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MM Static-Inspection: 2017 Buick Envision
Well, since my local Chevy/Buick/GMC shop now has some Envisions in stock, I decided to stop by late this morning and check them out....at least visually, in a static-inspection. Because this is the first vehicle mass-produced in a Chinese plant to be marketed and sold in the United States, and I had never had a chance to check out a Chinese-built product, I especially wanted to concentrate on the overall fit/finish and general assembly quality. I decided, for several reasons, not to do any test-drives today....time constraints (I had spent a lot of time on simply the visual and seating inspections), lunch-hour traffic in a notoriously gridlocked area making for unsuitable conditions for a general test-drive, and the fact that, even in the middle of the day, I was rather tired and hungry after the inspections (I rested and had a nice lunch afterward at a nearby Olive Garden). My knee, after surgery, though generally much better than several weeks ago, also felt a little weak today, though not enough so to prevent a static-review (I had the knee-brace on, unlocked, this morning, just in case). So, I decided not to do a test-drive (or a full-review) today.....I can always do one later.
Several Envisions were on the lot......and a black one in the showroom, parked (where else LOL?).......between the smaller Buick Encore and larger Buick Enclave SUVs. (that showroom is huge, and they have maybe a dozen Chevy, Buick, and GMC products in it). In general exterior size, of course, the mid-sized Envision slots in between the other two Buick SUVs, though it is quite a bit narrower than the big Enclave, and, to my eyes, appears somewhat closer to the compact/subcompact Encore (I say subcompact because, though marketed as a compact SUV, dimensions, The Encore is done on the Chevy Sonic's subcompact platform). Some of the Envisions parked on the lot were shipped across the Pacific, from the plant without even their full price-stickers....they had printed stickers on them that said that full-pricing info was not available yet. So how about that?. Buick has got models in stock they can't even price........maybe the daily price going to depend on the dollar/Yuan exchange rate LOL. Then, of course, if Trump gets elected this fall, he wants (if possible) to put a 35% tariff on all goods produced overseas by American companies and imported back into the U.S.....yep, just like the Envision. But that's a political subject for another thread, not this one, and I won't get into that any further here.
(Just for the record, the black one parked in the showroom, which I spent more time on inspecting than the others, listed at around 45K, with a base price of 42K.)
For now, all U.S.-bound Envisions are assembled at the SAIC GM Dong Yue Foundry Plant, in Yantai, China. Just like many of you (yes, I read a lot of the same stuff), I have heard a number of horror-stories of Chinese plants producing automotive junk....much like the Korean plants of 25-30 years ago giving us Hyundai, Kia, and Daewoo products that were the butt of late-night jokes. Today, of course, Korean plants, and other plants around the world that produce Korean-badged vehicles, can compete with almost anyone, anywhere, in general quality control.
And, I have to admit.......so can this plant at Yantai that produces the Envion. Based on what I saw today among the Envisions, their general level of automotive fit/finish was about as good as anything I've seen from Japan, Europe, Korea, North America, or anywhere else. I was genuinely surprised....I had expected at least some teething issues, and/or less than what would normally be acceptable by American standards. But, no, that wasn't the case. This plant at Yantai seems to have its act together....at least as far as general fit/finish is concerned (there were one or two quirks, but not necessarily plant-related...I'll get into that below). Now, without a test-drive, of course, one cannot check for things like squeaks/rattles, misaligned/out-of-balance wheels/tire, shimmies, wind noise, or engine/transmission issues, but I was impressed with how well the Envisions I saw were generally screwed together. And, as I said earlier, I spent a lot of time inspecting things. The paint jobs were all virtually smooth as a mirror, even the generally hard-to-do black. The exterior sheet metal seems solid and of good quality, though the doors themselves didn't shut with a particularly solid-sounding thunk, and the lightweight hood felt like it was made out of aluminum. The hood itself had nice gas struts...no annoying manual prop-rod. Everything under the hood seemed to be securely attached....cables, wires, bolts, etc..... All of the outside hardware seemed to be quite-solidly attached except for a very small wobble in the door pull-handles. The outside mirrors swung and snap-locked smoothly, solidly, and crispy. The chrome grille and some other trim-parts, off ours, were plastic, but were smoothly-finished and solidly attached. Korean Hankook tires were mounted at the factory, which was somewhat of a surprise.....I had expected maybe a Chinese brand, unless for some reason they didn't meet meet DOT/NHTSA tire-standards. The body panel-gaps were not quite as narrow as I've seen on some vehicles, but they were all consistent in their widths, didn't vary, and I couldn't see any evidence of misalignment (on many new vehicles, of course, doors and panels are laser-aligned for accuracy). The classic chrome Buick-trim port-hole assemblies are mounted on the sides of the hood (unfortunately, they are missing in the new Cascada convertible).....but the Buick logo is the chrome triple-shield. Buick is not bringing back its old classic red/white/blue logo tri-shield until the new Lacrosse debuts in October.
