The 2018 Chevrolet Equinox is a very important vehicle for the brand. The Equinox is not only one Chevrolet’s best-selling vehicles, but the third-generation of the crossover marks a substantial shift from its previous proportions. Now, the 2018 Equinox competes squarely against very cemented players in the compact crossover segment.
Unfortunately, Cars.com didn’t quite find a love affair with the all-new Equinox and placed it in fifth place out of seven contenders. The 2018 Equinox only beat out the recently-redesigned Jeep Compass and the aging Nissan Rogue. The Ford Escape, Mazda CX-5, Honda CR-V and Volkswagen Tiguan all outdid Chevy’s compact CUV.
Notably, a lot of criticism came from the Equinox’s value, or what judges said was a lack of. Many features that can be had on lower trims in competing CUVs were missing from a $34,000 Equinox. Interior quality also ranked the lowest of any crossover tested.
What was adored was the optional 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine and the Equinox’s overall ride. Ditto for the abundance of electronics and connectivity with OnStar and 4G LTE Wi-Fi.
Comments
Come on GM you can and should do better.
Ouch! Lucky for GM, these puppies are selling quite well!
This is why GM will never regain the coasts. I expected Barra to make Chevrolet better than Honda.
GM must stop using Buick as it’s “quality” brand.
The Equinox was clearly priced with big future incentives in mind. They just recently put $3K on the hood which is remarkable for a car only a few months old.
Just like other GM brands and models, the Equinox is overpriced. GM is capitalizing on the SUV market, which I have no problem with after all its in business to make money, but when compared to other brands, the standard options on these brands are options on GM brands.
No surprise here. GM interior quality, for most of it’s vehicles, continues to be quite poor when objectively compared.
One journal’s review is not the end-all of reviews for a vehicle. Who reads Cars.com anyway? Lol. I’m being deliberately shady.
I went and priced an Equinox as I would order it and the MSRP came to $30090. This would be the cheapest of the test by over $3k in MSRP and with the current incentives, it is under $27K. I don’t get the value for the money part of their test. The Equinox lost points for not having automatic braking, and because it doesn’t take the wheel if you veer out of your lane… these are features I would more likely pay to NOT have and so to me it makes it more attractive. I prefer to drive for myself. As for interior “quality” it seems like their beef was with interior appearance, which is fine, but also somewhat subjective… and again, who cares about soft-touch materials in the cargo area, to me that is going to be less durable down the road and if you spend time touching your cars cargo area you should see a psychologist. Equinox had the best rating of all for powertrain and the second best for ride quality. To me these areas, along with handling should be weighted much heavier than some other categories.
Yeah, I don’t even like all these automatic driving “features”. A lot of roads around here are all broken up with pot holes in the wheel tracks where most people drive, so I like to “cheat” over a little bit so as to drive on smooth pavement. I do NOT drive out of my lane, however. I once drove a Cadillac SRX that apparently had the lane keeping feature, and the darn thing kept steering me back over into the rutted, pot holed part of the road. No thanks, I don’t want to pay all that money for a car and have to fight it in order to drive where I want. think I’ll decide where to drive the dang car.
gm should include safety features standard in all of their division models such as side alert ,lane assist side mirror directional
–you could get a low class import with those features standard.. in some models to order a sunroof package it includes navigation ( are you for real ) at a great additional expense . if gm is proud of their onstar you don’t need navigation .. also all of my previous gm cars I ordered cornering lamps -especially with current vehicle designs , they would be a great help when turning , especially if positioned properly . with that said GM doesn’t listen their heads are in the sand
To rate the Escape over the Equinox just screams of blatant bias and Kelly Blue Book sees the Equinox as much more favorable than cars.com.
That is something I found puzzling that there is already a $3000 discount on a brand new car . Is it because the car is over priced and GM can afford to do this .
It is time that certain features should be available as standard equipment on even the cheaper models . Other brands are doing it at that could be hurting reviews such as Cars,com .
That Mazda CX-5 ‘s interior does look good though , just a baby brother to the CX-9 which has a very modern interior .
its also because the equinox is built in Canada and the Canadian dollar is worth only about 75 cents against the US dollar. Makes it cheaper when converted to US dollars. Im sure if it was built in US then the $3000 credit wouldnt be there.
However the first year or 2 of an all new design is usually the time for them to build as many cars as they can and try to cover the massive research and development costs of building a brand new car on a new platform. year 3 onwards is usually the time to finish paying off the R&D cost and then its like printing money for the next 2-3 years…
GM has done this for years; offer all the features on top trim models only for the first year or two and then trickle them down to lower trim levels throughout the lifecycle. Low Speed Automatic Braking is available on the Premier in a confidence II package along with all the other safety features, so clearly Cars.com didn’t have a loaded Equinox if they hit it hard for not having a automatic braking system.
