UDel

Many of the workers know that, knew what was going to happen. They were like is it really necessary to go on strike over something so small and if we keep doing this the plant is going to close and we are going to lose our jobs altogether but of course they can't openly express that too loud or they will be seen as someone not loyal, be called names. It may seem like most of those UAW guys supported the strikes or tactics but in reality many didn't, they had to go along though.

Toys4RJill

100% true. You allow these corporations to off shore….they WILL. these non UAW companies that are here are called transplant companies…they are only here because of anti America backlash during the 1980s. Remove the UAW, and GM and Ford will off shore EVERYTHING the moment they get the opportunity. Toyota will follow as well. Toyota built in Texas to be close to Mexico where a lot of parts are made and cheaper southern “American” labor. These are facts…..there will be no domestic auto industry without the UAW. Look at the darling Tesla and their Chinese ambitions….everyone will follow and everything will be Chinese made

SW17LS

Absolutely, they had no choice but to go along.

UDel

The industry would not dissolve, wages are not likely to fall, some of the benefits and ridiculous payouts to retire would likely end but the standard wage would likely be the same or similar, they don't want a miserable, angry, underpaid workforce. There is already offshoring of US vehicle production with the UAW and it is increasing so it is not like they are stopping it. Many in the Big 3 have pride in these companies and won't just move everything offshore to save money though with the EV push that may be more of a forced reality. Some politicians won't allow it either, there will be consequences for killing jobs, sending money overseas.

Many non UAW Japanese/German US auto plants off good pay and they also pay bonuses at the end of the year that end up being comparable to what the salary is at UAW plants, it is the benefits and payouts that don't come close to the UAW plants

SW17LS

Its all about money. They will do what allows them to operate as efficiently as possible. Its more efficient for Toyota and Honda and BMW and Mercedes etc to make cars here to sell them here, but if labor becomes too expensive or complicated then they will make them elsewhere. It doesnt make sense for Toyota to make cars in China and sell them here, because that would not benefit them that much when you factor in shipping times and the image impact it would have to their products. They have a good business relationship with the US and are able to negotiate reasonable labor costs and it makes sense for them.

Now, move over to GM. Because GM has this relationship with the UAW, and it makes securing their labor situation in the US so adversarial, complex and expensive, potential for huge downtimes and strikes raise the opportunity cost of labor in the US considerably...it DOES make sense for them to build cars in China and sell them here. So...you see them exploring that. GM would be just as capable of negotiating a good secure labor situation here as Toyota and Honda and BMW and Mercedes and everybody else...if it weren't for the UAW.

No UAW, GM wouldn't be building cars for sale in the US in China...or Korea. Bottom line.

China is a long way away, and there are a lot of logistical hurdles because of the geopolitical situation with the US. Its not as dramatically cheaper to manufacture cars in China as you might think.

And the argument that the UAW keeps Toyota from leaving the US makes absolutely no sense.

And plenty of money is made by the UAW too. Ask Jimmy Hoffa. If you can find him. Thats money that isn't realized by vehicle manufacturers or manufacturing workers, and that cost-waste doesn't exist for foreign carmakers.

tex2670

How come all those other companies are susceptible to public pressure to build plants in the USA, but not GM and Ford? That makes no sense.

And what about all the plants that have been built in the USA by foreign companies long after the 1980s? Like BMW and MB?

SW17LS

And do you really think Toyota and Honda make business decisions based on some public reaction to something from 40 years ago? No lol

Toys4RJill

These viewpoints are not correct. The auto industry has already started off shoring. And it is accelerating.

SW17LS

That statement is just not true across the board. Businesses offshore manufacturing when it benefits them to do so. It doesn't always. Domestic car manufacturers are decreasing their manufacturing footprint in the US, and foreign manufacturers are expanding their footprints. Thats not up for debate, its a fact look up the figures.

And unless you somehow became an expert on the auto industry and the UAW, or have the ability to see the future I don't see how you have any authority to say our viewpoints are "not correct".

tex2670

You act like this is a new phenomenon. Chrysler was building cars outside of the USA in the 1980s when Lee Iacocca got on TV and guilted customers to "Buy American". Heck - he even rebadged a bunch of Mitsubishi vehicles and sold them as Chrysler vehicles.

There's always going to be a mix of cars built in the USA and out of the USA. Regardless of the UAW.

All you keep doing is repeating your same statements, without refuting or answering anyone else's points.

Mike728

If this thread were a train, it would be at the bottom of the ocean.

SW17LS

But, which ocean? lol

mmarshall

Can't blame me (LOL)...and it's my thread. I posted, a long time ago, that we were off-topic...it was ignored.

mmarshall

Although because of several factors I have not put a whole lot of miles on it (roughly 5000), I’ve had my Encore GX for a year now…..so its time for the 12-month update.

All in all, considered, I’d buy another one of these in a heartbeat, particularly if they made a hybrid or a long-range hybrid…my house just isn’t set up for straight-BEV recharging. IMO, for my needs, this is the probably the best and most sensible daily-driver that GM has ever produced, although one can get the Chevy Trailblazer, with the same platform and drivetrains, for a little less money.





POSITIVE EXPERIENCES



Best All-Around Daily-Driver I’ve ever owned.

I paid around 31K for this vehicle (a lot less, of course, with the Lacrosse-trade), and it was DEFINITELY worth it, despite the negative things I outline below. I have been very pleased so far….although market-research and studies show that, with Americans, the average love-affair with a new vehicle is around two years, and then owners sometimes start to get irked with things they find either start getting to them, it starts to need more service or repairs, or decide that they want to they something different.…if they can afford to trade, which, of course, has been very difficult and expensive this past year or so. So, while I am very pleased now, and will probably continue to be for the foreseeable future, we’ll see how I feel in a year or two from now, when the vehicle will be older and with more miles on it. Still, I have had a lot of experience buying and driving many different vehicles over the years, and this one, without a doubt, has been one of the most pleasant to own.



Buick Comfort

The Tri-Shield is known for its emphasis on comfort, even in small relatively entry-level vehicles like this, which fits my driving style perfectly…I’m not interested in aggressive driving. Most small crossovers, because of the short wheelbases, light weights, and taller center of gravity, tend to have noisy, bobbing rides and/or be short on power. One can tell that the Encore GX has a nice touch of the famous Buick Quiet-Tuning from the engineers. While it is not as smooth or quiet as my larger Lacrosse was (I did not expect it to be), it has a noticeably more plush ride and better sound-insulation than most of its small B-class crossover competition. Unfortunately, the Virginia Department of Transportation decided to repave several of the roads around my place in a new coarse/grainy asphalt surface, which noticeably increases road noise at the trade-off of better traction. But, still, even though it is louder than the old surface, it still is not is loud as it would be with one of those cheaper crossovers and less sound-insulation.

Buick comfort is also found even in the front seats, although my Select Trim level does not include the soft leather seats found on the top-line Essence. Some Encore GX reviewers have complained about overly-narrow front seats. I don’t quite fit into these cloth seats as glove-perfectly as those of some other vehicles I’ve sampled, but, for the kind of driving I do, they are just fine…and my frame and torso (Trust me) is anything BUT narrow. The best Buick seat I ever sat in was the big bench-seat on my big 1965 Electra 225, which was pillow-soft and just like a living room sofa, but those kind of auto-seats simply are not made any more, and the GX would not have the room for it. All in all, I don’t miss having the top-line Essence trim on my GX…..I can get along without its added features just fine, especially considering what the Select Trim DOES give you, and the few extra options I ordered. The butter-smooth 9-speed 9T40 GM automatic transmission also adds to the comfort level. without the shifting-quirks that the larger 9T65 9-speed in my Lacrosse (an early-production version) had. The 3-cylinder turbo engine also runs decently for something its size, but could use another cylinder for refinement…more on that later.



Traditional PRNDL Fore/Aft Shift-Lever

There are few things I dislike in a vehicle more than quirky, hard-to-use or hard-to-learn shift-levers/buttons/stubs. From what I can remember, BMW started the shift (no pun intended) away from traditional levers, a number of years ago, to the unintuitive shifters we see today. GM is not immune from this by any means, and itself uses some quirky systems, particularly in several GMC products and a few Chevy/Buick/Cadillac models. But that is one thing I REALLY like about the Encore GX and Chevy Trailblazer….…a traditional no-nonsense fore-aft PRNDL shifter, without the zig-zag nonsense on some of them. The only thing I liked more on the Lacrosse was the standard paddle-shifters on the steering-wheel, which you could instantly upshift or downshift manually with, by-passing the lever……on the GX, you have to first use the lever and then flick a rocking-switch on top of the lever, similar to many Chevy products. I don’t use it much, though, except when going up of down some fairly steep grades.



Incredible Versatility For its Size

For my needs, this little puppy does it all…it’s got AWD for bad weather, a button to choose between FWD and AWD, a very tight turning radius for easy maneuverability and getting in/out of tight parking spaces, carries a fair amount of cargo in the back, and the right-front passenger seat can fold flat to allow, with the rear seat folded, long items up to eight feet long to be carried….just try that with most other B-class crossovers. The front/side/rear and 360-cameras (GM has some of the best camera-graphics in the industry) also help make parking even more of a breeze. On top of that, it has the self-parking feature if I took the time to program it, but I really don’t need it…it’s a snap to park manually.



Safety Features

I really appreciate several of the safety-features, especially the Rear-Cross-Traffic-Alert, which comes in very useful in crowded parking lots when you are parked next to very tall vehicles, have difficulty seeing back and to the side, and are trying to back out of a space with careless and inattentive drivers whizzing by on both sides of you (there are some real morons in shopping-mall lots). I also find the Collision-Alert useful, but somewhat less-so…..I usually keep my eyes on the road and am not fiddling around with the things when there is traffic in front of me. Indeed, while the red-warning light/beeper has gone off a number of times (usually when somebody jams on their brakes in front of me), the car’s automatic-braking only activated once. The Blind-Spot monitoring is also very useful, with the yellow indicator in the side-mirrors lighting when there is nearby traffic in the lane next to you. For a long time, I could drive without these safety-features, but, as traffic in this area has gotten to insane levels, those features come in ore and more handy all the time.



Hands-Free Liftgate

IMO, this was also money well-spent….it was a stand-alone $620 option, and not part of the regular Package-Bundles. In addition to the usual key/fob button, hatch-lid switch, and push-button release inside for the driver, this option allows you to walk up to the rear hatch with both arms full of packages (me when I typically come out of the grocery store), and simply kick one leg under the middle-left side of the rear bumper (or over a lighted white Buick Tri-Shield emblem that the feature projects on the ground under the bumper at night) to unlatch and raise the lift gate. The control inside the vehicle, as with many other GM products, lets you adjust the open-height to 3/4 for low roofs/garages, so the hatch doesn’t hit the ceiling.



Compliments from Others

While, in the end, this simply one of many small crossovers in today’s market, a dime a dozen in my area, I still get a lot of compliments, particularly from other customers at the gas station or in parking-lots, about this car’s looks. A number of people come up to me and tell me they like the car’s Metallic-Cinnamon color, particularly in the sun…it tends to look more dull-brownish in the shade (Buick calls it Burnished-Bronze Metallic). It especially contrasts with the black and beige-white inside. Then, when they find out I’m a car buff, they often have questions of their own about new vehicles, or ask for buying-advice, and, since, with my generally relaxed life-style, I’m usually not in a big hurry, I spend a little time with them answering their questions.







NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES


Nice power for a Three-Cylinder, but, for refinement, the engine could use one more cylinder.

I don’t have any experience with the smaller 1.2L turbo three, but the larger, optional 1.3L turbo-three in my Encore GX is pleasant for something its size, and produces good torque at low-RPM ranges just off idle….it’s tuned for torque-max around 1700 or 1800 RPM, which can sometimes make it jumpy. The Buick Quiet-Tuning insulation helps keep it quiet inside the cabin, but, even then, some gruffness and ill-refinement intrudes when accelerating…something that one more cylinder (and a different firing-order inside the engine-block) would probably solve. That would also probably help dampen the jerky engine-start sometimes when starting up from cold with the engine-start button….I don’t notice that on most in-line fours. The engine’s computer also keeps the engine fast-idle going for about 15-20 seconds on a cold or lukewarm start…I’ve learned to wait a little and let the RPMs come down to about 1000-1100 instead of 1500-1600 to give less stress on the transmission putting it in gear and backing up….you don’t have to hold the vehicle as strong with the brake.



Weather and Bird Problems.

