Do you enjoy driving? It’s an honest question; some people have fun, while it’s nothing more than tedious for others. Perhaps you’re indifferent, but fondly remember your excitement as you got behind the wheel of your first car for the first several times and have since lost that spark. The 2025 Buick Enclave will forever change your life, regardless of what your daily drive looks like. It could be the boost you need to turn driving into one of your favorite hobbies instead of a chore or help you relive the feeling of freedom and eagerness to hit the road every time you leave the house. I’ll take you through some of the more fascinating additions to this year’s Enclave. There’s a lot, so let’s get into it, and then you can go to your local Buick dealer and experience it for yourself.
The Return of the Preferred Trim
Think about a hamburger, but don’t get carried away because I still need you here for a moment. If you consider a base Kia Sorento—one of the cheapest three-row SUVs—a plain hamburger, then the 2025 Buick Enclave Preferred is a deluxe cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, grilled onion, ketchup, and mustard. Bacon, too, because you enjoy treating yourself.
Enough food analogies, for my sake—the 2025 Buick Enclave Preferred is one of the most feature-rich base models you can buy. It’s also one of the largest three-row SUVs on the market, with its 23.6 cu.ft. of cargo space always available. Folding down the third row increases this to 57.7 cu.ft. and is boosted once more to 97.4 cu.ft. if the second row is folded, too.
Accessing the storage area is easy, even when your hands are full, thanks to the standard hands-free power liftgate. Lifting your foot above the bumper will open the liftgate if your key fob is near you. No more placing groceries on the ground to open the door. Or my favorite, which I’ve lost count of how many times it’s happened to me: when you place a coffee on your roof and forget to take it down before driving away…
The Preferred is a returning trim, last seen with the 2021 Enclave before the Essence took over for a few years. The Essence is completely removed from the lineup with the 2025 Enclave’s launch. The Sport Touring is another new trim introduced alongside the Preferred. However, names aren’t everything that’s changed for the Enclave’s trims—a turbocharged 2.5L I-4 engine is now standard instead of the previously utilized 3.6L V6 engine.
New Year, New Performance
The introduction of a turbocharged engine increases horsepower and torque output even further. The 2025 Enclave outputs 328 hp and 326 lb-ft of torque. This is a 23% uptick in torque throughput, complementing a 6% horsepower lift over its predecessor.
Yes, the 8-speed automatic transmission has one less gear than last year’s Enclave. Don’t fret—the 2025 model makes up for it by being more fuel-efficient with both front-wheel drive (FWD) and all-wheel drive (AWD) drivetrains. The 2025 Enclave Preferred has EPA-estimated ratings of 20 MPG in the city, 27 MPG on the highway, and 23 MPG combined with FWD; 19 MPG in the city, 24 MPG on the highway, and 21 MPG combined with AWD. It retains the Enclave’s pre-existing towing capacity of 5,000 lbs despite being less fuel-hungry.
“Back” in the Day
Sitting all day sounds like a dream come true for anyone who constantly uses their feet. However, sitting for prolonged periods is unhealthy for your back without proper ergonomics. Do you know what activity involves sitting? Yup, driving. Do you know what’s required for necessary back ergonomics? Lumbar support.
I wouldn’t say I’m “old” because power-adjustable seats have been available to the masses for as long as I’ve been alive. However, that doesn’t mean I’ve always been around them. I’ve driven a vehicle with a driver’s seat that has done no favors for me and my stupid lower back, and I wish to tell you about it briefly.
Heed my warning, car shoppers with healthy—for now—backs: you shouldn’t buy a vehicle without a great chair. You might already know this from experience. The problem nobody ever talks about is that chairs can be deceiving—I’m great at parties if you couldn’t tell. You may find it comfortable when you initially sit. You may even continue finding it comfortable for 15-20 minutes. However, drive for an hour or more, and the seat can become bothersome if the chair is not contoured to your back or the chair’s available positions leave plenty to be desired. Of course, this isn’t the case with the Enclave.
