2010 Chevy Equinox

[howdy]

Have you guys seen this?

http://www.motorauthority.com/content/images/2/0/2010_chevrolet_equinox_main_630-1219.jpg

Just a few notables vs. the 'V:

32 mpg. More HP and torque. More stylish interior. More expensive. Supposedly a very quiet vehicle via noise canceling system.

For me, I might have been swayed if I had seen this before I bought my '09. I once had a 2003 Chevy Trailblazer and it was a pretty solid, well riding SUV. Had a couple of nagging issues light faulty taillights and A/C. But once those were fixed, I really enjoyed it.

But I'm also a HUGE Honda fan. This would've been a tough call.

Thoughts?

[Radar24]

Yeah. It looks like an Opel of Germany copy of the original, the '07-09 CR-V. There is a huge problem. It is made by GM with the corresponding lousy reliability record. The Equinox and it's several cousins (Saturn Vue etc, I believe had the absolute worst reliability and ratings in Consumer Report.

Consider yourself lucky that you bought a Honda instead unless you are a big gambler and like to torture yourself.

As far as the noise cancellation is concerned that I think only works when the stereo is on. So if you have a noisy vehicle to begin with... You are better off with quiet designed in rather than trying to remove it after the fact. It is a gimmick. Hardly a good reason to defect.


My 2 cents worth.

-Rg

[Energy One]

Considered this vehicle briefly until I found that the engine was made in China!

[Radar24]

Considered this vehicle briefly until I found that the engine was made in China!
We will probably be seeing more and more of that. In the '80 it went to Canada. Then Mexico. Now it is Korea and China is next.

There are rumors about certain Hondas if not the engines being made in China. As I understand it the only reason it has not happened already is due to the heavy demand in China itself gobbling up all of the current production. If there was more capability we would be seeing a lot more Chinese made Hondas in the US and Canada. I think some Canadian FITs are already from China. :confused: The quality may be good to excellent with the cheap labor. It would be the durability I might worry about.

-Rg

[lizzurd]

We will probably be seeing more and more of that. In the '80 it went to Canada. Then Mexico. Now it is Korea and China is next.

There are rumors about certain Hondas if not the engines being made in China. As I understand it the only reason it has not happened already is due to the heavy demand in China itself gobbling up all of the current production. If there was more capability we would be seeing a lot more Chinese made Hondas in the US and Canada. I think some Canadian FITs are already from China. :confused: The quality may be good to excellent with the cheap labor. It would be the durability I might worry about.

-Rg

All our Fits are still coming from Japan. With the retirement of the S2000 the Fit is our sole remaining Japanese import Honda (Not including Acura Models).

[beige2007]

All our Fits are still coming from Japan. With the retirement of the S2000 the Fit is our sole remaining Japanese import Honda (Not including Acura Models).

i could be wrong but i thought i read somewhere that the 2007 CR-V was the last model year made and assembled in Japan.......the next batches are being assembled in Singapore or Thailand. check your 08 & 09 Vs!:confused:

[Energy One]

My 08 CRV came from Japan. My friends 08 came from Ohio.

[TjankMjaster]

If it's anything like the existing Equinox, it has the turning radius of Texas and turns into a rattle box after 40K miles.

[Radar24]

If it's anything like the existing Equinox, it has the turning radius of Texas and turns into a rattle box after 40K miles.
That is precisely what I love about GM. "The most efficient Crossover on the road" GM claims. Fantastic ads but the vehicles are they really more efficient that Honda and Toyota. Really? ... If we cannot make them let's just claim that they are... seems to be the idea. Such a boxy and rather large crossover is more efficient? I have two GMs that are proof of the intentional over rating of the efficiency by ~25%. That is 15 actual rather than the advertised 20 MPG.

If only they were as good as the ads! Many fall for the false economy of paying a couple of grand less than Honda or Toyota initially with all the incentives only to have several grands less KBB value at trade-in time!

Dah that is a negative worth or negative savings isn't it? And all the gimmicks galore!

Let's hope GM gets it right now that we are all part owners.

