2026 Buick Enclave Sport Touring: Is The 2026 Enclave The BEST Midsize Plus SUV?

This is our final day here in Branson, Missouri, and we're bringing you the 26 Buick Enclave Sport Touring Cherry Red Tint Coat. Roll the intro. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the channel. Well, it is our last day in Branson, Missouri, here at Pinnegar Chevy Buick GMC of Branson, and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart to welcome the channel here to Branson and allow us to film three of their vehicles, one from each of their brands. It's very, very gratifying to see dealers that don't know me. You know, buy in to the channel and to these reviews as a way to get their vehicles out and seen by the public, and I really appreciate that. But what I'm bringing you today, the final review here from Pinnegar, is a 2026 Buick Enclave. This is the Sport Touring Trim Cherry Red Tint Coat is the color. We have a black leatherette interior, 30-inch screen, so you can let me know. If you're looking for that midsize plus SUV, and this is very large, we're talking Toyota Grand Highlander size, Chevy Traverse, GMC Acadia, Volkswagen Atlas, but since it's a Buick and higher up in the food chain in the General Motors lineup, just below Caddy, right, this has a lot more nicer materials on the inside than, let's say, your Traverse or your Acadia. And it is You know, equivalent with the kind of materials you would find in that upper trim level SELR line Atlas. So with this review today, I want you to tell me if you're looking for that mid-size plus SUV, is this the one the way you would go over that Atlas, over the sister vehicles from GMC and Chevy, or maybe even over a Toyota Grand Highlander? You can let me know as we go through this behemoth of an SUV. So let's dig in. Front end of this Enclave ST in the cherry red tint coat paint with gloss black. I love the red and black color combo. Let me know what you think. Full spread of LED lighting up front, including the turn signals. We have the Buick badge on the hood. Gloss black grille with the ST in black and silver on the bottom right of the grille. Again, gloss black on the grille down below as well. Functionality in the grille top and bottom. Now, as we come around to the wheel and tire package on this Enclave ST, it is a 20-inch machined aluminum alloy wheel with the Buick badge on the center cap. The wheels are wrapped in Continental Cross-contact LX20 all-season tires, 255 on the width, a 55-series sidewall, 20s, all four corners, all-wheel drive. Moving on out, there is the red and the black. I just think it's such a classic color combo. If you're a New Jersey Devils fan, you should love this vehicle, even though we're in Missouri. Now, as we come on in closer, we're going to have a gloss black side-view mirror cap. with LED turn signals 360 degree view cameras the ST badge in black and silver on the bottom of the front doors and then we're going to go color match front and rear door handles with a left side fuel filler cap and then up top and way up top on this big vehicle color matched roof shark fin antenna gloss black on the roof rails and then we have our panoramic moon roof over the back we go Roof spoiler coming off the top, the wiper down below, on the glass, a full spread of LED lighting across the back, Buick badge in the center, Enclave all-wheel drive on the left, Buick on the right, and then when we come on down lower, you have your tow hitch panel in between your functional dual exhaust finishers. Before we get to the engine, I did want to mention we have a hydraulic hood struts on this Enclave, as we probably should in a vehicle that's in this kind of price range. Now, Jack will move in and give you a better shot of the engine. What we got here is Buick's 2.5 liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, 328 horsepower, 326 pound-feet of torque. This enclave can tow up to 5,000 pounds, MPGs, 20 in the city, 24 on the highway, 21 combined. The engine's minimum octane rating is 87, so you can run this on regular unleaded gas. Before we get into the interior, you're going to want to know, Mike, how much. Well, you know what? This is not an inexpensive vehicle. Sport Touring, second highest trim level in the Buick Enclave lineup. So here we go. Base price, '26 Enclave, Sport Touring, $49,700. This vehicle's got about almost $7,000 worth of options on it. We'll check those out when we go through the window sticker. Once we add those in at a destination and delivery charge, of $1,895 from Buick's Lansing, Michigan assembly plant. We have a total vehicle MSRP from the factory of $58,405. So let's check out that interior. starting with the driver door panel we'll move on in for the black soft material across the top with the stitching we're going to have brushed aluminum and then some a black decorative trim into the brushed aluminum door handle two memory seat settings with an exit seat setting then we have the soft armrest in the leatherette with the light gray stitching flat black on the switch gear with power fold