2008 Buick ENCLAVE - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2008 Buick Enclave 4-DR. w/SAB has received high ratings for front and side crash protection, with a score of 5 for both the driver and passenger sides in front and side crashes. However, the overall safety rating is listed as "Not Rated." The car is equipped with electronic stability control for improved handling on the road. Although it does not have forward collision warning or lane departure warning systems, the rollover rating is 4 out of 5, indicating a lower risk of rollover incidents.

In terms of complaints and recalls, there have been 529 complaints reported for this model, and 6 recalls issued. Despite the lack of an overall safety rating, the high crash protection ratings and presence of stability control make the 2008 Buick Enclave a relatively safe choice, but potential buyers should be aware of the reported complaints and recalls associated with this vehicle.

Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

529

Recall Count

6

Investigation Count

1

Safety Rating

Not Rated

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Safety Features

2008 Buick Enclave 4-DR. w/SAB Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2008 Buick Enclave 4-DR. w/SAB

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

ESC is an advanced safety feature in vehicles designed to help drivers maintain control during challenging driving conditions. By continuously monitoring various factors such as steering angle, vehicle speed, and individual wheel speeds, ESC can detect and reduce the risk of skidding or loss of control. It achieves this by automatically applying brakes to specific wheels to stabilize the vehicle.

Standard
Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is a safety feature in vehicles that helps prevent frontal collisions by alerting the driver of an imminent collision with a vehicle or obstacle ahead. Using sensors such as radar or cameras, FCW monitors the distance and speed of vehicles in front, and if it detects a potential collision, it provides visual and/or auditory warnings to prompt the driver to take evasive action.

No
Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) is a safety feature in vehicles that alerts drivers when their vehicle unintentionally drifts out of its lane without signaling. Utilizing cameras or sensors to monitor lane markings on the road, LDW detects when the vehicle crosses these lines and triggers visual, auditory, or haptic alerts to notify the driver of potential lane departure.

No

2008 Buick Enclave 4-DR. w/SAB Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2008 Buick Enclave 4-DR. w/SAB Where possible we've included the ratings for the oldest and latest models of this car so you can compare how the safety ratings have changed over time.

Frontal Crash Ratings

Combines Driver and Passenger star ratings into a single frontal rating. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles, each moving at 35 mph.

Test 2008 Score 2024 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating Not Rated 5
Front Crash Driver Side Rating 5 5
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating 5 5

Side Crash Ratings

Combines Side Barrier and Side Pole Star Ratings into a single side rating.

Test 2008 Score 2024 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating Not Rated 5
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating 5 5
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating 5 4
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front Not Rated 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear Not Rated 4
Overall Side Barrier Rating Not Rated 5

Rollover Ratings

The Rollover Resistance test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

Test 2008 Score 2024 Score
Rollover Rating 4 4
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating Not Rated 5

Complaints for the 2008 Buick ENCLAVE

This chart show the number of complaints for each car component. A Higher number of complaints could indicate that this car might have a common fault. Something to look out for when purchasing one.

Component Complaints

Choose a component to see what complaints people have made about them.

Complaint:
"my airbags driver side and the passenger front all exploded while sitting in my driveway nobody in the vehicle"
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2022-04-08

Complaint:
"passenger airbag will disable randomly while driving for random periods of time ranging from a few seconds to a few hours despite there being a 140+ lb passenger. this will happen every few minutes."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2023-07-08

Complaint:
"1.passenger airbag- warning light gives me a daily message to service the airbag. i worry about whether the airbag will deploy at any moment or may not deploy if an accident occurs as i travel with my children daily. 2.power steering- my power steering locked as i was driving 2 years ago. the auto shop has replaced/repaired the power steering system multiple times, however steering continues to whine and rub. 3.trunk liftgate- the liftgate has abruptly lowered as my children and i have tried to get items in and out of the back. this resulted in one of them getting hit in the head. the back liftgate button has stopped engaging."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2019-03-06

