2015 Buick Encore
This year drew an ordinary 124 complaints for a Buick Encore — the model's median is 60. What they were about is the unusual part: 26.6% of them mention steering, against 5.9% across the model's other years.
Generation 1 of the Buick Encore, which began in 2013 and ran to 2019. 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 | 124 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 60 |
| Involving a crash | 6 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 27 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- steering — 26.6% of this year's complaints, against 5.9% across the model's other years (4.5×).
- tried — 10.5% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: tried, kill, time told, weeks later.
- itself — 7.3% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the model's other years (4×). Owners wrote it as: itself, many times.
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
SQUEAKING AND SCRAPING AND REDUCED PERFORMANCE OF REAR BRAKES. DEALER TRIED A FIX WITH IDENTICAL PARTS TO THE ORIGINAL ONES BUT THE PROBLEM CONTINUES. THEY TELL ME THAT GM HAS NOT FOUND A FIX BUT IS AWARE OF THE PROBLEM AND THAT THEY HAVE TRIED THE SAME FIX ON…
TRIED TO STOP BEFORE A RED SIGN ON A CITY STREET, THE CAR [VIN] ON ITS OWN, PASSED THE RED LIGHT AND RUN AT ABOUT 60 MPH ON A 35 MPH STREET FOR ABOUT HALF A MILE AND THEN STOPPED BY ITSELF. PRESSING THE BRAKES AND EVEN PUTTING IT ON PARK DID NOT HELP. I AM LUC…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V651000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V162000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 17V437000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V146000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Buick Encore 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 2015 Buick Encore? What happened to yours?
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