The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Quiet Buick Encore gets tech updates for 2017
There was ease of mind. I did not worry about where I would park it in the city, or how. Small size is worth that convenience, especially in something regarded as a sport-utility vehicle.
To me, it’s a little station wagon. But few people use that term or know what it means anymore.
Few of them really know what an SUV is, either. Put it this way: If your mind is bent by current automotive marketing, you’ll get in trouble in the off-road wild in this one, the 2017 Buick Encore Premium All-Wheel Drive. It is designed and engineered for heavy rain and moderate snow. It is not meant for truly offroad rough stuff.
If you are willing to accept that reality, you can prepare to be reasonably happy. The Encore, on sale since 2015 as a 2016 model, has received cosmetic and technological updates for 2017. It is a pretty little vehicle, as quiet as most modern Buicks.
But this little Buick is swimming in a sea of aggressive compact SUV competitors from every country producing cars and trucks across the globe, supplied by every automotive parts company selling automotive parts worldwide, bought practically everywhere.
Competitors include (from the same General Motors that produces Buicks) the quite likable Chevrolet Equinox. Throw in the equally appealing Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Honda HRV, Mazda CX-5 and CX3, and the Fiat 500X - not to mention all of the worthy and affordable rivals from South Korea.
I mention all of the foreign rivals because I get annoyed by the Trump administration’s sophomoric nonsense about “keeping automotive jobs in America.”
You want to keep those jobs here? Do what GM and Ford finally have decided to do. Design and build cars and trucks that Americans and everyone else want to buy. It’s the the “presidentfree market” and that pals
constantly are ranting
about.
Certainly, that is what
GM is trying to do with
the Encore. It speaks to
a universal automotive
consumer need - likable,
sustainable size.
In Japan in many
cases, if you don’t have
some legal space to
park your car, you don’t
buy it. In Italy, some
streets are so narrow, it
is much better to own a
motorcycle. Try to drive
downtown in London in
the morning rush hour?
Ha! It makes a morning
Interstate 66 East com
mute from northern Vir
ginia to the District of
Columbia seem almost
pleasant.
So, yes, I welcome
Buick’s little Encore. It
is quiet, loaded with all
available advanced elec
tronic safety equipment.
It has a turbocharged
1.4-liter, four- cylinder
gasoline engine (138
horsepower, 177 pound
feet of torque). That will
get you where you’re going for most of the places I’ve driven in the
United States.
Ahem: Be aware that
during this Memorial
Day weekend in our
lovely country, when law
enforcement officers are
on high alert, that too
much engine power eas
ily could lead to a traffic
ticket anywhere you go.
The little Buick En
core is a nice car. Enjoy
the ride. Drive respon
sibly.