2021 Buick Enclave

The 2021 Enclave is a carry-over year of the second generation (2018–2024, refreshed for 2022), and every trim from Preferred to Avenir uses the same naturally aspirated 3.6L V6 rated at 310 hp.

Peak torque of the sole 3.6L V6, unchanged for 2021; adequate but modest for a 4,700+ lb three-row, with the peak arriving high enough that the nine-speed downshifts often under load.

Quick for a mainstream-premium three-row crossover — the naturally aspirated V6 gives it a real advantage over the four-cylinder turbos that dominate the class.

The naturally aspirated V6 has no turbo lag to manage and no hybrid handoffs to smooth, so delivery is linear and quiet at cruise — reviewers consistently call it well matched to the Enclave's mission, though it gets audibly coarse when revved toward its high torque and power peaks.

The GM nine-speed automatic shifts smoothly and unobtrusively in normal driving, but with peak torque high in the rev range it hunts and drops multiple gears for passing; 2021 keeps the conventional column-mounted lever (the push-button selector arrived with the 2022 refresh).

Properly equipped, the Enclave matches the best of the unibody three-row class at 5,000 lbs — but that rating requires the optional Trailering Package, and a Preferred-trim buyer cannot get it at all.

AWD is an option rather than standard and is unavailable on the base Preferred trim — and 2021 is specifically the year GM deleted the twin-clutch rear-differential AWD system that had been standard on AWD-equipped Premium and Avenir models for 2018–2020, leaving a conventional single-clutch on-demand setup with no torque vectoring and no low range.

A pavement-first luxury crossover: roughly 7.7–8.0 in of ground clearance, no skid plates, no lockers, no terrain or off-road drive modes, no off-road trim, and for 2021 not even the torque-vectoring rear differential — gravel roads and snowy driveways are the limit.

One engine, one transmission, take it or leave it — the 3.6L V6 and nine-speed automatic are the entire 2021 offering, with no turbo four, no hybrid and no plug-in anywhere in the range; the only drivetrain choice is FWD versus AWD.

A 4,700 lb three-row on a naturally aspirated V6 with no electrification anywhere in the range — 21 MPG combined is mid-pack for a large gas crossover and well behind the turbo-four and hybrid rivals in the segment.

City economy is the Enclave's weakest figure — mass plus a naturally aspirated V6 with no hybrid assist or engine-off capability beyond auto stop/start.

The tall nine-speed top gears and relaxed cruising manners make the highway number the Enclave's best — respectable for a large three-row, though still short of hybrid competitors.

Roughly 400 miles between fills for the volume FWD configuration — adequate for family road-trip duty, and the AWD models actually go farther because GM fits them a notably larger tank.

One of the higher running costs in the mid-size SUV set, a direct consequence of the 21 MPG combined figure; the saving grace is that it burns regular rather than premium.

The 3.6L V6 runs on regular 87-octane unleaded across every trim including Avenir — no premium surcharge, which meaningfully offsets the mediocre MPG in real per-mile cost against premium-fuel rivals.

NHTSA rated both the 2021 Enclave FWD and AWD at 5 stars overall, with 5 stars side, 4 stars frontal (5 driver / 4 passenger) and 4 stars rollover.

Every IIHS crashworthiness test the 2021 Enclave was rated in came back Good — driver- and passenger-side small overlap, moderate overlap, original side, roof strength and head restraints — but Marginal headlights on all four trims kept it off the Top Safety Pick list, and the later updated side test returned only Acceptable for this structure.

On the volume Essence trim the only driver aids standard are Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and the HD rear camera — no automatic emergency braking, no forward collision alert, no lane keep assist and no adaptive cruise at any price. The base Preferred has none of it, and the whole suite is locked behind Premium/Avenir; Buick itself only made it standard fleet-wide with the 2022 refresh.

Where fitted the system performs well — IIHS rated front crash prevention Superior vehicle-to-vehicle and Advanced/Superior for daytime pedestrian detection — but it is optional equipment absent from the two lower-volume-price trims, and there is no rated nighttime pedestrian capability.

Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert and Rear Cross Traffic Alert are standard from Essence up, which covers most of the volume — but it is warning-only, with no rear cross-traffic braking, no safe-exit alert, and nothing at all on the base Preferred.

Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning only appears on Premium and Avenir as part of Driver Confidence Plus, so the volume Essence has no lane assistance whatsoever, and no trim offers lane centering — the system is a nudge-back-from-the-line assist, not a centering aid.

Adaptive cruise control is a top-trim-only extra: it comes solely in the roughly $2,095 Avenir Technology Package, so three of four trims — including the volume Essence — are stuck with fixed-speed cruise. The full-speed-range system itself is competent when equipped, but there is no highway assist layered on top of it.

No hands-free highway system is offered — GM's Super Cruise was confined to Cadillac for the 2021 model year and was never fitted to the second-generation Enclave.

IIHS rated the 2021 Enclave's headlights Marginal on every trim — the single reason an otherwise all-Good crash performer earned no award — and IntelliBeam auto high beams are limited to Premium and Avenir. LED projectors are standard, but the beam pattern is the problem, not the source.

The Enclave's tall, upright greenhouse and large side glass give better-than-average forward and quarter sightlines for a three-row crossover, and camera help is broad — but HD Surround Vision is standard only on Avenir, the thick D-pillars and third-row headrests pinch the rearward view, and the base Preferred makes do with a plain rear camera.

IIHS rates LATCH ease of use Acceptable, with two full LATCH positions and three tether anchors; the wide rear doors and the standard second-row SmartSlide seat — which slides forward for third-row access with a child seat still installed on the passenger side — make it genuinely practical for families, though anchor access itself takes some digging.

GM markets the 2021 Enclave as seating up to seven across all four trims, using a split second-row bench plus a 50/50 third row; ordering the captain's chairs trades a seat for walk-through access and drops capacity to six.

Every 2021-model-year specification database carries 41.0 in / 1,041 mm for the first row, and the same figure runs back through the whole pre-refresh second generation (2018–2021). Note that GM's later spec sheet for the 2022-refresh car publishes front headroom differently — 42.6 in without moonroof and 41.2 in with — so the single 41.0 in figure quoted for 2021 is not directly comparable to the 2022+ without-moonroof number.

41.2 in is unremarkable for a 204.3-inch-long three-row — the Enclave spends its 120.9-inch wheelbase on the second and third rows rather than on the driver, so front legroom sits near the bottom of the SUV band.

Second-row headroom of 39.9 in is at the top of the SUV band, and the third row still clears 37.6 in — the Enclave's flat roofline is spent on rear passengers rather than on styling.

38.9 in in the second row is generous for the class, and the more telling figure is the 33.5 in behind it — roughly half a foot more third-row legroom than a Toyota Highlander, which is the basis of the Enclave's reputation as one of the roomiest three-rows sold. The 2022 refresh later re-published second-row legroom as 38.3 in.

A genuinely usable third row rather than a token bench: 33.5 in of legroom and 37.6 in of headroom mean teens and average adults fit, and 23.6 cu ft of cargo remains behind it so a full load of people still leaves luggage space. Access is helped by the standard second-row SmartSlide seat, which slides forward even with a child seat installed on the passenger side, but the row folds manually on Preferred and Essence — the power-folding third row is an upper-trim item — and reviewers still frame adult occupancy as short-trip duty.

58.0 cu ft behind the second row is mid-pack for a large three-row crossover — the Enclave's cargo strength shows at the extremes rather than in the middle, with an unusually deep 23.6 cu ft still available with every seat occupied.

97.6 cu ft is near the top of the SUV band and close to minivan territory — the payoff for a 204.3-inch body with a squared-off cargo hold, and the single strongest number in this category.

Competent everyday storage with no headline idea, and 2021 gates the two features that would lift it: the wireless charging pad is Avenir-only and the 120-volt household outlet arrives with the Sound and Sites package / upper trims rather than as standard equipment. What every trim does get is a deep underfloor bin behind the third row, a large console bin and six USB ports spread two per row.

