Video: 2017 Buick Encore - First Look

Now the Encore's dimensions remain essentially unchanged, which means it's still a pretty small SUV overall, but a much cleaner appearance with this refresh here. You'll recall the SUV used to have a lot of cladding down here all the way around the fog lights. All of that's gone now. There's still a little bit of remnants of the cladding around the bottom of the bumper, but overall, a much cleaner appearance. You get around to the grill here. This is Buick's new grill, refreshed grill. It's got red, white, and blue shields on it now. It also has these kind of chrome lines that run all the way out to the edges of the grill itself. Headlights, available in full led treatment and check it out, no more port holes up here on the hood. The last Encore used to have that. They were fake. I'm kind of glad they're gone. If you really want them back, I'm sure your local auto supply store can help you out. A lot more harmony on the inside of the Encore, which overall I got to say has a much more attractive dashboard than it used to. Materials, quality still seems to hold up overall with some nice touches, like fabric down the A pillars, things to give it a more premium touch then you're run of the mill non-luxury SUV. Some stitching around the dashboard here, which does lose its second glove compartment. But overall again, fewer buttons, more harmony inside. A standard eight inch touchscreen here now has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, two features it didn't have. Now the Encore has about 48 cubic feet of maximum cargo volume. If you fold those rear seats down, which is kind of a pain in the neck to do, but the front passenger seat also folds down. That's a rare feature nowadays for longer storage. Now the Encore has always straddled the line between non-luxury and luxury small SUV, but apparently that's exactly what shoppers want. Especially with this car's good reliability and strong crash test scores. This refresh should only help the cause once it goes on sale, close to the end of 2016.