If I asked you to name the best selling vehicles in the U.S., I don’t think the Chevrolet Equinox would be one of your top picks, but you wouldn’t be wrong if it were.
The compact SUV is low-key GM’s second-best selling vehicle behind the Chevy Silverado 1500 and ahead of the GMC Sierra 1500.
It was 14th overall in the U.S. last year with 212,701 deliveries and that was down from 346,049 pre-pandemic in 2019, so there’s a lot more room to rebound.
To help it do that Chevrolet has given it a thorough redesign for 2025, although it is an evolution of the outgoing 2024 Equinox rather than an all-new vehicle. It’s about the same size, but 2.5-inches wider and features boxier styling inspired by Chevy’s larger SUVs and trucks. Playing it safe with a bread and butter model isn’t always a bad thing.
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The 2025 Equinox is being offered in three trim levels: LT, RS and a new new off-road style Active. Each can be had with either front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive, but they all use the same engine, which is a carryover turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder.
It’s rated at 175 hp and paired with a CVT transmission in front-wheel-drive vehicles and an eight-speed automatic in all-wheel-drive vehicles. The torque rating varies slightly between them at 185 lb-ft and 203 lb-ft, respectively.
Pricing starts at $29,995 for a front-wheel-drive LT and $34,395 for a front-wheel-drive RS or Activ, while all-wheel-drive is an extra $2,000 across the board.
They all come with a digital instrument cluster and 11.3-inch touchscreen display for the infotainment system, which is equipped with Alexa, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Google Built-in. A 360-degree camera system is also available on all trims.
The standard package of electronic driver aids is comprehensive and includes automatic emergency braking, pedestrian and bicyclist detection, lane keeping and adaptive cruise control. They also come with the Safety Alert Seat that you can set to vibrate for warnings so the vehicle doesn’t have to beep at you all the time. Those seats are cloth on the base LT and upholstered in Evotex synthetic leather on the other trims, with the Activ getting two-tone seats with microfiber suede inserts that give them a particularly premium feel. The cabins are very roomy for a compact SUV in both rows of seating and the cargo area has just less than 30 cubic feet of space and a compartment under the floor.
Each of the trims gets a unique grille, with the LT sporting the most chrome, the RS black and the Activ a mix of the two. Contrasting white and black roofs are also available options. The LT has 17-inch wheels, the RS 19-inch wheels and the Activ 17-inch wheels with all-terrain tires. They all uses the same suspension, but it’s tuned to match each wheel and tire combination. The RS can also be ordered with 20-inch wheels, which are the largest ever offered on the Equinox.
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The driving experience in the LT and RS is similar, but there is a noticeable difference between delivery of the front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive power delivery. The CVT has that laggy feel and slight moaning sound that the transmission type is known for, while the eight-speed shifts crisply and is unobtrusive. The CVT isn’t bad, it’s just what it is and as good as any other. An “L” button on the steering wheel engages paddles that allow you to manually shift through the gears in the eight-speed and steps in the CVT ratios. The all-wheel-drive trims get Snow and Off-Road drive modes while the front-wheel-drive RS and Active have Snow and the front-wheel-drive LT gets by without any. Towing capacities are 800 pounds with front-wheel-drive and 1,500 pounds with all-wheel-drive.
Fuel economy is nearly the same at 27 mpg for front-wheel-drive models and 26 mpg combined for all-wheel-drive models. Both of those figures are a couple of mpg short of the segment’s best for non-hybrids. That’s a small elephant in the room as the Equinox is not offered as one, although the entirely different all-electric Equinox EV is also available. GM is planning to bring hybrid powertrains back to its SUV lineup in 2027, but hasn’t yet confirmed which models will be getting them.
The Activ feels the most distinct thanks to its tires, wheels and suspension setup and is not only excellent on a flat gravel road, but, in my opinion, also the best on pavement. Especially the less than perfect pavement that seems to be the norm most places today. If I were choosing one of these and could make the stretch, an all-wheel-drive Activ would be the way I’d go.
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But I’d be fine with any of them, which is how I felt about the last-generation Equinox. It’s not the absolute best in class by many measures — objective or subjective — but is a nicely balanced mix of packaging and value, which seems appropriate to its name.
The automaker provided travel to facilitate this report