2012 equinox. Good car or not?
 

First off my wife and I do NOT want a car payment. She has a 2013 charger 6 cylinder which has had nothing but recalls including an alternator fire that almost spread to my garage. She now wants more cargo room and a friend at a dealership told us he has a 2012 equinox LTZ that was sold at the dealer and serviced there since new and he can get it to me with 1800 cash back too. Would you do it?

My sister is on her third equinox and my mother her second. They like them that much. I have no opinion otherwise as I have not driven one. And my sister gave up her Cadillac for the first one she got.

Just sold my 2010 Equinox 4 cylinder. No problems. Only downside was the 4 cal was noisy when leaving a stop. Now have a Blazer with the 6 cyl. Love the ride and the 305 hp is great.

I considered a new one at the time ( I ended up going with a new Buick Regal). I remember they were well awarded during the period for whatever that's worth. Seemed like good cars, but I just could never get behind the cross over styling. Add to that I am not a family type dude so I didn't need room to haul around a bunch of children. I mostly considered them because they were one of the best reviewed cars in my price range at the time.

2 comments about original post. First, having a bunch of recalls on a car is a PIA, no argument. But keep in mind, without the recall for that alternator you mentioned, you may not have a house to live in if it burned down. So recalls are actually a good thing to get the cars fixed if there is a defect. Would be better to build them right the first time, but as complex as new vehicles are, that's not likely. Second the Equinox. I have not seen any pattern failures on those vehicles.
Just the normal Ecotec issues that have been around since day 1. Oil changes at 50% of oil life remaining will double or even triple the life of those engines. Skip a few oil changes or drag them out and piston ring sticking and excessive oil consumption will happen. Timing chain, guide, and tensioner noise and failures also are very common if poorly maintained. If you buy any GM Ecotec engine vehicle, I would only buy one with a complete service history.

Having a service history is the best way to know how vehicle was cared for. I agree about Ecotec timing chain issues. Synthetic oil and more frequent oil changes are the best recommendation. We have had a number of Equinox's over the years and they have worked out very well.

Well the 1800 started dropping fast when they saw that the clear coat was peeling around the sunroof which I did not know because honestly I had never looked at the roof. Second I knew it needed tires but...... I didnt think it was imminent that they be replaced but they insisted that they were. So I ended up trading and getting 700 back plus 5 oil changes and lifetime regular car washes. It has almost a 100,000 miles on it which is about 15000 more than the Dodge but like I told my wife there are no guarantees with any of this crap. My new 2008 Sierra cut off on the interstate on the way home from the dealer, recall they hadnt fixed. I told her that the Dodge could blow up, the Chevy could blow up or both could run 362,000 like my Yukon. I like that the Equinoxs touch screen is not as complicated as the Dodges and has redundant controls even if the screen goes out. Plus I looked and the Chevy replacements are much cheaper by like 1500 bucks. That Dodge touch screen basically controlled everything with only vague manual controls. If the Dodge broke down and I had to fix it I would have to push my chips forward and work on something I dont understand because I have no experience with Dodge. I have had two ecotecs before. I will change the oil earlier than needed and keep my fingers crossed.

I had a 2011 Equinox LTZ. Nice looking, well assembled car. Soldier Blue with a black and white interior. I had the 6 with AWD and was disappointed in gas mileage for the size of the vehicle. I kept it for 2 years and traded in on a 2013 Suburban LT which I like substantially better. Honestly, the difference in gas mileage wasn’t that big. Good luck.

I have had 3 as company vehicles and have good luck with all of them. If it has had regular maintenance you should have good luck with it.

The engines had issues, lots of them. The worst was using oil. One of my best friends is the lead mechanic in a Chevy dealership and he told me about the problems. GM would only pay for techs to re-ring them, in frame, what a PITA according to my friend. They would not replace the engines.

Not sure exactly if and when the corrected the issue but Deb and I had an early Equinox, one of the first or second years of production and it used a quart of oil every 2 weeks once it had about 30,000 miles on it. We dumped it vs having it re-ringed.......Cliff

I had recall notices sent to me about the rings and balance chain. Chevy changed the chain at around 50000 mi and I changed oil every 3000 miles and never had oil consumption problem.

Known to eat oil and have timing chain issues, interference engine. Engine is not re-maned by anyone either that I know of.Buy with caution

Junk. The only late model vehicles that are any good are trucks.. everything else is junk.

This is an issue with many,many newer design engines with very thin piston rings, tight ring side clearance and very low tension. All in the name of reduced friction and better fuel mileage. It's a very fine line between great oil control, fuel mileage and an oil burner. Even the much loved Honda engines have had this issue big time along with Toyota. My daughter's Honda CRV was issued a warranty extension to ten years/100,000 miles for excessive oil consumption. But as Cliff mentioned, the dealer will not allow engine removal to "properly" service it, IMO. So your stuck with possibly new pistons and rings installed under less than desirable and clean conditions. Hers is using a quart every 1200-1500 miles. I convinced her to check the oil and add as necessary rather than deal with a whole host of new issues once the piston/ring replacement is botched at the dealer.

So Mike, is it the excessive oil change intervals that causes sludge and carbon build up in the small oil ring side clearance and then with the low tension of the rings are they unable to expand to the cylinder walls like they should and wipe the oil of and will switching to frequent oil changes clean that sludge and carbon out and restore proper oil control? (Maybe sometimes that might work?)

Not an expert on the causes and solutions. But without first hand knowledge I can pass along "opinions" from some field experts. The "experts" seem to line up on two front for this issue. 1. Carbon build up from direct injection fuel systems seem to make this problem worse on those vehicles. Theory is the carbon builds up more rapidly on these engines because the intake tract is not being washed by the liquid fuel being mixed with air flow at the entrance of the intake port as in the past. The carbon collects around the top ring eventually sticking it in it's groove. Then the extra blow by can't be handled by the second compression ring and the oil ring and things go downhill from there. Possible solution, use only Top Tier gasoline and/or a fuel system cleaner like Techron on a regular basis. 2. Since conventional port fuel injected engines like my daughter's Honda are also effected, the other theory is more like what you said. The thin oil control rings, low tension, along with dirty oil or the wrong viscosity oil can also lead to higher consumption. On my daughter's Honda, I changed from conventional 5W-20 oil which is what it had in it when she bought it and was recommended by the selling dealer, to high mileage full synthetic 0W-20 that was recommended by the Honda Training Center here in Troy, OH. I was very skeptical, but after running this 20K miles, the oil consumption has improved. At it's worst it was using a quart every 800 miles. Now it's using a quart every 1200-1500 miles. So it does help.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a used Hyundai Tucson. Far better vehicle than the Equinox.