastic cover might seem like a way to shroud engine messiness for a car designer, but it isn't a replacement for a properly laid-out scheme for routing hoses and wiring — something that's perfectly clear when you're trying to do some service.
Yet once the fluid was air-free and at a proper level, the steering assist still didn't return to normal. Director of Vehicle Testing Dan Edmunds' past life as an automotive engineer led him to believe that when the first pump failed it had probably contaminated the fluid with pump parts that were now lodged in the rack. Turns out he was correct, as GM diagnosed this and installed yet another new power steering pump, a new steering rack and new hoses. The Enclave was out of service for eight days. This issue was not isolated, as forums for owners of GM's Lambda crossovers report other accounts of similar experiences.
Aside from a catastrophic lack of steering, our 2008 Buick Enclave CX proved to be a paragon of reliability and predictability. Two routine services totaled $166.44 (a $101.03 service that included a charge for just an oil change and a tire rotation seemed a bit steep to us).
After 20,000 miles, the Buick's interior looked the same as it did on Day One. And perhaps surprising to those GM doubters out there, the interior had the same squeaks and rattles as it did on day one. That is to say there were none. Not a busted switch, blown fuse, sticky button or creaky window to speak of. The only minor complaint from some was the lack of support from the cloth seats compared to when they were new.
At the same time, many of us disliked the Enclave interior's traditional-style chrome accents and fake wood. Dan Edmunds noted, "The 'wood' on the dash is particularly shiny and plastic-looking; the 'wood' on the steering wheel rim looks more authentic, but is too hard and slick. And they aren't even the same species of simu-wood! On the steering, we've got Fauxhogany, while the dash is trimmed with Bird's Eye Fakle." Fortunately it was all screwed together well, but it wasn't quite the Lexus presentation we had hoped for.
Total Body Repair Costs: None
Total Routine Maintenance Costs (over 12 months): $166.44
Additional Maintenance Costs: None
Warranty Repairs: 1
Non-Warranty Repairs: None
Scheduled Dealer Visits: 2
Unscheduled Dealer Visits: 2
Days Out of Service: 8
Breakdowns Stranding Driver: None
Performance and Fuel Economy
This 2008 Buick Enclave CX features a 3.6-liter V6 that makes 275 hp and 251 pound-feet of torque. It's the same power plant seen in about 20 other GM vehicles and it's a good one. While this 2008 version didn't feature the direct injection system that the 2009 Buick Enclave will get, it offers an impressive blend of power and fuel economy. The engine is rated at 16 mpg EPA city and 24 mpg EPA highway, and we attained a staggering 29.7 mpg on our best full-tank run. The details of this epic trip have not been recorded, but we imagine they weren't exactly exciting. The worst tank very well could have been exciting, however, as we recorded one single-tank average of 10.5 mpg. Our guess is that the combination of SoCal stop-and-go traffic and the Enclave's prodigious weight of 4,827 pounds is responsible.
While almost capable of 30 mpg (crossover hypermiling?), the Enclave is also pretty darned quick for almost 2.5 tons of Buick. The 60-mph mark comes up in 7.9 seconds, and the quarter-mile passes in 16.2 seconds at 86.2 mph.
It's probably too much to ask for great handling from a massive people mover, but this Enclave's 255/65R18 Goodyear Fortera HL tires have a lot of sidewall squish and don't deliver the traction some other crossovers have. Engineering Editor Jason Kavanagh notes, "Our long-term 2008 Buick Enclave is a mechanical twin to the GMC Acadia. They share the same basic chassis, suspension geometry and powertrain. They drive much differently, however. This could be due to myriad factors like damper valving, bushing durometer, stabilizer bar end-links and more, but I suspect it's largely down to the tires.
"The Acadia, which I drove extensively for our recent Crossover vs. Minivan vs. SUV comparison test, sported optional 255/60R19 Goodyear RS-A tires on 19-inch wheels. Our Buick wears the 255/65R18 Goodyear Forteras on 18-inch wheels, a base package shared with entry-level Acadias. The upshot is that the GMC Acadia turns in much more crisply into corners and exhibits less steering imprecision than our Enclave, which has tire sidewalls that wind up like a torsion spring. This results in steering effort in the Buick that doesn't build up as linearly as that of the GMC."
Our only other complaint comes from the programming of the transmission. Because it's dialed in for fuel economy, the gearbox shifts into top gear as soon as conditions allow — sometimes sooner. And it stays there, resisting a downshift in a battle of wills with the driver. During a long drive to Oregon and back, Dan Edmunds reported, "So when the grade changed (and it does just about constantly on California Highway 101), the transmission downshifted late and reluctantly, and only after the driver squeezed the pedal more than a relaxed pace should require. Instead of an early 6-5 downshift, we'd get a late 6-4, with all of the fuss and bother that big of an rpm jump implies. At the slightest let-up in the grade, it tended to upshift immediately, only for the engine to run out of steam and then force a downshift once more seconds later."
Unlike some other manufacturers (Ford) which use this same six-speed automatic transmission, GM gives the Enclave a manual shift mode with buttons on the shift lever to allow you to override the computers. Sure it might hurt fuel economy, but it makes the drive tolerable. It's a welcome and well thought-out feature on GM's part.
Best Fuel Economy: 29.7 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 10.5 mpg
Average Fuel Economy: 17.5 mpg
Retained Value
At the end of its service cycle our 2008 Buick Enclave CX had accumulated 24,061 miles, enough to account for $994 in depreciation. Nevertheless, the Enclave depreciated only a total of 23 percent to $28,841 as rated by our True Market Value (TMV®).
This is a remarkably small amount of depreciation for a car in this category, especially when you consider the overall decline in utility sales. In comparison, the ongoing depreciation of our long-term Hyundai Veracruz stands at 32 percent while our Mazda CX-9 has lost 33 percent of its value.
This suggests to us that the GM crossovers like the Buick Enclave have already firmly established their identity in the marketplace, and the huge pool of Tahoe and Yukon owners provides a huge base of potential buyers.
True Market Value at service end: $28,841
Depreciation: $8,589 or 23 percent of original paid price
Final Odometer Reading: 24,061
Summing Up
Just imagine, one of the most appreciated and respected vehicles in our long-term test fleet carries a Buick badge. Despite our issues with the 2008 Buick Enclave's steering and our quibbles with its trim and suspension tuning, this Buick was always first chosen when people moving was the task at hand. Two years ago, such an endorsement would have been unthinkable.
As our logbook notes, "The Enclave is the best SUV that GM has ever built. Unless you're planning to tow really, really big stuff, you'd have to be nuts to pass on the Enclave and buy a Tahoe or a Yukon. Now if GM can only build a Buick sedan this good...."
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.