Long-haul comfort is the Enclave's core proposition and reviewers back it consistently — wide, softly cushioned seats that still support over distance, with heated front seats and eight-way power adjustment standard even on the base Preferred and perforated leather from Essence up. It sits below the 2022-refresh car because ventilated and massaging front seats, heated second-row outboard seats and the heated steering wheel all require the $49,595 Premium trim in 2021, and because reviewers find the materials short of the price.

Segment-leading compliance, and it does not depend on the options box — reviewers rate the ride excellent with or without the continuously variable real-time damping available in the Avenir Technology Package. Five-link independent rear suspension and tall-sidewall tires keep broken pavement away from occupants without the float that used to define the brand.

Among the quietest vehicles in the class — active noise cancellation is standard equipment and reviewers single out sound deadening as doing much of the work of making the cabin feel premium. The one intrusion is the naturally aspirated V6, which sounds stressed when worked hard: a powertrain-noise demerit rather than a wind or road one.

Unusually front-loaded onto the base trim — tri-zone automatic climate control with rear climate controls, heated front seats and remote start are all standard from the $41,495 Preferred. It lands below the refreshed car because in 2021 the heated steering wheel, ventilated front seats and heated second-row outboard seats all start at Premium (the 2022 refresh moved the heated wheel down to Essence), and app-based pre-conditioning needs a paid OnStar Remote Access plan once the trial lapses.

2021 is a carry-over year of the second generation (2018–2024) — GM had planned the mid-cycle refresh for 2021 but pushed it to the 2022 model year — and the four-trim lineup still opens with the Preferred grade that would be dropped a year later, at $40,000 plus $1,195 destination. That entry point is roughly $2,850 below the 2022 Essence-led lineup and puts the Enclave at the cheap end of the premium three-row field.

Essence is the volume trim — Preferred is a thinly stocked FWD-only price leader, and Essence is the first grade with leather-appointed front and second rows, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and lane change alert. AWD is a $2,000 option with a high take rate in this segment, giving a typical transaction configuration of $42,000 + $2,000 + $1,195 destination.

CarEdge's $2,979 five-year figure is maintenance-weighted and reads low for this vehicle: RepairPal measures the Enclave nameplate at $720/yr against a $573 mid-size-SUV average and rates both the frequency and severity of repairs above normal, ranking it 24th of 26. The 3.6L LFY V6 and nine-speed automatic are the same mature-but-not-trouble-free pairing as the rest of the generation, and years four and five fall outside the 3 yr/36,000 mi bumper-to-bumper term.

The 2021 cars are now actually five years old, so this is a measured figure rather than a projection: KBB puts the Essence at a $20,000 fair purchase price against a $43,195 original MSRP (46% retained) with private-party values several points lower, and iSeeCars measures 58.5% five-year depreciation for the nameplate (41.5% retained). Splitting those lands at about 44% — among the weakest retention in the segment, and the single biggest line in this vehicle's ownership cost.

Buick cut bumper-to-bumper coverage from 4 years/50,000 miles to 3 years/36,000 miles for the 2020 model year and 2021 is unchanged — the floor of the normalization band, matched by Toyota and Honda but far short of the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride (both 5 yr/60,000 mi) the Enclave competes against on price.

Powertrain coverage is 5 years/60,000 miles, reduced from 6 years/70,000 miles for the 2020 model year and unchanged for 2021 — the bottom of the band and half the 10-year/100,000-mile coverage Hyundai and Kia extend to original owners. Rust-through runs 6 yr/100,000 mi and roadside assistance runs with the powertrain term.

Buick includes exactly one complimentary scheduled service visit — oil and filter change, four-tire rotation and multi-point inspection — redeemable within the first year, well short of ToyotaCare's 2 yr/25,000 mi or Hyundai's 3 yr/36,000 mi. Roadside assistance and Courtesy Transportation run with the 5 yr/60,000 mi powertrain term, and the connected-services grant is thin for 2021: the built-in hotspot ships with only a 3 GB or one-month data trial, whichever ends first, alongside a multi-year OnStar Remote Access Plan for remote start and lock through the myBuick app. The 8-year OnStar Basics grant did not arrive until the 2025 model year.

