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WhatsNew
Joined: 24 May 2003
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BREAKING NEWS -- Best SUV Winner? .... EQUINOX !!!
Road Testing...
Chevrolet Equinox Takes On
3 Worthy SUV Competitors
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M o t o r T r e n d Magazine :: Equinox Comparison
Equinox Road Test:
Looking for a sport/utility small enough to thread through parking lots without nasty scraping sounds, yet big enough to haul everybody off for a camping trip without pressing them into sardines? And enough pluck to pick through 8 a.m. traffic, too? Who do you think you are? Goldilocks? Actually, there's a corner of the sprawling population of SUVs that might be, well, just right after all. It includes the facelifted 2005 Ford Escape XLT Sport 4WD with a V-6, a steady player that's just what its exterior design purports it to be--a steel and glass incarnation of a sprightly mountain goat; the aging but value-intense Hyundai Santa Fe 4WD GLS, rejuvenated by a new 3.5-liter V-6; and Saturn's VUE AWD Red Line, itself renewed via a new-for-2004 trim and suspension package, plus a serious-business 250-horsepower, 3.5-liter Honda-built V-6.
And if you're not confused enough already, we have the all-new (but VUE-based) Chevy Equinox AWD LT, powered by a 3.4-liter V-6 built in China. China? A Ford, a Korean, a Japanese engine in a brand named after a giant planet, and a Bow-Tie American employing an engine made in the land of The Great Wall. This is starting to sound like a Henny Youngman "four-cars-walked-into-a-bar" joke. To find out which would deliver the punchline and which the knockout punch, research demanded we probe their on-road performance, soft-road escapades, and, yes, their light-camping suitability.
Fourth Place
2005 Ford Escape XLT Sport 4WD
Parked before Red Rocks's eroding cliffs, the flinty Ford Escape could be a mechanical incarnation of wiry old Henry Ford himself, quietly pondering barren vistas, a twig slowly twisting in the corner of his mouth.
So what has lowered it into the depths of fourth place? An accumulation of niggling nickel-and-dime demerits rather than any calamitous catastrophe. Little stuff, like the chintzy-looking chrome-bezeled speedo and tach cluster, the cog-box's minimalist four instead of five ratios, and the engine's rough commotion accelerating under full-throttle.
Third Place
2004 Saturn VUE AWD Red Line
It's easy to imagine the Saturn VUE Red Line as sort of a make-the-best-of-it vehicle a young sport-compact car-culture guy might turn to if a lost weekend in Vegas ended with an inexplicable bride and little-one-to-be. What to do? Buy the transformer-like Red Line.
While the others in this test--to varying degrees--steer, brake, and accelerate competently on the road, the Saturn elbows you to strap on Mr. Toad's goggles. When a corner approaches, you don't just estimate the steering angle you'll need and approximately when to apply it; you're invited to calculate an exact mental trajectory, dot by dot, from entry to apex to exit. The brakes, much like the Equinox's, have a good solid feel when you start to tap into them.
The VUE shares the Equinox's feather-effort, electrically assisted steering, which is so over- assisted that you wonder why it doesn't go all the way and steer itself. Yet it's interesting to note how the Saturn's stiffer suspension presents this steering in a much better light. For instance, in the middle of a long bend, the two vehicles probably have very similar steering angles and efforts. But the VUE's tightly tied-down chassis means you can inject much subtler steering motions entering and exiting it. There is a ride penalty here, but that's what often comes with such a marked increase in handling prowess.
Second Place
2003 Hyundai Santa Fe 4WD GLS
After an hour or two of driving, on-road and off, we began to notice a series of quiet, two-at-a-time discussions among our testers when we'd stop to switch keys. "You know, this Hyundai is, uh, pretty good--what do you think?" Pavement or not, over hills, through dales, the Santa Fe made us blanch again and again. "Gee, this thing isn't bad."
