I have never been the biggest fan of American cars. Their numb steering, floaty rides, and horrible depreciation were a major turn-off.However, recently things have been looking up, and many new American cars seem to be better built and geared toward a more discriminating buyer. I credit the Japanese car manufactures with raising the bar, and making the American car companies realize that they had some serious competition for winning over buyers.

Initially my son and I were impressed when we saw previews for Chevrolet’s new small SUV, the Equinox. The styling was muscular, yet refined, and the interior (from photographs) seemed to be a lot nicer than any other GM mini-SUV. It finally seemed like Chevy was getting it. However, upon test driving an Equinox LT, we were incredibly disappointed. Here are my driving impressions.

Exterior/Interior Impressions: The Equinox’s exterior turned out very successfully. It is much better executed then Saturn’s VUE, or Honda’s CRV. It is muscular and solid looking without being in your face. The front grill is powerful looking, with a big slab of chrome trim, and a large Chevy Bow-Tie. The back is clean looking with the popular clear tail lamps.

Opening the door to the Equinox is not very reassuring. The door handle feels flimsy and cheap, and the car door does not have a solid sound when it is shut. Stepping into the Equinox’s interior reminded of entering a rental car, The seats were tough cloth- like material. They were not soft, but felt very durable. The seat was not very firm, or supportive.

Sitting in the Equinox felt like being in a minivan. There is a large space between the steering wheel and the windshield, and the glass is very upright. Overall the environment was very disconcerting, The driving position and the angle of the windows made the Equinox feel much larger then it was, but in a bad way. When you look in the rear-view mirror, there seems like there is a Suburban behind the front seat, when in reality the car is much smaller.

The center stack of the Equinox was nice looking, with some metallic looking paint, and more classy looking instruments then I have seen on many G.M’s. However, there was so much cheap plastic everywhere. From the door panels, to the side pillars, to the dashboard, everything felt extremely cheap. The interior was such a disappointment.

However, there were some good things in the interior. The backseat for example, is incredibly clever. The seats can move back and forth on a track up to eight inches. So you can have limo-like legroom in the back, or lots of extra cargo space. It was very useful, and a great feature. Also the rear cargo area had storage shelves, to stack different items, and with the seats folded down, there was a lot of hauling space.

Driving Impressions: Things weren’t any more positive once I took the Equinox on the road. Immediately I noticed how light the steering was. At lower speeds the electric steering has absolutely no resistance. It is completely loose in your hands, and while this aids in parking, it makes the Equinox feel very cumbersome. Perhaps I am to used to European and Japanese cars, but the steering on the Equinox was horrible. Things firmed up a bit at highway speeds, but not nearly enough in my opinion. Mixed with the minivan like feeling inside, numerous blindspots, and light steering weight the Equinox felt very disconnected and clumsy.

The Equinox doesn’t have a very smooth ride either. While not harsh, the SUV bounces over bumps opposed to gliding over them. The ride isn’t very refined, and gets disrupted by road imperfections rather easily.

While many have complained that G.M. chose to use the ancient 184 horsepower pushrod V-6 in the Equinox instead of the much more powerful and modern Honda V-6 borrowed by Saturn, I didn’t think the engine was that negative compared to many of the cars other traits. The V-6 is not very refined, and while not abundant in power, there is ample zip for most driving situations.

As you can tell, I was not very impressed at all with Chevrolet’s new Equinox. For a new 2005 SUV, I expected a lot more. Our model was not loaded, and at an MSRP of $24,000 +, I didn’t think it was a great value. However, with incentives kicked in, the Equinox seems like a much more decent buy, yet I still wouldn’t recommend it.

Amount Paid (US$): 24,500
Condition: New
Model and Options: LT