Perhaps America could use a strategic reserve of Buick Envistas for when new cars get too expensive and inflation begins to rise, because for under $30,000 this is a lot of car. I spent a week with an Envista Avenir, which is the top trim of the Envista, and it’s full of the stuff I’m used to on nicer cars; nothing about it feels like a penalty or a trick. It’s just nice. And cheap. And, again, nice. Good deals aren’t dead, my friends — they’re just wearing a Buick badge.
There’s a gimmick with new cars where the base price is something absurdly low, but it’s for a car that’s almost impossible to find because dealers don’t order a lot of stripper cars these days, and also most people probably don’t want it, anyway. This is also generally true of press cars handed out to journalists; an automotive journalist might be happy to tell you about how great the Fleegal Warrior is, even though they’ve only driven the Fleegal Warrior XST, and not the penalty-trim Warrior DX.
I asked for an Envista, but was given an Envista Avenir and, at first, I was disappointed. “That’s not the base, $24,000-ish one!” I thought, assuming I’d end up with a car that was optioned all the way up into the high $30k range. Then I looked at the window sticker they sent me and saw that with basically all the options this thing was just $29,395 (or $30,490 with the destination charge).
Maybe this could work…
Why This Car Exists
Did you know that Buick was America’s fastest-growing car brand last year? By a huge margin, Buick is picking itself up and finding new customers. How is it doing this? In America, Buick only sells relatively affordable, reasonably nice crossovers. Two of those vehicles (the Envista and Encore GX) are built in South Korea, one (the Envision) is built in China, and one (the Enclave) is built in Michigan, which is the South Korea of the Midwest. [Ed Note: Huh? Detroit barbecue isn’t nearly good enough; Slows can only carry so much on its back. -DT].
Confusingly, Buick used to build the very cheap and generally mediocre Encore. At one point, Buick simultaneously sold the base Encore and the nicer Encore GX (a different model, and one still available). Slotting into the spot once held by the non-GX Buick Encore is the Buick Envista. Consistent with the brand’s history, the Envista is just a nicer version of the also surprisingly nice 2024 Chevy Trax. But the Trax and Envista, while essentially the same underneath, aren’t exactly the same; parent company General Motors has done a good job in giving consumers two distinctly different cars at a low price, which is not consistent with the old Chevy-with-chrome-trim days of yore.
Am I more inclined personally to get a Chevy Trax Activ in Nitro Yellow Metallic optioned up to $27k? Yes. The Trax is a little more my style, even though the Buick is a little more my lifestyle.
[Full disclosure: Buick let me borrow the car for a week and gave me a full tank of gas. I intended to return it with a full tank of gas so I filled it up. Then I kept the car for two more days so it was like 3/4ths full.]
The Basics
Price: $29,395 ($30,490 Delivered)
Engine: 1.2-liter turbo inline-three
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Drivetrain: FWD
Horsepower: 137 horsepower at 5,000 rpm.
Torque: 162 lb.-ft. of torque at 2,500-4,000 rpm.
Fuel Economy: 28 mpg city, 32 mpg highway, 30 mpg combined.
Body Style: five-seat crossover
Curb Weight: 3,115 pounds
How Does It Look?
I don’t mean this pejoratively, but the Envista looks like it was designed for a global audience. Often “global design” means watering down a car until it looks approximately like everything else so it can be sold everywhere.
In the case of the Envista, the car’s designers did an admirable job of creating a new global face that is just simple enough to work to many people, but that also has what they call a “forward-leaning nose” that feels like the more arresting Buicks of the pre-Malaise period. In profile, the car becomes a little more anonymous and gives into aerodynamic sculpting.
My photos are of the Avenir, which includes some chrome-like details that feel very old Buick in a good way. Again, stylistically this is not me. The above ST trim is painted in the same Cinnabar Metallic color but has the blacked-out trim and I think that looks more me, but Buick has, for the first time in a long time, managed to differentiate its designs from Chevy and internally from itself.
Both the headlamps and taillights use Buick’s “wing lighting” and it is distinct in a good way. Compare this to the old entry-level Encore, which just looked like a little turd-shaped economy car:
This is a stratospheric jump in visual presence.
How About The Inside?
There is nothing particularly cheap feeling about the Envista, although this is technically an entry-level model. The plastics aren’t noticeably bad, the steering wheel feels good as a driver, and the Avenir’s seats even have “Avenir” stitched into the headrests for some reason.
