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2008 Buick Enclave Preview
Dec 14 2007 by Kristin Varela
12/14/2007
Family-Friendly Enclave Looks Like a Winner
Let's try a little game of name association: Tell me what you think of when you hear the word "Buick." For me, old men and Tiger Woods come to mind (which is odd since Tiger isn't even close to resembling an old man). I'm not alone in linking Buicks with the older set, and the automaker hopes to change this perception with the addition of (say this with a French accent) zee Enclave by Buick. It's not really called that, but it sounds so appropriate for this large-ish crossover that goes by the plain-old name of Buick Enclave.
Here's the perfect example of how Buick is working to change its image: On a recent media event intended to educate lifestyle journalists about the car, Mother Proof attended with two young gents from Playboy TV and another fabulously flamboyant one from GayWheels.com. Hah! Don't you wish you had been a fly on the wall at that party?
When driving the Enclave, the first thing I said was, "Wow! It's so quiet." For that I get a gold star. Turns out, the engineers at Buick spent an inordinate amount of time and energy on what they refer to as "quiet tuning." Reduce, block and absorb were the themes for the noise and vibration team. After a long evening with a few punchy journalists, this mantra had graduated to a Macarena-like dance. Try it with me: Reduce, block and absorb — jazz hands. OK then, moving right along.
Buick used laminated acoustic glass on the Enclave's windshield and front windows and triple-sealed the doors to make sure each seat was as luxurious and quiet as the next. What that means is that if your mothering coping mechanism while in the car is to avoid your kids incriminating inquisitions by replying, "What? Huh? I can't hear what you're saying," then the Enclave isn't for you.
Other nice, family-centric features in the Enclave include its seven- or eight-passenger flexible seating with easy-to-fold-flat seats. There's more cargo space behind the third row than in similar crossovers, plus three sets of Latch connectors (two in the second row and a third in the middle of the third row), a low entry height, low cargo loading height, a power liftgate and a sliding second row. Thanks to some down-to-earth thinking by Anna Kretz, the Enclave's vehicle line executive, and her team, the tracks for the sliding seats are covered with rubber gaskets to keep kid crud out, yet are still wide enough to fit a slim vacuum attachment so you can suck out the kid crud that gets through anyhow.
Plenty of luxury options are available, including remote start, heated windshield wiper fluid (unfortunately, the Russian Snow Boy who shovels my driveway doesn't do car windshields), heated seats and a backup camera. One feature you won't find in the Enclave is rain-sensing wipers. According to Anna, "Those are an absolute pet peeve of mine, so I refused to put them in this car. Despite all the high-tech calibrating in the world, they never do what I would do when I would do it. That becomes a distraction for me and just bugs me." Love that sensibility!
We look forward to our upcoming two-week test drive in the Enclave, with kids in tow, so we can test how well these features actually work, but my initial impressions are definitely positive. Jazz hands!
User Comments
Unfortunately Anne Kretz comments should have been left in the conference room. I drove a BMW with RSW and I learned that RSW is a matter of preference, so I agree with Anne’s pet peeve. But for the sake of competitors and technology, RSW should have been an option on the Enclave as it is found on a Silverado. I did not what it on my NBS Sierra..
T Driver, what kind of car do you drive? I guessing it’s foreign, you’re an embarrassment to America.
T Driver, what kind of car do you drive? I guessing it’s foreign, you’re an embarrassment to America.
Posted by: John | Dec 24, 2007 2:03:25 PM
John, your low expectations are an emabarrassment to America and is also the reason why all 3 American car mfg are way behind the ‘foreign’ mfg.
Quite sad about the rain sensing wipers, since Lexus seems to have them executed perfectly, or at least that was the case when I was in my friend’s RX 400h. The wipers adjusted to the rain perfectly.
Then again, stupid, pathetic statements like these are not surprising coming from American car makers. They can never get their acts together and stop making excuses. Two out of three couldn’t even compete anymore in the minivan market, so they just dropped out! American car makers are, quite simply, the losers of the automotive world and an embarrassment to America.