2022 Buick Enclave Loses Consumer Reports Recommended Rating
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Consumer Reports has dropped the 2022 Buick Enclave from its list of recommended vehicles due to reported reliability issues.
The publication shared a list of 12 cars that it no longer recommends to readers earlier this month, which included the newly updated 2022 Buick Enclave. CR no longer recommends this vehicle to readers due to reliability issues with the previous 2020 and 2021 model years. Problem areas on the Enclave identified by CR include the drive system (transmission/drivetrain), brakes, suspension body integrity and in-car electronics.
GM issued a number of Technical Service Bulletins for the 2021 Buick Enclave, including one sent out in June of this year to correct a front brake grind/groan noise after the vehicle sits overnight. Other major TSBs issued for the vehicle included one that addressed a coolant/and or oil leak and another for a transmission shudder condition. A complete list of all TSBs issued for the 2021 Buick Enclave can be viewed via the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website at this link (FWD models) and this link (AWD models).
For CR to recommend a vehicle it must have average or better reliability. The 2022 Buick Enclave has a CR reliability rating of 2/5, which is much lower than other models in its segment, such as the BMW X7 and Lincoln Navigator. In addition, a CR recommended vehicle must also perform well in its own road tests and owner satisfaction surveys, and perform adequately in crash testing and other safety tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
CR also dropped the Chevy Bolt EV and Chevy Bolt EUV models from its list of recommended vehicles after a large-scale recall was issued for both vehicles due to battery pack fires.
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Talk about confusing. Things are all over the board with cars now days. KBB recommends one and CR doesn’t. JDP ranks that same brand/model very high. I can see why consumers get confused.
But what I’m scratching my head about is that this article says it has dropped the 2022 Enclave from the list. That car isn’t even really out yet. So is it that they are dropping the 20/21 models but are now including any 2022 because of that even though there is no records available yet? And BTW, isn’t it a good thing when a company sends out bulletins and fixes stuff that comes up instead of letting problems go?
CR is known for its bias against GM Vehicles, so is this no wonder? To downgrade a car that isn’t even out yet is disconcerting. I would NEVER rely on CR for automotive recommendations. All you would hear is “foreign”. They seem to make up any excuse to not rank GM favorably. I hate that magazine. it is only for dummies who know nothing about cars.
Totalmente de acuerdo ,todo apunta el asco que depositan en GM es cómico Buick es la firma dentro de Usa que tiene los mejores servicios y prestigio , que cr crítica , posiblemente , es quien destruye la propia industria automotriz americana , para que sigan entrando firmas extranjeras , el pueblo americano no despierta y parece que no quiere despertar aún . Lamentable que estás publicaciones baratas infundadas subsistan .
That’s because GM, Chrysler and Ford weren’t producing cars that were up to par with the rest of the world. Yes they are biased that’s what they do. They give ratings through evaluation. You think it’s personal? Get real.
No wonder you go by the name “Criminal” ! Buick is a highly rated car by most every other source. CR isn’t qualified to rate waste water!
CR just rated the (article on this website) Envision as best car after 3 years!. Are you dense?
you take care of your vehicle/it takes care of you- oil change is very important,drive like a human,not a fool.buick is a great brand.
Exactly! I own a 21 enclave have had zero issues and love it!
You don’t do a study n=1.
I have driven an Enclave now for 10 yrs. i love the ride, the handling, the dependability and overall use of this vehicle. I feel safe when traveling in the cabin and when there are little recalls I am notified and all is taken care of.
I reviewed the reasons. Squeaky brakes was one of them. Hard to believe their rankings when the complaints are as stupid as that and not actual vehicle break downs.
I sell Buicks and GMCs. Our previous service manager once told me (maybe 18 months ago?) that I should sell more Enclaves because his department makes a lot of money repairing them. It’s just known around here that it’s the most unreliable model we sell.
I love Buicks. Bought my daughter an Encore earlier this year. And I think the Enclave is the best quality drive for a 3rd row SUV anywhere near its price range. I like it better than many competitors that are much more expensive. But it’s notoriously unreliable.
It’s also interesting that they’re *still* using the LFY motor when everything else using a 3.6 V6 has switched to the LGX. Their statement when the 2018 came out still using the old engine boiled down to “Buick owners are old and don’t care about the latest technology”. Little wonder they have trouble growing past that exact stereotype.
The older Lambdas, especially pre-2013 model years, sure had their problems, and that’s where the mechanic’s bias against the Traverse, Enclave, and Acadia came about — because yeah, they were money sinks.
But unscheduled repairs drastically dropped off after 2013 after the refresh (and a lot of underhood changes — PCV valve, transmission solenoid and valve body enhancements, suppliers actually meeting standards, etc.), and from most accounts, the new ones are reliable.
