Yay! How excited I was to see that the new Equinox was here. The current one surely needs to die and get a new life. Too bad the first things I saw was a Mercedes M-Class with a Chevy facelift. Still the new styling is clearly an evolution from the current generation.
GM just took it a little to far M-Class and not enough Traverse. The Traverse’ long DLO does a great job of thinning out the vehicle which the new Equinox could also use. Just when GM was starting to get some real clean designs this one seems to have gotten away from them.
The Traverse was a welcomed surprise from the other brothers and sisters of the Lambda tribe. It is clean, classy and had some details that really worked for a Chevrolet. This was a great vehicle to launch a new image for the brand.
The new Equinox is doing all the right things. Large, some what soft wheel arches, pronounced body side crease, chrome trim, detailed head lamps, new Chevy grill, afterburner taillights, hood surfacing and the standard GM chrome wheels. What’s not to like. I bet this design whissed right through the clinics.
The problem is that as good as this design is for current automotive styling, it is nothing special and obviously as I have pointed out, something we have seen before. No one is buying cars right now, so if you want any chance of a sale the car better be pretty damn interesting for me to let go of my money. Of course GM had no idea things would be like this when this design was finalized a couple years ago.
The good news is that all of you who like the M-Class but could not afford 50 g’s, now have an affordable ( most likely low-mid 20′s) option. Now that I just said that, this is a really nice vehicle for low to mid 20′s. On to my favorite part of this vehicle…the interior-
Chevy has really developed a nice design language on the iside reminicising of the past. This is yet another interpretation of the cockpit styling that keeps getting better. Great graphic treatment on the center stack lends to a high tech feel with a two tone color adding a sense of comfort.
It is amazing that GM had the worst interiors and how fast they have overcome that to way outpace their exteriors. CDf will be able to give a better opinion on this vehicle when we seat it at the Detroit show coming up very shortly. This show is going to be a big deal this year. It will either end with hope for the new products shown, or poor products and the show should have been cancelled to save money. We will see….
2 Responses
I disagree. Sure, it takes some very minor cues from the M-Class, but GM did a great job with this vehicle. Besides the raked C pillar, and rear glass treatment, I see nothing else worth mentioning. The interior, from what I can tell via images on here, is fantastic.
…and yes, you could get the Equinox in the low/mid 20′s, but I feel like I’m looking at a car dealer ad in the paper…they always show the high level pic with the low level price. These, obviously, are a mid level or better…probably in the mid 30′s .
Would I get one? Yes, but with serious consideration of about 3 other vehicles…Subaru, Toyota, and Ford.
Posted on December 22nd, 2008 at 12:12 pm
It’s a guppy! The headlights are pulled back like a cougar with a fresh face lift. Clearly too much botox. Though these new GM interiors are certainly appealing in their glossy, overly-retouched state, but the quailty of their real-world fit and finish is still unprooven. Even the pre-production live images reveal poor fits and uneven parting lines. Overall, kudos to GM for kicking out another thoughly thoughtful product. After all, anything’s better than a CRV!
Posted on December 22nd, 2008 at 4:16 pm
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