2024 Buick Envista: Affordable, standout SUV
Trim levels and prices Sleek, upscale looks
BUICK
Despite inflation, pandemic supply chain disruptions and the auto industry’s shift from sedans to SUVs, the affordable new vehicle is alive, and maybe better than ever.
Exhibit A: the 2024 Buick Envista small SUV. It’s priced like a Honda but designed like an Audi, a benchmark for everything Buick hopes to accomplish with its upcoming generation of vehicles.
Envista prices start at $22,400, and you can tick just about every box on the order form for less than $31,000, according to Edmunds’ price calculator.
In a time of four-figure “dealer adjustments,” that’s cause for celebration.
● Preferred: $22,400
● Sport Touring (ST): $24,100
● Avenir: $28,600
Prices exclude $1,095 destination charge.
The Envista proves the maxim that good design isn’t expensive. It just demands time, attention and vision. The sleek little SUV was born in General Motors’ Design HQ in Warren, Michigan, literally alongside clay models that became the superb Buick Wildcat concept car.
The Envista is the first production model to fully incorporate ideas from the Wildcat:
● Narrow LED running lights that wrap around from the nose to front fenders
● Big trapezoidal grille mounted low in the nose
● Buick’s three-crest badge across the nose
● A long hood and short rear overhang under a fastback rear window
● Low roof and wide stance
The Envista is longer and wider than Buick’s slightly more expensive Encore GX. The Encore costs more largely because of some features the Envista doesn’t offer, including available allwheel drive, nine-speed automatic transmission and a bigger engine.
Key features
● Front-wheel drive
● Six-speed automatic transmission
● 127-horsepower, 1.2L turbocharged four-cylinder engine
● 8-inch instrument cluster
● 11-inch touch screen
● Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
● Wireless charging
Driving impressions
The Envista has a roomy interior with useful storage for cups, phones and more in the front seat and an accommodating rear seat. The dash and other surfaces were covered in nicely grained materials, complementing the upscale screens and exterior design.
The interior is quiet at speedy and over rough surfaces thanks to active noise cancellation and Buick’s usual attentiveness to acoustic insulation.
An 8-inch high-def screen for gauges stands next to an 11-inch touch screen in a low-profile control package rising from the dash. The touch screen is clear and responds quickly. Physical controls for some climate and audio functions are available in the center stack below the touch screen.
The Envista’s Android Automotive operating system for infotainment and other features accommodates standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Wireless charging is optional.
The Envista’s ride is smooth and comfortable in the city and on country roads. The steering is responsive. The 1.2L turbocharged three-cylinder is responsive and delivers power for comfortable cruising at highway speeds and maneuvers in traffic.
The six-speed automatic transmission’s shifts felt a bit harsh under hard acceleration, but were otherwise smooth and unobtrusive.
What does it compete with?
● 2024 Chevrolet Trax: $20,400
● 2023 Hyundai Venue: $19,650
● 2023 Kia Soul: $19,890
● 2023 Nissan Kicks: $20,440 (Base price, excluding destination)
Available safety and driver assistance features
● Adaptive cruise control
● Following distance indicator
● Front collision alert and automatic braking
● Pedestrian braking
● Automatic high beams
● Lane departure alert and assist
● Blind spot and cross traffic alerts
● Rear parking assist
Why get one?
The Envista is one of the year’s standout vehicles. It looks good, feels good, sounds good and comes with plentiful safety, comfort and convenience features at an affordable price.
USA TODAY analyzed a decade’s worth of data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration about the movement of hazardous chemicals across Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. Here are the most important takeaways revealed in the data.
Number of incidents on the rise
The number of transportation-related hazmat accidents each year in the U.S. has increased steadily in the last decade, from about 16,100 incidents in 2013 to 25,300 last year, according to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The same trend can be seen in the five-state region, where the annual count climbed from 3,400 to 5,300 last year.
An increase in highway accidents, both in the region and nationally, has driven these numbers. The number of rail accidents actually decreased during this time, from 86 in the region in 2013 to 51 in 2022. Accidents in the region involving air transport have remained steady at around 200 a year, while only two barge accidents with hazmat spills occurred in the entire decade.
Few accidents deemed ‘serious’
PHMSA classifies accidents as “serious” if they lead to deaths or injuries, mass evacuations, the closure of major transportation arteries, the alteration of an aircraft flight plan, or large volume of hazmat being released (more than 119 gallons or 882 pounds).
Across modes, about a third of incidents happened in transit, while the other two thirds happened during loading or unloading, with a small proportion happening in storage before or after transit. Accidents that happen on the move, such as derailments and crashes, are most likely to be “serious” and account for over 90% of total damages — which totaled $237 million in the region in the last decade.
Rail accident can have big impact
Highway and rail accidents together made up more than 99% of damages in the last decade, both nationally and in the region. Nationally, truck accidents led in frequency and total damages, but a single rail accident can have outsized impacts. On average, it took 22 truck accidents to equal the damages of a single train accident.
Think of how one rail car often carries the equivalent of three to four truckloads of hazmat, or how trains are more likely to transport many tank cars and different substances at once, as well as for further distances. The rise of Precision Scheduled Railroading in the rail indus
After the derailment in East Palestine, PHMSA estimates put initial damages at $58 million. But Norfolk Southern’s firstquarter earning’s report estimated the total damages to be many times higher, closer to $387 million.
The derailment in East Palestine is the decade’s most expensive incident by a wide margin. The next most damaging incident happened in Mount Carbon, Virginia, in 2015. This train derailment cost CSX Transportation $29 million when adjusted for inflation.
Hazmats on highways led to deaths
All of the hazmat-related fatalities of the last decade happened during truck transport. The same goes for most injuries. Six of 73 nationwide deaths since 2013 happened in the five-state region, as well as 383 of about 1,500 total injuries. The six people who died were all drivers transporting fuel such as gasoline, killed by the fire or explosion resulting from hazmat spilling and burning during a crash.
The environmental and heath impacts of chemical releases are more difficult to track, but can have lasting impacts on affected communities. In the last decade, carriers reported 132 incidents in the region and 918 nationally where hazardous material incidents led to environmental damages or entered waterways and sewage systems.
How we looked at federal data
USA Today Network analyzed a decade of data from PHMSA’s Hazmat Incident Database, spanning Jan. 1, 2013, to May 31, 2023, as it appeared on July 3, 2023. PHMSA requires carriers to submit a report within 30 days of an incident. A state locator was not recorded in 1,402 incidents across the U.S. (<0.1%) during this time period.
Monetary data from PHMSA was adjusted for inflation as of Fiscal Year 2023 using the Bureau of Economic Statistics GDP Chained Price Index. “Total Damages” are estimates submitted by the discretion of the carrier to PHMSA and include material loss, carrier damage, property damage, response and cleanup costs. Although there are no guidelines as to how estimates are made, PHMSA requires carriers to update figures within one year if the damages exceed 10% of prior estimates.
Contact Dow Jones Fellow Katherine Oung at koung@gannett.com.