Buick Shows Off 2025 Enclave, Now with the Super-est of Cruises

by Matthew Guy

Published: April 9th, 2024

buick shows off 2025 enclave now with the super est of cruises

The tri-shield brand continues to revamp its product lineup, announcing major revisions to the Enclave, its entrant in the murderously competitive three-row midsize crossover segment.

Styling of the 2025 Buick Enclave takes cues from other crossovers in the lineup, helping complete a set of familial connection with the Wildcat concept car from a few years ago. No, they’re not going to actually build that thing – we’ll have to be content with living vicariously through the headlamps of Buick’s all-SUV lineup. Between those lamps is a gaping. Maw of a grille which looks like the lower half of a Lexus spindle grille to your author’s jaundiced eyes, though the space is filled with interesting textures and does manage to generally avoid looking like a largemouth bass. Atop all this is the new Buick logo which sheds the circular badge for just the three colorful shields.

Of much more interest is what’s found in the cabin, a space in which buying decisions are likely to be made assuming Buick can get more shoppers into its showrooms in the first place. That display is indeed one big screen, spanning 30 inches to house both the gauge cluster and infotainment system. Like in a Cadillac, the screen uses just about all available real estate, poking down into the corners of the trapezoid shape instead of presenting as a square peg in a differently shaped hole with enormous bezels. In the real-world testing, we have found the built-in nav maps to use this configuration the best (smartphone mirroring still shows up as a square or rectangle). Also on board? Super Cruise, the driver assistance system which walks all over Tesla’s misnomered Autopilot in terms of effective operation.

Enclave crossovers will be powered by a 2.5L turbocharged engine making 328 horsepower and 326 lb-ft of torque. That’s funneled to the ground through an eight-speed automatic transmission and a choice of front- or all-wheel drive in American markets. These specs are good for all three trims: Preferred, Sport Touring, and Avenir.

The 2025 Enclave will be produced at Lansing Delta Township Assembly in Michigan and is planned to launch later this summer.

[Images: Buick]

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#Buick #Enclave #SuperCruise #AWD

Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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3 of 44 comments

Teddyc73 on Apr 10, 2024

Good looking redesign. Much more attractive than the over-hyped Korean twins or the Grand Highlander.

1 Reply
- Buickman on Apr 10, 2024
  
  hey Teddy, try more Vermouth and less Vodka I would recommend. to each their own though eh?
  
  2
Kcflyer on Apr 11, 2024

Turbo four in a huge vehicle. Recipe for poor long term reliability. Shame. Nice looking interior.

1 Reply

Recent Comments

Bouzouki Cadillac (aka GM!!) made so many mistakes over the past 40 years, right up to today, one could make a MBA course of it. Others have alluded to them, there is not enough room for me to recite them in a flowing, cohesive manner.Cadillac today is literally a tarted-up Chevrolet. They are nice cars, and the "aura" of the Cadillac name still works on several (mostly female) consumers who are not car enthusiasts.The CT4 and CT5 offer superlative ride and handling, and even performance--but, it is wrapped in sheet metal that (at least I think) looks awful, with (still) sub-par interiors. They are niche cars. They are the last gasp of the Alpha platform--which I have been told by people close to it, was meant to be a Pontiac "BMW 3-series". The bankruptcy killed Pontiac, but the Alpha had been mostly engineered, so it was "Cadillac-ized" with the new "edgy" CTS styling.Most Cadillacs sold are crossovers. The most profitable "Cadillac" is the Escalade (note that GM never jack up the name on THAT!).The question posed here is rather irrelevant. NO ONE has "a blank check", because GM (any company or corporation) does not have bottomless resources.Better styling, and superlative "performance" (by that, I mean being among the best in noise, harshness, handling, performance, reliablity, quality) would cost a lot of money.Post-bankruptcy GM actually tried. No one here mentioned GM's effort to do just that: the "Omega" platform, aka CT6.The (horribly misnamed) CT6 was actually a credible Mercedes/Lexus competitor. I'm sure it cost GM a fortune to develop (the platform was unique, not shared with any other car. The top-of-the-line ORIGINAL Blackwing V8 was also unique, expensive, and ultimately...very few were sold. All of this is a LOT of money).I used to know the sales numbers, and my sense was the CT6 sold about HALF the units GM projected. More importantly, it sold about half to two thirds the volume of the S-Class (which cost a lot more in 201x)Many of your fixed cost are predicated on volume. One way to improve your business case (if the right people want to get the Green Light) is to inflate your projected volumes. This lowers the unit cost for seats, mufflers, control arms, etc, and makes the vehicle more profitable--on paper.Suppliers tool up to make the number of parts the carmaker projects. However, if the volume is less than expected, the automaker has to make up the difference.So, unfortunately, not only was the CT6 an expensive car to build, but Cadillac's weak "brand equity" limited how much GM could charge (and these were still pricey cars in 2016-18, a "base" car was ).Other than the name, the "Omega" could have marked the starting point for Cadillac to once again be the standard of the world. Other than the awful name (Fleetwood, Elegante, Paramount, even ParAMOUR would be better), and offering the basest car with a FOUR cylinder turbo on the base car (incredibly moronic!), it was very good car and a CREDIBLE Mercedes S-Class/Lexus LS400 alternative. While I cannot know if the novel aluminum body was worth the cost (very expensive and complex to build), the bragging rights were legit--a LARGE car that was lighter, but had good body rigidity. No surprise, the interior was not the best, but the gap with the big boys was as close as GM has done in the luxury sphere.Mary Barra decided that profits today and tomorrow were more important than gambling on profits in 2025 and later. Having sunk a TON of money, and even done a mid-cycle enhancement, complete with the new Blackwing engine (which copied BMW with the twin turbos nestled in the "V"!), in fall 2018 GM announced it was discontinuing the car, and closing the assembly plant it was built in. (And so you know, building different platforms on the same line is very challenging and considerably less efficient in terms of capital and labor costs than the same platform, or better yet, the same model).So now, GM is anticipating that, as the car market "goes electric" (if you can call it that--more like the Federal Government and EU and even China PUSHING electric cars), they can make electric Cadillacs that are "prestige". The Cadillac Celestique is the opening salvo--$340,000. We will see how it works out.
Lynn Joiner Lynn JoinerJust put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Lynn Joiner Just put 2,000 miles on a Chevy Malibu rental from Budget, touring around AZ, UT, CO for a month. Ran fine, no problems at all, little 1.7L 4-cylinder just sipped fuel, and the trunk held our large suitcases easily. Yeah, I hated looking up at all the huge FWD trucks blowing by, but the Malibu easily kept up on the 80 mph Interstate in Utah. I expect a new one would be about a third the cost of the big guys. It won't tow your horse trailer, but it'll get you to the store. Why kill it?
Ollicat I am only speaking from my own perspective so no need to bash me if you disagree. I already know half or more of you will disagree with me. But I think the traditional upscale Cadillac buyer has traditionally been more conservative in their political position. My suggestion is to make Cadillac separate from GM and make them into a COMPANY, not just cars. And made the company different from all other car companies by promoting conservative causes and messaging. They need to build up a whole aura about the company and appeal to a large group of people that are really kind of sick of the left and sending their money that direction. But yes, I also agree about many of your suggestions above about the cars too. No EVs. But at this point, what has Cadillac got to lose by separating from GM completely and appealing to people with money who want to show everyone that they aren't buying the leftist Kook-Aid.
Jkross22 Cadillac's brand is damaged for the mass market. Why would someone pay top dollar for what they know is a tarted up Chevy? That's how non-car people see this.