It’s likely no surprise when I say the seats in my first car didn’t have power-adjustable controls. The chairs in my base Toyota Camry were manually adjustable all the way, baby! Lumbar support? No, but that’s where the old-fashioned external lumbar pillow comes into play. But do you know what? I’m glad to have experienced basic seats like these. Why is that? Because it makes me truly grateful that brands like Buick exist. After all, they seem to get the memo: you can’t feel luxurious with back pain.
The Preferred says, “Forget about it,” if you mention manually adjustable chairs. You’ll get 8-way and 6-way power-adjustable chairs for the driver and front-row passenger, respectively, and both seats have 4-way power-lumbar support. These are also heated seats. A heated steering wheel is standard for good measure. For a base model? You don’t need me to tell you how great that is. I’m the perfect candidate for power-lumbar support because I don’t get along with my lower back—if you haven’t pieced this together by now.
The craziest part is that I haven’t even discussed the crème de la crème of seating features for the 2025 Buick Enclave. The Avenir trim introduces massaging front seats. Over the top? You know it! It doesn’t bother me, though, nor the nearly half of all Americans who would love nothing more than a chair that massages their tight backs on the way home after a long day of hard work.
An Impressive 30-Inch Ultra-Wide Display
The standard 30-inch screen in each 2025 Enclave is one of my favorite features, and I’m sure it’ll be one of yours, too. I’m willing to bet you’re currently driving something unlike what this SUV has in store. The 30-inch screen in the 2025 Enclave is ultrawide, and ultrawide screens are naturally wider than taller, owing to an aspect ratio displaying more pixels horizontally than vertically. Let’s briefly discuss this and why it’s important in a car.
Think about watching a movie. Almost every movie is filmed in a widescreen aspect ratio. This is why you don’t see black bars on the top and bottom of the picture when viewing a film in a movie theater. This eventually culminated in the widescreen television movement of the early 2000s as people began seeking the movie theater viewing experience in the comfort of their own homes instead of the boxy full-screen sets popular at the time.
Fast forward to the 2010s, and especially the 2020s, there has been an influx of people using ultrawide computer monitors. However, computers aren’t primarily movie-watching machines, so having a wider screen allows for more applications or information to be displayed simultaneously. Why would this be any different in a vehicle where traditionally smaller infotainment centers could only display one app or limited information simultaneously?
The 30-inch ultrawide screen with your 2025 Enclave means you’ll always have access to everything you want and need, especially as the left half of the screen sits behind your steering wheel and serves as your digitized instrument cluster. There are almost too many features to mention, and you can spend hours getting lost in the sauce that is your vehicle’s jaw-dropping tech. You can select your Enclave’s static lights from a host of colors to set any mood with the screen, for example.
Creating a cohesive experience that spans the necessary screen real estate requires masterful design and engineering work. Features like Apple CarPlay or Android Auto could easily disrupt the design language Buick’s engineers are going for with this tech. This would be for no good reason because you can still perform practically every function you could with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Enclave’s infotainment center, just without requiring your smartphone. How is this possible? It’s thanks to the bustling implementation of Google built-in.
The Chevy Traverse—one of the Enclave’s competitors—retains Apple CarPlay because its similarly screen-focused interior is made of two screens: an 11-inch and 17.7-inch screen. This allows more distinction when the infotainment center is running third-party software, but it’s not Buick’s approach, and I believe Buick is making the right call. The Enclave has a more elegant approach that’s cleaner than the Traverse and equally, if not more, packed with features.
My Final Verdict
I won’t beat around the bush: I thoroughly enjoy the 2025 Buick Enclave. It’s no secret that manufacturers compete with one another. Yet, as we progress further into the 2020s, I can’t help but feel that too many manufacturers are beginning to play it safe instead of standing out from the crowd. Not Buick, and not the Enclave.
Listen, I know vehicles are becoming increasingly expensive to produce, and as a consumer, you know that cars have become pricier over the years. However, critics and customers alike recognize quality, whether in the form of comfort, convenience, aesthetics, you name it. The 2025 Enclave is a high-quality vehicle in every nook and cranny. While it may be pricier than the starting Traverse—you’re approaching the Enclave’s price anyway if you want a Traverse that holds a candle to it—it’s worth every dollar, and quality-driven shoppers know where to look.
