2025 Chevrolet Equinox Review and Test Drive

This crossover's good looks help offset an unexciting personality.

Christian Wardlaw | 

Jan 15, 2025 | 6 min read

Christian Wardlaw

Chevy sells the 2025 Equinox in LT, RS, and Activ trim levels. Base prices range from about $30,000 to above $35,000, including the destination charge to ship the SUV to your local dealership from the factory in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

For this Equinox review, I test-drove the RS with all-wheel drive (AWD) in Southern California. In addition to AWD, it had optional Radiant Red paint, a panoramic sunroof, a Convenience Package III, and a Safety and Technology package. Those upgrades brought the manufacturer's suggested retail price to $40,410, including the destination charge. Chevrolet provided the vehicle for this Equinox review.

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Is the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox a Good SUV?

On the surface, the 2025 Chevy Equinox is a winner. It looks terrific inside and out, features turbocharged power, and has a user-friendly Google built-in infotainment system. The seats are comfortable, there is plenty of storage space, and the cargo area includes a roomy compartment underneath the load floor. The new Equinox also has a robust set of safety features and comes in three appealing configurations. The prices are right, too.

So, what's the problem?

The new Equinox was a drag for me to drive. During my test, I found it underpowered, uncommunicative, and inefficient, with the kind of ride quality that might induce motion sickness. In short, my time with the Equinox missed the mark in terms of daily driving satisfaction. At a minimum, I believe the RS trim deserves a firmer suspension — and Chevrolet ought to hustle a hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrain into the Equinox, stat.

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The 2025 Equinox Has an Appealing Design and a Comfortable Cabin

The Equinox's ruggedly handsome styling is likely to draw customers to Chevrolet dealerships. The all-new 2025 model looks good in every trim level, and the technologically advanced interior brings some overdue modernization.

Blending form and function in equal measure, the latest Equinox combines inexpensive plastic parts and soft-touch surfaces with the glam of impressive displays, gloss-black trim, and, in the RS, thoughtful splashes of color.

Most controls are logical. I had trouble finding the steering-assistance settings because they're in the Controls menu instead of the Collision/Detection Systems menu. The hazard flasher button is overhead, next to the OnStar emergency-call button, and I accidentally placed an SOS call when trying to turn the flashers off. Chevy also puts the transmission gear selector on a steering column stalk. I flubbed shifts a couple of times and almost used the stalk to try to turn on the wipers.

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Soft and supportive seats offer good comfort, and the test vehicle had power height-adjustable seats for the driver and front passenger, a feature you can't get on some rivals. In addition, my Equinox RS arrived with heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, a heated steering wheel, and memory for the driver's settings. Rear passengers enjoy proper support, decent leg room, air-conditioning vents, and USB charging ports.

Interior storage space is abundant, and the 29.8 cubic-foot cargo area expands to a maximum of 63.5 cu-ft. A substantial storage compartment is under the load floor.

All the Tech You're Likely to Want

Every 2025 Chevy Equinox has an 11.0-inch digital instrumentation panel and an 11.3-inch infotainment touchscreen. Traditional climate controls are separate from the touchscreen, and the Equinox has a volume knob to adjust the decent six-speaker stereo.

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The infotainment system includes Google Maps, Google Assistant, Google Play, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Autoo connectivity, and OnStar connected services with access to a 5G LTE Wi-Fi hot spot. The technology is easy to use, and the Google Assistant performs almost flawlessly.

Chevy Safety Assist is a collection of the typical driver-assistance features you might expect to find in a modern vehicle. It is standard on the 2025 Equinox, with inclusions such as intersection braking assist and active blind-spot collision avoidance. What's missing is an advanced system that will allow bouts of hands-free driving.

That omission did not bother me, as I've found most of those systems to be more trouble than they're worth. However, I did appreciate the test vehicle's optional surround-view camera and vibrating Safety Alert Seat — intended to vibrate the seat if the system thinks there's a potential collision hazard. Also, after changing lanes to pass slower vehicles, the Equinox's adaptive cruise control eagerly attempts to resume the desired speed.

Too bad I didn't find the SUV's engine a willing partner.

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Slow and Soft to Drive

The Equinox's drivetrain failed to engage me. With RS and Activ trim, this SUV needs the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder found in other General Motors (Chevrolet's parent company) models, with a hybrid or plug-in hybrid option to provide better fuel economy. Instead, all Equinoxes get a turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder that works too hard and missed its EPA fuel-economy estimates during my test drive.

Choose an Equinox with front-wheel drive, and that 1.5-liter turbo four supplies 175 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. Get AWD, and Chevy swaps the standard continuously variable transmission for an eight-speed automatic while boosting torque output to 203 lb-ft. Serious towing is off the agenda; the Equinox AWD provides just 1,500 pounds of trailering capacity.

The turbocharged torque arrives early but fades fast, so the Equinox can feel lively in urban and suburban settings but winded when passing on the freeway and climbing mountain grades. In my experience, the eight-speed automatic frequently shifted too early from second to third gear, causing an irritating pause in acceleration. There isn't a driving mode to resolve that, though pressing the AWD activation button did eliminate torque steer and smooth out the power delivery.

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Official EPA fuel-economy estimates for the Equinox AWD are 24/29/26 mpg in city/highway/combined driving. The SUV averaged 22.9 mpg on my evaluation loop, half the miles driven with the AWD system active.

The soft and absorbent ride is pleasing in the city. On undulating pavement at higher speeds, however, the cushy suspension allows plenty of roll, bounce, and wallow, creating ride motions that could make your passengers queasy. Also, the steering is slow and numb, but the thick-rimmed steering wheel feels great in your hands, adding to the SUV's comfort.

The Equinox is agreeably quiet on the highway, with road noise the primary offender. On the concrete freeways common in the Los Angeles area, unfortunately, the Equinox vibrated in tune with the grooves on the surface.

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Compact crossover SUVs are among the bestselling vehicles in the United States, so car companies must get their entries into the segment just right. In nearly every way, Chevrolet does precisely that with the 2025 Equinox, except for the driving-satisfaction part.

The SUV faces significant competition from some of my favorites in its class, such as the Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, or Mazda CX-50.

Christian Wardlaw

Chris says his first word was "car." For as long as he can remember, he's been obsessed with them. The design. The engineering. The performance. And the purpose. He is a car enthusiast who loves to drive, but is most passionate about the cars, trucks, and SUVs that people actually buy. He began his career as the editor-in-chief of Edmunds.com in the 1990s, and for more than 30 years has created automotive content for CarGurus, J.D. Power, Kelley Blue Book, the New York Daily News, and others. Chris owns Speedy Daddy Media, has been contributing to Capital One Auto Navigator since 2019, and lives in California with his wife, kids, dog, and 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata.