2013 Buick Encore Leather Sport Utility 4d Review
The Car Connexion Expert Review
Editorial Director
January 4, 2013
Likes
- More dorsum-seat room than expected
- Repose at almost any speed
- Lots of standard features, including IntelliLink
- Modern two-tone interior options
- Good cargo space, in any configuration
Dislikes
- Styled in two acts
- Narrow interior space
- Sluggish, even before AWD
- EPA figures only on par with bigger utes
Buying tip
features & specs
AWD 4-Door
AWD 4-Door Convenience
AWD 4-Door Leather
The 2013 Buick Encore does nearly everything a pint-sized premium crossover should practise--minus a few dozen horsepower, that is.
The 2013 Buick Encore defies tidy explanation. More often than not hatchback, a little bit crossover, information technology's officially dubbed a premium subcompact crossover vehicle--a niche where few others exist, save for the BMW X1 and MINI Countryman. The idea? To deliver an upscale tall wagon with all-weather traction, 1 with peachy gas mileage and city-friendly handling and size.
If that long ride downward the flowchart finds you here, the Encore probably will foursquare upwards nicely with expectations, in about ways save maybe for one.
Conceived at about the same time as Chevy's Sonic, but sharing only pocket-sized pieces like seat frames, the Buick Encore is built in South Korea, and fits the aforementioned subcompact grade. Information technology's small and tall--and that means information technology tin can looks compressed and overstyled. It needs to be "aggressive" to pull off any connotation of sporty-utility, and that leads to the squat front end, and the thick stack of headlamps, grille, bicycle well, and big 18-inch wheels in front. Pull to the side and around dorsum, and it goes non sequitir S-curved, pinched. The cockpit's either all-black and sedate, or it'south a wild night at Starbucks, with cocoa-colored leather and two-tone brownish trim (there are other shades) that lend a jazzy buzz.
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The second act we're waiting to see with this Encore is, no doubt, more power. The Sonic donates its turbocharged one.4-liter iv-cylinder and half dozen-speed automatic to the endeavour, and endeavour is what you'll accept abroad. The nearly 3200-pound Encore taps every available erg, and has a tough time finishing 0-60 mph runs in ix seconds. Add all-bicycle drive, and you're up to x seconds and into remedial highway-merging lessons. The Encore handles as well as whatsoever brusque-wheelbase tall railroad vehicle can--and vexingly, the added weight of all-bike drive seems to smooth out the occasional route chop even more.
The motel's a quieter place to sit, thanks to active dissonance cancellation, though tire and wind noise aren't nixed. You'll notwithstanding hear conversations intimately, because the Encore excels at head room, not shoulder room. Your passengers? They're right there, at elbow'southward distance. The Encore is narrow across but expansive up and over, and that extends to the back seat, which flips and folds while the front end passenger seat folds down. The Encore is open to all sorts of unconventional arrangements, and that'southward its existent talent: going from runabout to expandable backpack in zero apartment.
With 10 airbags, a standard rearview photographic camera and Bluetooth-driven smartphone apps, the Encore'due south a safe and infotaining place to be. From about $25,000 base, yous tin can add together leather seats, a lane-divergence and forrad-collision warning system, all-wheel drive, and Bose audio, and still go along the toll to under $31,000. Information technology'southward not teeming with power or space, but if you've seen the explosive pricetags on some of the contest, you'll know that pricetag is ane dimension that works purely in the Buick Encore's favor.
Bulldog up front, guppy in back: the Buick Encore looks all-time from head-on, or from inside its cosmopolitan cockpit.
The Regal and Enclave prepare some high benchmarks for modernistic Buick mode, but they're bigger cars with more room to play with conflicting design needs. There'southward not enough sheetmetal on the 2013 Encore to do the same, and it struggles to come off equally effortless and detailed at the aforementioned time.
It'southward more of a two-piece combo, one that starts off tough, and tacks upwards trimly at its tail. The nose has a bulldog's stance, its large tires knuckled down to the basis, with eyes and olfactory organ all at nearly the same superlative. Chrome-rimmed portholes lay on the hood, nigh out of sight from many angles, a good placement.
At the back border of the forepart doors, the Encore morphs into something nearly completely its own opposite, something more than aquilinear. Follow the S-curve stamped through the door panels, upwardly and around the rear glass, and the Encore picks up Mazda cues, even some traces of the old Honda Insight. Then information technology reverts to a rugged banner: the tailgate plays upward vertical elements in the taillamps, and a small spoiler keeps the roofline going even when the real space below has petered out.
The cabin offers a intermission from the eyework, and then long as you stick with a monochrome handling. In all-blackness, it'southward a subdued place, with twin shields on the steering cycle and the center stack, studded with blackness switches and knobs and buttons, a slight wedge of fake-wood trim, and some metal-painted trim. It'southward a new austerity you'll appreciate. Either that, or you lot'll stray off into interior treatments like the straight-outta-Starbucks two-tone brownish that'll have you searching the cockpit for this month's special grind and a WiFi access lawmaking. Nosotros'd bandy its bluish ambient lighting for pure-white LEDs, for a softer and richer effect.
