That's a BUICK?!? 2024 Buick Envista Review

this pretty cool looking little crossover is full  of surprises first of all it's an all new model and that's always fun to explore second it's a  Buick which you might not have been expecting from looking at it and third this is one of  increasingly few new models offered under $30,000 and that is for the top trim with destination  base price is actually under $25,000 that's the real headline here so we're going to look at what  you get and what you don't get for that price as well as what it f

eels like to be behind the wheel  this is the invista it replaced the Encore as the entry-level Buick Crossover and in fact all new  Buick on sale today are Crossovers and they all have names starting with the letters e n but  it does not have to be confusing we're here to help you out if you head over to cargus.com  you can read full written reviews on all of them plus we've got pricing Trends and deal ratings to  help you make your decision just please subscribe before you go the first time I

saw one of these  was last fall I was out for a walk with my husband we come across this and we really had to do the  whole kind of you know pace around check it out from all angles really eyeball it just like we do  when we come across a classic or an exotic parked down the road unexpectedly and actually one of my  co-workers called this a budget Urus referring to the Lamborghini uter and you know what I see  it this is a pretty sharp looking car and it is not your grandfather's Buick now Buick

has  of course been leaning very intentionally away from that whole grandparent image for quite a  while now you've probably seen that no this is my Buick and that's so you commercials that's not  a Buick that's what I told him so you it is which are pretty cute as commercials go but what's most  convincing for me about this new image is this this thing's existence and seeing it in person now  it does Sport the redesigned Tri Shield logo which really has a slick more minimalist take with  just

a hint of the red white and blue inside these shields and the horizontal rather than the  old diagonal orientation I think it looks great and I think it's a really effective update now  I have the St today that's the middle trim and of course it stands for sport touring it's got a  gloss black mesh grill to set it apart from the others now normally this trim would come with 18in  wheels but mine has been upgraded to 19in wheels and I'll tell you this sloping roof line and these  really massive s

ea pillars they do not add up to Great visibility but the overall effect is very  stylish it's got a little baby duct tail back here and sometimes when I'm walking around it out  of the corner of my eye I get a little whiff of Jaguar so I do think it's really goodlooking the  only thing that makes me hesitate in saying this would be a great first car or great car to take  to college is that visibility cuz otherwise it either has or it can have pretty much all the tech  and convenience features y

ou might want and you don't have to be embarrassed to be seen in it so  let's get in it yep not embarrassed I'm also not blown away but it's not bad in and for the price  point it's pretty darn good these seats are not the most comfortable but they are heated that's  standard on the top trim and available on others which is why I have it same is true of the heated  steering wheel I've got leatherette seats with this Santorini blue piping and contrast stitching  because that's what's standard in

the St trim if I were in the avenir which is the top trim I would  have real leather seats with off white piping and stitching and it would say avanir on the headrests  however this front passenger seat would still be manual adjust only that's all that's available  it's one of the concessions that we're seeing to the lower price you can get a power adjustable  driver's seat on any trim and that's standard on the top trim the invista shares a platform and  a number of components with the Chevy tr

acks but it does feel very much upgraded in the interior  the shape that we've got around the door handles becomes a motif that's repeated through out for  example in the way that the vents narrow into the center of the dash here this housing for the two  screens looks like something out of the jetss in a good way but in a very welcome avoidance of  futuristic upgrades they have still given us physical climate controls as well as this button  and volume knob for audio we do also have some audio

controls on the steering wheel which we're  used to seeing in most cars now the flat bottom steering wheel is standard the power moonroof is  not that is an optional upgrade on every trim up front we've got 41.9 in of leg room and 39.4 in  of headro back here that becomes 38.7 in of leg room and 37.3 in of Headroom so we're starting  to feel the sloping roof a little bit it bumps up here though so gives you a little more space  if you're taller we also have a completely flat floor back here whic

h is sort of unusual when  you're not in an EV that's going to be nice for whoever has to sit in the middle there's 20.7  cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats and 42 cubic feet with them folded only the top  trim has a power lift gate standard although it is available on the other two now I always have my  hands full when I'm leaving the house and that's still a feature that I personally could live  without but what about you is a power liftgate a must [Music] have every invista gets

a 1.2 L  turbocharged three-cylinder engine that makes 137 horsepower and 162 lb feet of torque just  like the Chevy tracks also like the tracks but unlike The Encore that it replaced the invista  is front-wheel drive only so if you're looking for a relatively affordable Buick with all-wheel  drive you're going to want to look at the Encore GX that is a separate model and it does still  exist now overall this does not drive like a cheap car it doesn't have that sort of chaotic  experience that y

