It wasn’t long ago that a cheap car was just that – a cheap car. Your new, likely Korean re-badged $15,000 car off the lot was a compact vehicle of some kind that smelled of plastic, because everything was indeed mostly made of plastics. There were always more knobs than you thought were possible in the 21st century and the screens smaller than you would believe, if it had a screen at all. But you weren’t shopping for the latest and greatest. You were shopping for what you could afford. And that sub-$15,000 car gave you something that wasn’t over five years old, which would likely also need a repair or two just after you were handed the keys. Instead you had something new with a warranty to fix anything that could go wrong after that purchase. You’re set, for a while at least.
But automakers were quick to kill that sub-$15,000 car with the incoming EV market, and not much has come to replace it. Where can those who can’t fathom a $30,000 car with a sizable car payment turn as the used market runs dry? And what will buyers have to give up in a now technology-laden world to get those affordable cars? Buick, I believe, has the answer.
Full Disclosure: Buick invited me to Ann Arbor, Michigan to drive the new 2024 Envista in its top Avenier trim, with a buddy (fellow journalist). Buick was kind enough to provide me a hotel to stay overnight so that I didn’t have to wake up at 5 a.m. to drive two hours to the east side of the state to do more driving, and set the journalists up with a good, catered lunch of sandwiches (or a lettuce wrap in my case).
What Is The 2024 Buick Envista?
The Buick Envista is the brand’s most affordable addition to its crossover lineup, meant to fill the entry-level sized hole left by discontinued sales of its sedans and its original compact crossover the Encore (see also: old Chevy Trax), which was discontinued for the 2023 model year. What you’re getting is something unlike what Buick has done since perhaps the Y-Job several decades ago – designed a vehicle that is surprisingly updated and eye-catching. But it also starts at a very palatable $23,495 (including destination and delivery charges) with Buick’s base-level Preferred trim, all the way up to just shy of the $30,000 mark on the fully-loaded Avenir.
Driving the 2024 Buick Envista
Getting into the Envista, you’re not turned off by the interior. In fact, after having driven the Encore GX enroute for 2.5 hours to attend the unveiling of the Envista not long before this drive, I felt this Buick was now a mature, sophisticated Buick, and doesn’t feel like “a nicer Chevrolet,” or something my Zio (uncle) or grandparents would have driven in the ‘90s.
You also don’t get out of the car feeling like you sat on the cheapest of foam inserts on the most plasticky of seat coverings after a long drive (not that you ever did in a Buick). You’re not compromising when it comes to comfort. Sure, yes, the premium stitching comes with premium prices, but the touch points, the leatherette, the 3D-printed details on the dash, doors and console for each trim level (also made of recycled materials!) look and feel more premium and certainly take a big step distinguishing themselves from “affordable” examples from likely over a decade or more ago.
On the road, the Envista presents itself as the complimentary offspring between the sedans Buick no longer makes, blessed with the height of a crossover. You’re only getting the best traits you might actually want in a car and not the market-dominant ones. This vehicle is more nimble and doesn’t feel as top-heavy or tip-prone as its predecessor. Much of that can likely be attributed to Envista’s shorter roofline and a longer wheelbase – the compact’s wheelbase measures six inches longer than the former Encore and four whole inches longer than its bigger AWD-sporting brother, the Encore GX (while just 3 inches shorter compared to the outgoing Regal sedan). This little extra lengthening makes this crossover feel more planted, with a center of gravity that’s ultimately more forgiving in turns, stops and anything off-the-line.
I say off-the-line like I launched our Envista into the next county, and that’s so very far from what I did. But I did attempt to see what kind of energy the Buick’s little 1.3-liter turbocharged engine inline-3 was capable of, and it’s nothing to scoff at. There’s enough kick there to get you out of a precarious situation and enough oomph to keep you going on the highway at comfortable speeds, without the little engine sounding like it’s struggling – all while sipping that fuel for decent MPG, which is a GM-estimated 28 city and 32 highway. Luckily, you won’t hear much of the engine, because of Buick’s ultra quiet interior, via QuietTuning.
What We Like (And Don’t) About The 2024 Buick Envista
Outside of the affordability and sharp looks I’ve hammered into your brains – all complimenting a new era for Buick, something you might find surprising on my “yay” list, are the more limited options. Rather, what’s maybe more unique to the Envista is that the choices or options for this model and its trim offerings are not as laundry-list-like or as convoluted as most any other vehicle on the market today. Engine choices? You will get the 1.3-liter turbo I3 and nothing else. That 1.3-liter turbo puts power out through a six-speed automatic transmission to the front wheels, and only the front wheels. There is no all-wheel drive option. If you want AWD, you have to buy the Encore GX. And there are no special, other suspension offerings either, but that’s really ok, because no one really utilizes those specially programmed suspension offerings or settings either. In all honesty, most of the driving population doesn’t utilize the five to eight different suspension turning preferences programmed into a vehicle’s computer, and it costs an awful lot to develop all of those separate profiles. Save buyers all the money. Down with buying all those suspension settings!
Anyways, moving on, the lack of choices or accouterments, also likely helps establish the minimalistic but entirely functioning feel to Buick’s infotainment system. There’s not many menus or extra applications to scroll through to set up your vehicle. Connecting your phone wirelessly to utilize Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (while you still can with GM vehicles) is simple and quick. And that same simplicity extends to the safety technology available across all of Envista’s trims. Of course the Avenir we were provided with for this drive came with things like Forward Collision Alert and Adaptive Cruise Control, but you’re not beholden to the whole suite of features if you don’t want them (or want to pay for them). Here you can get more of the “right tech” and feel like you can be connected, without actually being connected to literally everything.
While simplicity is really key here to the affordability of the new Envista, there are parts of me that yearn for a little more, and you might too — that is if you go into this expecting anything more than a vehicle that can comfortably and stylishly get you from point A to point B, at an affordable price. But this car does come with something more that I wasn’t expecting. It will make you ponder all the useless things digitally or aesthetically added to your current vehicle. Did you really need all of this technology and menus and options? You never needed these things when they didn’t exist some 10 or 20 years ago.
This isn’t a vehicle that’s over-engineered. It’s not a vehicle where you’ll find out how to use that one feature hidden somewhere in a menu you just didn’t know was there, five years into ownership. What the Envista is an example of is all that we might really need for our driving future wrapped in an attractive package. And as a driver, sometimes, you have to appreciate that maybe you don’t need much more than that.
