The tri-shield brand continues to push forth into that good night, bragging about sales increases in this country whilst showing off a shadowy image of what is said to be the next three-row Enclave.
Little is known about the upcoming 2025 Enclave, other than it will retain its perch atop the Buick lineup in an effort to tempt buyers shopping for a snazzy three-row crossover. There’s no indication this thing will be an EV, particularly since spy shots which surfaced last year showed a rig with dual tailpipe cannons jutting out from its rear valence. We do expect a decent leap in cabin digital real estate, likely to emulate the huge curved screens found in some recent efforts from Cadillac.
We’ve all seen the memes comparing the little Envista to a Urus, one probably initiated by the same blind mice which suggested the Ferrari Purosangue looked like a Mazda. Both share only a brief resemblance to the other, such as wheels and the ability to move under their own power. Still, the Buick stylists have hit on something with their new language and it’ll be interesting to see how it translates to a large three-row crossover like the Enclave.
Buick also took the chance to boast it is this country’s “fastest-growing mainstream brand”, which is like a child asserting they should win a Most Improved award for dragging their marks up from a failing 25 to a passable 76. Sure, the leap is large – but context is required, especially coming off several years in which all brands suffered at the hands of pandemic, microchip, and interest rate problems plus whatever else was the crisis du jour.
Looking at raw numbers, the Enclave sold 39,411 units in 2023, a sum indeed up 29.1 percent from the previous year and about a quarter of Buick’s volume. Other comparable vehicles include the Toyota Highlander (169,543 sales in 2023) and Honda Pilot (110,298 sales).
Should any PR types wish to carp that we ought to be comparing the Enclave with roughly equal three-row upmarket variants, the Lexus TX sold 8,201 units in the couple of months it has been on sale whilst the Acura MDX shifted 57,599 units through the whole of 2023.
In case you’re keeping score at home, the Enclave is one of numerous ‘En’ crossover-type vehicles prowling Buick showrooms – sharing space with the Envision, Envista, and Encore GX. The latter is sounds confoundingly like a trim level but is not. Hey, at least they’re actual names and not the alphanumeric soup foisted on the Cadillac brand by Dunderhead de Nysschen during his reign of terror. Fortunately, that house is brooming the asinine CTXT12345 numerology for monikers that sound like something – even if they all end in ‘iq’.
Additional details on the Buick Enclave, including available features and pricing, will be announced later this year.
[Image: Buick]
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