I have a 2014 Acadia with 113,000 trouble-free miles on it, and I even tow a 4,300 lb camper with it during the warmer months.
doesnt the cadillac also use the same motor as the enclave???
I’ve had a 18,19,20 and now a 22. Zero problems with any of them.
Hey Kyle, in person can you really tell much of a difference between the 20 and 22? I was really wanting to see the 22 in person at the LA auto show, but the show was a total bust and Buick (and many more) wasn’t even there.
Dan,
The front end is noticeably different but none of the sheet metal is changed and the rear changes are more subtle. They both have the dark galvanized interior, the 22 switches to a black headliner from gray and that causes the whole interior to seem darker which I like but others probably wouldn’t notice. My 22 has the 20 inch wheels and the 20 had the std 18 so that helps with making it different for me. I got the new sage metallic, I think it’s really sharp.
Congrats and thanks for being a loyal Buick driver!
In 5 years it will make the best used car to buy list.
anything that comes out of CR mouth is BS
This excuse is one of the reasons GM has been lagging the best OEM’s in reliability. I worked in GM engineering long enough to know that reliability (particularly out of warranty } is a real issue. A couple of the reasons are:
1. No person or group is responsible for long term (out of warranty) reliability. Addressing CR’s poor reliability ratings does not exist on anyone’s performance review.
2. You can’t make a business case to fix an issue that will primarily occur out of warranty. So unless it is a safety concern, it’s too bad for the customer. During the vehicle development, the Program Team realizes they will be long moved on before post warranty durability issues occur.
CR is a paid “research” company, so if your company doesn’t pay, reviews are less likely to be favorable. As their title suggests, it’s Consumer reports… and most consumers don’t report the fact they have no problems with their vehicle, nor praise them. Most people only post problems; therefore, the problem reports get published and written about. I’ve been a loyal GM customer since my first vehicle purchase back in 1987 … but their customer service is definitely not what it used to be! Seems they’re more worried about the China market than U.S. anymore. To those who say they don’t like GM, ironically, CR has given the Chevy trailblazer a perfect rating for reliability.
Consumer Reports sends surveys to owners and asks for their ratings of the categories based on ownership experience. We have received the surveys several times over the years. If you don’t have an issue in a category you reply accordingly. Likewise, if you have a problem, you reply accordingly on the survey. Pretty straight forward. They also are totally funded through independent grants and subscriptions. They purchase all products they test themselves and do not accept any money from manufacturers of products. They also do not have advertisements for products in their magazine. That doesn’t mean the employees at CR don’t have their own individual biases that could creep in to product evaluations, but there is no financial consideration involved in their reviews. They have nothing to gain or lose with their reviews.
JDPowers, on the other hand, is a totally different animal.
That being said, I agree there is some inconsistency in the CR data. For example, the Chevy Trailblazer gets a perfect rating yet the Buick Encore GX (which is mechanically the same) does not. Makes no sense. Perhaps Chevy buyers are more tolerant of imperfections than Buick buyers and that is being reflected in the results? Who knows.
Arcee: Herein lies the problem with what you just said: CR sends surveys to owners. Yes, these would be people who “subscribe” and “pay” for CR. I’m now 54 years old. I’ve had over 30 brand new vehicles since I was 16. I’ve owned maybe another 35 + used cars over those same years. Never once has Consumer Reports EVER polled me. Why? Because I’m not a paying subscriber to their trash. Now, I’ve also been in the auto business for nearly 20 years now. The majority of those years were with a Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Honda store. Guess what? Almost none of the GM owners liked or subscribed to CR. On the flip side, nearly every Honda owner did belong and subscribe.. The point is that the majority of CR people lean imports and most of them lean Asian imports. So in other words, CR has become kind of the Japanese car’s fan-boy club type of magazine, which then slants it towards import brands in a huge way.
On top of that, the writers certainly have a slant towards imports and that shows in the subjective side of their writing. On top of that, there is certainly some form of funding to pay for the costs of the magazine, the salaries, etc. Where does that money come from? Surely not all from subscriptions.
Finally, years ago there was a story about CR getting back-door money from Toyota. This was a legit story and not some smear job, but I don’t recall where I read that article. The last thing I’d bring up was how inconsistent CR can be (as you rightly pointed out). Years ago I was handed one of the CR car issues and as I looked it over, I found numerous errors just in the reporting of the engines/features of the Cadillac’s alone. In another issue a few years later, they rated the Chevrolet Caprice paint quality much differently if the car had the V6 or the V8. Same assembly line, same paint application, same car. Go figure that one out.