$45,195 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (44% retained, or about $19,886) leaves about $25,309 in depreciation. Add the projected $6,500 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $31,809 in total.

2021 is the last year of the pre-refresh second generation (2018-2024) and a carry-over year — GM pushed the planned 2021 refresh back to 2022 — so the forecast at launch was the weak half of the story: J.D. Power predicted reliability of 78/100 sits in its 'Average' 70-80 band, and CR's own 2/5 predicted-reliability rating on the 2020-2021 cars is what cost the following 2022 model its Recommended status in November 2021. Owner data has since gone the other way: CR now places the 2021 Enclave on its list of most reliable five-year-old midsize SUVs on above-average dependability, and 80% of surveyed owners recommend it, naming quality and reliability its strongest features. Scored a little under the 2022 car because the same forecast/outcome split applies while the J.D. Power figure is a notch lower (78 vs 81) and the pre-refresh year carries the brake and transmission bulletins in their most active period.

Buick's dependability standing around the 2021 model year is genuinely top-five and agreed on by both major surveys, which is rare for a domestic brand: 5th of 32 in the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study at 100 PP100 (tied with Cadillac, behind only Lexus, Porsche, Kia and Toyota), and 5th of 28 in Consumer Reports' November 2021 reliability ranking — the only domestic make in that top ten. Held below the 2022 car's mark because the initial-quality half of the record is merely respectable rather than exceptional in this year: 156 PP100 in the 2021 IQS is above the 162 industry average but mid-pack overall and second among GM's own brands, a full year before Buick's 2022 leap to first place.

Two recalls, both airbag-deployment defects, and both shared with the Chevrolet Traverse: incorrect frontal-airbag calibration software installed during dealer service, and roof-rail curtain airbag harness connectors with incompatible terminals. Neither is a large or systemic campaign, but a safety-restraint failure-to-deploy is the serious end of the recall scale and there are two of them, against one for the 2022 car. The bulletin record is the more telling part — the front brake grind/groan after an overnight sit drew TSB 21-NA-142 and PIT5805B with a pad replacement as the fix, GM issued fluid-flush bulletins for 9T65 torque-converter shudder, and coolant/oil leaks drew their own — and owner complaints run about double the following year's at 25, clustering on brakes (6) and electrical (5).

The engine is the sound half: the naturally aspirated 3.6L LFY V6 (310 hp) is a mature member of GM's high-feature V6 family with years of high-mileage fleet service and no systemic failure mode, and 2021 changes nothing about it. The 9T65 nine-speed automatic is what holds this mid-band — its documented mode is torque-converter clutch slip producing shudder at a 30-60 mph steady cruise, described by owners as driving over a rumble strip, plus slow lockup and harsh 2-3/4-5 shifts under load, addressed by a fluid flush rather than a redesign. Reporting consistently notes the worst of it belongs to the 2018 launch builds and that it is less prevalent by 2021, and CR's problem areas for this car still list the drive system, which is why this sits above the midpoint but nowhere near the proven-powertrain band.

This is the weakest point of the 2021 car and precisely what the 2022 refresh set out to fix — the redressed dash, added soft-touch surfaces and standard first- and second-row leather all arrive a year later. On the 2021 the criticism is near-unanimous and reaches all the way up the range: low-grade plastics on switches and panels that squeak against each other on base cars, wood trim on higher trims that still feels flimsy, and reviewers noting abundant cheap materials even on an Avenir approaching $60k. There are real bright spots — a soft-wrapped curved dashboard and a quiet cabin — but this item is price-relative and the Enclave is a Premium-class vehicle whose cabin reviewers place below mainstream three-row rivals costing less.

