Without the Razzle, the Buick Enclave ST AWD Has Little to Dazzle

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At first, we thought Buick made a mistake sending us the midline ST version of its big Enclave SUV instead of the top-of-the-line Avenir, but in retrospect, it might have done us a favor. Strip the Enclave of its geegaws, and it becomes a much less palatable prospect, especially at this example’s $61,475 asking price.

First, let’s talk about what the Enclave does right. We like the attractive new styling unveiled for 2025, patterned after the Wildcat concept car. The increase in size is welcome, yet the Enclave doesn’t feel like a transatlantic liner when you try to park it. And the new four-cylinder turbocharged engine brings a welcome increase in EPA fuel economy with only a slight acceleration penalty compared to the departing V-6.

We were pleased to see Super Cruise, GM’s hands-off-the-wheel driver assistance system, is now available in a Buick. Super Cruise won a 2025 MotorTrend Best Tech award because of the cautious way it goes about its business; it will only work on selected mapped roads, and it hands control to the driver if there’s any doubt about its ability to steer itself. The flip side is that if you are not on a mapped road, the Enclave doesn’t provide any sort of lane centering whatsoever. Super Cruise has a hands-on mode—you’ll find it in Cadillac models—but the Enclave doesn’t get it. That strikes us as a short-sighted marketing decision, because it puts the Enclave behind a lot of similarly sized, similarly priced SUVs.

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The ST (Sport Touring) model only comes with a monochrome black interior, which is the worst way to show off the Enclave’s cabin. We like the big, curved screen (which appears to be lifted from the Cadillac Vistiq and turned upside-down), and the built-in Google Assistant works well. Like other Google-equipped vehicles, the idea is you’ll install common phone apps (Spotify, Waze, etc.) on the car rather than use them on your phone. (Those who do insist on Apple CarPlay instead of the car’s OS will find their apps restricted to a smaller window.) That said, Buick’s designers seemed to concentrate on electronics at the expense of everything else. The center console, for example, looks like it was penned as an afterthought.

From a family-functionalality perspective, the Enclave does its job well enough. The third row of seats is useful for small children and nonconfrontational adults, while the second row is perfectly usable if not quite limolike. There’s a reasonable amount of luggage space with all seats deployed, and it’s easy to convert the Enclave into a moving van with rear seats that fold flat at the touch of a button.

Driving-wise, there’s not much to say about the Enclave, good or bad. It drives, but it’s not particularly posh or exciting. The Avenir model gets upgraded active shocks that refine the ride, but our ST didn’t have those, and changing the drive mode to Sport merely made the steering unbearably heavy.

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Isn’t Buick supposed to be a luxury brand? Without much color in the cabin to liven things up, our eyes were drawn to the hard plastics and rough edges. Nothing aft of the dashboard struck us as any nicer or more premium than the Traverse that Chevrolet sent as a competitor, a High Country model that stickered for $980 less than the Enclave.

The Avenir model gets a panoramic roof, a better suspension, and a more attractive interior, and better justifies its mid-60s price. But even the top-of-the-line Enclave looks a little tatty compared to the Hyundai Palisade. The Enclave is a good and decent servant, but it’s not a stand-out SUV.

This review was conducted as part of our 2026 SUV of the Year (SUVOTY) testing, where each vehicle is evaluated on our six key criteria: efficiency, design, safety, engineering excellence, value, and performance of intended function. Eligible vehicles must be all-new or significantly revised.