2024 Buick Envista Review: Cheap Crossover Throws Down A Challenge

The 2024 Buick Envista hides sensible business behind its head-turning sheet metal, and — though imperfect — it's hard to argue with the result. With cars like the Regal and LaCrosse ousted from its line-up, Buick needed a route for sedan owners to segue into SUVs. If it was eye-catching enough to grab the attention of a younger audience of shoppers, too, all the better. From those brand gateway basics, the Envista was born.

The new-for-model-year-2024 crossover shares at least some of its design DNA with Buick's startlingly pleasing Wildcat EV concept from 2022. Fully electric, with dramatic proportions and a trick double-hinged roof, the sleek coupe promised a bold and — finally! — memorable reimagining of what a modern Buick should look like. Ironic, then, that the first of the automaker's vehicles to benefit from that glance to the future is the cheapest option in Buick's current line-up.

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Gone is the concept's all-electric Ultium drivetrain — an impossible inclusion, given the 2024 Envista's sub-$23k starting price — with a far more humble gas engine in its place. Practicality demands four doors and a sizable hatch, too (even if the curving roofline means you get 20.7 cu-ft of trunk space, compared to the platform sibling 2024 Chevrolet Trax's 25.6 cu-ft). Reality stings, but there's no denying this is a cheap crossover. Question is, though, is it a good one?

Envista ownership kicks off at $22,400 (plus $1,095 destination) for the Preferred trim. The Sport Touring trim you see here starts out at $25,195 (plus destination); Buick's flagship Avenir trim begins at $29,695 (plus destination). All three get the same drivetrain, a 1.2-liter turbocharged three-cylinder gas engine paired with a 6-speed automatic transmission, pushing power to the front axle.

It is not, you'll likely be unsurprised to hear, a wildly potent engine. 137 horsepower and 163 lb-ft of torque are humble numbers, and there's no option to have what grunt the Envista does offer be routed to all four wheels.

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Fuel economy clocks in at 28 mpg in the city, 32 mpg on the highway, and 30 mpg combined, according to the EPA. That's solid for the FWD non-hybrid set — a Corolla Cross will do a little better, whereas a Honda HR-V does a little worse — though it might be a tad ambitious. In my own mixed driving, I saw 25 mpg, suggesting a seventh gear might not go amiss for a little more frugality.

All that said, I had humble expectations for the experience behind the wheel. In fact, the Envista's three-pot does a reasonably convincing impression of a bigger engine, helped by the fact that it's a surprisingly quiet cabin. A standard acoustically-laminated windshield, among other noise suppression or isolation techniques like active noise cancellation, plays a big role in making the little crossover feel more premium.

Simplicity helps, too. There are no drive modes to experiment with or sports transmission settings. Clunking the Envista's old-school shifter between "D" and "L" is about the extent of the powertrain options here.

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On the highway, the Envista had no issues keeping up with traffic and overtaking when required. Around town, meanwhile, it proved sufficiently perky to avoid that 1.2-liter engine feeling like a liability. The suspension is tuned to err on the comfort side, probably no bad thing given the target audience, though I was amused at how many people assumed it was going to be a far more sporty vehicle from the exterior design (the $495 Copper Ice Metallic paint probably didn't dissuade them from that opinion, either).

All Envista trims get LED headlamps and taillamps, heated side mirrors, and cruise control — though not adaptive cruise — with the Preferred trim having 17-inch alloy wheels and a manual liftgate. Sport Touring has 18-inch black-painted wheels, while Avenir gets 19-inch pearl nickel finish alloys and a power liftgate.

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There are four options packages for the Preferred and Sport Touring, bringing them closer to the Avenir experience. Convenience I ($1,195) adds remote start, keyless entry, an 8-way power driver's seat, and heating for the front seats and steering wheel. The Convenience II package ($595) throws in wireless phone charging, a power liftgate, and rain-sensing wipers.

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The Advanced Safety Package ($595) includes adaptive cruise control, lane change alert with side blind zone warnings, and rear cross-traffic alerts. Finally, the Experience Buick package ($995) adds a power moonroof plus upgrades the Preferred's wheels to 18-inch two-tone machined aluminum alloys and the Sport Touring's to 19-inch black painted alloys. It also adds a Watts Link System rear suspension to the Sport Touring.

Inside, Buick's GM parts bin raiding pays dividends for the Envista's dashboard. A sizable 11-inch touchscreen is standard on all trims — that's several inches bigger, it's worth noting, than the display on the considerably more expensive Enclave — as is an 8-inch driver display. 

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It almost feels a shame that Buick's UI errs so far on the monochrome and minimalistic side (there's "sparse," Buick, and then there's "did you forget to design the rest of the instrument cluster?") rather than maximizing the advantage of digital real-estate typically reserved for much more expensive cars.

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Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support make good use of the touchscreen, though, and there are two USB ports for charging — one USB-A, one USB-C — plus a 12V outlet. Nobody is going to mistake the 6-speaker audio system for a concert hall, but it's perfectly adequate in the Envista's hushed cabin. 

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The blue contrast stitching on the Sport Touring's black faux-leather seats and dashboard looks premium, and there's SiriusXM, OnStar 4G WiFi hotspot support (requiring a subscription), and standard rear obstacle warnings.

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Buick hasn't worked miracles here — the feel of the dashboard plastics doesn't live up to their appearance, for example, and there's only single-zone HVAC — but for the price, I'm impressed. With all four options packages and the fancy paint, this 2024 Envista Sport Touring landed at just $29,070, including destination.

Honestly, my biggest complaint about the Envista — and the reason it's not an instant recommendation — is the absence of an all-wheel drive option. Buick's strategy here of coaxing AWD fans into a more expensive Encore GX (from $28,895 plus destination in all-wheel drive form) makes perfect sense from a business point of view. However, it also ignores the fact that the Encore GX is, well, boring in comparison to the spunky little Envista.

It may not be giddying to drive, but it is a strong value, and Buick's options sheet is sensibly priced. Viewed as the automaker does — as a way to coax former sedan owners or leasees into something new, as well as encourage fresh Buick buyers who might've dismissed it as fuddy-duddy — the Envista has the potential to be a remarkable success.

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Buick's big challenge, then, is to commit to its Envista experiment. The new gateway to the brand is stylish and memorable, but the same can't really be said for the larger, more expensive SUVs that Envista owners will, in theory, one day upgrade to. Here's to hoping that by the time those leases are up, Buick has given the rest of its range a splash of the Envista treatment.