Initial quality is fine but unremarkable for 2021 — Buick's 156 PP100 in the J.D. Power 2021 IQS beats the 162 industry average and leads GMC and Cadillac, but it is mid-pack across the industry and second within GM, a very different picture from the brand-topping 139 PP100 the 2022 car banks. The vehicle-specific record is what keeps this in the middle band: CR lists squeaks, rattles, wind noise, seals/weatherstripping and air and water leaks as documented problem areas on the 2021, alongside suspension/body integrity, and owner reports include hardware as basic as a captain's chair that rattles. Assembly at Lansing Delta Township is in its fourth year on this body by 2021, which argues against anything worse than scattered complaints.

2021 catches Buick's network at full strength and near the top of the service rankings: roughly 2,000 US franchises — the count still stood at 1,958 entering 2023, before GM's EV-transition buyout cut it nearly in half — and a 2nd-place finish among all mass-market brands in the J.D. Power 2021 Customer Service Index at 859, five points off MINI's lead and ahead of Mitsubishi, GMC and Kia. Most stores are dual Buick-GMC points, so a GM service bay is close at hand almost anywhere in the country. Short of the top band because the CSI measures dealer service satisfaction specifically rather than the whole ownership experience, and Buick's showing in CR's owner-satisfaction survey over the same period is markedly cooler.

Availability is not the issue — the Enclave shares its C1XX platform, 3.6L LFY V6 and 9T65 nine-speed with the high-volume Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia, so component commonality is high, GM's parts distribution is broad, and independent shops stock what the car needs. Cost is: RepairPal puts the Enclave's average annual repair and maintenance spend at $720, well above the $608 Buick brand average and further above the midsize-SUV norm, and while shop visits are infrequent at 0.3 per year, a 13% chance any given repair is a major one on a three-row crossover with a nine-speed automatic is what pulls this into the lower half of the middle band.

One 8-inch screen for the whole range, with no larger display available at any price; that was merely small in 2021 and sits near the bottom of the SUV band.

GM's Buick Infotainment System is one of the easier mainstream systems to live with — logical tile layout, quick response, and real knobs and hard buttons for volume, tuning and climate rather than everything buried in touch menus. It is held back by the small 8-inch canvas and by a feature set reviewers already found thin in 2021, with no smart-assistant integration.

Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard on all four trims, which covers the volume buyer, but no wireless projection is offered anywhere in the 2021 range — Buick added wireless CarPlay and Android Auto only with the 2022 refresh, so a 2021 buyer plugs in every trip.

Embedded navigation is standard only on the top Avenir and is an extra-cost option on Essence and Premium — the base Preferred cannot have it at all — and the built-in voice control is command-word driven rather than natural language, so most owners default to CarPlay or Google Maps. Connected traffic and OnStar turn-by-turn partially compensate where a service plan is active.

The volume Essence ships with a plain six-speaker system; the Bose performance-enhanced ten-speaker setup is standard only from Premium up and is an option package on Essence. Reviewers rate the Bose system as merely adequate against premium-branded rivals, so neither end of the range is a strength.

Conventional analog gauges with a small colour driver information centre between them on Preferred through Premium; only the Avenir gets the 8-inch reconfigurable display, and even that is a large DIC inside an analog cluster rather than a true full-digital instrument panel. The trims most buyers purchase are effectively analog.

The 2021 Enclave predates GM's Vehicle Intelligence Platform, so over-the-air updates reach the infotainment and OnStar/telematics modules only — bug fixes and connectivity improvements delivered over the built-in data connection or Wi-Fi. There is no whole-vehicle OTA that adds driving features the way a VIP-architecture GM product or a Tesla does.

The myBuick app covers the core set — remote start and cancel, lock/unlock, vehicle locate, diagnostics — and the hardware is standard, since remote start is fitted from the base Preferred up. Two things keep it mid-band: the remote commands need a paid OnStar Remote Access plan once the included trial lapses, and there is no phone-as-key or digital key on the 2021 Enclave.

The port count is generous — six USB ports, two per row, so nobody is stranded — but the hardware is dated: they are USB-A, the front pair is only a 1-amp data connection and the rear rows are 2.1-amp charge-only, with no USB-C anywhere. Wireless charging is Avenir-only and the 120-volt household outlet arrives with upper trims and the Sound and Sites package, so the volume Essence has neither.