side view mirrors in and out moving on down large door pocket That's where you're going to pop the tailgate. You have your 12-speaker Bose sound system. We move on in. We have a large dead pedal brake and accelerator with the Buick all-season mats in the vehicle at this time. We have an ST door sill plate to welcome you to the vehicle. Seating-wise, full power with lumbar for the driver and the front passenger. Black leatherette with the white piping and light gray cross-stitch feels good. A nice perforated insert design. Bolstering feels firm but forgiving. The headrests embroidered into each one, and the headrest feels soft. The front passenger door panel is the same action as the driver, but you don't get the two memory seat settings and I'd like to see Buick put the front passenger memory in an ST. We move on in to the dash soft touch material with the stitching, more of that gray trim with the design in it and the brushed aluminum into the heat and air vent, and then more of this leatherette soft touch material all the way down with a large glove box. Infotainment system time. Well, we have a 30-inch curved LCD panel. Half going to be your Digital dash half will be the infotainment system. We'll start with the infotainment system where we have pinch to zoom in our built-in nav. Very, very good wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. Along the bottom left to right you have the little light icon. You're going to be able to turn your headlights on or off or stick them on auto and your lane keep assist. Underneath that dual climate control with three stage heated seats for the driver and the front passenger. You can change the temperature and sync them together from the screen or you can do it down below. with your hard controls and your defrost is down below as well. On the left, from bottom to top, we can Bluetooth our phone. There is our map icon, music, AM, FM, Sirius XM, Bluetooth, and Google News. We have our controls where we can get our high beams on, park assist, power windows. We have more controls for our lights, our driving controls, track control off, lane keep assist on off, and that sort of thing right there. And then we have our home button right here where we can have additional content. You can go ahead and see what you may want to have up. If nothing's available there, we can go and say, I want my audio there. But since the audio is not enabled, that won't work. So let's put our trip information there. Now we have trip information and then we can zip through this or we can go ahead, put our audio. Go ahead, put our trip information, go ahead, put our maps, whatever we want to do, it's right in there. Piece of cake. And then, you got your home base, where you have all your apps in one place. My Buick to hook the vehicle up with your smartphone, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, Wi-Fi hotspot, ambient lighting here in this Buick, and at this price point, you need to have it, right? Here's the action, ST, right? We have the gray color, I don't know, maybe we go with white on the interior lighting, I don't know. Or you have different moods you can select as well, or select the bar, depending on what you want to have. On here you can customize the brightness as well. And you can customize your lighting. So I do like how they have that set up in your ambient lighting. Back down, climate system right up here as well. And then you have your audio and everything else right at your fingertips. Nice and easy. We'll go back to our maps. Now we'll go to reverse. There's our 360-degree view camera. It shrinks down a little bit, but it's nice and clear with trajectory. Then you have other. Views you can check out as well. So they got you set there. You can go back to park and we're back to the beginning. Now, as I mentioned, as we move down, we have the controls for the heat and air right here, as well as a couple of heat and air vents. As we swing down further, we have our push button start. And in here amongst this gloss black trim, you have a USB-C and a USB-A. Kind of hard to see. Then you have your wireless charging pad right there. We have a dial to turn. The system on and off and adjust your volume gloss black here so be careful. Our Enclave key fob lock unlock remote start pop the tailgate panic button Have your Buick badge on the back looks good and then a wide armrest fairly firm with the stitching we can open that up and we have a removable area for storage and a larger area underneath. This center console is a floating one so underneath you have a rubberized area to store larger items and a 12 volt for power. The Buick steering wheel, I love how this looks. It looks so sporty in the sport touring trim. You have leather wrap with the light gray stitching, Buick badge with the trim ring on the horn button, flattened off to give it a sportier look but help you get in and out of this massive Enclave ST. I'm 5'11". I have plenty of room to get in and out of this vehicle. It is really nice and open and airy passenger cabin. Switch gear trim is flat black