Buick achieved approximately average reliability overall with its vehicle lineup in the Consumer Reports annual reliability rankings for 2024, published in the last week of November.
The Tri-Shield’s top individual models also were mostly average or somewhat above average, and Buick itself beat the typical reliability currently offered by American cars, the study says.
Buick scored 55 on a reliability scale of 1 to 100, which places it above the average dependability of U.S. automakers (39) and European companies (46), but below the average Asian brand (63). The Buick Enclave rated 55 like its parent brand, while the Buick Encore GX and Buick Envision each scored 47, about on par with European vehicles and still significantly ahead of the American average.
The study notes that vehicle reliability varied according to type as well. Cars offered owners the most reliable operation with a typical score of 57. Senior CR director Jake Fisher observed that “sedans have fallen out of favor with consumers, but as a class they are very reliable,” a fact he ascribed to their general lack of cutting-edge bells and whistles.
Meanwhile, SUVs and minivans were at the middle of the pack for reliability with respective scores of 50 and 45. Least dependable with a rating of 41 out of 100 were pickup trucks, though they remain some of the best-selling vehicle models in North America.
Different powertrains also performed at various levels of reliability. Using ICE vehicles as the baseline, hybrids are more dependable, with 26 percent fewer problems than their ICE counterparts. However, gasoline vehicles were far more trustworthy than EVs, with 79 percent more problems, or plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) with 146 percent more numerous problems than gasoline models. The Chrysler Pacifica PHEV had the study’s lowest reliability rating at 14.
The study’s reliability scores are based on how brand’s vehicles performed in 20 areas of potential trouble. These include a range of possible faults, from relatively minor irritants such as squeaks and noises to major failures like engine and transmission issues. Problems are weighted by severity to derive a final score.
The brands, including Buick, were assessed based mostly on 2020 through 2023 models. A total of 330,000 vehicles were involved with owners providing information on problems experienced in the past 12 months.
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Comments
CR has no credibility with me, save it.
You are an idiot.
Beachy29579: What is your issue? Do you own CR? Are you a stockholder with them? Or are you just an Asian car apologist?
Or maybe it’s that you just don’t have a vocabulary bigger than “you are an idiot”. Yup, it’s that one.
Buick ranks all over the place with these guys, get off it GMA. CR can’t be trusted.
Another idiot.
Right there with you then scbeachbum
Sooo. For CR to rank Buick mid-pack, that’s actually good right? After all, CR never has much good to say about any US brands.
And yet over at JD Power (which is much more realistic due to how they attain the results), Buick is and has consistently ranked very high. Let’s just call this a win for Buick since they are just good vehicles. Now, just give us a couple Buick sedans.
JD Power is the joke. They take money from the companies they rate. Can you say “conflict of interest”? Meanwhile, CR takes ZERO money from the companies they rate. They don’t even accept a free loaner of the products they rate. Unlike the car magazines (Car & Driver and Road & Track) – who also accept advertising from the car companies they rate. (CR accepts NO ad dollars.) To me, the legitimate criticism of CR is that they put too much weight on the car as an “appliance” (including fuel economy) and less weight on styling and the fun-to-drive factor. So that’s a small factor of why homely but rock-solid “appliances” like Toyotas and Subarus consistently rate higher. However, stylish and fun-to-drive Mazda also rates high.
Someone needs to come to grips with the fact that Asian companies do it better. It’s not as big a gap as it was in the dark days for GM in the late 1980s/ early 1990s (with the cheap, plasticky, interchangeable Oldmo-Buicks), but it’s still a real gap. Notice how the “international” GM Brand (Buick) fares the best – Encore GX (S. Korea), Envision (China), Enclave (USA – Lansing?) and the new Envista (S. Korea). Buick would probably fare even better if their vehicles were a better value. (I have an Encore and – even with the company discount – it is a HORRIBLE value compared to the competition.) Funny that too – CR gives decent weight to value for the money, you know – like real consumers do! (And JD Power does NOT.)
Fuzz: Wake up. Either you are dreaming or you work for one of the following:
1. CR.
2. Toyota.
3. Honda.
4. Mazda
Your comment is full of untruths or at worst, and misleading statements at best. The fact is that JDP sends out surveys to OWNERS who are the ones that return the results that are tabulated and reported on by JDP. You do NOT need to be a subscriber to anything in order to get a survey from JDP. Unlike CR in which you will NEVER get surveyed unless you subscribe to their magazine. So to your comment I say blah, blah, blah.
When you stated the following two things is when your comment totally lost any cred:
1. “stylish and fun-to-drive Mazda”
2. “come to grips with the fact that Asian companies do it better”.
So I work at a dealership with Mazda. Styling is subjective and personal. For me, I don’t find their styling any better than the average brand. Fun to drive? Are you kidding? There’s a reason why I don’t buy one. My Chevrolet is way nicer in every area. And unless you are going back 30 years, the Asians don’t do anything better than the US brands except for hide issues better.
Total idiot.
JDP’s quality studies are internally funded and the detailed results are sold to manufacturers. Studies like these are called syndicated studies. As long as they meet rigid quality of data and reporting research requirements they are valid.