The convenience basics are standard on every trim including the base Preferred: keyless open with push-button start, remote start, and a hands-free power-programmable liftgate that opens with a foot motion and remembers its height setting. Short of the top band only because there is no phone-as-key or digital key option in 2021.

Better than the class baseline at the bottom of the range — an HD rear vision camera and rear park assist are standard even on Preferred — but the good stuff climbs the ladder: HD Surround Vision is standard only on Avenir and optional on Essence and Premium, front park assist arrives only inside Driver Confidence Plus on Premium and Avenir, the rear camera mirror is Avenir-only, and no trim offers automated parking.

No head-up display is offered on any 2021 Enclave trim at any price — Buick added the optional HUD only with the 2022 mid-cycle refresh.

Strong family logistics: wide rear door openings, a standard second-row SmartSlide seat that slides forward for third-row access with a child seat still installed on the passenger side, a standard hands-free power liftgate for stroller loading, and 23.6 cu ft of cargo left behind the third row with all seven seats occupied. IIHS rates the LATCH hardware itself only Acceptable — two full LATCH positions and three tether anchors, with the anchors taking some digging.

The crash results are there but the driver aids are not on the trims families buy. The 2021 Enclave earns 5 stars overall from NHTSA and Good in every IIHS crashworthiness test, yet automatic emergency braking, forward collision alert, lane keep assist and front pedestrian braking all live in Driver Confidence Plus, standard only on the $49,595 Premium and above — the volume Essence gets blind-spot and cross-traffic warning and nothing else, and adaptive cruise requires a $2,095 package on the Avenir. Marginal headlights on all four trims cost it any IIHS award. This is precisely the gap Buick closed by making the suite standard for 2022.

Genuinely good all-row provision for long days: tri-zone automatic climate with dedicated rear controls standard on every trim, USB ports in all three rows, a quiet cabin with standard active noise cancellation, real third-row space at 33.5 in of legroom, and 23.6 cu ft of luggage room with every seat filled. It stops short of the top band because there is no rear-seat entertainment option, heated second-row seats start at Premium, and the rear USB ports are low-power charge-only.

Low-effort in traffic: the naturally aspirated 3.6L V6 has no turbo lag to manage and no hybrid handoffs to smooth, the nine-speed shifts unobtrusively at commuting speeds, the ride is soft, the cabin is quiet, and the seating position is high with good forward sightlines. Reviewers repeatedly note it 'drives like a smaller SUV'. The demerits are the absence of adaptive cruise on anything but a packaged Avenir, which is exactly what would help most in stop-and-go traffic.

An expensive way to commute alone. The 3.6L V6 returns 21 MPG combined FWD and 20 MPG with AWD with no hybrid, turbo-four or plug-in alternative anywhere in the range, putting EPA annual fuel cost around $2,950. Regular unleaded and mainstream GM consumables are the only mitigation.

A 204.3-inch, 78.8-inch-wide body with a 39.0-foot turning circle is a genuine handful in a city garage, and it is 20-inch wheels on most trims. Camera and sensor help is better than average at the entry point — an HD rear camera and rear park assist are standard even on Preferred — but front park assist requires Premium and HD Surround Vision is standard only on Avenir, and no trim offers automated parking.

Light duty only. Properly equipped with the Trailering Package it tows 5,000 lbs — competitive for a unibody three-row — but that drops to 1,500 lbs without the package, which the base Preferred cannot even order, and payload is roughly 1,700–1,825 lbs. There is no bed, no low range, and the V6 works audibly hard under load.

The mechanical package is proven — GM's LGX 3.6L V6 and nine-speed automatic are shared across a wide swathe of the corporate range and the Lambda/C1XX platform underpins the high-volume Traverse — but the Enclave itself is sold as a premium family vehicle with leather trim and carpeted surfaces and has no fleet or work-duty reputation to draw on.

Very little that is work-oriented: cargo tie-downs and a flat-folding load floor are about the extent of it. The 120-volt household outlet is not standard — it arrives with the upper trims and the Sound and Sites package — there is no onboard generator capability, roof cross rails are a dealer accessory rather than factory equipment, and every interior surface is carpet or leather rather than something washable.

