2008 Buick Enclave CXL

Pros: Great interior layout. Perfect for a large family.
Quiet Cabin
Comfortable

Cons: Build quality is totally unacceptable (9 MAJOR problems in 50,000)
Shutters at speeds in excess of 65 MPH
Blind spots
Gas mileage

Summary: My wife LOVES her car. She really does, but she had finally had it. We have had 9 trips to the dealership and not over any petty issues either, these are real driving issues and GM just does not back their product. In fact I have had more issues with this car in the first 50,000 miles of ownership than my BMW (drove for 120,000 miles), Mercedes (40,000 miles), Volvo (40,000 miles), Camry (125,000 miles) and Accord (125,000 miles) combined.

Problem number one: Steering column emits a loud and very disturbing 'clunk' when turning. Took it to the dealership and the problem was fixed. Two weeks later, it's back. Bring it back in, they fixed it again. Two weeks later it happens again. Bring it back in, GM says it is a common problem and they are working on a fix and will call us when they have a fix for it, but that the car is in fact safe to drive and not to worry. This was a year ago. In the meanwhile every person that drives it immediately notices it and asks if the car is broken. Some don't even want to ride in it because they are worried.

Lift gate failure. Yeah, at 25,000 miles the liftgate failed.

Leaking roof during rain (we live in So. California so it almost NEVER rains here) so much that the driver is sopping when getting out of the car. Needless to say we didn't drive it until the rain stopped. Reason? One of the roof drains were clogged with leaves (because you know how many trees are in LA!).

Full blown engine meltdown. Yeah, while sitting in Starbucks at 37,000 miles the waterpump went out and within the three minutes it took to get out of the drive through the engine fully failed requiring a full replacement. The 'loaner' they gave my wife? A Chevy Aveo! And it was in the shop for three weeks.

Above 65 mph we get death wobbles. The techs checked it out and said "that's the ride." I was shocked, but my wife said she never really goes on the freeway much so not to worry about it. Personally I could never drive a car that had tremors through the steering wheel 90% of the time on the freeway and when it hits a pot hole on the 5 freeway it shakes like the Northridge earthquake.

And now the final straw. At 55,000 miles her AC went out. Would GM cover it? No, but they will be charging us $1300 to fix the leak at the dealership ($700 for the part and $100 per hour for labor). It's 105 out right now and they won't be able to work on it for a week, so my wife is forced to either stay at home or borrow my car.

I decided to give GM another shot (I had a GM truck at one point several years ago and swore I would never buy a GM again) and I had hoped their quality had been improved. My wife is a soccer mom and only shuttles the kids from home to dance to the grocery store with a couple of trips to Yosemite during the year. This car is a joke quality wise and I am just heartbroken that I spent $60,000 on this car and have had problems at every 5,000 miles like clock work. And now that it is out of warranty the prices for repair are the same as the Merc dealership.

And they wonder why they were going bankrupt and needed bailouts???

Buy this car at your own risk and just realized that when (not if) it breaks down under warranty that GM will happily give you an Aveo to drive around in while they are doing the work.