Blog

Car Credit’s Vehicle Spotlight: The Chevy Equinox

Car Credit offers a wide range of high quality vehicles at affordable prices, even to people with no or low credit.  We can’t wait to tell you about all of the great options we’ve got ready, so once a month Car Credit will be taking a deep dive into the specs, details, and perks being offered on one of our favorite vehicles.  This month the lucky contender to be examined is the Chevy Equinox.  The Chevy Equinox is a solid jack-of-all-trades SUV that can only belong in a category all its own.  A category that combines a sleek and classy, eye-catching exterior and a dazzlingly elegant interior with the space and versatility to handle anything life throws its way. So if you’re in the market for an adaptable and reliable Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) with more style and panache than many sports models, then it’s time to buckle up as we dive together into the majesty of the Chevy Equinox.

 

 

Jack Of All Trades, Master Of Each

The Equinox doesn’t just have what it takes to be Chevy’s premier SUV, it has what it takes to be your premier SUV.

 

The Equinox line is without a doubt Chevrolet’s premier compact SUV.  This remarkable vehicle has been meticulously engineered to be completely modular in nature, and so is able to handle any and every situation you could throw at it.

To start with, the Equinox’s spacious interior has room to comfortably handle four passengers plus the driver in its standard seating arrangement.  This makes it an ideal transport to bring your whole crew on weekend getaways without having to worry about bent necks, aching joints, or worse, being forced to leave a buddy behind for the sake of comfort.  In addition to its spacious passenger compartment, the Equinox line has almost 30 cubic feet of trunk space behind the back row of seats, meaning you can afford to bring all your toys with you on those afternoon or weekend excursions.  But what if you’ve got bigger toys you want to play with?  That’s no problem for the Chevy Equinox.  With the ability to easily fold away one or more of the back seats at just the tug of a strap, the Equinox’s already cavernous trunk space can be brought all the way up to a whopping 60 cubic feet, bringing it into comparison with the carrying capacities of many truck models.  Whether your favorite outdoor hobbies include bicycles, surfboards, kayaks, ski poles or all of those plus more, the Equinox won’t bat an eye at hauling all your necessities with you.  With a pair of roof racks coming standard on most models, and the ability to easily upgrade those to more advanced roof rack options, there simply isn’t anything the Equinox can’t reasonably carry for you.

 

 

In order to get away with such a roomy interior and downright excessive carrying capacity for a compact SUV, you might think that the Equinox must be built like a tank and have the elegance of a brick on wheels.  If so, however, the Equinox would surprise you once again.  The engineers at Chevy have never believed in sacrificing form for function, believing instead in thinking outside the box and sacrificing neither.  So rather than giving the Equinox the curves and elegance of an oversized lego brick just for the sake of its absurd carrying capacity, they managed to fit all that extra space inside a sleek and refined frame that looks more at home next to a red carpet than anywhere else.

In addition to these great perks comes another huge one that is only becoming more valuable day by day, a great fuel efficiency.  Standard Equinox models are some of the most fuel efficient SUVs on the market today, with city and highway miles per gallon (mpg) numbers that are in the mid thirties, and thus comparable to many of the hybrid vehicle options today.  Such a perk can not be understated in this age of heightened fuel scarcity and ever soaring prices at the pump.

The true beauty of the Equinox’s engineering really shines through when all of these benefits are considered together.  This vehicle’s unbelievable ability to compete with trucks in carrying capacity, with hybrid vehicles in terms of fuel efficiency, and with luxury models in terms of comfort and splendor give a whole new meaning to the term “crossover”, and make it truly a King of all trades.  Furthermore, its modular and highly customizable design allows you to tailor its cornucopia of advantages to your specific dreams.

 

What’s Under The Hood

Modern Technology, Power, and Fuel Efficiency In A Small Package

 

But enough about the Equinox’s incredible adaptability and seemingly endless list of benefits.  It’s time to peek under the hood and see what the Chevy Equinox is packing where it really counts.

The 2018 Chevy Equinox comes with an innovative dual overhead camshaft (DOHC), spark ignition direct injection (SIDI), and 1.5 liter turbo engine.  This engine packs a serious punch, producing 170 horsepower at 5600 revolutions per minute, and over 200 pounds of torque between 2000 and 4000 revolutions per minute.

Some people might be inclined to misjudge this engine based on its relatively small cylinder size; 1.5 liters certainly doesn’t sound like much compared to some older engine models.  The Equinox’s relatively small engine more than makes up the difference by utilizing powerful turbo technology developed by car manufacturers in recent years.

The reason engine size is so important for overall power is because the larger your engine’s cylinders are, the more air they can hold.  More air in the cylinders feeds your engine’s combustion process in the same way that someone wafting more air towards a campfire makes it burn bigger and brighter.  This means a larger explosion inside the engine and therefore more power from the engine.