Since I don’t have a garage, it is exposed to the elements, and, overall, this has been a very bad year or them. There were constant winter storms through much of February (although not leaving much snow), and, although I was able to avoid most of the road salt, the vehicle was covered with water, slush, snow, and dirt much of the time, without enough of a break in the weather to be able to clean it up much. Then an infestation of 17-year Cicadas hit in May and June, with insect-droppings (just the luck of the draw on that once-in-17-years). Between the bugs (and the birds that ate them up), I was constantly fighting droppings every day….and the paint that GM used on these vehicles, while nice and shiny, is not very resistant to the acid from those droppings, and left a number of etch-marks that the SCRATCH-OUT, liquid even with a LOT of hard rubbing, was only partly-able to deal with. #1 on my list of improvements to suggest to GM for this vehicle would be more durable paint, such as that found on some German vehicles. Then, in April, a windstorm brought down some branches and made some marks in the paint below the grille (too deep for SCRATCH-OUT) and the outside weather-stripping on the driver’s window. I replaced the stripping…it was relatively inexpensive, and IMO not worth making an insurance claim for…….even though I have no deductible on my Comprehensive policy in the insurance. I was able to keep it out of severe thunderstorms though, by taking it across street to a large parking-garage for a cold of local businesses during the worst winds and hail-possibilities. With the approach of winter, the bird-problems decreased considerably…I haven’t had many dropping snow for a couple of months.



Disappointing Gas Mileage in Suburban Driving

Gas mileage, overall, with the turbo-three and 9-speed auto/AWD is about the same (low-mid 20s in town) as with the much larger V6 and FWD in the larger Lacrosse I had earlier. I think that is partly because the Lacrosse’s V6 had a mandatory idle-stop for the engine (you could sometimes evade or fool it with deft throttle-manipulation) and a cylinder fuel cut-off while cruising. The Encore GX also has the idle-stop (I think all GM products do now). The aforementioned switch allows you to turn the system off (I never liked that system) which means using more fuel at idle….and we do a LOT of idling in my area with heavy traffic. If traffic and idling is really bad, I’ll let the idle-cut-off work anyway. I don’t use the AWD system much (which also uses more fuel)….just enough, with the ON/OFF switch, to keep the system lubed and ready for use if ever I really need it in winter conditions). I run it for about fiver ten minutes a week, like with the A/C in the winter, to keep the system lubed and operating. On the highway or interstate though, without stoplights, at reasonable speeds, I can do 30+ MPG….but I also could do that in the Lacrosse. Fortunately, like with the Lacrosse, it has a capless-fill system for the fuel…no cap to unscrew and get left behind at the gas station or have the plastic tether-strap wear and break. I also think part of the fuel mileage issue could (?) be the Encore GX’s higher-SUV-like stance, which is less-aerodynamic and might be producing more wind-resistance than the low/sleek sedan-stance was on my Lacrosse. And the engine in the Encore GX has a turbo……my Lacrosse didn’t, although I usually drive with a relatively light foot and don’t stress the turbo much.


GM-Grade Electronics

GM, particularly Buick, does some of the best, clearest, and most colorful electronics and graphics in the industry, particularly with camera-views, and the Buick Infotainment system is also one of the easier ones to use. But the general quality and reliability of the electronics and hardware leave some to be desired. I’ve had several different electronic component/actuators/sensors replaced or updated/recalled in both my Lacrosse and Encore GX, from climate-control to AWD to an early taillight bulb burnout to screen-graphics.



Squealing Brake Pads/Rotors.

A very minor complaint, but something I didn’t have in my previous two Buicks….the brakes squeal just a little when cold for the first few applications, particularly with very light pressure on the pedal. Then, after about two or three applications, it fades, and is quiet after that until the next cold start. There are a couple of GM TSB’s on it, but I don’t find it worth complaining about, and IMO not worth redoing the brakes for it with new pads. (the pads, BTW, front and rear, are still at 95% life on the dash-indicator…who knows how long the revised ones would last). And some owners have had the TSB done and still have some squeal.

And, as Always, Happy-Vehicle-Ownership.

MM

mmarshall

Just for curiosity, I might (?) drop by the Cadillac shop soon and see how the Encore GX compares to the XT4...which, of course, is slightly larger and has a 2.0L turbo in-line 4 instead of the turbo 3. The XT4 is done off the same platform as the new Buick Envision.

Also just out of curiosity......I don't expect the Encore GX to be a very popular vehicle in CL, but just by chance, does anyone else here own or lease one?....or a comparable Chevy Trailblazer with the same mechanicals? It would be interesting to get some more input from owners without going to Buick forums.