(Disclosure: Buick dropped off a vehicle for me to test-drive for a week. All thoughts are my own.)

I had a chance to drive the beauty above last month. Let me tell you, this 2013 Buick Encore is NICE! When our week was over, Sinisa joked that we should try to give them our old SUV and see if they noticed.

The look and feel of the leather is luxurious and normally I wouldn’t like leather seating living here in Chicago but the heated seats come standard. The vehicle also has rain sensing window wipers which I thought was a nice bonus. My favorite features were the front & rear parking assist, the forward collision alert, and the outside mirrors that showed the car’s “blind spot”. All of these, along with the numerous airbags, made me feel safer driving this car than my current vehicle.

The 2013 Buick Encore looks compact on the outside but it’s pretty spacious on the inside. There is plenty of leg room in the back seats. Also, the trunk looks tiny but fits a lot. We packed everything we needed for a day at the beach (including a cooler, beach chairs, umbrellas, etc) in the back with room to spare.

What’s your “must have” feature in a vehicle?