Strong on the parts that come from the hardware — a plush, well-controlled ride, a quiet cabin with standard active noise cancellation, wide supportive seats, and roughly 400 miles of range from a 19.4-gallon tank (about 434 miles for AWD's larger tank). What holds it out of the top band is the fatigue-reduction technology: adaptive cruise control is a $2,095 option on the Avenir alone, there is no lane centering on any trim, and no hands-free highway system.

Gravel roads and a bike rack, not much beyond. Ground clearance is 7.7 in, there are no skid plates, no lockers and no terrain modes, AWD is an option that the base Preferred cannot have, and 2021 is specifically the year GM deleted the twin-clutch torque-vectoring rear differential that AWD Premium and Avenir models carried for 2018–2020. In its favour: 5,000 lbs of towing with the Trailering Package for a small camper or boat, flush roof side rails ready for accessory cross bars, and a 97.6 cu ft load bay that swallows camping gear.

One of the Enclave's genuine strengths: 97.6 cu ft with both rear rows folded is close to minivan territory, 58.0 cu ft is available with the second row up, the load floor folds essentially flat, there is a deep underfloor bin behind the third row, flush side rails accept accessory cross bars, and a hitch comes with the Trailering Package. Only a power-folding third row being an upper-trim item keeps it from the very top.

Composed and predictable rather than engaging — reviewers consistently note it never feels ponderous for a 4,400–4,700 lb three-row and that it 'drives like a smaller SUV', with the optional continuously variable real-time damping tightening body control further. But it is tuned unambiguously for comfortable cruising over cornering, and 2021 specifically lost the twin-clutch torque-vectoring rear differential that gave AWD Premium and Avenir models their sharpest turn-in for 2018–2020.

Accurate and consistently weighted — light enough to make a 204-inch body easy at parking speeds, firm enough to be stable at highway speed — but slow-geared and short on feedback. Reviewers explicitly ask for a quicker ratio, which is the definition of secure-but-numb.

Adequate and easy to modulate — reviewers describe sturdy brakes that bring the car to a smooth stop and cite braking response as part of its composed feel — but no instrumented 60–0 figure is published for the 2021 car, and there is nothing about the setup (no performance-oriented hardware, considerable mass, comfort-biased all-season tires) that suggests better than class-typical stopping.

The naturally aspirated 3.6L V6 has no turbo lag to mask and no hybrid handoffs to blend, so tip-in is linear and the nine-speed shifts smoothly and unobtrusively in normal driving. It is quick for the class at roughly 6.7 s to 60 mph. The reservation is that with peak torque high in the rev range the transmission hunts and drops multiple gears when asked to pass.

Near-silent at cruise thanks to standard active noise cancellation and heavy sound deadening, with no vibration through the controls. The V6 is the one weak point in an otherwise hushed cabin: worked hard it becomes audible and sounds strained rather than sonorous, which is a powertrain-noise demerit rather than a wind or road one.

39.0 ft is mid-pack in the SUV band and unremarkable for a 204.3-inch body on a 120.9-inch wheelbase — enough to require a shuffle in a tight parking structure but no worse than its direct three-row rivals.

A commanding, upright seating position with 41.0 in of headroom, a tall greenhouse and large side glass gives better-than-average sightlines for a three-row, and the infotainment keeps real knobs and hard buttons for volume, tuning and climate rather than burying them in the 8-inch screen. Eight-way power driver adjustment is standard from the base trim, though the power tilt-and-telescoping column only arrives on Premium and 41.2 in of front legroom is modest for the class.

Not the point of the car and it does not pretend otherwise: soft damping, slow steering, a V6 reviewers call uninspiring, no drive-mode personality beyond the standard Interactive Drive Control, no sport trim and nothing in the sound to enjoy. It is a pleasant, competent appliance for covering distance in comfort.

