2025 Buick Enclave: Everything We Know About the Premium 3-Row SUV
The next-gen Enclave should look like an Envista writ large. That's a good thing.
Buick is in Wildcat mode as its new design language attempts to kickstart the once-overlooked brand. The 2024 Buick Envista, a plus-sized subcompact SUV, impressed us with its sharpish styling inspired by the striking Wildcat concept, and it is much sleeker than the lumpish Encore it replaced (not to mention pleasantly affordable). Buick's showing off some sketches of the upcoming, redesigned-for-2025 Enclave, which should look a bit like an Envista writ large, as it hopes some fresh styling (which is all we can tell about the Enclave at this early juncture) might inject some appeal into the large near-luxury three-row SUV.
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What We Think About the 2024 Buick Enclave
The current Enclave, the second generation of the nameplate, lumbers into 2024 with a minor refresh. It was restyled in 2022, mostly successfully, but it suffers from an old General Motors problem: It's not different or special enough from its badge engineered cousin, the Chevrolet Traverse. Its interior materials are too pedestrian for its station, and the rest is not different enough from the Traverse. More importantly, there are better luxury (or luxury-adjacent, premium) three-rows that offer more for less (we're looking squarely at the Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade), and properly luxurious SUVs like the Lincoln Aviator for just a bit more.
The 2025 Enclave has some ground to make up, and its styling is just the first (and a very important) hurdle. It'll take some interior refinement and more of a unique character to both separate it from its Chevy variant and attract buyers in this competitive segment away from truly compelling options from Hyundai, Kia, Volvo, and Lincoln. GM has already given the Buick space from its other mechanical sibling, the GMC Acadia, by making that SUV more off-road-focused and burly in a recent redesign.
2025 Buick Enclave: Styling
At this point, details about the 2025 Enclave are sparse, but the sketches that Buick has released show a vehicle that's even more angular than the subcompact Envista. The proportions are almost certainly exaggerated, so do not expect a 1:1 translation of the Enclave's slim greenhouse and trim tumblehome to make it over to the Enclave you'll see on sale at a Buick dealership near you. That said, spy shots floating around the internet confirm the broadest strokes of the design you see here.
Above the rear wheel well, there will be a strong character line that sweeps back to just above the rear taillights. That will form a strong, three-dimensional feature that stands proud and wraps around the tailgate, adding some visual flair to the rear end (and breaking up, visually, the tall rear profile). The current Enclave is bulbous, to say the least, especially from the rear three-quarter view, and we expect the wedgier look to the new Enclave will in and of itself attract more attention than the current model.
2025 Buick Enclave: Powertrain
The current 2024 Enclave is powered by the venerable 3.6-liter V-6, a naturally aspirated engine that is powerful but not particularly fuel efficient. We think the next Enclave will share its platform with the current one, but we don't think the engine will have an encore.
We'd be shocked if the2.5-liter turbocharged I-4 that replaced the 3.6 on the 2024 Chevy Traverse and GMC Acadia doesn't make an appearance under the hood of the new Enclave. This is a powerful engine, delivering 315 hp, and it should offer superior fuel economy. A hybrid model is possible but not necessarily expected.
2025 Buick Enclave: What Else to Expect
Buick would be smart to give the Enclave's interior a significant refresh, and we'd expect nothing less. If the new Traverse and Acadia are anything to go by, the interior styling and apparent quality should take a huge leap forward. Screens in those models have grown (at least in higher trims) and each has a more distinct interior character than before. We presume some variation of the Envista's rhomboid screen surround will make an appearance, giving the Enclave a uniquely Buick flavor.
2025 Buick Enclave: When and How Much?
The Enclave will debut "later this year" and we'll have more details about pricing and availability closer to the on-sale date.
Like a lot of the other staffers here, Alex Kierstein took the hard way to get to car writing. Although he always loved cars, he wasn’t sure a career in automotive media could possibly pan out. So, after an undergraduate degree in English at the University of Washington, he headed to law school. To be clear, it sucked. After a lot of false starts, and with little else to lose, he got a job at Turn 10 Studios supporting the Forza 4 and Forza Horizon 1 launches. The friendships made there led to a job at a major automotive publication in Michigan, and after a few years to MotorTrend. He lives in the Seattle area with a small but scruffy fleet of great vehicles, including a V-8 4Runner and a C5 Corvette, and he also dabbles in scruffy vintage watches and film cameras.
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