2018 Buick Encore
This year drew an ordinary 74 complaints for a Buick Encore — the model's median is 60. What they were about is the unusual part: 12.2% of them mention assistance, against 4.3% 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 | 74 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 60 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 28 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- assistance — 12.2% of this year's complaints, against 4.3% across the model's other years (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: assistance, address, local dealership, seat belt.
- malfunctioning — 9.5% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the model's other years (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: malfunctioning, old.
- situation — 8.1% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the model's other years (5.5×). Owners wrote it as: situation, rains.
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
the rear passenger’s side seat belt was not retracting. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the contact was informed that the seat belt needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, and the contact was informed that t…
previous airbag recall, but not including my VIN. However, my airbag light is on and malfunctioning. It will cost $200 to just diagnose the repair and no idea what the cost to fix this saftey issue on a car that is only 5 years old. Please help!
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
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 2018 Buick Encore? What happened to yours?
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