2025 Buick Enclave Avenir

Our review vehicle, the 2025 Buick Enclave Avenir, is the largest of Buick’s line-up. Furthermore, the Avenir trim is the highest level trim available. So, this should be a nice ride. And it is.

Interior

The layout in the 2025 Buick Enclave is pretty clean while still sticking to that luxurious look. No, it doesn’t quite measure up with that over-the-top luxury available in some high-end luxury automobiles, but that’s not what Buick is going for here either. For half the price, the Enclave offers a lot more than half the luxury.

This is the seven-seat version of the Buick Enclave, meaning that we’ve got the two spots up front (of course!), two captain chairs in the second row, and then a three-person bench in the way back.

The second row captain chairs (heated, of course) are not only easy on the eyes, they’re also easy on the butt - aka comfortable. Even for longer drives and for non-child humans, these do well. Also, an added bonus of having captain chairs in the second row, as opposed to a bench, is that the third row is easy to get to by just scooting down the isle between the middle row seats.

Up front the driver’s and passenger’s chairs are even more inviting than the second row. Heated and cooled, these seats are comfortable, and everything you need is within easy reach.

The dashboard screen and the infotainment system screen hang together as one very wide screen, stretching across almost the entire front interior. With the heads-up display projecting to the driver all the necessary info on the windshield, I notice that I’m not really looking or using the dashboard/instrument cluster of the giant screen. It still looks good though.

Controls are easy to find and easy to use. However, one thing I do miss is an actual physical button to turn on the exterior camera view, aka the top-down camera view. If I’m using Apple CarPlay, browsing the Buick infotainment menus, my favorite playlist, or maybe checking my whereabouts on the map-view, I have to make two selections on the screen before the camera comes on. I know that’s not a deal-breaker for most (me neither) but I really like being able to switch the cameras on with one hit of a button - great when cruising around a parking lot and pulling into a tighter space.

The Bose Performance Series speaker system is a really good audio system. Featuring 16 speakers, it does a great job at giving all occupants (although I presume the front seats are prioritized) a great listening experience. Does it compare to some of the ultra high-end audio systems found in some of the luxury vehicles? No, not really, but then again the Buick Enclave is not way north of $100,000 either - actually half that!

On the highway one quickly will surmise that this car is quiet. Noticeable so. The active noise canceling system does a great job of keeping the exterior noise out and letting the interior noise (voices and audio, for example) travel throughout the car. It’s interesting when I can hear what the rear seat passengers are saying, and I don’t have to raise my voice at all to communicate with them from the driver’s seat.

Technology Worth An Extra Mention

Vibrating Seat Cushion

GM vehicles offer a vibrating seat cushion for the driver. This isn’t necessarily for comfort or pleasure, rather it’s to allow the car to communicate with the driver without alerting all of the passengers as well.

What it does is this: Instead of an audible alert signal to warn the driver of something - maybe you are inadvertently crossing over to the adjacent lane? - the seat cushion on your corresponding butt cheek will buzz instead. Drifting right? Your right cheek will be notified.

I like this a whole lot better than the "bing!" that many (most) other car manufacturers employ. I’m OK owning up to my mistakes, so it’s not that I’m hiding anything from the passengers - it’s just a bit irritating for everyone else in the car.

Heads Up Display

When friends ask me if they should pay the extra for a heads up display in their new car I almost always immediately say yes. Really the only time I would hesitate is if it’s a standalone feature that’ll set you back thousands of dollars, and that would only be the case if you are being forced into picking a package where it is included.

Anyway, for those who have yet to drive a car with a head-up-display they might feel that technology borrowed from a fighter jet seems a little superfluous. But, really, heads-up displays are in use in way more places than fighter jets, that’s just where we’ve seen them - on fighter jets in the movies that is.

But once you get used to having all the information you need visible right infront of you, right where you should be looking anyway, you won’t want to drive without it.

Super Cruise

Our Buick Enclave Avenir comes with the Super Cruise system - a system that renders this vehicle pretty much a self-driving car on highways and freeways. Man is it nice.

When I first tested a vehicle with Super Cruise it was in a Cadillac half a dozen years ago. Black then it was really only available on select freeways, as they were still building it out. It has since grown into a very capable self-driving system - actually to the point that it feels both safe and makes for a pleasant ride when in use.

Some driver assist systems - in other vehicles, that is - are still a little rough around the edges. Sometimes to the point where the driver kind of feels like they are battling the assistant. This is not the case with Super Cruise: While it is perfectly capable of driving itself, it’ll let you fine-tune the drive if you feel it’s necessary, without yelling at you or trying to push you back.

Driving Characteristics and Ride Comfort

Our 2025 Buick Enclave Avenir comes loaded with a whole bunch of cool features and tech. One of the features, the premium ride suspension, really does give the Enclave a smooth ride. As long as the driver isn’t trying to impress with their race moves, the Enclave will nicely glide along, smoothing out whatever the road throws its way.

I’m not sure if it’s because the brand - Buick - is so engrained to mean "old-person car" or not, but the smooth ride can of course be construed to mean just that. Either way, with a ride as smooth as this, I suppose I’ll just embrace it. I won’t be whipping around any corners or roundabouts in this car anyway, at least not without squealing tires and hollering passengers.

The 2.5 liter turbo engine, coupled with an automatic transmission, has plenty of power. The Enclave, as mentioned, is not built or meant to be a "fun" car, but that doesn’t mean that it should be underpowered. No, the Enclave can still get up and go, making freeway entries a no-hassle move -  it’ll get you up to speed in an appropriate fashion. Actually, it’s definitely fast enough for everyday driving.

Exterior

The exterior of the 2025 Buick Enclave Avenir sports the look of sophisticated elegance. The thin headlights that swoop way back on the sides of the front, coupled with the large front grille, give the Enclave a stylish and bold - almost aggressive - look. From the side one will note that this is a semi-standard-looking mid-size SUV, a family hauler if you will. Nothing sticks out from the masses, instead the silhouette seems to say something like "I don’t need to justify my looks" - it looks good without trying.

The rear of the Buick Enclave is nicely rounded and leaves a smooth and elegant impression as it drives off. Again, nothing is screaming at you - the exhaust pipes are integrated rather than accentuated and the taillights swoop around the side of the vehicle, similarly to the headlights. A pleasing sight that won’t turn heads.

Summary

The 2025 Buick Enclave Avenir is a very comfortable drive - and ride.  Our review vehicle, with all its bells and whistles still comes with a price tag below many other comparable family vehicles.

A family of four actually does really well with a three row car like this, the two kids get their own captain chair and when needed there is space for friends or visiting family. With the third row stowed away there is plenty of space for gear, or whatever you accidentally pick up from Costco.