The Equinox is, at heart, an appliance. But it’s a very good appliance, and anyone can tell you that appliances tend to be invisible until they fail.
The Chevy Equinox is bland no more. With a more athletic, muscular exterior, it’s a good looking machine.
There are easy reviews to write, and there are harder ones. Reviewing a vehicle like the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox compact crossover SUV is a little of both. It’s easy to talk about the virtues and drawbacks of the vehicle, but harder to explain why you should care.
Overview
Chevrolet has redesigned the Equinox for the 2025 model year. That’s important because the Equinox is Chevy’s bread-and-butter vehicle in the ever-growing crossover SUV market segment.
The redesign comes with a host of upgrades to tech and styling, and of course, more advanced driver assistance features. But at its core, the Equinox is still what it has always been: A reliable if unexciting family wagon.
Exterior design
The big news of the 2025 Equinox is the new ACTIV trim level, designed to appeal to those who take their SUVs off pavement. The Equinox ACTIV features a unique front fascia and styling cues that create and accentuate the off-road look, all-terrain tires, and an available white roof for a two-tone finish. You also get blackout emblems, special wheels, and of course, special embroidered ACTIV logos on the front seats.
The Chevy Equinox is the brand’s bread-and-butter vehicle in the compact SUV market.
Predictably, the overall redesign of the Equinox is a little more macho and truck-inspired than prior generations. Every vehicle that gets redesigned in the last few years seems to get the GI Joe treatment, so the Equinox does too.
Interior design
Inside, it’s all about the tech. Several available trim levels come with heated seats and steering wheel, but that’s to be expected.
The tech news is an 11-inch driver information display and then an 11.3-inch infotainment touchscreen. Apart from a new false-bottom cargo space under the hatch, there’s not much really new going on inside.
Powertrain
Chevrolet is leaning into modern engines, with a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that makes 175 horsepower and up to 203 pound-feet of torque. It’s paired with a continuously variable automatic transmission that defaults to front-drive, but you can select the available all-wheel drive. The Equinox can tow up to 1,500 pounds when equipped with AWD, which is enough for a tent trailer or utility trailer.
The interior on the Equinox is a more than a step above of its predecessors.
Safety and Technology
Safety tech has gone standard in most vehicles. Automakers that ask you to pay extra for it are seriously lagging the trend. So, every Equinox comes with a long list of features, including Automatic Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Alert, Front Pedestrian and Bicyclist Braking, Following Distance Indicator, Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning, and automatic IntelliBeam brights.
But that’s not all — Equinox is every inch a family car, so you also get Side Bicyclist Alert, Rear Vision Camera, Rear Seat Reminder, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Change Alert with Side Blind Zone Alert, Enhanced Automatic Emergency Braking, Rear Cross Traffic Braking, Rear Park Assist, and Enhanced Lane Keep Assist. If you can still crash with all that, seek help.
Driving Impressions
The new Equinox is unremarkable on the road. By that, I mean it has no particular bad habits, nothing unexpected or unique. It drives very well, it’s not too fast but also not noticeably underpowered. The Equinox simply is what it is — a reliable family car.
The phone charger on the Equinox shows that someone on the design team listens to the consumer.
Wrap Up
The Equinox LT base model starts at $28,600, which means it’s $29,995 after the $1,395 destination charge has been applied. That gets you front-drive and all the standard equipment. Nice and affordable for most budgets.
However, if you want to enjoy your vehicle a little more, we’d recommend stepping up and getting the ACTIV or RS trims, which are loosely more off-road or more sporty. Either will cost you $36,395 with AWD. You want the AWD because it gets you more torque in the engine and more towing capacity, plus all the usual reasons to get AWD.
In any event, you’re getting a reliable SUV with seating for five and a reasonable price. That’s where Equinox lives, and where Chevrolet has the right car for the purpose.
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