Although I agree that GM should offer most of the safety features standard on all trims, as long as the Equinox is Chevy’s second best selling vehicle behind the Silverado and it is selling well, clearly many customers are seeing the value in the way GM is currently doing it. When sales slow down, equipment packages will change.
As far as over priced, again, if they are selling well, GM should take advantage of it. Yes some locations now have a $3000 cash rebate, but that is for cash buyers. How many people truly pay cash for a vehicle? Stats show less than 10%. The rest who “pay cash” are using lines of credit or adding to mortgages, but are still making payments somewhere, etc but are just “paying cash” at the dealership. The $3000 is also in lieu of taking low rate financing. So you can either get $3000 cash rebate, or a much smaller rebate and a low rate finance. GM does it this way because domestic buyers have become accustomed to large incentives on domestic vehicles and won’t buy unless they see them. Whereas import buyers have always paid near retail for vehicles and have only been seeing rebates the last few years. So GM (Ford, Chrysler and Ram) inflates the price so they can show customers the incentives/rebates/discounts domestic buyers have become accustomed to (spoiled by).
I’m not sure where you get the $3,000 (which is different in my area) is cash only?
You get the 0% and no rebates or the $3,000 and whatever rate you qualify for. That’s typically 3.9% for up to 72 months. 9 times out of ten it’s best to take the rebate to lower the amount financed and still have a lower payment than 0%.
As the old adage goes.. everyone is a critic and it’s insanity to accept what one publication says about the new 2018 Chevrolet Equinox because sales say something differently as Chevrolet sold 28,245 units for August 2017 and as another adage goes, action speak louder than words as despite what this one publication thinks.. consumers thought differently.
Umm… CONSUMER REPORTS?
Albeit they haven’t reviewed the newer models yet, but last year the ‘Nox was rated more reliable than the Honda and VW and the Ford. And that Honda is Honda FUGLY.
What a joke! The Equinox had excellent ride, handling and power, even with the 1.5L compared to the CRV, Tiguan, Escape and Mazda. It offers three engine choices that none of the others offer. Its infotainment system is perhaps the easiest of all to use and is integrated well into the interior. None of the others has Onstar-so while Adaptive Cruise and Low Speed Auto Braking might be nifty gadgets-none of the competitors will contact help for you if you do get into an accident unless you have your smart phone paired up and the air bags deploy. How many of the competitors offer an integrated Factory Remote Start or the Remote Link app to start the vehicle with your smart phone ? In Canada, the “Nox offers better overall warranty than the others too. GM has done an excellent job of putting way more content into the ‘Nox for the money. If you like a “pretty”interior, perhaps there is some room for improvement compared to the CRV and Mazda, but if you value substance more than style, the 2018 Equinox delivers in spades!
I was in agreement until this —
“If you like a “pretty”interior, perhaps there is some room for improvement compared to the CRV and Mazda, but if you value substance more than style.”
Things are too competitive in this segment for apologist spin. The BEST car in this class will offer substance and style. That’s the goal.
This is what I notice when GM vehicles are put in a comparison, the people doing the comparing seem to focus on the negative things that they don’t like and tend to gloss over the things that the car does well!
Just the opposite for GM’S rivals they focus on the good parts of the cars and try not to mention the bad stuff!
How should comparisons be done?
By size of vehicle? Or
By the cost of each car?
I don’t believe these testers should be telling the reader what a good value is or what cost to much!
One word, “OverPriced”! Period. The main reason they are currently selling so many now is because it’s a newly released model. Sales will taper off…After extensive online research, the Honda CVR is the overall best value for your dollar.
An unknown car typically doesn’t sell well because it’s new AND overpriced. That’s usually a recipe for a sales decrease. It must be selling well because people like looking at it and driving it and feel the price is reasonable.
Hondas are bland and ugly. I remember when they were slick and stylish. You couldn’t give me most Hondas.
I respectfully disagree. I have seen more times then often, when ppl know a new model is coming out, the previous year/model sales slow, as most are waiting for the newest makeover model. Just my experience….
How come these, reviews never touch hvac? One of most importamt things to me. Stereo is not looked at either. How fast will it heat upwhen cold. Converse for hot. Much more important than steering felt dull and was on center, and where are the, shifting paddles no one uses.
Kind of sad Cars.com dings the Equinox that much on price alone. Yes the base 1.5T from launch is not particular special, but neither is the Rav4 2.5L NA I4 or the Escape 1.6T. Is the Equinox MSRP overpriced? Hell yes, but GM has always been known to put quite a bit of $ over the hood and you don’t really need to negotiate hard to get the price to come down ~$3000 to $4000, and with a bit more haggling ~$5k+ can be knocked off asking. Try doing that at Honda.