Let’s see brakes make noise from sitting over nyt, could it be the rotors rusted a little bit and when you first apply the brakes they make a little noise. Come on you nerds out there, these are cars. What you expect. I stop paying for this magazine CR. There is no credibility in Journalism any longer. There all just party affiliates paid by someone
I have a 2018 enclave avenier and will make a grinding sound occasionally as I pass to close to a roadside mailbox or some other very close to roadway. I believe that the sensors in the right front bumper is out of alignment causing the flashing red warning light on the windshield and the automatic brakeing system to attempt to brake causing the grinding noise. I have heard and seen this occur many times over the past 4 or so years but never been duplicated by Buick dealers mechanics (SO IT NEVER HAPPENED ) !!!!!!!!
I NOW SEE A TECHNICAL BULLETIN HAS BEEN WRITTEN TO COVER THIS NOISE, THAT IS GREAT NOW THAT MY VEHICLE IS OUT OF WARRENTY !!!!!!!!!
I have a 2021 Chevy Traverse RS that had that transmission shudder issue! I went to the dealer and demanded they change the tranny fluid to the newer Mobil 1 blue label fluid. Had the same issue with a 2016 Corvette and a 2018 Colorado. I wasn’t surprised when the same issue arose in the Traverse. The only difference in the 3 vehicles is the traverse is a 9 speed and the other two were 8 speed autos. The change in fluid corrected the problem but I have to wonder why after years of this issue they can’t out the correct fluid to begin with. I believe all 3 trannys were built in Mexico which continues to turn out trash. What they save in labor costs they must spend in warranty repairs. No wonder they went bankrupt.
They went bankrupt because of their poor business practices … the largest part of which was overpriced labor and pay packages for people who were fired that still collected full wages for months after being let go. Granted, every car maker tries to squeeze every penny they can out of the production process, but as you stated, in the long run, they’ll end up paying more if they have to cover high dollar repairs from pennies saved earlier. Just to let you know how bad it’s become, here’s a REAL example from GM: they changed the page numbering setup in owner’s manuals from xx-yyy to zzz because they would save a penny or two on each manual produced. Seems hilarious, but when you think about the roughly 6-8 million manuals each year, that’s a lot of pennies, which is money down the drain for the manufacturer. They’ve also stopped producing nearly all vehicle literature and gone mostly digital to save money.
About Buicks?
Its terrible that the quality Buick once had is fading out rapidly and way back even after the 1980 cars came out and then came the often dreaded front wheel drive systems in which they back then had major issues with many of their own lines but also the chevrolet cars in that year and a few years beyond add the now gone forever oldsmobile and pontiac cars too with it and consumer reports had all these X body cars in dead last it also pertained to the other body types out there.
I’m saddened that GM made the final and last chevrolet impala and this was one of the most reliable car lines ever built they could have been saved if the Impala was to be made into a SUV but nobody took a really close look at what can or could have been even today and as for buick they need to do some better quality work and bring attention to the details and one day Buick will be in the ranks of top quality like a car from them should be.
When will GM learn you can’t hide reliability issues when the public have the internet…
Mary you need to stay on top of these issues if you want to feel good about your $40,000,000.00 a year compensation pkg
I tend to not trust CR and their ratings. I always buy american cars mostly Buicks and Lincolns. I just got a used Enclave Avenir and so far it’s pretty dependable. It does seem that CR prefers Hondas and Toyotas over Ford and GM.
I do review the magazine at the grocery store now and then and I was surprised to see my Buick Enclave get a “recommended” rating for the 2020 model year – all marks were green. GM has been making the powertrain and features since 2017 when the XT5 came out and now all of a sudden, the 2020 and 2021 model years are junk along with the beautiful 2022 Enclave. That does not make sense to me.
I see tons of 2018 to 2021 Chevy Transverse and Buick Enclaves on the streets in my city, so millions of people seem to like them!
GM has been lagging the best OEM’s in CR reliability. CR may or may not be biased, but the reliability issue is real. I worked in GM engineering long enough to know that reliability (particularly out of warranty } is a real issue. A couple of the reasons are:
1. No person or group is responsible for long term (out of warranty) reliability. Addressing CR’s poor reliability ratings does not exist on anyone’s performance review.
2. You can’t make a business case to fix an issue that will primarily occur out of warranty. So unless it is a safety concern, it’s too bad for the customer. During the vehicle development, the Program Team realizes they will be long moved on before post warranty durability issues occur.
If what you contend is really true, then I guarantee that Toyota, Honda and all the rest aren’t looking back on products beyond their warranty period, either. The only exceptions might be safety issues, and GM does take care of those!