2018 Chevrolet Equinox 2.0T Launching By Month’s End
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The 2018 Chevrolet Equinox should be sitting on dealership lots as you read this, but only in 1.5-liter turbo form. Next on deck is the 2.0-liter LTG 4-cylinder turbocharged engine.
Chevrolet confirmed the second turbocharged gasoline engine will be arriving at dealerships by the end of this month. If you’re sans calendar, there’s only about a week and a half remaining, so the 2018 Equinox 2.0T’s launch is nigh.
Fuel economy for the 2.0-liter turbo suffers in the name of performance. While the 1.5-liter turbo-4 returns an EPA-estimated 32 mpg highway, the 2.0L returns 29 mpg, as estimated by the EPA. However, power jumps to 252 hp with the 2.0L, up from 170 hp with the 1.5L.
Following the launch of the Equinox with the 2.0T LTG will be the 1.6-liter turbocharged diesel engine, plucked from the 2017 Chevrolet Cruze diesel – which is plucked from Opel. The Cruze diesel is capable of 52 mpg highway (when equipped with a manual gearbox), meaning the Equinox diesel may return impressive numbers – GM estimates 40 mpg highway.
The 1.6L diesel will likely go on sale this summer, as we’ve estimated a second quarter launch in the past.
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“so the 2018 Equinox 2.0T’s launch is nigh.” You meant “high” right Sean?
No, he meant ‘nigh’.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nigh
thanks!
Put this engine in the Cruze Hatch dammit!
Chevy needs to underatand that the Equinox is a CUV and needs a bit more power than the 1.5L 4-cyl turbo from the Chevy Cruze as the engine simply needs to work too hard; at minimum, the base engine of the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox should be the LWC 1.6L DOHC-4v 4-cyl turbo used by the Buick Cascada as the extra 100cc of displacement allows the LWC to generate 200 hp @ 5,500 rpm.
The 1.5L turbo is fine as the base engine in a mainstream car meant to appeal to mainstream buyers who are not running trying to set record 0-60 times. Instead, the majority of mainstream buyers favor fuel economy over horsepower and performance so that’s where the focus is.
Also, the displacement is not what gets the 1.6T LWC to 200 horses but rather the tuning. The new 1.5 in the Equinox can make 200 horses if tuned for power rather than fuel economy. But it’s not.
Overall, the new 1.5 is a much better and more efficient and refined motor than the 1.6.
PS: the Cruze uses the 1.4L turbo variant of the 1.5T.
We have a Buick Cascada and I am impressed with the pep of the 1.6 engine. I recently test drove a 2018 Equinox with the 1.5 and the Buick definitely feels stronger to me despite the fact that it is several hundred pounds heavier. And even with this weight, we tpyically get 28-29mpg in highway driving.
Why not the 2.5L 195 hp engine with std start/stop (non turbo) as the base engine for Equinox/Terrain .. works for the Buick Envision and base GMC Acadia
The 1.5T is a bit overmatched in the more loaded premier version of the Nox in AWD form. Load some passengers and turn on the A/C and it is a slug meaning this engine is not making enough power for the weight of these CUV’s.
I just purchased the new 2018 Equinox 1.5L, 170 HP in AWD Premier guise 5+ weeks ago. Coming from 2 GM V6 engines, I’ve been accustomed to more get-up-and-go over the past 9 years and this engine certainly could use an extra 25-50 HP and it would become an OUTSTANDING base engine.
The torque is o.k., but it’s primarily the transmission which doesn’t want to upshift as readily as it could / should. The revs go up to anywhere between 3k-5k under moderate to heavy uphill acceleration. MPGs are fair at ~23 mpg in dense Washington DC and heavily congested suburb driving and, on those roads, this ‘Nox does quite well with acceleration and fuel economy.
The ride, overall, is quite nice (19″ Hankooks seem to get the job done without too much road noise, brakes are excellent and the tech is top notch as compared to its rivals’ most recent iterations of the RAV4 and CR-V). The seats, however, need improvement. I’m 5’11”, 210lbs and the seat cushion, in particular, needs to be a little longer and wider (it’d be amazing what an extra 1 to 2″ could do here).
There are USB ports galore (6 – of which 2 are data ports), 3 12V outlets and a 120V 3-prong power outlet. Cooled seats are fantastic, heated seats and air vents for the rear passengers are also welcome conveniences and the pano roof sheds an entirely new light on driving on a cloudy day (pun fully intended).
Official EPA fuel economy ratings for the 2018 Equinox 2.0 are posted here:
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=38685&id=38690