on both sides. On the left side here, your adaptive cruise. On the right side, you got your heated steering wheel on or off. Music controls for your digital dash telephone voice command. We do have paddles. On the left side, front and rear wiper, turn signals, high beams. On the right side, you're going to have your gear shift. On the left side of the wheel, you have your electric brake. You have your drive modes. We'll have to check out here for a second. All-wheel drive lock, auto vehicle hold, engine auto stop start on or off, right and dim the dash, and we do have a manual tilting and telescoping wheel. All right, your drive modes are going to show up on the infotainment screen, so here we go. Let's turn them on, see what we got, right? We got touring, we have sport. We have snow ice, we have off-road, we have tow haul, and for today we're going to rock in sport. And you do have a little information button and that'll tell you what sport mode does. And actually it'll go through all your modes and explain to you what each one does so you know you're in the right one based on your driving conditions if you're a drive mode novice. Overhead console, very similar to the Terrain 84 we just did. Right here, boom, sunglass spot, you have your four-way hazards, SOS button in case there's an emergency on the road, OnStar in case you need to talk to Buick. You want your LED dome lighting to come on and off when you close the door. You don't have to do anything, just open the door, lighting comes on, close the door. Lighting will dim out, rear view mirror, frameless rear view mirror, but we got the magic button for a digital rear view mirror. Love that feature. On the right, those are the rear view camera controls. Raise and lower it to make sure it's in your eyeline, zoom in or zoom out. And then our sun visor with a vanity, should be an LED light. Does it slide? Yes, it does. The controls right by your dome lighting, that's to operate this panoramic roof. The middle one is for the shade. You push it towards the roof, the shade will go back, and it takes a little while. It's a big roof, it is a big vehicle, but one touch all the way back. Once that shade is all the way back, then you can move the glass. There we go. Now, to move the glass, we're going to have the slide on the left, tilt on the right. So one touch, Glass open, slides back, wind buffer comes up, glass goes back, and then you just pull it down towards you to get the glass to close up again. And then, like I mentioned, the right switch, that's going to turn the tilt up or tilt down, and then you can close up that shade. But that is on Buick time not on Chevy's rides time so we'll move on. The rear door panels same action as the driver same use of materials same design so I do like that but let me know whether you think they should have security shades here on the back doors. Moving on in I got plenty of room this is a huge SUV plenty of room at 511 for my head. Shoulders and knees with this seat set for my driving position. Looks great. Leatherette all the way down. We have a seat pocket behind the driver's seat and the front passenger seat. Two cup holders in the rear of the center console. Rear climate, as well as two USB-C's and a home power source. So that's a nice touch. And then... Our captain's chairs, the same color combo with the leatherette ST embroidered into the mid-row seats as well. I love that. And then as we come down, nice and soft armrests. They are a little bit skinny, but not bad. And they don't ratchet, so that's a good deal. But overall, really comfortable in this captain's chairs. And I have heat and air vents all around the roof of the vehicle with LED lighting all the way front to back. To keep everybody cool. All right, now we're getting in the third row. And to get the mid-row seats out of the way, there's the button right down here on the seat base. Go ahead and push that up and out of the way it goes. And now we have plenty of room to get in. So I'm going to get myself right on in. What I really do like about row number three is we have the same color combo, the same leatherette. It feels good. Plenty of room for my head and my shoulders. Knees aren't too high. Plenty of room to ride back here for a long time. And in the back here, I have cup holders on either side and a USB-C on either side for connectivity with lighting and heat and air vents to keep me cool or keep me warm in the winter. Getting in this massive tailgate area of this Enclave ST. It's a power liftgate, as you would expect at the ST trim. You can pop from the key fob, pop from the driver door panel, you have a hands-free option, or you can come to the back. And right underneath the Buick emblem, above the license plate, there's a button, beeps a couple of times, nice electric assist on the way up, nice electric assist using this button on the way down. Now with all three rows up, 22.9 cubic feet of cargo space in the back of this Enclave ST, we have the carpeted floor mats, we have the all-season cargo mat underneath here, more storage, and