Rental cars typically live a pretty rough life, shouldering the mistreatment of countless drivers and suffering untold abuse over the years. That said, this particular 2020 Buick Encore rental car looks to be in surprisingly good shape, even after 60,000 miles of service.
GM Authority recently got behind the wheel of this 2020 Buick Encore for a period of time up in Michigan, and we were surprised by just how well the crossover seems to have held up. Outside, the Encore’s Quicksilver Metallic paint (paint code GAN) still looks nice, without any obvious blemishes, dings, or dents on the body panels. The lower body cladding still looks relatively fresh as well.
Looking closer, we do see some heavy scuffing on the wheels, especially on the passenger’s side front. The rest of the body, however, looks clean, with bright lenses for the lighting, and nice shiny trim bits as well.
Also notable is the Buick Encore’s older-style Tri-Shield badge. Buick unveiled the redesigned Tri-Shield badge last June in conjunction with a new brand identity, but this 2020 Buick Encore is still rocking the ascending Tri-Shield logo used prior.
Under the hood, we find the turbocharged 1.4L I4 LUV gasoline engine, which could definitely use a bit of cleaning. The engine bay is covered in a think layer of grime and dirt, but a quick rinse would likely be sufficient to get it looking a lot better. Output from the four-cylinder is rated at 138 horsepower at 4,900 rpm and 148 pound-feet of torque at 1,850 rpm, with output routed through GM’s six-speed automatic transmission (RPO code MNK).
Under the body panels, the 2020 Buick Encore rides on GM’s Gamma 2 platform, the same underpinnings as the previous-generation Chevy Trax, the Chevy Spark, and Chevy Sonic. Production of the 2020 Buick Encore took place at the GM Bupyeong facility in Incheon, South Korea.
Overall, it’s nice to see this 2020 Buick Encore rental car still looking good, even after 60,000 miles on the road.
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Comments
The point of this story is…….?
Look for the update at 65,000 miles, coming soon!
A rental car with 60K on the clock. Many of these will be turned soon.
Exactly. For years we never saw rentals over 30k miles. They always sold them off before the comprehensive warranty expired in order to maximize the resale value. Now it’s hard to get replacements so they’re running them up much higher.
People have this attitude that rentals are trashed, but most people are concerned about getting charges when returning their rentals. In my experience (8 years with a large dealership) privately owned vehicles have a much higher chance of coming in with multiple types of damage. (A single curbed wheel doesn’t mean it was trashed. Multiple curbed wheels, many door dings and scratches, stains in the carpet and seats, etc. are what we expect from family vehicles and often see even on vehicles traded in by people who don’t have kids.
In short I have never seen a rental as abused as a rather typical family vehicle. It strikes me as pure ignorance when someone won’t consider a particular vehicle because it was a rental. At least from the sources where we get ours they are meticulously maintained and have minimal damage.
I have a 2019 Encore Essence with 65000 miles. I love it. I’ve been hit once, repaired. Hit again in the same place with less damage. I scrapped the right side wheel wall. So, this car is likely to stay with me a long time since its’ Carfax report will show problems, even though they were very minor. I suspect instead of a trade in on a new Encore GX, I’ll buy a nearly new GX when it’s time and have 2 cars. The Encore still rides and handles great.
I have same, loaded, no sunroof with 31k. Still pristine. Was getting tempting offers to sell it when the used cars were at the highest, but I wouldn’t have been able to lateral into anything as good. And we both have the better warranties!!
We have a 2017 Buick encore essence. It drives great considering it’s not a sports car and has an excellent acceleration even with just a 3-cylinder turbo. Only 30,000 miles and we only put about 3,000 miles on a year, we bought it used with 18 by the way. My only complaint with Buick is that it’s supposed to be a near luxury car and why don’t they have power recliners in the seats? And yes in 5 or 10 years well trade it in and someone like you will get our cars, will definitely get something with Power trunk pulldown and whatever the latest safety stuff is and that would be the only reason to trade. I’d also really like to have all around vision cameras as many times it’s hard to see what’s on the bottom right side of the car and we hit curbs
The Encore has a 4 cylinder turbo. 3 cylinder started with the Encore GX. The 2nd gen Encore also has a 3 cylinder turbo, but it’s not available in North America.
In answer to your question about Buick being a luxury brand, this is an entry level model. There’s a reason they also produced the Encore GX and Envision, all three being 5 seaters. Same situation with the Verano vs LaCrosse. The entry level model doesn’t have as many options, but still more than most other brands in each category.
I bought the Encore for my kids and it’s great. My daughter occasionally gets comments from ignorant male classmates about Buick being an old person car, but when they actually talk about it they’re surprised that it has so many features. Her “old person” car is the nicest one in her friend group, with the most tech, and the quietest drive. There’s no question it’s a luxury model. It’s just the most affordable model from a luxury brand.
Did I miss a recall to get my Buick badge updated? Lol. Who wrote this article? ChatGPT?? Of course it has the badge it was manufactured with.
I couldn’t agree more. I sell Buicks and we’ve yet to have one with the new logo on the lot. If someone was thinking clearly they would have made the article about the unusual situation where we have rentals with 60k miles. Historically rentals have always been sold off before the comprehensive warranty expires at 36k miles in order to maximize resale value. Or the discrepancy between people’s expectations of rental car condition vs reality. Privately owned family vehicles are almost always in worse shape than the worst rentals we get in.
Instead we got someone marveling that it still has the logo/emblem that it got from the factory. Remarkable.
I’ve had too many cars! In some cases, I just like to trade and in others I’ve had good reason (or so I told myself) to trade or sell. Anyhow, going back to 2018, I purchased a brand new Encore preferred in the dark maroon color. This was when I still enjoyed driving an SUV style vehicle, but have since gone back to cars. But the point I’m really looking to make is that I seldom keep any vehicle more than 2 years. The Encore I kept for just under 3 years because I really liked it that much. I felt the 1.4 Turbo and 6 speed auto were a fantastic combination with adequate performance and very good MPG. I always keep my vehicles very nice, but that one did seem to hold up well over others in little ways. It looked brand new when I traded it.
For the most part the car buying public is stupid , seeing all the posts on this and other forums.But that’s great for me being the one that fixes their vehicles.
Wow how shocking that a vehicle that is a hair over 2 years old still looks okay. My vehicles look as good or better than this when they are 10 years old! Must be a slow day