2005 Chevrolet Equinox AWD LT Features & Review

About $28K buys you the AWD LT with leather seat surfaces and XM Radio. That's about as much as a lower-end all-wheel-drive Ford Freestyle, a much bigger, generally better-equipped vehicle (it has standard four-wheel disc brakes and ABS, for example). Like the Freestyle, the Equinox doesn't come with rollover warning labels on the driver-side visors; no surprise given that, like the Freestyle, the Equinox's proportions suggest tall station wagon more than sport/utility.

Those proportions are thanks to a 112.5-inch wheelbase, which Chevy claims is longest in the segment. The rear two-thirds of the interior make good use of the wheelbase; its 60/40-split back seat is commodious for two, though marginal for three, and adjusts fore-and-aft by eight inches. Move the seat back, reducing cargo space, and you get better legroom than in a Suburban. The cargo area features a multilevel adjustable table like the Chrysler PT Cruiser's: carpeted on one side and washable plastic on the other for messy loads.

The front-passenger seat folds forward to accommodate long loads or serve as an office table for the driver. It's better as a table than a seat, though; the "bucket" is flat and poorly bolstered, leading to a lot of backside slide for the driver who makes the mistake of slaloming his Equinox quickly along mountain roads. The console has handy net pockets on both sides for that mobile phone or a purse, but the door pockets are narrow and not very useful. GM is a pioneer in the study of automotive ergonomics. Yet the Equinox's PRNDL indicator runs transversely across the console, counter-intuitive to the fore-aft movement of the shifter itself. Why? And for some reason you can only select drive, fourth, and second manually. No, we don't understand it, either.

Chevrolet set out to build a high-value, feature-filled compact V-6 SUV. But as often happens with GM, the good stuff of the Big Idea--neat styling, great interior space, polite on-road manners--is spoiled by dumb-ass details: the second-division engine, the PlayStation steering, the weird option combos. As last one to arrive, the Equinox should have been the benchmark of the segment. As it stands, it's compromised in odd ways that reveal a lack of understanding of the competition, which soon will include a second-generation {{{Hyundai Santa Fe}}}.