The 2024 Buick Envision is soon joining the roster of America's oldest auto brand that's still active today. After enjoying some recent success in China, the GM family member wants to make you fall in love with the tri-shield logo. Here's how.
Today, crossover SUVs are some of the most sought-after vehicle body types. After all, the Tesla Model Y was the world's best-selling vehicle in the first quarter of 2023. However, for Buick, this year marks a return to a strong belief in the promise of the American market.
According to Cox Auto and Kelly Blue Book, Buick has the most outstanding sales change to the upside – it sold nearly 80% more vehicles between January and May 2023 than in the same period of last year. Existing dealer inventory played an essential part in this achievement. Still, it also underlines that Americans are ready to consider Buick again if it can deliver vehicles in a timely manner and without hassle or upsetting dealer markups.
The current-generation Buick Envision has been around since 2020 and was due for a refresh. Sadly, it didn't help GM much with sales in 2022. Deliveries of the Chinese-made crossover decreased to around 25,800 units. But now there's a chance that Envision will be turned into a champion.
Buick confirmed with this announcement that the images published a month ago in China by the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology were somewhat correct. The facelifted crossover headed for the American market is shown in this first glimpse in the top-of-the-line Avenir trim. As such, we get a good look at a new grille pattern, larger wheels, and orange side markers.
The refreshed 2024 Buick Envision borrows a couple of definitory traits from the Encore GX and the Envista, which tells us this update is comprehensive. The front fascia looks contemporary yet minimalistic. At the same time, it does not hint that it might have been styled just for the sake of it. This crossover SUV seems to have all it needs to compete with its rivals – including painted wheel arches.
Dare we say that it even looks attractive in this Moonstone Gray Metallic paint? It gives off a serious yet playful vibe, but we'll let you be the judge of that. Maybe it's too early to position ourselves on one side or the other.
Photo: Buick
The new hood and the sculpted body are a dig at the Wildcat EV concept, which sadly will not enter production. Split headlights are present, but the daytime-running lights are now slimmer and better looking.
Buick also gives us a look inside, where we see the Super Cruise in action. The optionally available hands-free driver-assistance system works on 400,000 miles of pre-mapped U.S. and Canadian roads. Besides that, we also see leather and elegant stitching. Even though the interior shot does not show it, we're confident that two displays are merged on top of the dashboard, as we've previously seen on older Mercedes-Benz models or current Hyundai vehicles.
The complete details about the 2024 Buick Envision will come later this year. We'll see if the price tag will match the "attainable luxury" expression GM plastered over Buick. It would be a shame if it did not. One thing's for sure, though – the Mazdesque look is gone.
Finally, a piece of trivia for Buick fans – since GM returned Opel to the Europeans, the Envision never got to become the new Antara. But maybe that was for the better.
Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one. Full profile
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