2016 Chevrolet Equinox AWD LTZ: Chevy’s compact SUV is popular, for good reason

I don’t know if you saw this last week, but October was a very good month for car sales in the United States.

Very, very good.

U.S. auto manufacturers reported their best October sales in a decade, and they were led by the Big Three in Detroit, all of which reported double-digit growth.

And leading the way was General Motors (Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC), which reported 263,000 vehicles sold during the month, a 15.9 percent increase from a year ago. GM said it was led by demand for its pickup trucks, and that all its SUVs posted gains. Chevrolet, in particular, said it had its best October since 2004.

That brings us to the Equinox, Chevy’s compact SUV. Its sales for the month were up 25 percent over October 2014. For the year, Chevy has sold 236,000 Equinox SUVs, making it the second-most popular GM vehicle behind only the red-hot Chevy Silverado pickup.

I drove a 2016 Equinox all-wheel drive SUV last week, and I can understand its appeal.

The Equinox is a quiet, comfortable, mild-mannered SUV that drives easily and has plenty of room, particularly in its back seat. The Equinox has a GM-exclusive MultiFlex sliding rear seat that moves almost 8 inches – back for more legroom, forward for more rear storage space. Passengers in this back seat could easily be comfortable on a long trip. The extra room makes for easier access, too, especially when it comes to putting in or taking out child car seats.

The 60/40 split rear seats also fold to create almost 64 cubic feet of storage space behind the front seats.

Not to be outdone, both front seats in the Equinox had eight-way power adjustment, with lumbar adjustment and memory positions on the driver’s seat.

A standard 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine powers the Equinox. Acceleration is acceptable, but performance is far from exciting. To get that, there is an optional 3.6-liter V-6 with 301 horsepower, which also will tow 3,500 pounds.

Still, the four-cylinder gets 32 miles per gallon on the highway for front-wheel drive models and 29 for all-wheel drive models. There is an Eco button by the shift lever that improves gas mileage by changing the transmission shift points and making other adjustments. I drove the all-wheel drive model, which is especially nice to have this time of the year.

Very little road or wind noise enters the cabin. The ride is smooth, which isn’t surprising for a vehicle that weighs almost two tons.

The Equinox had several optional safety features, including Side Blind Zone Alert, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Rear Parking Assist. The Rear Cross Traffic Alert worked well with the standard rear vision camera, warning the driver of oncoming traffic when backing out of a driveway or parking spot. On a couple of occasions, it saw cars coming long before I did.

Every new GM vehicle features OnStar service for a trial period, with automatic crash response and other services. With OnStar comes GM’s Wi-Fi hotspot, allowing you to connect up to seven tablets, laptops or mobile devices at 4G LTE speeds.

New for 2016 includes a new nose with a chrome-accented dual-port grille, projector-beam headlamps and LED daytime running lights on the LT and LTZ models. Also new was a standard seven-inch color touch-screen radio with Bluetooth phone connectivity. The LT and LTZ models have Chevrolet's MyLink multimedia system.

Warranty

Three years or 36,000 miles, with a five-year, 60,000 mile powertrain warranty

Pricing

The MSRP on the 2016 Chevrolet Equinox AWD LTZ is $31,490. Options included eight-way power adjustable passenger seat, power rear liftgate, universal remote, MyLink radio with navigation, premium Pioneer 250-watt audio system with eight speakers and subwoofer, rear park assist, rear cross traffic alert, blind side zone alert, Siren Red tintcoat paint and cargo area close-out panel. The sticker price, including destination, was $35,250.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 6:08 PM with the headline "2016 Chevrolet Equinox AWD LTZ: Chevy’s compact SUV is popular, for good reason."