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With only 138 horsepower, the Encore's adjourn weight overwhelms its turbo four and mutes its grippy handling.
Alarm steering and a pliant ride escort the 2013 Buick Encore a long way into premium crossover territory. They'd take it farther if the Encore had a more than lively powertrain.
The simply source of oomph offered with the 2013 Encore is the same one you'll find in the extraordinarily likable Chevy Sonic--a 1.4-liter turbocharged iv-cylinder, here with 138 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque. Elevation power's available through a six-speed automatic from below 2000 rpm to most 5000 rpm.
A few things conspire against the turbo four to keep it from percolating it into the interesting category, aslope crossovers like the Countryman and Escape. For its overall size, the Encore is mesomorphic, at 3,190 pounds, before adding on people, gas, and options similar the desirable all-wheel-bulldoze arrangement. Its half dozen-speed automated shifts cleanly, just upshifts very quickly, hunting downwardly the quickest route to a 33-mpg EPA highway rating.
Keeping it light--forepart-drive, a passenger or two--keeps the Encore's straight-line functioning under the ten-2nd 0-sixty mph bogey. Checking the option box for all-wheel drive (AWD) adds roughly 150 pounds, merely the extra traction and slight ride improvement might be worth the taxation it exacts on acceleration of at least a 2d.
The AWD system, while we're on it, is a distinctive piece of hardware. It'south set to engage the rear wheels with every launch, gradually releasing them from traction duties equally information technology senses good route atmospheric condition, until information technology hits 37 mph--where an all-clear puts all the power to the front wheels.
All Encores ride on 18-inch wheels and tires. And despite the large rolling stock, the brusque wheelbase, and the compact front strut/torsion-beam rear suspension design, the Encore has a well-controlled ride in almost all situations, with but some light chop caused by typical city street shortcomings--steel plates, pavement joinings, and potholes. Its electric steering takes the hint quickly, too, without deflecting or wandering also much on some vulnerable types of highways.
In that location are subtle differences with the front- and all-wheel-drive models, ones that'll sway only a handful of shoppers. Nosotros've driven both extremes, a solo and the other, a fully laden AWD version with three aged-out linebackers on board. The added weight taps out the Encore's energy reserves completely, but it likewise damps out more of those crude patches--putting even more Buick in the Encore's route feel.
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Headroom'due south a cinch in the Encore, and the driving position is practiced and high, but dorsum-seat shoulder space gets tight.
Alpine similar a crossover, but stubby and narrow like a subcompact, the 2013 Buick Encore does an impressive job of carving out adult-size niches for 4 passengers, with just a compromise here and there.
Outset, some numbers. The Encore is 168.iv inches long, with a wheelbase of 100.6 inches, which puts information technology almost ten inches shorter than a Ford Escape and almost a one-half-foot shorter in wheelbase. A MINI Countryman is more than than six inches slighter at 161.viii inches long, but still outspans the Encore in wheelbase, at 102.ii inches.
Stride inside--non in and down, similar in some petite hatchbacks--and the taller Encore shows why it nudges barely into the crossover bin. The driving position is taller and the view forward commanding. The dash lays low toward the glass, creating more of a sense of infinite than a more vertical design would, and headroom is more than abundant that expected, fifty-fifty with the sunroof pick installed. What's not abundant, is the amount of human knee room: driver and front end passenger are hemmed in by a panel that's not very wide, and by door panels that aren't very thick. The forepart seatbacks are bolstered thoughtfully, while the bottom cushions feel a lilliputian flat.
Sit for a stint in the dorsum seat, and the Encore comes into meliorate focus. It seems besides pocket-size to be useful at outset look, just the back seat's actually adult-sized, specially in caput room. Knee space is more than than acceptable, and even though you'll be rubbing elbows with two big passengers across the back demote, information technology's non at all the penalty-box experience yous'd anticipate from a subcompact.
In that location's a fold-down armrest with its own cupholders--but more often, we recollect, the rear seats will be folded forward, turning their xviii.viii cubic feet of cargo space into 48.iv cubic feet. In that two-seat configuration, it'south the perfect city warrior for errand runs--specially if you also flip the front rider seat downwards. You'll exist able to fit a Little Behemothic ladder in the Encore at that betoken; fourth dimension to articulate off the to-do list.
With its four-cylinder powertrain and carriage torso at this price point, in that location's immense potential for a noisy, less-than-premium cabin in the Encore. Active dissonance counterfoil cuts downwards on the former: information technology uses microphones and white dissonance generation to negate the worst frequencies, leaving just some low-speed engine sounds and some wind and tire noise to cutting into conversation. It'due south quiet, not remarkably so for a luxury machine. The dash has a premium mix of colors and lines, but some of the plastics are done up in hard-grain materials. And at some bespeak, the collection of buttons on the dash to run secondary controls clutters the Encore'due south tight visual space. At that place's no MINI chaos or zany Juke nonsense here, but the fifth automotive taste--richness--is missing, too.
