Anonymous

Reviewed a 2015 Buick Premium FWD on Jun 14, 2015

We shopped over a year, taking time since nothing was wrong with the car we were replacing, a 2010 Cadillac CTS. We wound up looking at two different "sets" of vehicles. The top three in the less expensive set were the Subaru Forester, the Honda Crosstour, and the Toyota Highlander. The top three we wound up picking from were the Buick we bought, the Cadillac SRX, and the Ford Explorer. Two reasons for trading. 1. My shot knees were making exit from the Cadillac painful, so I needed something higher. 2. We were interested in the new safety tech that has come along since our last purchase in 2010. We have not had the Enclave long enough to have an opinion on durability, but we've had zero problems and the dealer will service it for free for two years, so we don't even pay for oil. We rejected the Ford because of the awful Consumer Reports frequency of repair ratings combined with a warranty inferior to the Buick and the Cadillac. (FYI: I did not fit in a Lexus or Accura. Mercedes and BMW required purchase of too much we did not want to get the tech we wanted.) The exit problem was solved in all three of the top contenders. The Cadillac handled best of the three, but the Buick is no slouch for its size. It hauls way more than the Cadillac and was slightly more comfortable to exit. While in them, comfort was a wash. We are right now on our first long road trip, Texas to Minnesota. The Enclave is producing about 19 mpg city and 26 mpg highway on regular gas, slightly less than our CTS when hauling a lot more weight. Highway comfort is superb, as is handling. We are really getting spoiled by the blind spot radar, but I would not have this vehicle without it. The blind spot is huge. Of all the vehicles we shopped, only the Subaru did not offer this, but we still ranked the Subaru highly because it did not have a blind spot. I wish the anti-tailgating gizmo had a more sensitive setting. We have it on most sensitive and the green icon does not turn yellow soon enough for safety. When it gives you a collision alert, it does get your attention. Same thing with the back up version. I had not had the car a week when the back up device warned me of a dog that was not visible on the back up camera! I love how the icon in the outside review mirror goes bananas if you engage a turn signal when somebody is in your blind spot. Both of the reasons we bought this car are so far A plus. We have the tow package but have not used it yet. Will update this review if anything changes. This is fairly soon to be reviewing. I was waiting for a long road trip.