-Rg

[whoa]

That is precisely what I love about GM. "The most efficient Crossover on the road" GM claims. Fantastic ads but the vehicles are they really more efficient that Honda and Toyota. Really? ... If we cannot make them let's just claim that they are... seems to be the idea. Such a boxy and rather large crossover is more efficient? I have two GMs that are proof of the intentional over rating of the efficiency by ~25%. That is 15 actual rather than the advertised 20 MPG.

If only they were as good as the ads! Many fall for the false economy of paying a couple of grand less than Honda or Toyota initially with all the incentives only to have several grands less KBB value at trade-in time!

Dah that is a negative worth or negative savings isn't it? And all the gimmicks galore!

Let's hope GM gets it right now that we are all part owners.

-Rg

Very well put Radar. The same can be said of the quality numbers that are bandied about. You know, the JD Power ones. You have to take this with a grain of salt. I think there's more to quality than a numerical count of problems per 100 vehicles. You can see it if you look carefully enough. It's in the quality and thickness of the plastics where the edges are rolled before mating to another piece and how it all fits together. It's in the elegance and simplicity in design when you want to just replace a bulb. This is where the appreciation in quality comes in. When all these very well thought out parts and engineering come together, that's when you end up with something that has a "kaizen" quality to it. I've owned my share of Chrysler and Ford vehicles and rented many GM ones. I don't doubt that the quality of these vehicles is good but the philosophy of what makes "quality" needs to change.

[lizzurd]

i could be wrong but i thought i read somewhere that the 2007 CR-V was the last model year made and assembled in Japan.......the next batches are being assembled in Singapore or Thailand. check your 08 & 09 Vs!:confused:

The 2009 Crv service manual lists 3 points of manufacture for North American CRV's.

5J6: US

3CZ: Mexico

JHL: Japan.

[Radar24]

The 2009 Crv service manual lists 3 points of manufacture for North American CRV's.

5J6: US

3CZ: Mexico

JHL: Japan.
This true. No argument here. The VIN prefixes are what they are. But the US and Canadian supply of vehicles is coming primarily if not strictly from the USA plant at E. Liberty, Ohio.. AFAIK.

Isn't that right? Oh ye great quick moving Canadian cold blooded one.
Do not let anyone ever step on your tail! :D

-Rg

[lizzurd]

This true. No argument here. The VIN prefixes are what they are. But the US and Canadian supply of vehicles is coming primarily if not strictly from the USA plant at E. Liberty, Ohio.. AFAIK.

Isn't that right? Oh ye great quick moving Canadian cold blooded one.
Do not let anyone ever step on your tail! :D

-Rg

I have heard that Honda is increasing production in Thailand? But i thought that was primarily Fit production for local comsumption.

I highly doubt we will ever see a Thai CRv on NA roads any time in the near future.

[electric V]

Well I am not a big fan of GM's. Some of them are really cool like the Corvette, CTS V, and the G8 GXP.

But I personally would go with the Subaru Forrester 2.5XT. It has about 224 HP and 226 ft. lbs. and can clear the 1/4 mile in 6.7 seconds all while achiving 22 MPG.

Besides no one would ever get 32 MPG on any real world trip there are to many factors that really determine the Fuel millage not just the weight of the car and the engine. I think that the EPA is too "Leinient?" on their testing guidelines.

[Radar24]

Well I am not a big fan of GM's. Some of them are really cool like the Corvette, CTS V, and the G8 GXP. But I personally would go with the Subaru Forrester 2.5XT. It has about 224 HP and 226 ft. lbs. and can clear the 1/4 mile in 6.7 seconds all while achieving 22 MPG.
Besides no one would ever get 32 MPG on any real world trip there are too many factors that really determine the Fuel millage not just the weight of the car and the engine. I think that the EPA is too "Lenient?" on their testing guidelines.
About the 32 MPG I totally agree. It is just extremely misleading when the driver only gets 20 MPG on the highway at 70 MPH with the AC on. Then he looks at the estimate of 32 MPG on the sticker. That suck big time. I know because it happened to me on my 1st S-10. The dealer said “It is just the formulated gas”. E10 is what he meant which is 10% ethanol. In theory the gas mileage is slightly less with 10% ethanol. But then when I bought E0 in Counties in Florida that did not have E10 (Dade County did due to the ozone pollution at the time but other counties did not) the gas mileage still sucked. Being no where near that advertized on the window sticker.

