2024 Buick Envista First Drive: An Affordable Crossover Never Looked So Good

Buick is the oldest active automaker in the United States, dropping its first car in 1899. By the end of the first decade of the 1900s, Buick was the biggest star in the burgeoning automotive scene, thanks in part to the future founder of General Motors, William C. Durant, who purchased the automaker in 1904, then built GM with Buick as the premium brand and final step before consumers hopped into the luxury world of Cadillac. 

Since then, Buick's delivered several legendary machines to the world's stage, including the world's first concept car, the 1938 Y-Job, high-performance rides like the Gran Sport/GSX, T-Type and Grand National/GNX, and the ultimate personal luxury cruiser, the Riviera. The brand has even found a big audience in China, where consumers can choose from several models running the gamut from sedans and hatchbacks to crossovers and minivans.

That's not the case for the U.S., however. A far cry from even a few years ago, the current Buick lineup is down to three models, all crossovers: the Encore GX, Envision, and Enclave. For 2024, another "E" arrives to fill in the space left behind by the non-GX Encore, which was discontinued at the end of the 2022 model year. That "E" is for Envista, and Buick hopes to bring in new and returning consumers with its premium entry-level crossover when the first copies arrive in showrooms at the end of July 2023. Thus, I flew out to Ann Arbor, Michigan to see what the Envista has to offer.

If the 2024 Buick Envista looks a bit familiar, it should. Not too long ago, I drove down to North Carolina to drive its cousin, the 2024 Chevrolet Trax, which landed in showrooms at the end of June 2023, backed by a major ad campaign to promote the new compact crossover. Both the Envista and Trax are based upon the General Motors Vehicle Set Strategy-F B/C platform, one that also forms the foundation for the current versions of the Buick Encore GX and Chevrolet Trailblazer.

Like the Trax, the Envista made its world debut a year earlier in Buick's biggest market, China, followed by its North American debut earlier this year in April. Both the Trax and Envista, along with the Encore GX and Trailblazer, fulfill two missions for their respective brands: serve as the entry point for consumers looking to own a GM product, and bring in those looking to replace their aging — and out-of-production — sedans and subcompact crossovers. 

The mission is divvied up further by giving the Trax and Envista power only the front wheels, while the Encore GX and Trailblazer plant their power to the road through all corners. In turn, this allows the former pair to bring in new consumers thanks to a lower price of admission — due in part to less mechanical complexity — while the latter pair serve as a step up the four-model Buick lineup to keep their current consumer base under the Trishield.

There are two engine and transmissions available for the 2024 Buick Envista, depending on market. Chinese models receive a 1.5-liter turbo-four with a CVT, while consumers in the U.S. get a six-speed automatic linked to a 1.2-liter turbo-three; both configurations are also offered on the Chevrolet Trax. The U.S. combo isn't as powerful as the old Encore's 153-horsepower 1.4-liter Ecotec inline-four, sending 136 horses and 162 lb-ft. of torque to the front pair of 17-, 18- or 19-inch wheels. Then again, power isn't the main draw for the U.S.-market Envista. Instead, it's more about how the Envista differs just enough from the Trax to make the compact premium crossover a Buick.

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For starters, the Envista rides on a marginally longer wheelbase of 106.3 inches vs. the Trax's 106.0 inches. Not as impressive as the marketing makes it sound, but that extra bit likely helps with road manners just a tad more. It also has a narrower track than the, erm, Trax (61.3 inches front and 61.6 inches rear for the Buick, 61.5 inches front and 62.13 inches rear for the Chevy), and is less wide at 71.5 inches vs. 71.8 inches. 

The biggest difference, though, is the overall length: 182.6 inches for the Envista vs. the 178.6 inches for the Trax. Add in MacPherson struts combined with an optional Watts link rear, and the Envista is ready to deliver on a smoother ride over the highway.

There is, of course, one more thing that makes the 2024 Buick Envista stand apart from its Bowtie'd cousin: the styling. While the Trax follows in the same path as the Trailblazer, Equinox and upcoming Blazer EV, the Envista — along with the 2024 Encore GX — get their looks from the 2022 Wildcat EV concept coupe. The shark-like DRLs up top and wide grille below the new Trishield logo — which resembles a trio of EV charging stations — are the first things to grab your attention, followed by the sloping backside meant to evoke sedan styling cues, though a sedan this is not. 