If anything, the biggest challenge of this car is that it almost feels like a luxury car, which it isn’t. When viewed as a luxury car none of it is quite nice enough. This isn’t a car that’s worth $40-50k and, having jumped out of an Alpina XB7 into this, all those little details were fairly obvious.
Here’s a good example of what I mean:
In Avenir trim you get two decent and responsive screens that provide all the details you need and good access to Apple CarPlay. To give the impression that this is one big screen, Buick uses a dark black plastic that gives off a screen-like shine to hide the fact that it’s two screens.
Unfortunately, when the sun is at the right level it makes the Potemkin-like quality of the screens almost comically obvious. Given that it works fine 90% of the time this is a reasonable trade-off. Sometimes “attainable” luxury just means faking it a little, and that’s ok because…
There’s a lot of backseat here! You can see that my daughter has moved into the Envista and made it her car immediately. Buick says the Envista has 38.7 inches of rear legroom! To put that in comparison, my theoretically luxury 5-series BMW has 34.2 inches of legroom. From hip-to-hip a fifth person is a tight squeeze and Buick has tried to recess the buckles to achieve that little fifth seat, which makes buckling in harder, but that’s a minor quibble.
The hatch area is also spacious and usable with a low load-in and room for at least one sports bag and one glove. Also, now I know where that glove went…
How Does It Drive?
The motor in this thing is tiny and it’s not quick. What’s the opposite of quick? Slow. It’s slow. Car And Driver tested it, and it only took them about 6.7 seconds to get to 50 mph. That’s not terrible. To get to 60 mph? It took them another 2.6 seconds. This is the reality of gearing set up for economy and low-speed zip, and it’s completely livable around town, which is where this thing will live for most people.
Did you notice the special word in there? Gearing! This thing has an honest-to-goodness six-speed torque-converter automatic transmission and not a damn CVT. As someone who has logged more miles on CVT-equipped cars than just about anything else for the last year or so it’s a revelation to me to have a real automatic. I thought I’d eventually just get used to CVTs, but like hemorrhoids, the jerk of a CVT is a feeling that’s better to eliminate than acclimate to.
In ST and Avenir trim, the big upgrade is the available watts link suspension out back, which allows for a smoother and stabler ride. This video does a good job of explaining how this works:
I live in a bumpy part of the world, made worse by winter, and the Avenir felt almost luxury car smooth. The steering also felt crisper than most economy cars and more in line with my BMW than even some more expensive premium crossovers I’ve tested. As long as you’re not trying to go fast, the Envista is a great place to be.
It’s a FWD car and it will always be a FWD car. One of the ways Buick keeps the costs down and differentiates it from the rest of the lineup is that it’s only able to spin the front wheels. Oh well.
Does It Have The Electronic Crap Some People Want?
It’s got keyless start, Bluetooth audio for two devices simultaneously, wireless charging, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Audio, active noise cancellation, six speakers, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, a high-def rear camera, automatic emergency braking… basically all the things.
Do all of those things work well? The sound system is average, the wireless charging is average, and the phone sound quality is also average. The rear camera is quite nice and better than many way more expensive cars. I apologize to everyone on the Taconic Parkway at 5:00 am who experienced the auto high beams when the Buick, possibly due to sensor placement, decided to blind them.
If you put 10 pounds of sausage into five pounds of sausage casing some of it’s going to end up on the floor.
Three Things To Know About The 2024 Buick Envista Avenir:
- It gets precisely the fuel economy that it promised, no more no less.
- It still has a physical hood prop.
- It is trying to make Avenir happen.
Does It Fulfill Its Purpose?
Oh my, yes. The last car to do as good of a job of doing what it says on the tin was probably the WWII Jeep. There’s this weird concept that Costco has with its house brand Kirkland (I think I’m wearing Kirkland boxer briefs right now, come to think of it) where it has the makers of the product create a copy that’s 1% better.
I have always found this confusing. How does Bombay make a gin that is 1% better? I can understand a battery lasting 1% longer, but how does a thing taste 1% better?
Driving the Envista Avenir for a little more than a week made the Kirkland brand concept a little more comprehensible. Except for maybe a Ford Maverick, if you want a crossover-y type thing with good rear legroom and all the car features any human needs I don’t think you can do 1% better than the Envista for the price. In fact, I think you can only do 1% worse.
I’d probably skip the Avenir trim, though, and get the lower-trim ST. I loaded one up with the advanced safety package and it’s a whopping $26,285 delivered. Damn.
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