Zander Drives Cars

A quick epilogue

A rule to follow when creating a piece of literature meant to demonstrate your abilities as a writer is to never start with a quote or saying by another individual. Fortunately, this isn’t a Harvard research paper, so I’ll do it anyway.

“Some say it’s a front-engined car, some say it’s a rear-engined car. I say a rented car” is one of the more famous quotes from the late P.J. O’Rourke. That one line of text has been engraved into the heads of many car enthusiasts for decades prior and probably decades to come. When you drive your own car, it’s yours and you want to take care of it. You’re worried about getting it dirty, where you park it, how you park it and how you drive it. The list goes on and on. Now, I would like to state clearly that I do not condone reckless driving on public roads. Your actions provide future consequences that only you are responsible for. Don’t be an idiot. That

being said, god it’s fun driving like said idiot mentioned above in a rental car. It’s not yours! Who cares? I certainly don’t. It’s not mine, let me have fun.

Another reason why rental cars are so much fun for people in the automotive journalism field is that they don’t belong to the actual car company themselves. The usual process for reviewing a car is to email the dealership, get a response, go to the dealership, and then drive the car with the person with whom I had previous correspondence. It’s all fun and fabulous, but when you have a company representative with you, it’s difficult to be honest about the negative aspects of what you’re driving. In this field, connections matter more than anything, and losing them can be potentially devastating. When you’re less than a foot away from the person who gave you the ability to drive, say a $70,000 car, you must be respectful and nice on a professional level. So, this is why, to me, rental cars are the best cars to review. High risk, low reward.

So, with that said, get ready for a brutally honest review of the 2022 Buick Encore GX.

To a car enthusiast, “crossover” is a dirty word. These front-wheel-drive lifted hatchbacks with minimal personalities have been sweeping over the automotive landscape unlike anything ever seen in the automotive world. While I can make a case for a lot of crossovers being fun or interesting, the Buick Encore is not one of them. Buick, as it stands right now, is fully made up of mildly premium crossovers spanning from the regular Encore (which is the smallest in the lineup) to the Enclave (the largest in the lineup.) Yes, I should point out that the Encore and Encore GX are two separate models. The Encore GX is slightly larger and just as depressing. Confused? Same. GM killed the TourX for this. Prices for the Encore GX start at $24,400 for the base, or “preferred” as Buick calls it, and reach roughly $30,000 for the highest trim “essence.”

Perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh on the Encore GX. For one, it isn’t an ugly car. It’s handsome in a “new office building board room” type way, corporate-chic. It shares the same platform as the arguably less dapper Chevy Trailblazer, so the bar isn’t astronomically high in terms of design. The Encore is also one of the first General Motors cars to be built exclusively in China, as Buick’s foothold in that market is massive, selling over 800,000 cars in 2020 alone. Normally I would have more to say, but this is such a boring-looking car. I have nothing.

The interior is where things really get interesting. Let’s start with the positives. For one, you get two USB-C ports (one in the front and one in the rear) along with two regular USB ports, a 12-volt, and an AUX jack because General Motors lives in a time when Zune was the next big thing. There are also heated seats that work well enough, dual-zone climate control, heated windshield, and rear window, Apple Carplay, adaptive cruise control, and handsfree. You also get a digital display that does all the things you would expect a car with a digital display to do. The cloth/leather hybrid seats were also reasonably supportive and had a cool pattern on them that was accented with white piping.

Now, here’s the deal: This car is not a luxury product. There is a lot of stuff in this car to distract you from the fact that the build quality is absolutely appalling. General Motors has been on a weird hot streak when it comes to quality control as of late. The Chevy Suburban I drove earlier this summer was built well, and I’ve heard similar things from people who own C8 Corvettes and Escalades. Unfortunately, none of that can be said about the interior of the Encore GX. For every piece of “cutting edge” equipment, there was another piece of hard scratchy plastic and weird rubber buttons that attracted dirt and dead skin. It is obvious to keep in mind that this is a rental car, but it’s still a 2023 model with less than 47k on the odometer, so the level of interior rattling I experienced was disconcerting at the least. Other interior aspects that were less than pleasing include manual seat controls for the passenger, as well as an unpleasant backseat, This car is not tall people friendly.

The Buick Encore GX is the first General Motors product to be sold in the US with a 3cyl engine since the demise of the Geo Metro, and if that doesn’t tell you all you need to know about the driving mechanics, you should look up the Geo Metro. That 3cyl is a whopping 1.2 liters producing a dizzying 137hp and 167lb of torque going through a CVT transmission that puts the power to the front wheels. There is the option for a larger 13. liter 3cyl that comes with a 9-speed automatic only available on all-wheel-drive models. The base model gets the 1.2. Putting your foot down produced more noise and less go than asking a lazy teenager to go take out the trash. It’s louder than any 3cyl has any right to be and considering what General Motors did with the V6 Camero, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were pumping fake engine noises into the cabin. At least it drowns out the rattling. I do get though, how this isn’t meant to be a sporty car, hell I couldn’t even find any sort of “sport mode” to put it in, only the traction control off button which I’m sure doesn’t turn it off. Because of this un-athletic nature, the Encore GX gets a respectable 29 city/32 hwy, which I’m sure is attributed to that engine and that engine only. Positives? Due to the lack of power, the Encore doesn’t suffer from understeer and has a fine enough ride that handled WIP Boston streets. Also, I don’t know where else I would put this, but the key to this car was a Chevy key, not a Buick key. Do with that what you will.

All in all, the 2023 Buick Encore GX is a crossover. Not a bad crossover, but far from a good one. If your calling is to live in a downtown row house, this might be the car for you. For everyone else, it will be nothing more than a blip on the radar of small crossovers that do nothing to set themselves apart from the crowd.

“Is that a Buick?” Yea, I’m surprised you noticed. Here’s your parking ticket.