ou get from some inexpensive Vehicles where it feels like very little attention  was paid to control weight and so forth this is pretty comfortable you do feel the small engine  especially in that it's very obvious when you shift out of park into drive or reverse you you  feel and hear that but the small engine is not a problem with acceleration this has no trouble  getting up to highway speeds basically this is just a more comfortable and calmer Chiller version  of the Chevy tracks which is exa

ctly what you want when you're taking a model and making it more  premium this is an interesting thing that I would not expect for the price point if you get the  19-inch wheels so either the top trim or the St with the upgraded Wheels you also get a separate  Watts link rear suspension that was specifically designed to make it more comfortable on those  larger Wheels it's kind of interesting that they've gone ahead and engineered a separate  suspension and I think it's doing a really good job t

his is a very comfortable ride maybe a  little harsh over very sharp edges to bumps but generally nice and comfortable despite the larger  Wheels handling is good too now as I said before visibility is not great it's got a pretty massive  SE pillar and a teeny tiny rear window that makes a Celicas look large so especially combined  with the fact that blind spot monitoring is not standard that would definitely make me hesitate  to recommend this to a new driver I think that's not going to be good

for anybody's confidence and  you definitely could use a confidence boost when you're new behind the wheel it's been a little  annoying for me actually now you do have the option to change your own Gears that took me a  minute to figure out but it's down here on the shifter you can put it into L and then you can  use these buttons to shift up or down however I'm going to put it back into drive you're going  to have to go by feel and sound when you decide when to shift because there is no tachom

eter  there's just a pretty simple pretty basic driver information display that was a big bump [Music]  that 8 in driver information display is fully digital that's not super common on entry-level  Vehicles that's kind of cool and it is standard so is this 11-in infotainment touchcreen obviously  they're presented together what's a little funny is that the power and volume knob is so close to  the driver it's really maybe kind of hard for your passenger to reach it but maybe you like that to  ju

st protect your tunes Wireless Apple carplay and Android auto standard and so is Wi-Fi hotspot  capability wireless charging pad is standard on the top trim and it is available on the other  two so I have it it's right here I've also got a USBC and a usba charging port here two on the  back as well for four total now let me show you the backup camera of course every new car has one  this one's kind of weird the placement first of all I can see the license plate in the camera  view which is unusu

al second it makes it look like I'm an unsafe distance from the car behind  me like I'm practically underneath it which I am not you can see I've still got another line in the  parking distance indicator it turns out that you can trust that but it was very nerve-wracking  finding that out I had to have a spotter GM's Buckle to drive system is standard and yes it  is exactly what it sounds like it requires seat belts to be buckled before you can shift out of  park rear seat reminder is also stand

ard and so is the Buick driver confidence package so that  includes features like automatic emergency braking Lan keep assist with Lane departure warning  forward Collision alert and more it does not include adaptive cruise control or rear park  assist rear cross traffic alert or Lane change alert with blind Zone alert those features are  all available just depending on your trim you might have to add a particular package in order  to get them the 2024 Buick and Vista starts at $23,400 expensive

model that I have ever reviewed  for this Channel and by the way we would love it if you would subscribe now the range tops out at  $ 29,6 195 base MSRP for the top trim the invista St that we've seen today gets pretty close  to that $297 sticker but that's got an extra cost color it includes destination and includes  just about every package that you can throw at it so in terms of base price This falls right in  between the Chevy tracks and the Buick Encore GX in its base trim with front whe d

rive if you want  all-wheel drive on your Encore GX that's bringing your base price up to 29,185 or you could look  elsewhere for example the Mazda cx30 that has standard all-wheel drive but when you factor  in destination you're going to be somewhere in the $26,000 range now talking of attractive  crossovers both the cx30 that I just mentioned and the Honda HRV are good examples of other  options that are out there recently updated pretty goodlooking just in a slightly more  pedestrian way nobo

dy is calling them a budget Lambo there is a budget Alpha on the market the  Alpha Romeo tanal although of course it costs more than this there are also other sort of fashion  forward crossovers that really emphasize looks like the Dodge Hornet and the entire Mini Cooper  range basically this I would say Falls somewhere in the middle you know it's not stylized but it  is stylish and I think that that's going to make it a great choice for the right person if you  think that you might be that pers

on head over to carr.com for more I want to say a quick thank  you to our friends at the beautiful LS Anderson Auto Museum for letting us film on this property  in front of the historic Carriage House which is home to America's oldest car collection if you're  anywhere even near Brookline Mass this is worth a visit