Here's Why Buick Discontinued The Encore
Buick's 2023 slate brought quite the shock when it was revealed that the manufacturer had quietly discontinued production of the Buick Encore after roughly a decade. Stranger still, the company didn't give much official notice of the Encore's demise, nor did it provide reasoning for wiping the model from its slate.
Originating in the 2013 model year, the Encore managed to carve out a niche in the Buick line-up as arguably its best subcompact SUV option. Qualities such as its small size, unique front-sloping design, and emphasis on a smooth and quiet driving experience engendered a devoted community. For the span of its life, the Encore sat comfortably as an entry point for Buick that was generally deemed reliable, if not quite exceptional.
With the Encore being a mainstay for so many years, some readers are no doubt wondering what prompted Buick to put an end to the line. While neither Buick nor its parent company, General Motors, have offered any in-depth explanation, a look at the circumstances surrounding the car's decline offers some strong hints as to what exactly happened.
The Encore GX made the Encore feel redundant
Interestingly, while the Buick Encore may be dead, the Encore branding isn't. The Buick Encore GX, which originated during the 2020 model year as the younger sibling of the now-discontinued subcompact crossover model, is still alive and kicking. In certain ways, the GX is single-handedly carrying on the legacy of its namesake. At the same time, there's an argument to be made that the advent of the GX is mostly what killed the original Encore in the first place.
For the years that the Encore and the Encore GX shared a spot on Buick's slate, the pair of models were ostensibly intended to complement one another. The Buick GX is slightly larger than its counterpart, slotting into the subcompact-plus range. Originally, the car was marketed as a premium alternative to the Encore, offering slightly more cabin space and storage, a wider range of customizability options for its three-cylinder engine, unique trims exclusive to the GX line, and other special features.
Despite Buick positioning the Encore and the Encore GX as two separate models, the crossover in terms of appeal between the two was undeniable. Not only did the pair fit within the subcompact SUV market but they were also priced competitively. For reference, the 2020 Buick Encore started at a base of $24,195, while the 2020 Buick Encore GX entered at a slightly higher but ultimately comparable price point of $25,095. At the end of the day, it was only an inevitability that the GX would start to siphon sales away from its sibling vehicle.
After the Encore GX, sales for the Encore weren't stellar
A cursory look at the sales for the Buick Encore during the overlap period with the Buick Encore GX makes for some pretty compelling evidence that the latter model was supplanting the former on the market. Per U.S. sales data obtained by GM Authority, the Encore sold 41,752 units during the 2020 calendar year, which was the Encore GX's first year on the market. That number isn't quite a death knell on its own, but it was a fairly drastic drop-off for the Encore, which had just hit an all-time high of 102,402 units sold the previous year. By comparison, the GX enjoyed a decent debut in 2020, hitting 44,841 in domestic sales and narrowly beating out the Encore.
The gap between the Encore and the GX would only continue to widen in subsequent years. 2021 saw the GX beginning to significantly overtake the Encore in terms of market share, with the premium car totaling 71,247 sold units compared to a meager 20,072 for its counterpart. While the GX's sales dipped down to roughly 33,348 in 2022, it still did far better than the Encore, which only managed to hit 13,718 units. In the end, 2022 would prove to be the Encore's last year of active production before the model was shelved.
When it comes to popular cars getting discontinued, one key factor is almost invariably present: poor sales. Regardless of how exactly things began to decline for the Encore, if it wasn't putting out the revenue that Buick needed, it was only a matter of time before the line would be canned — and it seems that's exactly what happened.
Buick may have planned for the Encore to become obsolete
While it may seem like the death of the Buick Encore was an unfortunate consequence of the model's poor sales after the introduction of the Buick Encore GX, it's possible that Buick fully intended to phase out the model years prior to its actual discontinuation. Sources such as GM Authority suggest that the manufacturer purposefully shifted priority to the GX once it was introduced and subsequently streamlined customizability offerings for the Encore in its final years with the intention of ultimately ending production of the storied model.
Even if Buick did originally conceive of the Encore and the GX as two models that could co-exist in the long term, the near-immediate financial impact of the latter on the former likely persuaded the company to ramp down support for the original model before too long. Sources like Car and Driver also note that the discontinuation of the Encore allowed Buick to reallocate production resources to the GX and the Chevrolet Trailblazer, both of which have been sales success stories for the manufacturer. Essentially, it's fair to suggest that the Encore's demise was less the result of an accidental and unexpected decline and more of a calculated and strategic pivot on Buick's behalf to optimize its finances and business operations.
Whatever the exact story behind the end of the Encore may be, its niche in Buick's line-up has since been filled by other models. Not only is the GX still going strong, but so is the Buick Envista — a compact crossover SUV that joined the company's North American model line starting in 2024.