The 2021 Buick Encore GX has received a five-star safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The subcompact crossover received the highest-possible score of five stars in the NHTSA’s frontal and side crash tests and four stars in the safety watchdog’s rollover crash test evaluations, giving it an overall score of five stars.
The 2020 Buick Encore GX, by comparison, only received a four-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA. This was mainly due to the three-star rating it received in the agency’s Front Passenger Side crash test. However, General Motors engineers went back to the drawing board to improve the vehicle’s design for 2021, which resulted in a four-star rating in the Front Passenger Side crash test, thus earning it a five-star overall rating.
These same engineering improvements have also been made to the closely related 2021 Chevy Trailblazer crossover, bumping it up to a five-star safety rating as well.
“GM engineers were able to identify ways to improve the safety ratings of these vehicles,” GM spokeswoman Rita Kass-Shamoun told GM Authority in an emailed statement. “We decided to make an immediate running change for the Trailblazer and Encore GX based on these changes, and we requested NHTSA to reevaluate the NCAP ratings for these vehicles.”
“Our engineers made hardware and software changes to improve the vehicles’ performance during frontal and side MDB (moving deformable barrier) NCAP crash tests,” Kass-Shamoun also said.
The 2021 Buick Encore GX also offers a range of available active safety features for customers who place a particular emphasis on safety. These available active safety features include adaptive cruise control, automatic parking assist with braking, a high-definition surround vision camera system and rear cross traffic alert.
Other changes made to the 2021 Buick Encore GX include new standard revised front and rear fasciae (not available with Sport Touring Package), new standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration as well as standard SiriusXM radio, among other things.
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Comments
Five stars, can’t do better than that! Congratulations, Buick!