But bend the Santa Fe into a lane change, and the steering reports an abrupt ramp-up in effort as you rotate it off-center. A subtle quirk. Less subtle is the tire's cornering noise (or howl, depending on speed), which can be dialed up and down as if the steering wheel were a giant volume knob. In hard cornering, this rises to a genuine wail--perhaps in despair of the tires' modest grip, evident in the Santa Fe's low skidpad (0.69 g) and slalom (57.8 mph) numbers. In normal driving, though, this isn't an issue.
However, an ever-present driving deficit is the brake feel. It's not apparent in the Santa Fe's emergency-stopping distance (which is right in there with the Escape and Equinox at 136 feet), but the softness of the pedal can lose you valuable fractions of a second during any brake application. We also noticed a slight pulsing in the pedal after a few downhill brake applications (sometimes indicative of warping). But it seemed to disappear after they'd cooled.
2005 Chevy Equinox AWD LT
Equinox Grand Slam:
The Equinox's strongest appeal really isn't about performance at all; it's the repeated bull's-eyes it tallies in design and styling. And that starts with its interior space packaging. Uniquely in this comparo, the Equinox features a nifty sliding rear seat that can be redeployed fore and aft by eight full inches--a boon to interior-space versatility. While the mechanism itself can be a struggle to operate, the option to either provide generous legroom to rear adu lt or reduce it for children (adding cargo space) is simply smart. Smart, too, is the forward-folding front-passenger seat (shared with the VUE) that allows the Equinox to swallow, for instance, lengths of PVC piping that would otherwise have to be lashed to the roof rack.
Now we will admit that the Equinox is not perfect. Like the beauty-contest winner whose smile reveals a small particle of food in her teeth, the Equinox is blessed with prodigious charm and grace--but there's an aspect of it that causes you to roll your eyes. The bit of spinach stuck between the Equinox's front teeth is its electrically assisted steering. It's hard to recall a steering system with less feedback, a slower ratio, or more over-assisted effort. It's so off-putting that it threatens to detract from any of the Equinox's other driving qualities, a shame considering these include a competent 9.1-second 0-to-60-mph time, emergency-stopping distances that better those of the Escape or Santa Fe, and a nicely sensitive brake pedal.
 The Equinox is as smart-looking as it is smart-functioning. Its exterior design is an impeccable piece of functional sculpture, from its clean new-face Chevrolet nose to its well-proportioned flanks to its crisp taillights. Handsome. Compared with the others, it has a uniquely alert, slightly forward-leaning posture.
Inside, it's a knockout, too. Where the Escape's interior is a study in truckish utility, the Santa Fe's in exuberant overdesign, and the Saturn's in Goth alternative angularity, the Equinox's is clean, crisp, and elegant. It shares a tasteful design vocabulary with high-end consumer electronic products; Apple's beautiful flat-panel monitors come to mind.
For instance, the simple thin molding surrounding the speedometer and tach (a detail you'll look at often) is thoughtfully shaped; black, soft-touch rotary knobs punctuate the silver-treatment center stack. Surrounding the shifter is a convenient nonslip tray, an ideal perch for a cell-phone.
Actually, this tray resides where the shift position indicator normally is, requiring its relocation to the bottom of the center stack, where it illuminates from left to right as you shift the transmission out of park.
A demerit for the Equinox--but really one for all our competitors--is the downsized dimensions of the driver and front-passenger seats. Actually, there's an interesting visual sleight-of-hand happening here: When you first glance at the seats, which are in correct proportion with the rest of the interior, they look full-size. But look again: They're actually about 7/8th scale. After settling into the driver's seat, your left leg (which is usually idle) easily spills off the bottom cushion's side (exacerbated in the Equinox by its particularly soft foam). Another oddity is the massiveness of the Equinox's horse-blinder A-pillars, wider even than the Saturn's.
Punching in at a base price of $24,900 (including a multiplicity of common standard features) and with such options as OnStar ($820), leather seats ($545), and XM Satellite Radio ($335), the Equinox represents a major upshift for Chevrolet's entry-SUV model--and an impressive feat of smart packaging and tasteful design at a sensible price. Food particle and all.
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 Jan 27, 2005 11:10 pm |
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Go Equinox. I always knew it was a winner. If Chevy didn't make these I would have strongly considered getting a Vue but I could never buy a Hyundai.