2021 is the year before the content story changed, and the gap shows: Buick's own fast-facts sheet puts the Driver Confidence Plus package — forward collision alert, automatic emergency braking, front pedestrian braking, lane keep assist, IntelliBeam and front park assist — as standard only on Premium and Avenir, so a $43,195 Essence gets blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic and lane change alert but has to pay extra for automatic braking, and adaptive cruise is Avenir-only. What is standard is genuinely good — 8-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, LED headlamps on every trim, tri-zone climate, hands-free power liftgate, six USB ports, seven-passenger seating with the SmartSlide second row, leather on Essence — but by 2021 Palisade, Telluride, Highlander and Pilot all included AEB at the base price.

The 2021 car is the cheapest version of this generation to buy — $41,195 to start, about $2,850 under the 2022 lineup — and the money buys a 310-hp V6, near-full-size passenger and cargo room and an adult-usable third row that mainstream rivals cannot match. Against that, it asks premium money while sharing its Lambda-successor bones with a materially cheaper Chevrolet Traverse, the 8-inch screen and interior plastics were already behind Palisade and Telluride, automatic emergency braking is a paid extra at Essence money, and it is one of the thirstiest vehicles in the class. Fair value, helped rather than made by the price.

2021 is the broader of this generation's two lineup structures: four trims — Preferred, Essence, Premium, Avenir — spanning roughly $16,000, with AWD a $2,000 step on Essence and above and the Preferred a FWD-only price leader, plus the Sport Touring appearance treatment. The extra entry point that 2022 would delete is a real advantage for budget buyers. Still held back by a single 3.6L V6 / nine-speed powertrain with no hybrid or turbo-four alternative and seven-seat layouts only, so the choice is about equipment level rather than configuration.

2021 was the strongest year of the second generation's back half — about 42,000 US deliveries, up roughly 9 percent year over year and rising through the year despite the semiconductor shortage, with Q2 more than doubling against the pandemic-crushed 2020 quarter and Q4 placing second in its GM-defined segment. Volume fell 28 percent the following year on supply, not demand. Even at its best, though, this is a mid-pack niche seller against Palisade, Telluride and Highlander, which each move well over 100,000 units.

2021 sits just before Buick's rebrand — the flat tri-shield logo and the design reset arrived over 2022–2023 — so this car wears the older waterfall-grille identity of a near-luxury badge skewing to older buyers, without the aspirational pull of Acura, Lexus or Genesis. J.D. Power dependability standing for the brand is consistently strong and owner sentiment is warm, but the market prices the badge plainly: the Enclave's residuals sit at the bottom of its class and below its own Chevrolet twin.

The 2021 Enclave is the better buy of this generation on price paid rather than price asked. It launched into the aggressive late-2020 GM incentive environment — long 0% financing terms and deferred-payment programs carried over from the pandemic push — and GM kept discounting it hard even after the chip shortage turned the market into a seller's one, with cash allowances of $3,750 to $4,000 still on the 2021 model into early 2022 while most of the industry was transacting above sticker. Short of the best-in-class score only because the second half of 2021 saw inventory thin enough to limit real dealer negotiability.

This is the low point of the second generation for freshness: the fourth model year of a platform launched for 2018, with only trim-and-package shuffling for 2021 (the Driver Confidence packages were renamed Safety and Driver Confidence Plus, and some Premium options were repackaged) and no styling, powertrain or infotainment change. Worse for a buyer, the refresh was publicly known to be imminent — Buick had originally intended it as a 2021 car and GM pushed it to 2022 — so this year's buyer took delivery of the outgoing look months before the LED-lit facelift with standard driver assist arrived.

Well-reviewed without being anyone's outright pick, with one genuinely strong showing: Consumer Reports ranked it the second-best luxury midsize/large SUV of 2021 behind the BMW X7, praising a third row usable by adults without punishing the second. Elsewhere it lands mid-pack — reviewers consistently credit space, ride quietness and the standard V6 and consistently mark down the uninspired cabin materials, thirsty EPA figures and paid-extra safety kit. No 10Best, no NACTOY, and not an IIHS Top Safety Pick: it rates Good across the older crashworthiness tests but only Acceptable in the updated side impact.