I have a 2008 Buick enclave FWD and it is better than any car I have ever driven- and working for Motor Trend, I have driven a LOT of vehicles.
GM decided to take its first whack at a luxury crossover back when I was studying the internals of the organization for my dissertation. The Board of Directors directed that something be throw together as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Following orders, the product development organization created the Buick Rendezvous by relying heavily on the corporation's minivan platform.
As is usually the case when fast and cheap are the top priorities, the Rendezvous wasn't very good. It looked ungainly, it was slow, and the chassis didn't excel at ride or handling. It did sell fairly well, but only because the post-incentive price was low.
For 2008, Buick has replaced the Rendezvous with the Enclave. This time around, GM has put the priority on creating a best-in-segment product. Have they succeeded? I took an Enclave for a test drive to find out. I would have preferred to test a loaded leather-trimmed all-wheel-drive CXL, but the initial production run appears to be composed almost entirely of the front-wheel-drive cloth-upholstered CX. So that's what I drove.