underneath this panel is the spare. So thank you Buick for the spare. On this right side here, we've got a 12 volt for power, we've got some tie-downs, but we can drop the third row and mid-row from the tailgate area. Love that. The third row you can actually power down and power back up. The mid-row is just down only. So here we go. We hit the left side, headrest drop, goes down very quickly. Boom, goes down very quickly. Now with that third row down, I'll have Jack pan out a little bit, 57.1 cubic feet of cargo space with that third row down. If you need more, all right, let's go to dropping the mid-row right here where you can drop them down. Boom, down they go. Boom, down they go. And now with all the rows down, 97.5 cubic feet of cargo space in the back of this Enclave ST. Window sticker time. Here we go. There's heavy tent, so I'll do my best. 26 Enclave Sport Touring. Cherry red tin coat. Ebony on the leatherette. 8-speed auto. Here is our standard equipment. Left to right. Options now. Power package. There's a lot of stuff on here, right? Total vehicle MSRP. Right there. Fuel economy estimates. Government safety rating is not done yet. Made by Buick in Michigan. Take her out for a spin. All right, we are leaving the dealership here in this Enclave ST. We're in normal mode. Beautiful area out here in the Ozarks. But right off the bat, great visibility out of all the glass. Huge side view mirrors, blind spot monitoring, cross traffic alert, lane keep assist, pre-collision. All that action in here for safety. We have LED lighting up front and out back for safety as well. And the vehicle gets up to speed all right. Beautiful Ozark Mountains. We're up to highway speeds now. It feels good. Very smooth on the road. Very, very well damped on the suspension, the sport-tuned suspension. The handling, very light, but nice and tight. And it's just very smooth. We get a little wind noise. But not bad, it's a pretty quiet cabin, you know, Buick, higher up in the GM food chain, you're going to get that sound deadening, you're going to get that acoustic glass, you're going to get the Buick experience, as they call it, inside the vehicle. Seats are extremely comfortable and it drives like a dream, it really does. The turning radius in this vehicle 19 and a half feet, so not bad. I know a lot of people have complained in the past that GM is using an engine that is too small in here. And I understand that, and as I've mentioned in the past, I would like to see them offer a V6 as an option in this vehicle, whether it be the Traverse, Acadia, or Enclave, I'd love to see them offer a V6 option. Lower trim levels, let's say the 2.5 liter is the one, but if you move up in trims like a Sport Touring trim, for instance, I have the option of putting that 3.6 liter V6 in here, similar to what they, what Chevy does with the gas power Blazer, would be nice, so we're going to come back up this hill, we're going to get off at the next exit, and we'll turn on around, start heading back to the dealership, but it is a really smooth, comfortable drive, the Buick, very elegant on the inside, nice use of materials. You're paying more for that, so they give you that kind of action, and it just feels good. It feels really good. And, you know, this is a heavy vehicle, and this engine still has enough power to get this pulling up the hill. All right, now we're going to head back down the hill, and I think we'll go to our sport mode. It's just a big, elegant SUV. Brakes feel really good. Coming down this hill, you've got to really watch it. You can get going really fast down this hill. If you're not careful. So we want to keep it, you know, sensible on this road. But again, very, very easy to deal with. Now, nobody's behind me. So we're going to slow it down a little bit. The 8-speed automatic. Shifting pretty smoothly. Now we'll go. Takes up easy and gets down the road. No problem. Now we're going to hit the all-wheel drive lock. See if that helps. Now, of course, we're going to reduce the torque steer a little bit. With the all-wheel drive on right before we were running in too high. Now it feels really good. Time will come back up here, and we will head back to the dealership, but overall, let me know what you think. If you're in the market for one of these big behemoths of an SUV, is this Enclave ST the kind of vibe, the kind of action that you would go for, let's say, over that Acadia Uh, or traverse higher level trim levels, um, or maybe even over that Atlas from Volkswagen SEL trim, SEL R-Line trim, about the same price as that. You let me know, put it in the comments, but I do want to thank... Pinneger Chevy Buick GMC here in Branson, Missouri for allowing the channel access to this brand new 2026 Buick Enclave ST for review today. I'd like to thank all of you for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please consider giving it a like. Please also consider subscribing and turning on that notification bell so you never miss another Shabby's Rides video. And I'll see all of you on the rebound. Take care, everyone.