Inside, the interior fit/finish was just as good as the outside, although the seat-leather and/or some other interior parts seemed to emit an unpleasant smell....definitely not the typical new-car smell that mesmerizes so many potential buyers of new vehicles and gets them to sign on that dotted line. Besides the smell, I also didn't like the seats themselves, which were quite small by American standards, and seemed to be designed more for shorter, thinner Chinese persons and other Asians than for big, tall, heavy guys like me. The cushions were small, narrow, flat, lacking bolstering, overly-firm (especially by Buick standards), uncomfortable, and woefully lacking support. Back to the drawing board, guys....the rest of this vehicle may cut it in the American market, but the seats won't. But, of course, one cannot blame the plant for that......the workers and robots can only assemble what the managers and engineers give them.
The rest of the interior seemed first-rate in its assembly quality, though. One can argue about whether the design of the wood-tone trim is attractive or not, but either way, it is well-attached. All of the hardware seemed securely-attached....though, at this price, I was surprised that the steering column didn't have power-assist for the tilt/telescope functions. The materials used inside seemed mostly of good quality....though the thin ivory-colored fabric covering the thick, hard-plastic sun-visors felt a little cheap. I liked the fact that Buick uses a conventional fore/aft shifter on the console instead of the electronic-stick that the new LaCrosse will have...for further comment, I'll wait for a formal 2017 Lacrosse review, but, in general, I'm not impressed with the electronic shifters. And, in general, I much-preferred the two-tone black/ivory leather interior to the darker, coal-mine-like, solid black one. In the rear, the cargo sea was large and roomy (thank the conservative, high, roofline), and very well-finisted, with relatively thick, soft-feel black carpeting and real chrome cargo-hooks.
So, in a nutshell, except for the lousy front seats, IMO this vehicle is ready to go in the American market. But please.......redesign those seats.
![Buick-symbol.jpg](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rocketpsac.com%2FBuick-symbol.jpg&hash=a48498aeefc6349cda4658e88a548af3)
![2016-Buick-Envision-01-626x382.jpg](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.caranddriver.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F12%2F2016-Buick-Envision-01-626x382.jpg&hash=a61fadd9bd89e912e944666006030524)
![2016-buick-envision-inline1-photo-667755-s-original.jpg](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.caranddriver.com%2Fimages%2Fmedia%2F51%2F2016-buick-envision-inline1-photo-667755-s-original.jpg&hash=396471fc05fc6986b3237cf8bf010215)
![15449574.jpg](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fjacksonville.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fimagecache%2Fsuperphoto%2F15449574.jpg&hash=25e100abd36dbc86fe88c9ef1e6cad6a)
![CR-Cars-Inline-New-2016-Buick-Envision-SUV-Proves-Disappointing-Int-06-16.jpg](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.consumerreports.org%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fcro%2Fnews_articles%2Fcars%2FCR-Cars-Inline-New-2016-Buick-Envision-SUV-Proves-Disappointing-Int-06-16.jpg&hash=b562f23620bff0a48673aa961834fd80)
![8e13fb825e75232a18bbbba45faaae60.jpg](/forums/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fcloud1.canadianblackbook.com%2Fphotos%2F2081043301%2F400%2F300%2F8e13fb825e75232a18bbbba45faaae60.jpg&hash=c4e546b53de4acd5937cf64660907265)
Well, since my local Chevy/Buick/GMC shop now has some Envisions in stock, I decided to stop by late this morning and check them out....at least visually, in a static-inspection. Because this is the first vehicle mass-produced in a Chinese plant to be marketed and sold in the United States, and I had never had a chance to check out a Chinese-built product, I especially wanted to concentrate on the overall fit/finish and general assembly quality. I decided, for several reasons, not to do any test-drives today....time constraints (I had spent a lot of time on simply the visual and seating inspections), lunch-hour traffic in a notoriously gridlocked area making for unsuitable conditions for a general test-drive, and the fact that, even in the middle of the day, I was rather tired and hungry after the inspections (I rested and had a nice lunch afterward at a nearby Olive Garden). My knee, after surgery, though generally much better than several weeks ago, also felt a little weak today, though not enough so to prevent a static-review (I had the knee-brace on, unlocked, this morning, just in case). So, I decided not to do a test-drive (or a full-review) today.....I can always do one later.
Several Envisions were on the lot......and a black one in the showroom, parked (where else LOL?).......between the smaller Buick Encore and larger Buick Enclave SUVs. (that showroom is huge, and they have maybe a dozen Chevy, Buick, and GMC products in it). In general exterior size, of course, the mid-sized Envision slots in between the other two Buick SUVs, though it is quite a bit narrower than the big Enclave, and, to my eyes, appears somewhat closer to the compact/subcompact Encore (I say subcompact because, though marketed as a compact SUV, dimensions, The Encore is done on the Chevy Sonic's subcompact platform). Some of the Envisions parked on the lot were shipped across the Pacific, from the plant without even their full price-stickers....they had printed stickers on them that said that full-pricing info was not available yet. So how about that?. Buick has got models in stock they can't even price........maybe the daily price going to depend on the dollar/Yuan exchange rate LOL. Then, of course, if Trump gets elected this fall, he wants (if possible) to put a 35% tariff on all goods produced overseas by American companies and imported back into the U.S.....yep, just like the Envision. But that's a political subject for another thread, not this one, and I won't get into that any further here.