Of course GM has their stars such as the Vette. It just has way too many turkeys. Now nothing wrong with turkeys (no PMs from turkey farmers please) :) if you want to eat them. But driving them sure is no fun. Like the ’03 Trailblazer problem with a heater hose that was only partially inserted into the firewall male connector straight from the factory back in '03 (?). Apparently the robot was improperly programmed to insert only partially so that after a few K miles the connection started leaking. Not a big deal to fix the connection by inserting the hose deeper except that the engine had to be taken out due to clearance issues! :eek: Super Yikes! There was insufficient clearance provided by the engineers for maintenance of this connection! Very poor engineering for maintainability IYAM. GM is really good (or horrible, depending on your point of view) IYAM in this area. Every time I work on one I tell myself that while working on my CR-V so far has been a pleasure.

I kept seeing new Trailblazer all torn up with all kinds of shinny new engine pieces all over the shop floor and in cargo/passenger's compartment; primarily head components and under the hood pieces. So I started talking to a tech one time he looked like he was taking a break. The above is basically what the tech told me. No kidding. A turkey big time and with a serious problem just waiting to happen. But only fixed if tit did. A classic case of poor maintenance/repair engineering by GM! But that is only one area that GM sucks at. On a Corvette I could see it as it is highly optimized for performance but on a Trailblazer, Give me a break!

Can you see that happening at 36, 900 miles and the dealer saying that what should be a 1/2 hour $60 job was costing you $3060 as you were out of the warranty period?

Alright, enough GM bashing (even though the above was all true) as my intent is just to show Honda owners that a lot of their problems in comparison are not that critical and severe in nature! When my A/T stopped working on my ‘97 S-10 a few months out of warranty and with only ~22k miles they told me "Sorry Mr" Radar ! "It will be $1800 if you want a rebuilt A/T. We cannot recreate your shifting problem at this time". More or less that is what they told me.

I previously posted on how I fixed the problem myself for about $100 so I will save you from all the agonizing details.

So for one thing Honda has and does give out of warranty special consideration to non trivial reliability issues way past the warranty period from what I have read. A leaking hose and an A/T that does not shift surely does apply.

-Rg

[howdy]

As I mentioned before, I had an '03 Trailblazer and never had a problem with the heater hose. Aside from a A/C switch issue (that got fixed fairly quickly with a new part) and a faulty rear brake light (got fixed with new part as well) that were both under warranty - the Chevy drove great.


jm2c.

[Radar24]

To be fair only early production '03 Trailblazer were affected. I am not sure at what point they found out and corrected the problem at the factory.

The fact that Howdy did not have the problem may be a good thing and it may be a bad thing. If his was made after the fix then it is a good thing. If it was made before :confused: then who ever has that vehicle now, it is susceptible to having the hose disconnect or at a minimum start leaking as the hoses age. In either case it is a bad situation if the engine or part or the engine must me removed.

Besides this hose issue the Trailblazer reliability history in CU was horrible! About as bad as it gets.. So as it turns out Howdy was super lucky as it seems he only drew the short straw a couple of times.

I personally would not want to own a Trailblazer made prior to the fix without the fix made. Actually I would not want one period unless made after that fix.

What is important is that a series of problems like this are one of the many the reasons why GM had to be bailed out.

-Rg

[howdy]

I will agree that Chevy/GM has not had a flawless record and to some extent this has lead to some of their current issues.

But I also believe that it was because they put a lot of their eggs in one basket: Trucks. They banked on this segment for decades. And when gas hit $4 bucks a gallon their profit margin dropped "like a rock" when people started to consider more fuel efficient vehicles.

They're obviously still reeling from this. Thus I think, to their credit, that at least they're starting to realize what sells besides trucks. The Equinox is not perfect. But it's hard to deny the progress. A few years ago, they wouldn't have made this vehicle because they didn't need it or care. But now they do, IMHO. And we as consumers are all better for the competition.