The Buick Enclave strikes a captivating profile, and the interior doesn’t disappoint either with luxurious surfaces, comfortable seating, and an exceedingly quiet cabin the overriding personality traits. For a midsize crossover, the 119-inch wheelbase Enclave is surprisingly nimble with ride and handling attributes devoid of jarring jumps and side-to-side sways. Getting to the third row bench seat doesn’t require gymnastics agility. A quick tug of a second row seat-handle flips up the seat bottom while the seatback slides forward, providing a passageway to the 60/40-split third row bench seat. The cabin’s instrument panel and dashboard controls are easy-to-read, but not necessarily easy-to-comprehend—namely the oddly marked vent mode selection button for heat or air conditioning.

Powering the Enclave is a 3.6-liter V6 that produces 288 horsepower at 6300 rpm and 270 lbs-ft of torque at 3400 rpm. The engine mates to a 6-speed automatic transmission with manual shift control. During a one-week test drive, the engine/transmission combination struggled to give the all-wheel-drive Enclave extra-oomph during passing situations. Enclave can be transformed into a cargo-beast. With second row seat folded and the third row seat and cargo management system removed, Enclave serves up more than 115 cubic feet of space behind the first row. Sold in front wheel drive or all-wheel-drive in CX and CXL versions, the Enclave is essentially unchanged from the 2010 model year. The all-wheel-drive Buick Enclave CXL-2 collects estimated mpg of 16 city/22 highway and carries a MSRP of $44,095.