As General Motors continues to reinvent itself, Buick has taken center stage as the brand requiring the most work. The Encore, a compact crossover packed with upmarket features, is designed to shake Buick's more mature image.

The 2013 Buick Encore comes in four easy-to-distinguish trim levels: Base, Convenience, Leather and Premium. The Base includes a six-speaker audio system, 18-inch cast-aluminum wheels and acoustic-laminated glass. A Convenience group adds fog lights, a 120-volt power outlet and automatic climate control. The Leather model, meanwhile, will impress buyers with heated leather seats and a system that remembers an individual driver's settings for seats, mirrors and climate control. The Premium chases higher-end brands with a Bose stereo, front and rear parking sensors, and rain-sensing wipers.

Standard on all four trim levels is a 1.4-liter Ecotec engine that produces 138 horsepower and 148 foot-pounds of torque. This engine is matched to a standard six-speed automatic transmission, which delivers power to the front wheels as standard. A front-wheel-drive Encore gets 25 mpg city and 33 mpg highway; with all-wheel-drive, mileage drops to a still-respectable 23 mpg city and 30 mpg highway.