Old and New Collide During a Drive to the Big Apple in the 2024 Buick Envista

Buick has been around since 1899, making it the oldest surviving American car brand and one of the oldest globally.

When I think of Buick, however, the 1950s come to mind, with their mid-century good looks complete with pastel colours, giant chrome grilles, signature portholes, and glorious tailfins. In short, they’re iconic.

These cars played noteworthy roles in the early days of North American road trip culture after World War II. Families were prosperous, cars were flashy, and highways were the preferred way to travel. It’s an era that’s still wildly romanticized because of what it represented: a newly prosperous middle class experiencing a new type of freedom by pushing boundaries.

A Modern Machine

Looking to recreate the magic of the era, we set out on a summer road trip from Toronto to New York City in the 2024 Buick Envista. While flying is more convenient, I’m old school and love to road trip. The drive can be done in around eight and a half hours if you rush it, but we took our time to explore a new place every couple hours, because the journey is just as important as the destination.

Swapping between the Elvis and ‘50s Gold stations on the SiriusXM satellite radio, we make a point to only eat at retro diners in small towns and stop at as many antique stores as possible. This is yet another way road-tripping makes more sense, because we can pack the Envista with all the goodies we want without having to worry about what fits in our suitcases.

Driving through small-town America on the way to the big city, we see rusty old cars (including some old Buicks) sitting in junkyards, neon signs with their tubes gone and paint cracking, and ghost signs on the side of brick buildings hinting at the greatness that once was. As we pull up to our first diner stop, it’s easy to imagine a ‘50s Buick parked in front instead of the Envista, but the contrast makes me smile. The diner is in an early 20th-century railroad dining car with its neon sign shining bright, an American flag proudly flapping in the wind, and the sun glinting off the restaurant’s chrome trim.

Head-Turning Looks

Something surprises me about driving this Buick, however. It gets an odd amount of attention from passersby. From one mouthing, “That’s a Buick” like we’re in one of the brand’s commercials to another making his best not-bad face, it manages to turn heads wherever we go.

With its sloping coupe-like roofline, the Envista doesn’t look like any Buick that came before it, but its bold style calls back to the 1950s in that it is actually bold. I can’t tell you a single design feature of a Buick from about the ‘70s until this Envista, and it’s cool to see the brand once again making style a priority.

Final Thoughts

After multiple stops, we finally make it into the city. The Envista’s manageable size makes driving through New York City much less scary than I had anticipated, and I was impressed with our 7.0 L/100 km fuel economy average. The adaptive cruise control also made the long highway and backroad drives between the small towns much less taxing.

New York City has always fascinated me because it’s so old and yet so modern at the same time. It’s chaotic and crazy but it somehow works, and the magic of the city is how it’s constantly changing yet always the same. While it hasn’t always been perfect – the violence-fuelled 1980s come to mind – its rich history, both good and gritty, is what makes it so unique.

The same can be said of Buick, which itself experienced some forgettable years and its fair share of turmoil. Buick has been plotting its revival in North America and it’s exciting to see how the brand might recapture the magic of its prime and century-plus history as it continues its journey forward.

While I love New York City and our stay was special, I’m equally excited for the road trip back home and all the other cool old stuff we’ll see along the way.