(Just for the record, the black one parked in the showroom, which I spent more time on inspecting than the others, listed at around 45K, with a base price of 42K.)
For now, all U.S.-bound Envisions are assembled at the SAIC GM Dong Yue Foundry Plant, in Yantai, China. Just like many of you (yes, I read a lot of the same stuff), I have heard a number of horror-stories of Chinese plants producing automotive junk....much like the Korean plants of 25-30 years ago giving us Hyundai, Kia, and Daewoo products that were the butt of late-night jokes. Today, of course, Korean plants, and other plants around the world that produce Korean-badged vehicles, can compete with almost anyone, anywhere, in general quality control.
And, I have to admit.......so can this plant at Yantai that produces the Envion. Based on what I saw today among the Envisions, their general level of automotive fit/finish was about as good as anything I've seen from Japan, Europe, Korea, North America, or anywhere else. I was genuinely surprised....I had expected at least some teething issues, and/or less than what would normally be acceptable by American standards. But, no, that wasn't the case. This plant at Yantai seems to have its act together....at least as far as general fit/finish is concerned (there were one or two quirks, but not necessarily plant-related...I'll get into that below). Now, without a test-drive, of course, one cannot check for things like squeaks/rattles, misaligned/out-of-balance wheels/tire, shimmies, wind noise, or engine/transmission issues, but I was impressed with how well the Envisions I saw were generally screwed together. And, as I said earlier, I spent a lot of time inspecting things. The paint jobs were all virtually smooth as a mirror, even the generally hard-to-do black. The exterior sheet metal seems solid and of good quality, though the doors themselves didn't shut with a particularly solid-sounding thunk, and the lightweight hood felt like it was made out of aluminum. The hood itself had nice gas struts...no annoying manual prop-rod. Everything under the hood seemed to be securely attached....cables, wires, bolts, etc..... All of the outside hardware seemed to be quite-solidly attached except for a very small wobble in the door pull-handles. The outside mirrors swung and snap-locked smoothly, solidly, and crispy. The chrome grille and some other trim-parts, off ours, were plastic, but were smoothly-finished and solidly attached. Korean Hankook tires were mounted at the factory, which was somewhat of a surprise.....I had expected maybe a Chinese brand, unless for some reason they didn't meet meet DOT/NHTSA tire-standards. The body panel-gaps were not quite as narrow as I've seen on some vehicles, but they were all consistent in their widths, didn't vary, and I couldn't see any evidence of misalignment (on many new vehicles, of course, doors and panels are laser-aligned for accuracy). The classic chrome Buick-trim port-hole assemblies are mounted on the sides of the hood (unfortunately, they are missing in the new Cascada convertible).....but the Buick logo is the chrome triple-shield. Buick is not bringing back its old classic red/white/blue logo tri-shield until the new Lacrosse debuts in October.
Inside, the interior fit/finish was just as good as the outside, although the seat-leather and/or some other interior parts seemed to emit an unpleasant smell....definitely not the typical new-car smell that mesmerizes so many potential buyers of new vehicles and gets them to sign on that dotted line. Besides the smell, I also didn't like the seats themselves, which were quite small by American standards, and seemed to be designed more for shorter, thinner Chinese persons and other Asians than for big, tall, heavy guys like me. The cushions were small, narrow, flat, lacking bolstering, overly-firm (especially by Buick standards), uncomfortable, and woefully lacking support. Back to the drawing board, guys....the rest of this vehicle may cut it in the American market, but the seats won't. But, of course, one cannot blame the plant for that......the workers and robots can only assemble what the managers and engineers give them.
The rest of the interior seemed first-rate in its assembly quality, though. One can argue about whether the design of the wood-tone trim is attractive or not, but either way, it is well-attached. All of the hardware seemed securely-attached....though, at this price, I was surprised that the steering column didn't have power-assist for the tilt/telescope functions. The materials used inside seemed mostly of good quality....though the thin ivory-colored fabric covering the thick, hard-plastic sun-visors felt a little cheap. I liked the fact that Buick uses a conventional fore/aft shifter on the console instead of the electronic-stick that the new LaCrosse will have...for further comment, I'll wait for a formal 2017 Lacrosse review, but, in general, I'm not impressed with the electronic shifters. And, in general, I much-preferred the two-tone black/ivory leather interior to the darker, coal-mine-like, solid black one. In the rear, the cargo sea was large and roomy (thank the conservative, high, roofline), and very well-finisted, with relatively thick, soft-feel black carpeting and real chrome cargo-hooks.
So, in a nutshell, except for the lousy front seats, IMO this vehicle is ready to go in the American market. But please.......redesign those seats.