Envision is smooth, quiet and comfortable
Road Test: 2017 Buick Envision
Buick has been getting its freak on of late. It showed off the stunning Avista concept during last year’s auto show season, and more recently, brought the snazzy Regal TourX to North America — albeit just for the U.S. market — which will stand more as a statement of upscale cool than any real quest for sales. So, is Buick abandoning its core values in the pursuit of hipness?
For those who value ride comfort and cabin hush over Nürburgring bragging rights, fear not. The 2017 Buick Envision compact crossover that slides in between the subcompact Encore and full size Enclave has old-school Buick written all over it. At no point does this relaxed hauler goad you into clipping an apex or even bolting ahead of the herd at a traffic light.
Granted, the 2.5-litre naturally aspirated engine with 197 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque in this base Envision, (starts at $40,195 for the Preferred AWD trim) pretty much precludes that activity. But even if I were driving the hotter 2.0L turbo-four version (starting at $46,455) with 252 hp and 260 lb-ft of torque, I doubt I’d be leaning on it. There’s something about the Envision’s plush, slightly saggy seats, rollypolly handling, numb-ish helm and isolation-chamber interior that make you want to chill out.
The Envision was designed, engineered and developed in Michigan but built in China, which happens to be its biggest market. The Chinese love Buick, and they also love capacious back seats. While the Envision is a bit narrower and has a shorter wheelbase than the closely related Chevrolet Equinox, its rear-door openings are large and there’s plenty of legroom and headroom back there. The rear seats also slide and recline.
Billed as a premium crossover that will go up against the Acura RDX, Lincoln MKC and, to an extent, the Volkswagen Tiguan, the Envision’s cabin looks a bit low-rent, being a hodgepodge of GM switchgear and awkward design details. The little analogue clock that sits awkwardly on the dash panel to the right of the eight-inch touch screen has ‘afterthought’ written all over it. And it’s too small to read in the daylight. The capacitive temperature controls are a bit hit-or-miss too.
On the plus side, Buick’s IntelliLink infotainment with standard SiriusXM, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, is comprehensive and logical for a touch-screen system. You also get GM’s OnStar with a three-month trial of 4G LTE Wi-Fi and six months of Guidance Plan navigation. But the base, six-speaker audio system only gets a B-minus, at best.
This entry-spec Preferred trim gets cloth seats with leatherette bolsters, here in a pleasing beige that lends an airy ambience to the cabin. Additional standard kit includes active noise cancellation, a rear-view camera, rear park assist, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, a proximity key with push-button start, eightway heated front seats, a 4.2-inch colour info screen in the gauge cluster, and 18-inch alloy wheels. Move up to the higher trim levels and you get sunroof, heated rear seats, ventilated front seats, GPS navigation, real leather, a handful of active safety gadgets, and more.
With the exception of the distinctive Buick waterfall grille — and the aesthetically questionable Buick “portholes” on the hood — the Envision blends into the automotive landscape unnoticed. That said, it is tidy in a pleasingly conservative way, and could be considered a panacea to the bizarre designs springing from Japan of late.
I drove this tester in Nova Scotia, making a few extended highway jaunts and using it to move furniture, boxes and other household items while helping my dad move from his home to an assisted-living facility in Wolfville. It certainly serves up a decent helping of utility, what with its standard power liftgate and pair of levers on the side of the cargo area that have the 60/40-split rear seats folding flat in a jiffy. Lift the floor panel and you’ll find a shallow compartmentalized storage space.
As a day-to-day crossover, the Buick Envision is about as lowstress as you could ask for. The sixspeed automatic unobtrusively slurs the gears, and while highway passing requires a lower cog and a healthy helping of revolutions from the 2.5-L four-pot, occupants are
shielded from the under-hood histrionics by Buick’s signature Quiet Tuning, with targeted sound insulation, acoustic glass, special door seals, and standard active noise cancellation.
Being slightly narrower than the class average, the Envision is nicely manoeuvrable in town and easy to park, although I would ask for better headlights. The standard halogen units proved exceedingly dim on the dark back roads of Nova Scotia.
Adding to the Envision’s calm disposition are the unfashionably tall aspect-ratio tires that help soak up most road irregularities. Tellingly, within the first few metres of riding in the Envision, my 89-yearold dad immediately commented on its smooth and quiet nature. If that isn’t a confirmation of this intermediate crossover’s inherent Buickness, well, I’ll eat my prunes.