Buick knows its U.S. customers prefer a higher ride height these days, so those coming off leases of the brand's last sedans and wagons will find something familiar in a package that better fits their current lifestyle, from the blacked-out wheels and grille of the Sport Touring to the Black Ice chrome grille with aluminum wheels and Pearl Nickel trim on the Avenir.

Buick

The styling differences continue inside, beginning with the gauge cluster and touchscreen housing. Compared to the driver-focused arrangement in the Trax, the Envista's setup follows the rounded and angular themes of the exterior. The flat-bottom steering wheel gives the compact premium crossover a bit of sportiness reserved for high-performance machines like the Corvette Z06, while cloth and leatherette on all three trim levels — Preferred, Sport Touring, and Avenir — will keep you and yours comfortable no matter how long the drive is. Interior trim includes Santorini Blue stitching on the seats of the Sport Touring, and Ebony with Terra-Cotta accents in the Avenir.

Dubbed the Ultrawide Infotainment Display, the 2024 Envista's tech begins with a pair of screens: an 8-inch driver info center on the left and an 11-inch touchscreen on the right, all housed within a single, boat-shaped bezel. The only physical button is the volume knob/power button for the touchscreen. The OEM infotainment system's elegant and minimalist design language, dressed in a few shades of gray, white, and black may give more than a few drivers pause as far as using their iPhone or Pixel goes. 

Once over the shock, though, they'll be happy to know there are more buttons and dials to control the important things, like the heating and air conditioning, though the Avenir trim goes for a more minimal approach for its HVAC controls than the Sport Touring or Preferred.

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As far as comfort on those long trips goes, the longer Envista means more room for more things. Without the optional moonroof — no panoramic glass for this entry-level crossover — front and rear headroom comes to 39.4 and 37.3 inches, respectively. Rear legroom is great, too, at 38.7 inches, through rear hip room is a bit cozy compared to the two front buckets at 45.8 inches vs. 52.3 inches. Meanwhile, there's 20.7 cu. ft. of cargo space with the rear 60/40 bench in place, more than enough for a few bags of luggage as seen above. With the bench down, the space more than doubles to 42 cu. ft. for a big IKEA run or two.

There are a few similarities in how the Envista and Trax handle the open road, which is how I experienced half of the drive through my leg of a two-hour loop around the Michigan countryside beyond Ann Arbor. The turbo-three is capable of keeping pace with highway traffic, and the adaptive cruise control is a plus for the most part; sometimes, you do need to pass that big rig in front of you. What really caught my attention — specifically, my ears — was what I heard once I was driving down the two-lane roads: quiet. 

While some credit can go to the fact that it was morning with little traffic on said roads, the rest is due to Buick's QuietTuning technology, a mix of noise-reduction techniques intended to reduce sounds at the source, block the majority of said sounds from entering the cabin, and absorb the rest. It felt like I was driving an EV at times.

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As for handling around those twisty two-lanes, the 2024 Buick Envista felt well planted upon the pavement, thanks to the Watts link rear keeping the rear axle moving only up and down over a few bumps through each corner. And there was–within reason–no surface the Envista couldn't handle, including a slow stretch of gravel from ongoing road construction, the most off-road any Envista owner will experience while driving the premium compact crossover. It's also safe to say there appeared to be no chipped paint from all the bits of gravel flying out from underneath the Continental tires. All in all, it rides like a Buick: comfortable yet capable.

Buick hopes to not only capture returning lease holders with the new premium entry-level 2024 Envista, but also bring younger consumers, especially women and multicultural consumers, into the Buick fold. The best way to do so, of course, is to deliver the goods at the right price. While the Trax outdoes the Envista on the price of admission — because the Trax is an everyday people sort of machine, and Envista is a premium experience — the latter's starting MSRP range is nothing to sneeze at. 

The Envista Preferred's base MSRP is $23,495 ($100 more than the Trax LT), the Sport Touring begins at $25,195 (a few hundred more than the Trax 2RS and Activ trims), and the range-topping Avenir just grazes the $30,000 mark at $29,695.

What Envista owners will get in return is a crossover with good fuel economy from the tiny turbo-three (28 mpg city, 32 mpg highway), plenty of room for friends, family and a few bags for the big getaway, and a foot in the door to the rest of Buick's lineup. It's definitely a small world under the new Trishield in the U.S., but perhaps a heavily curated collection of premium crossovers is what Buick needs at this time, especially when it won't be long until the brand, like all of GM, will be going fully electric. What better way to step up to this new challenge than for its new and returning customers to step into an entry-level ride like the Envista.