This then begs the question, if more volume in the cylinders means more power, then how can 1.5 liter cylinders today be just as powerful as their  2.0 liter counterparts in the past? The answer lies in the four turbochargers behind each of the newer engine’s cylinders.  Normally an engine’s air intake is limited to its surrounding environment’s air pressure, but with a turbocharger an engine is able to intake more air than it would without a turbo charger. The turbocharger sucks in air, cools it, then forces air into the engine in a process called forced induction.  This allows the engine to force more air into its smaller cylinders than the older, larger engine’s could ever hope to match.  This innovative technology has allowed manufacturers like Chevy to build engines to be smaller and more efficient than the bigger engines in the past.  A turbocharged engine with smaller cylinder volume, allows SUVs like the Equinox to punch above their weight class while remaining more fuel efficient than engines of the past.

 

Spark Ignited Direct Injection (SIDI), and Overdrive Capability

 

Another notable feature of the modern Equinox’s engine is the aforementioned spark ignition direct injection (SIDI).  SIDI allows your Equinox’s engine to inject fuel directly into the combustion chamber, and has a computer control the timing and amount of fuel being injected.  This is far superior to the port fuel injection system found in typical internal combustion engines.  In that system, fuel is sprayed into the intake port to mix with air before being sent together to the combustion chamber when the intake valve opens.  It’s simple and effective, but very inefficient compared to SIDI’s model, which uses computer calculations to achieve the highest efficiency possible under any and all engine conditions.

The last key feature of this engine is its overdrive capability. This engine feature, unlike the others previously mentioned, is under the complete control of the driver, turning it either on or off at will. The purpose of overdrive isn’t to send your Equinox to warp speed, but Chevy’s innovations aren’t too far behind such science fiction.  The actual purpose of overdrive is to lower the engine’s total revolutions per minute during periods of consistent higher speeds, such as when driving on the highway. Since overdrive inhibits acceleration and rpms, it decreases the overall wear and tear of a car and leads to less maintenance costs down the road (pun intended). The engine being less active also makes for a quieter and gentler ride making it a tempting option at all times, though somewhat ironically, overdrive should really only be used on the highway and not in situations where you need more power and torque from the engine.

 

Transition-ing To The Future

 

The modern Equinox’s remarkably advanced engine also comes equipped with a fantastic 6-speed transmission that itself comes with driver shift control.  This transmission is still technically considered an automatic transmission, but driver shift control gives the driver much more control over gear shifting once they shift into drive. Once in drive, the driver can choose to shift into a higher gear with the plus sign symbol or shift to a lower gear using the minus symbol. This transmission feature gives you much more control over your shifting without giving up the ease or efficiency of automatic systems, and is also unique to General Motors cars such as the Chevy Equinox.

These incredible innovations in engine design add up to big benefits in the power, torque, efficiency, and longevity of your vehicle.  Not that you’ll have to worry about your engine’s health for the first two years of your ownership at least, thanks to Car Credit’s two year free maintenance agreement.  As the name suggests, this agreement covers all of your maintenance bases for the first two years you own your car, including everything from oil changes and regular belt inspections, to brake pad and spark plug replacements, and even engine tune ups.

 

 

In the current era of supply chain issues and soaring inflation costs, programs like Car Credit’s limited maintenance agreement are only going to become more valuable with time.  As has been the case in countless other industries already, the direct effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on supply and worker shortages have combined with the indirect effects of a huge surge in demand to bring the automotive repair industry to its knees.  Surveys of the automotive repair industry show that due to these shortages, consumers have nearly universally been forced to wait longer and pay more for the same routine services they had done before Covid.  Even more frighteningly, some more specialized services have become nearly impossible to complete at all as repair shops remain caught in limbo, forever waiting for niche parts to be delivered.  All of these factors have combined to make the goal of keeping your vehicle running an increasingly impossible challenge to accomplish without help.  Fortunately, that’s where taking advantage of options like Car Credit’s extended warranty agreement can help you flip the script.  Two years of guaranteed maintenance work combined with the engine sustaining innovations of SIDI, overdrive, and driver shift control means that your Equinox will be able to survive any shortage and overcome the worst effects of any economic blues.

 

The Car That Does It All

The Chevy Equinox is one of the most versatile SUVs on the market, capable of adapting to any situation and thriving on any challenge life throws your way.

 

All things considered; the Chevy Equinox is one of the most consistently surprising crossovers on the market.  Its highly flexible design and jack of all trades engineering style mixed with some of those most innovative technologies in the automotive industry make the Equinox a top contender in any vehicle line-up.  Those innovative technologies not only give the Equinox the ability to punch above its weight class in terms of power, torque, and fuel efficiency, they also translate directly to engine longevity.  That engine longevity, combined with Car Credit’s generous maintenance agreement means that your Equinox will remain one of the most reliable vehicles on the road for years to come.  In this age of supply chain issues and soaring maintenance costs, that is a benefit that will only become more valuable with time.

So if you’re looking for a vehicle that can take whatever you throw at it and keep coming, time after time.  If you’re looking for a vehicle that gives you complete control over customizing all the options, or a vehicle that flawlessly combines cutting edge innovation with tried and true techniques that have been refined for decades, then a Chevy Equinox from Car Credit might very well be the car for you.

 

Article credit: Garrison Rose

 

Sources Cited:

    1. 1. https://www.automotiveresearch.com/insights/effects-supply-chain-disruptions-automotive-repair-shops
Scroll to Top