China-made Envision has Buick’s style,
Anxiety unfounded as near-luxury SUV proves it belongs
We admit it: We had a certain amount of trepidation about the Buick Envision.
That’s because it represents a bold move by an automaker not necessarily known for them.
General Motors has become one of the first automakers to import a model, in this case, the Envision SUV, from China.
Considering how international the auto industry has become, it wouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a radical move. Cars come from all over the world now, from South Korea to Slovenia.
But China is different. In the past decade, the U.S. auto industry was swept by a wave of fear that China, home to the world’s largest auto market, might unleash a wave of cheap cars into the U.S. The Chinese were stopped by the realization that demand was so great at home, a rapidly industrializing society, that there were few cars left over that could be exported. Also, U.S. makers just didn’t believe Chinese factories could meet the quality standards that Americans have come to expect.
As a result, the wave of Chinese exports never happened.
Fast forward to today. The Chinese car market is maturing, and demand softened a bit in the past year. There is enough factory capacity to justify exports to the U.S. Also, the Chinese have proved to be ravenous for foreign-made luxury goods themselves. It hasn’t been U.S. or European consumers demanding better quality. It has been the Chinese themselves — and that has raised the bar for Chinesemade products.
We knew all that. But we want- ed to see if Envision can match up to GM’s best. And it appears it does. We looked for flaws, mismatches or wide gaps in panels. We cocked an ear for squeaks or rattles. We didn’t hear or see anything out of the ordinary.
Envision is a compact SUV that slots into the Buick SUV lineup between the subcompact Encore and the three-row Enclave. It’s in a hot segment, but if you haven’t heard about it, don’t be surprised. General Motors hasn’t done much to promote Envision.
Though GM hasn’t tried to hide its Chinese manufacture, one theory is that the automaker doesn’t want to set off alarm bells that could take the form of further Twitter messages from President-elect Donald Trump.
Envision has all the attributes of a solid Buick. It is well insulated, in keeping with the brand’s appreciation of hush in the cabin. The 2.5-liter, 4-cylinder engine performed admirably and mostly silently, in every situation. It’s no speed demon, but it gets the job done.
The car showed we got 24.1 miles per gallon over 333 miles of driving, smack dab where you’d expect given that the city gas mileage rating is 20 mpg and the highway rating is 26 mpg. Interestingly, Envision has a 6-speed automatic transmission at a time when competing brands are moving to 8 or more speeds.
The interior is nice, including the stitching on the seats, though we’ve never been a fan of what we consider Buick’s over-ample use of wood-grain paneling. Speaking of seats, Envision comes with the butt-thumper, the system that warns through the seats if you’re close to bumping into something when you back up.
We did appreciate one feature that speaks to tradition: knobs for turning up the volume and picking radio stations. Old-fashioned, yes, but it works far more effectively than the newfangled touch screens like the one in the Acura MDX we reviewed last week.
Also good in Envision: the forward-collision warning system, which flashed a bright red bar across the driver’s side of the windshield. It was one of the best we’ve seen — effective without being overly intrusive.
The Envision we drove came fully loaded for $44,135, including $925 destination. Not bad for a near-luxury SUV and showing how far Chinese manufacturing has come.