2025 Buick Enclave: A winding trip on some straight roads

2025 Ford Explorer Platinum 4WD vs. 2025 Buick Enclave Avenir FWD: Family adventure from the old American brands.

This week: Buick Enclave

Price: $63,125 as tested. Super Cruise Package added many cool reasons to ignore the road for $3,730, and I think it works well, as always.

Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver liked that there’s “lots of available technology features, impressively quiet ride, spacious second- and third-row seating,” but not the “lackluster handling,” that its “lower trims [are] not as luxurious as the top Avenir,” and that there’s “less cargo space than previous model.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Exceptional by design.”

Reality: Change has its pluses and minuses.

What’s new: The 2025 is the next generation of the three-row flagship from Buick, with an updated exterior design that’s wider and longer, floating center console.

Gone, though, from the previous generation are the V-6 engine; nice transmission controls with real shiftability; and more, noted below.

Competition: In addition to the Explorer, tops among the rest of the segment include the Chevrolet Traverse, Honda Pilot, Hyundai Palisade, Kia Sorento, Mazda CX-90, Subaru Ascent, and Toyota Highlander.

Educational trip: One of the conceits of the Driver’s Seat column has long been: How does a vehicle test when you’re completely unfamiliar with it? Pretend you land at an airport, would you be able figure out the controls and make it work?

In reviewing the Enclave, I didn’t have to pretend. The Lovely Mrs. Passenger Seat and I landed at Raleigh airport to visit his Best Friend Since First Grade and her sister, and Sturgis Big Sister 1.0, along with a pair of husbands game for some exciting adventure over a long weekend.

Read on for the shocking results.

Driver’s Seat: Intuitive this Enclave was not. The steering wheel is covered in practically every button under the sun, in a configuration not like any Buick or any other GM model. The Explorer also has plenty of buttons, but they had a better pattern.

The touchscreen and gauges are all one big unit — 30 inches wide, Buick touts — but the screen is really short. And there are almost zero buttons available to control any of the typical items, like HVAC, sport mode, or infotainment. A volume knob rests alone on the console.

On the road: O sport control, where art thou? Here’s Mr. Driver’s Seat trying to show off all his professional driving chops, and the Enclave is just destroying any self-esteem I might have once had.

Five of us rode into Mebane, N.C., for a dinner, and the passengers teased and joked and laughed as the Enclave swayed while Mr. Driver’s Seat tried in vain to find Sport mode. It was nowhere inside the screen.

Finally, peering to the left of the steering wheel, there sat the Mode button, and it finally dawned on me that meant drive mode. Sport mode made the steering much more controllable. But even among three-row SUVs, the steering was really loose. This is a dramatic downgrade from the 2023 model.

Still, it’s worth noting one husband managed to have a little snooze in the third row before arriving at the restaurant, so we called the ride extremely smooth and luxurious.

We never did have much opportunity to try out winding roads, although the narrow Orange County roads proved how cumbersome the Enclave felt.

Note that the Enclave tested was front-wheel drive; I’ve found the General Motors SUVs handle much better when set into AWD mode. Still, I can only review what I’m offered; Advantage, Explorer.

Friends and stuff: Meanwhile, the friends also wanted to enjoy a look at the moon through the large moonroof. More vehicle swaying while Mr. Driver’s Seat tried to find the controls. They actually were in the right location, but quite hard to see and understand.

Even before we rode under the stars, the friends delighted in the luxury of the middle-row captain’s chairs. The third row provided ample legroom when the middle seats were positioned forward a bit, and accessing the rear was not too difficult for a bunch of 50- and 60-somethings. This is a big improvement over the 2023 model, whose short profile made headroom an issue.

Cargo space is 22.9 cubic feet in back; 57.1 with the rear seat folded; and 97.5 with all the seats down, far roomier than the Explorer.

Towing maxes out at 5,000 pounds, just like the Explorer.

Night shift: The auto high beam feature, normally operated by a second click of the turn signal stalk, is buried in the touchscreen. Disappointing. The low beams were a little challenging for shining the way in the dark.

Hazardous: The final impossible find came a day later when Sturgis Brother-in-Law 1.0 heard my tales of searching and called out, “So where are the hazard lights?” He’d had an incident recently with a new car needing that very riddle solved.

I still have no idea where to find them. No misfortunes made us need them, I’m delighted to report.

Up to speed: Acceleration from the 328-horsepower 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine was never anything to brag about. It takes 6.8 seconds to get from 0 to 60, according to Car and Driver, just a little slower than the 2023 model, and matching Motor Trend’s number for the Explorer.

Our area of North Carolina provided almost no testing on hills, so you’ll have to do your own investigation.

Shifty: The 8-speed transmission control sits where the wipers normally would, but despite a rainy first night, I never shifted into Neutral in the rain. Yay, Mr. Driver’s Seat, yay.

And as we learned in another GM review, low gear is hidden on the steering wheel controls.

Play some tunes: Sound from the system was pretty good, about an A-. Nothing missing, but no real new features in the songs either.

Fuel economy: EPA estimates 19/24 mpg city/highway for the all-wheel-drive model. The Explorer is not far at 18/24.

Where it’s built: Lansing, Mich.

How it’s built: Consumer Reports predicts the Enclave reliability to be a 3 out of 5. This matches the Explorer’s rating.

In the end: The Enclave is certainly roomier and comfy for a large group to travel in style. But if your group considers the driver’s feelings at all, they’ll squeeze into an Explorer.

Looking at the rest of the segment, though, I’d say the Highlander and Sorento offer far more for everyone.