Ebony Twilight Metallic 2018 Buick Envision Essence FWD 6-Speed Automatic 2.5L 4-Cylinder DGI DOHC VVT 22/29 City/Highway MPG Awards: * JD Power Initial Quality Study * 2018 IIHS Top Safety Pick with optional front crash prevention and specific headlights airs to make that up as the maintenance cost of the three favors the Buick which is slightly lower, and the EPA gas mileage of the three did not differ by a lot.
This car is well designed. All the controls are easy to use with the exception of the seat temperature controls which use a touch screen that is not very responsive. However the voice recognition is fantastic. It understands regular speech and usually can interpret commands even if you don't say them exactly right.
The touch display is very good and the split display with the center of the dashboard works well. It is not as good as Audi's $5000 system which turns the instrument cluster into a map, but it does post turns and instructions in the instrument cluster if you are using the radio and not using the map automatically. Is it as nice as Audi? No. Does it work well? Yes. Again, you get what you pay for and that Audi would have cost me $15,000 more than this car.
Acceleration is strong and there when you need it. It gets to 60 mph in about 7.0 seconds which is more than enough to merge into traffic. Based on the engine used in Saab before they went under, it is responsive and has very little turbo lag. Changes from the Saab design from GM powertrain include Direct Injection technology and a different header technology but otherwise, similar technologies are used.
As I mentioned, I bought this car because the 2019 was coming out and this was on heavy discount. The differences with 2019 are an on/off switch was added for the start-stop feature, a nine speed automatic instead of the six speed, and an ionizer for the A/C system so it can remove pollution better. I wanted the proven six speed automatic as this has been built by GM since 2010 (the design is 8 years old) so all the issues are worked out and it should last a long time. The new 9 speed is a GM/Ford design so the first year could be troublesome - no guarantee, but you are always taking chances with a first year design if you want to keep your car for about 200,000 miles. To me, paying an additional $12,000 to get these three features (and pay almost as much as a BMW X3 or Lexus RX) made no sense at all.
After 17 months of ownership have a high mileage of 25,000 miles. So far no issues at all. The stop/start system although you cannot turn it off works unobtrusively with no problems. It means the 2.0L turbo engine gets about 24 mpg in local driving, and about 30 mpg on the highway. I do use premium fuel, but it gets better gas mileage than my 2013 Subaru Legacy which takes regular so the weekly gas cost is actually higher on the Subaru by a few dollars for the same mileage.
Although I prefer sedans this mid-size SUV is fine to drive daily. If I had to change anything I would dump the fake port holes they put on almost every Buick (the fake one on the hood I could do without). I would also get rid of the seat controls on the LCD display that does not work well. We like this car a lot for its basic luxury, its quietness for long road trips, its simplicity in operation, and just doing everything well.
Fuel Type: Gasoline
Exterior Color: Ebony Twilight Metallic
City MPG: 22
Interior Color: Ebony
Highway MPG: 29
Stock: 1060138
Drivetrain: FWD
Transmission: Automatic
Engine: Gas I4 2.5L/- TBD ?
VIN: LRBFX1SA5JD060138
Mileage: 10
Call: (615) 667-0661