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Standard Bluetooth and a rearview camera add together to the Encore'southward rubber, just no crash scores are in however.
The Encore may be on the petite side, but it packs in most of GM's latest safety technologies, including ten airbags, stability control, and a standard rearview photographic camera and standard Bluetooth connectivity.
The combination of mandatory and marketplace-driven safety gear should evidence itself out when the Encore undergoes crash tests. Simply as of nonetheless, neither the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has put the compact five-door through its regimen.
Aside from those standard features, the Encore can be optioned up with more layers of protection, some valuable more in slushy states (all-wheel bulldoze, for $1,500) and some more valuable in urban forays. That'd be the camera-based lane-departure and forward-collision warning systems, which keep a radar eye on the route ahead, and beep at you if you cross the pavement lines or if you're approaching the vehicle ahead too rapidly. The downfall of some of these systems is too frequent alerts: aside from a stray beep at chop-chop rising roads and a lack of warnings over faded double-yellow stripes, the Encore's setup wasn't then annoying that nosotros'd avoid the features bundled with information technology (parking sensors and Bose audio).
The Encore also includes OnStar, with six months' worth of Directions and Connections service, and access to a mobile app that enables destination programming, remote first, and other convenient features. It has semi-spooky ones, as well, similar the ability to runway family members in the machine, on an opt-in basis. One 24-hour interval, we hope, it'll start the automobile and pre-set all the radio stations back to our favorites--as far away from the smooth-jazz band as possible.
Visibility to the front is excellent, only the Encore'southward very size puts its wide door pillars right in the bullheaded spot, making it very tough to run into passing vehicles on the lane to the left. The rear hatch drinking glass is pretty small, too.
IntelliLink is mobile connectivity fabricated elementary; noise cancellation keeps the cabin placidity enough for Bose audio to pay off.
The Buick Encore comes every bit a single model with plenty of standard features, an option for all-bicycle drive ($1,500), and a prepare of packages with more luxury touches that ratchet upwards its base price from $24,950 to just past the $thirty,000 mark.
Each 2013 Encore comes with standard power windows, locks, and power heated mirrors; cloth upholstery with faux-leather trim; cruise cruise control; 18-inch wheels; a cargo cover; a power driver seat; ambient lighting; active dissonance cancellation; OnStar; and a rearview photographic camera.
Too standard is Buick's IntelliLink, a Bluetooth-mediated system that uses voice commands or a 7.0-inch LCD screen and a controller knob to run mobile phone functions, the optional navigation system, and audio from a diversity of sources--Bluetooth streaming, mobile apps similar Pandora, USB, or satellite radio, all standard.
Packages include a Convenience group with remote beginning, automatic climate command, and fog lamps; Leather, with hides plus a heated steering wheel and heated front end seats, memory functions, and a ability forepart passenger seat; and a Premium package with Bose audio, parking sensors, a lane-divergence warning system and a frontward-collision alarm system--both camera-based.
The Bose audio system is an option on Convenience- and Leather-equipped vehicles; a navigation arrangement is offered on all simply the base version, as is a sunroof.
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The Encore's gas mileage reads well on the page, but it's just on par with much more roomy crossovers.
It'south a stretch to phone call it a crossover vehicle, we think, just Buick says the 2013 Encore earns the all-time fuel economy numbers of any crossover from a domestic automaker.
At 25 miles per gallon city, 33 miles per gallon highway, and 28 mpg combined, the front-wheel drive model of the Encore does crush out some of the college-rated domestics--including GM's own 32-mpg-highway Chevy Equinox. Add all-wheel bulldoze, nonetheless, and the ratings autumn to 26 mpg combined, made upward of 23 mpg city, 30 mpg highway.
The 2013 Ford Escape is rated every bit high as 26 mpg combined with the i.half-dozen-liter EcoBoost engine--and offers significantly more interior space--but an all-wheel-bulldoze Escape with the same engine loses 1 mpg, falling to 25 mpg combined.
The Chevy Sonic, which shares the Encore'southward powertrain but weighs in a few hundred pounds lighter, is rated by the EPA at 31 mpg combined with the aforementioned engine and transmission as the Encore.
Buick points out other competitors such every bit the MINI Countryman, at 25/32 mpg, and the VW Tiguan, at 21/26 mpg. We'd also add the Nissan Juke to the pile, at 27/32 mpg, or 29 mpg combined--better in most measures than the Encore, and more or less similarly sized, if non actually the premium feel promised past the Encore.
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Go along Reading
The Automobile Connexion Consumer Review
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2013 Buick Encore AWD 4-Door Premium
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Source: https://www.thecarconnection.com/overview/buick_encore_2013
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