Exterior impression:

The Equinox is an interesting vehicle because despite its large appearance, it has the footprint of a much smaller vehicle making it one of the easiest big cars to park on the market, and despite the crossover’s rather conservative appearance, the GM design team managed to sneak a few visually appealing touches into the mix. Starting up front, the 2010 Equinox wears the modern Chevrolet cross bar grill that was introduced back with the new Malibu. The front end is devoid of any protruding features, creating a much smoother surface to push through the air, however the chrome trim that surrounds the fog light housing goes a long way to improve the vehicle aesthetically, this theme carries over into the grill opening and window frames.

The other feature that we just couldn’t get enough of were the Equinox’s bulging fenders, not since the last time we watched a round of WRC competition has our editorial staff seen a set of bold blisters on a production car like these, which go a long way adding a muscular tone to the Equinox’s bubbly exterior and framed our car’s 18 inch machined aluminum rims perfectly. Out back the Equinox carries the chrome trend into the center of the tailgate, placing their 21st century emblem smack dab in the middle of a thick bar of the shiny stuff. Our V6 powered Equinox also came with a very simple and good looking dual exhaust with what looks like an imitation diffuser in between the tips, after all you can’t knock the design team for trying to add a little sporting style to the car.

Our only complaint with the Equinox is that on top of an attractive sheet metal structure, Chevrolet has added a few too many soft plastic moldings. Now these may be an affordable approach to adding some last minute lines to the vehicle, but the execution is quite poor. Take the black plastic where the rocker panels would traditionally go, not only do they easily come away from the door, but because they are hollow. After a few years of ownership, the amount of mud caked inside could be enough to make replacing them a good idea.

At first glance we were taken aback by the Equinox’s stylish interior, the first thing to catch our eyes were the 8 way power adjustable two tone leather seats that were accented with colored stitching. The red woven theme continues onto the door cards and the tilt telescope steering wheel just like the various tones and finishes found on the dash and trim. The biggest downfall of the Equinox’ interior is that just like on the outside, the design team chose to go with unattractive plastic in places where a little bit of a softer material would have gone a long way to improving the car’s feel.

For instance it was really nice to see that Chevrolet incorporated a back up camera into the navigation screen, and it was even better when we saw that the lines were moving with the steering wheel. Everything would have been perfect had it not been for the protruding piece of plastic that creates a visor for the LCD monitor. Not only was there plenty of play between the piece and the surrounding dash. Unlike a padded dash, when your fingers come into contact with the hard polymer’s sharp edges, there is just a sense of discomfort.

Aside from the materials selection, the rest of the Equinox’s interior was fantastic. The infotainment system consisted of a premium 8 speaker Pioneer AM/FM/XM radio assisted by an amplifier as well as an equalizer. There were also AUX and USB inputs for your own music storage device as well as voice guided turn by turn navigation, a 40 GB hard drive for storing tunes and a CD/DVD player that will feed images to some of the nicest factory flip up monitors integrated into the front seatbacks that we have seen on any new car. The units are barely noticeable when stowed away, and not obtrusive when opened up, manufacturers like Mercedes Benz and Porsche could learn a thing or two from the men who came up with that design.