Auto N Sider | 2022 Buick Enclave Avenir AWD
Can Japan and Europe Beat This?
15 years ago Buick created a worthy competitor to the best mid-sized 3-row SUV’s available from Japan and Europe…and their Enclave has only gotten better since then.
And if you liked it before, just wait ‘till you experience it in Avenir trim.
Luxury? That’s what Avenir trim is all about And we’ll talk more about that in a moment. But connectivity seems to just as accurately define luxury these days.
Buick’s “Driver Confidence Plus” gives you exactly what the name implies…all your alerts, emergency braking, parking assists, adaptive cruise and surround-vision that you’d expect.
And then “Buick Connected Services” kicks it up a notch or two….connecting to Alexa and giving you voice-activated start / stop, lock / unlock…and able to answer “what’s my tire pressure, my fuel level, and when do I need to change my oil?”
Now…back to the luxury. Perforated leather heated and ventilated massaging front seats, heated outboard rears, power folding third row, dual sunroofs, 20” alloys, rain-sensing wipers and premium Bose sound. Six figure window stickers don’t give you a whole lot more. Buick puts this within reach for a hair under sixty thousand.
As for power, all Enclaves have GM’s 310 HP, 3.6 liter V-6 and their 9-speed automatic. That’s enough to allow you to tow up to 5,000 lbs if you’ve got some toys to bring along on the trip.
And here might be a surprise: You probably don’t think of race cars and Enclaves at the same time, but a $1,595 Technology package brought us continuously variable suspension damping…something that was first developed on the world’s best-known racetracks. The result is a reassuringly smooth and controlled ride.
Enclaves start in the low to mid $40’s. Avenir trim will run roughly 15K more, but if you want a ride that’ll rival anything else in its class, Avenir is the way to roll.