In JDP’s case they send out very detailed questionnaire’s to verified new and used buyers drawn from purchased DMV records from states around the country. The data they get includes the vehicle VINS. In order to generate statistically valid research results in takes verified ownership, verified vehicle characteristics (hence the VIN data) and a statistically valid sample size including regional sales skews. The results are tabulated and the results are announced. The company’s that do well can purchase JDP awards and advertise them if they so choose.
Nearly every OEM purchases the full JDP data set. We (the two OEM’s I worked for) found them to be very thorough and statistically valid even when we followed up directly with customers to valid the study ourselves. For us, it basically added another layer of info above warranty data plus other useful buyer experience data. Good study, even if we didn’t like the results sometimes.
As others have noted, CR uses reader responses which are indeed robust in number but they have no way to validate whether the people responding actually even the own the products they are evaluating. In the research world if you can’t validate the respondent data, it can’t be considered valid research. It becomes a reader experience survey. It’s is better than reading user reviews on any XYZ website you care to name because of two distinctions. They do use a very rudimentary questionnaire and the respondents are subscribers and not bots. I’m not sure if they still do it, but in the brief overview box at the top of the ratings charts they also included a statement that the ratings were in some unspecified manner influenced by their “expert opinion” adding a layer of subjectivity…for better or worse.
Several years ago, we (an OEM) actually conducted our own study on what percentage of people could correctly identify exactly what vehicle they owned to see how well customers could self report their own vehicle experiences. Basically, we already knew exactly what they owned from the VIN but we wanted to see if they knew what they owned. We were quite amazed to find out that only about 40% of people could correctly identify even the most basic information about their vehicle including the correct year, model, engine type and drive type.
We concluded the usability of information from self reporting sources (such as reader/subscribers) was “directional” at best.
JL: Thank you for that outstanding and thorough explanation. You sir are NOT and idiot! haha. That’s a jab at Mr. Beachy29579 calling everyone on here an idiot.
Anyhow, on a more serious note. Years ago when I was at the Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Honda store, I recall that JDP sent someone to our dealership (making the rounds) to help train us on how to correctly use the info they put out and letting us know the rules to giving that same info out. JDP is a fantastic source whereas the CR is barely good for wiping the behind.
Well said Fuzz. I would add that, believe CR or not, it is the only reference the average consumer uses for reliability. Nobody uses JD Power, they don’t even know where to find it. As for GM I think there is hope for the ICE vehicles. ICE vehicles are headed in that appliance direction you mention because model year changes and even vehicle Majors are becoming mostly carry-over for cost reasons. In the past GM has always loved huge change during a Major ignoring “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Something the top Asian brands did not do. So EV’s causing GM to spend less on ICE vehicle Majors may actually benefit ICE vehicle reliability.
Buick always has been the most reliable American brand
Malibu is not cutting edge and lacks bells and whistles, whoop dee doo. CR rated my Olds Achieva below average. Piston rings at 48k miles, repaint at 90k miles both taken care of by dealer. It never nickel and dimed me. Bad torque convertor clutch at 6 years and 125k miles. I really liked the car for what it was.
“Above average for an American car” meaning US OEMs produce junk? I’ve heard Encore horror stories with the need to replace multiple turbos. I get it’s a bargin vehicle so wouldn’t expect very much.
Is Buick still American? Only one model is made in US
Years ago CR readers rated the Toyota Corolla noticebly better than the Geo/Chevy Prizm.
They were identical under the sheet metal, built on the same California assembly line. CR concluded owners of foreign nameplates were lying about the performance of their vehicles, protecting their snowflake egos.
Phil: There’s so many of those types of conflict reporting by CR that everyone (maybe except for Fuzz above who must work for CR). They rated paint quality on a Caprice V6 totally different from the V8. Your example of the Corolla and Geo. Vibe vs. Matrix. And the list goes on and on. Then there’s the fact that they (CR) can’t even correctly report the “facts” on vehicles. I recall one time where they had several mistakes just in the Cadillac section of the new car issue. And in those same issues, they would rate the Japanese brands so highly and give praise to Honda for their “silky smooth” 4 cyl engines. Yet in those same Honda’s with an automatic, when you came to a stop with the car in gear, the steering wheel would shake like a paint mixer. And they rated the Buick 4 cyl engines as rough and noisy. And still, come to a stop in the Buick and it would be smooth. CR is garbage.
CR’s Ratings are not objective, nor are they a random cross-section of American drivers. They come from a “captive audience”, CR subscribers, and are “voluntary submissions”. Most Opinion Forms are not returned.
Yes, they are.
CR troll ?
Beachy29579: Put your money where your mouth is.
I’ll be waiting for you to post factual things as to why CR is credible and why you say they are objective.
Tick tock. The clock is moving on.
Consumer Report has saved me tons of money on their recommendations. I’ve worked on nearly all makes and models of vehicles, and they were correct 95% of the time. Nonetheless, Buicks are great vehicles.
CR isn’t perfect and I hate the way they lobby for more government regulation. But I agree, for all the vehicles I’ve owned they have been mostly correct about the expected problems and reliability. They are also the only easily accessible reference source.