2018 Buick Enclave
This year drew an ordinary 64 complaints for a Buick Enclave — the model's median is 68. What they were about is the unusual part: 29.7% of them mention brake, against 5.4% across the model's other years.
First year of a new generation. The Buick Enclave was redesigned for 2018. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 64 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 68 |
| Involving a crash | 5 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 20.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brake — 29.7% of this year's complaints, against 5.4% across the model's other years (5.5×).
- stop — 26.6% of this year's complaints, against 6.3% across the model's other years (4.2×).
- turned — 20.3% of this year's complaints, against 4.1% across the model's other years (4.9×).
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
I WAS STOPPED AT AN INTERSECTION AT A TRAFFIC LIGHT & WHEN THE LIGHT TURNED GREEN, I TURNED LEFT & I'M UNCERTAIN IF MY EMERGENCY BRAKES KICKED ON OR IF MY CAR SIMPLY STALLED OUT, BUT MY CAR SUDDENLY WOULD NOT MOVE. MY PURSE, IN THE PASSENGER SEAT FLEW FORWARD…
THE ELECTRONIC PARKING BRAKE HAS TURNED ON 5 TIMES NOW. 3 TIMES, THE CAR WAS IN PARK AND THE EMERGENCY BRAKE HAD TURNED ON AND WOULD NOT TURN OFF. THE BRAKE WAS NOT ACTIVATED BY ANYONE. THEN IT HAPPENED WHILE DRIVING. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO A DEALERSHIP. THE…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
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 2018 Buick Enclave? What happened to yours?
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