Complaint:
"i purchased this vehicle several years ago used and everything was working fine. several months later, whenever a "passenger" sits in the front passenger seat, the check airbag and seat belt system message appears in the dashboard. after the seat becomes unoccupied, the message remains on...sometimes for a couple of days, sometimes for a week, and sometimes for a month or two. then it may stop showing the message until a person sits there again. this also happened when the vehicle was not running and the key was in my pocket. i went and applied pressure to the passenger seat and when i started the vehicle with an empty passenger seat, the message appeared again. i took my vehicle to the dealer and they were going to charge me an arm and a leg for the repair and i was thinking this should be a covered repair. what i am saying is the message appears that something is wrong and when someone sits in the seat."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2020-06-09

Complaint:
"the contact owns a 2008 buick enclave. the contact stated that while operating the vehicle the air bag sensor light had illuminated and the message "service air bag" had displayed. the vehicle was taken to the local dealer who diagnosed that the failure was due to water corrosion in the air bag system. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was not notified. the vin was not available. the failure mileage was 200,000."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2022-12-02

Complaint:
"it says service airbag"
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2021-03-01

Complaint:
"the "service air bag" light is on in my 2008 buick enclave. i had noticed that at first, it would go on and off if i was sitting in the seat and someone else was driving. i assumed it was because it thought i was a child sitting in the front seat, as i am a 30 year old female who barely weighs 100 lbs. the light is now constantly on."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2021-06-02

Complaint:
"tl* the contact owns a 2008 buick enclave. the contact stated the air bag warning light was illuminated. the vehicle was not taken to be diagnosed nor repaired. a dealer was not contacted. the manufacturer was not informed of failure. the failure mileage was 171,000."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2020-11-03

Complaint:
"passenger side front airbag has failed in car and was not deployed. dealership has looked into it, fixed connections and still it is displaying that it needs to be serviced. signal started while driving at speed after connections to passenger seat were repaired."
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2020-03-03

Complaint:
"the airbag keep going off and on service airbag and when i bring it to get it check they can't find anything wrong with it"
Components Involved: AIR BAGS
Date of incident: 2021-04-09

Recalls for the 2008 Buick ENCLAVE

Component Recalls

Choose a component to see what recalls people have made about them.

Recall:
"gm is recalling 857,735 my 2006-2008 buick lucerne; cadillac dts; hummer h2; my 2007-2008 cadillac escalade, escalade esv, escalade ext; chevrolet avalanche, silverado, suburban, tahoe; gmc acadia, sierra, yukon, yukon xl, saturn outlook; and my 2008 buick enclave vehicles equipped with a heated wiper washer fluid system. a short circuit on the printed circuit board for the washer fluid heater may overheat the control-circuit ground wire."
Consequence:
THIS MAY CAUSE OTHER ELECTRICAL FEATURES TO MALFUNCTION, CREATE AN ODOR, OR CAUSE SMOKE INCREASING THE RISK OF A FIRE.
Remedy:

DEALERS WILL INSTALL A WIRE HARNESS WITH AN IN-LINE FUSE FREE OF CHARGE. THE RECALL BEGAN ON SEPTEMBER 12, 2008. OWNERS MAY CONTACT BUICK AT 1-866-608-8080; CADILLAC AT 1-800-982-2339 OR HTTP://WWW.CADILLAC.COM; CHEVROLET AT 1-800-630-2438; SATURN AT 1-800-972-8876 OR HTTP://WWW.SATURN.COM, GMC AT 1-866-996-9436; OR HUMMER AT 1-800-732-5493; OR THROUGH THEIR WEBSITE AT <A HREF=HTTP://WWW.GMOWNERCENTER.COM>HTTP://WWW.GMOWNERCENTER.COM</A> .

