The handling is competent if somewhat uninspiring, the brakes offer decent pedal feel and stopping power, and the ride is very comfortable thanks to Buick’s twin-tube shock absorbers and excellent sound-deadening efforts (the Encore gets active sound-cancellation and lots of extra insulation compared to the Chevrolet Trax). The short wheelbase and high centre of gravity do contribute to a bit of choppiness over large bumps and occasional “nervousness” on the highway, but overall, the Encore is an easygoing little machine to operate.

Around town, the Encore’s small size means that it’ll fit into parking spaces that larger SUVs would have to pass by, and the tall ride height helps you see over traffic to some extent. But it isn’t quite as easy to pilot around town as it might be due to its somewhat restricted outward visibility, which is hampered at the back by small, upward-sweeping rear windows and massive B and C pillars. The A-pillars are also some of the thickest I’ve yet encountered: they’re much more than a hand-width wide and they triangle outward at the base such that you can lose whole cars in the blind spot created up there (if you value outward visibility, you might want to cross-shop Subaru’s XV Crosstrek, which utterly schools the Encore in roof pillar design).

On the bright side, the Encore includes a standard back-up camera, so parking is fairly simple regardless of the rearward tunnel vision, and Buick has sorted out the 2015 Encore’s structure to provide good scores across the board in IIHS crash testing. This is an improvement over the 2014 model (which scored poorly in the new small-overlap front crash test) and it means the Encore now earns a Top Safety Pick award.

So, those are the basics, and there are no real surprises: despite a few imperfections the Buick Encore is a fun-sized package of friendly functionality. But (and this is a big one) the Buick Encore isn’t just about the basics. If you wanted just the basics you’d buy a Chevrolet Trax, at least if price were the key consideration. Or you’d buy a Honda CR-V or a Toyota RAV4 or a Ford Escape if compact SUV functionality was the key consideration.

No, the Buick Encore is about more than the basics, because it’s a luxury SUV (entry-level luxury at least), and here its success is less clear.

Connect with Autos.ca