2012 Buick Enclave
This year drew an ordinary 132 complaints for a Buick Enclave — the model's median is 64. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.8% of them mention shut, against 8.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Buick Enclave, which began in 2008 and ran to 2017. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 132 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 64 |
| Involving a crash | 9 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 18.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- shut — 25.8% of this year's complaints, against 8.4% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: shut, slams, car shut, afraid.
- deploy — 15.2% of this year's complaints, against 5.8% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: deploy, sustained, medical, bags deploy.
- leaking — 11.4% of this year's complaints, against 4.4% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: leaking, leaking fluid, necessary, enclaves traverses.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
AT 60,000 MILES NOTICED A SLIGHT "SQUEAK" IN MY STEERING WHEN TURNING. DEALERSHIP CHECKED IT AND STATED I NEEDED A NEW STEERING RACK "...FOUND NOICE COMING FROM STTERING GEAR INPUT SHAFT SEAL, BUT ASLO FOUND STEERING GEAR LEAKING FLUID OUT BOTH END OF GEAR". Q…
GM HAS KNOW ABOUT THE FAULTY TIMING CHAIN AND THE SEALS USED ON THE MOTOR FOR YEARS AND CONTINUED TO USE IT COSTING OWNERS THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS INSTEAD OF TAKING THE NECESSARY STEPS TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM BEFORE CONTINUING THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS. I HAVE OIL…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V782000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V246000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V266000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V415000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 14V118000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 12V151000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Buick Enclave was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2012 Buick Enclave? What happened to yours?
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