Component(s) Involved: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Date of incident: 2008-08-28

Recall:
"gm is recalling certain model year 2006-2009 buick, lucerne; cadillac dts; hummer h2; model year 2008-2009 buick enclave; cadillac cts; model year 2007-2009 cadillac escalade, escalade esv, escalade ext; chevrolet avalanche, silverado, suburban, tahoe; gmc acadia, sierra, yukon, yukon xl; saturn outlook; and model year 2009 chevrolet traverse vehicles equipped with a heated washer fluid system (hwfs). a recall was implemented in 2008 to add a fuse to the control circuit harness to address the potential consequences of a printed circuit board (pcb) electrical short. however, there have been new reports of thermal incidents on hwfs modules after this improvement was installed. these incidents resulted from a new failure mode attributed to the device's thermal protection feature. the significance varies from minor distortion to considerable melting of the plastic around the hwfs fluid chamber."
Consequence:
IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE HEATED WASHER MODULE TO IGNITE AND A FIRE MAY OCCUR.
Remedy:

DEALERS WILL PERMANENTLY DISABLE AND REMOVE THE HEATED WASHER FLUID MODULE. AN UPDATED PAGE FOR THE OWNER MANUAL WILL BE PROVIDED AND INSERTED IN THE OWNER MANUAL TO DOCUMENT THAT THE FEATURE HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY DISABLED AND REMOVED FROM THE VEHICLE. THE SAFETY RECALL BEGAN ON JUNE 11, 2010. OWNERS MAY CONTACT BUICK AT 1-866-608-8080, CADILLAC AT 1-866-982-2339, CHEVROLET AT 1-800-630-2438, SATURN AT 1-800-972-8876, GMC AT 1-866-996-9463 AND HUMMER AT 1-800-732-5493 OR AT THE OWNER CENTER AT WWW.GMOWNERCENTER.COM.

Component(s) Involved: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Date of incident: 2010-06-04

BUICK Overall Complaint Ranking

This table shows the ranking of car manufacturers when it comes to most complaints and recalls. The manufacturer with the most complaints is at the top. However this doesn't necassarily mean they should be avoided. Some manufacturers might just have more popular or affordable cars which a lot of people have bought. Which means there's more scope for a complaint to be made. Use the ranking table below as a part your wider research into buying a car.

BUICK ranks 20 out of 44 in the complaints ranking table.

Manufacturer Complaint Count Recall Count Ranking
FORD 208,358 3,259 1
CHEVROLET 111,306 2,082 2
TOYOTA 81,019 1,852 3
HONDA 61,937 1,268 4
NISSAN 56,226 930 5
DODGE 45,756 827 6
HYUNDAI 44,150 649 7
GMC 34,441 1,410 8
KIA 29,832 501 9
CHRYSLER 27,698 254 10
TESLA 26,230 730 11
BMW 24,890 1,877 12
VOLKSWAGEN 23,125 829 13
MERCEDES-BENZ 19,066 2,925 14
SUBARU 18,513 703 15
MAZDA 10,599 364 16
PONTIAC 10,430 138 17
CADILLAC 9,434 444 18
AUDI 7,865 1,093 19
BUICK 7,851 279 20
SATURN 7,672 84 21
MERCURY 7,374 135 22
LEXUS 6,373 408 23
LINCOLN 5,897 423 24
ACURA 5,722 382 25
MINI 5,585 366 26
INFINITI 4,000 187 27
MITSUBISHI 3,912 397 28
VOLVO 3,875 727 29
PORSCHE 2,646 1,231 30
SUZUKI 2,272 123 31
FIAT 2,205 80 32
SAAB 1,536 76 33
JAGUAR 1,195 198 34
SMART 528 17 35
GENESIS 436 42 36
ISUZU 249 37 37
ALFA ROMEO 161 37 38
MASERATI 76 46 39
BENTLEY 46 159 40
POLESTAR 42 2 41
LUCID 14 6 42
CODA 4 2 43
MAYBACH 0 0 44

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