I was having a conversation with an elderly lady in the parking lot of the local supermarket today who was driving a 2018 Buick Encore. I asked her how she liked the vehicle and she said she really liked it....easy access/egress, easy to park, etc. It was an AWD model. She mentioned that her brother who passed several months ago also had one which was being sold under his estate. It is a 2017 Sport Touring AWD with 18,000 original miles. I've been doing some research on these vehicles as they seem to get pretty good industry and owner reviews. Although I haven't seen it, my research indicates that model has the newer LE2 engine vs. the older LUV engine (I'm also aware that, while having the same overall displacement, the LE2 was a clean sheet design introduced with the second generation Cruze that put out 15 more horsepower and 29 ft. lb.of torque than the older design and is the "one to get" for it's, better power and comparable fuel economy). Here's where the bubble bursts...the 2016.through 2018 versions of this engine had a problem with cracked pistons. Seems there was a problem with both the dreaded LSPI issue and perhaps an issue with the pistons themselves. It appears that a lot of the piston failures occur pretty early...
around 20k miles or so. I know that there are guys here that have a lot more familiarity with these than I do. Considering that this vehicle is out of warranty, should I even bother looking at it?
around 20k miles or so. I know that there are guys here that have a lot more familiarity with these than I do. Considering that this vehicle is out of warranty, should I even bother looking at it?