Live thread: 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV 2LT review

In reply to Keith Tanner :

The questionable vibrations is definitely not a normal experience. Mine is insanely smooth and comfortable, bumpy or smooth roads it handles them well. The meh to drive is very dependent on what the comparison. If you're comparing to 75% of IC vehicles today, it's a blast to drive. Instant torque still exists, so for getting out of the way it's prett great. I agree it's slower than my Hyundai, but 99.9% of the time, I don't really care. For the price that these are, it's a fantastic option. With some software fixes, it will be even better. 

After spending most of the weekend driving the Equinox I took my wife's Ioniq5 to get some groceries last night. The Hyundai is a superior driving experience in nearly every way, and the perceived quality is way higher. On the other hand, the Equinox is $10k cheaper and has Super Cruise. So I feel like there's some real value here compared to marketplace competitors, even if the product lags a bit. 

Oh and I was wrong about the efficiency of the Hyundai. She's averaging 4.5 mi/kwh since new, which is like 25% more than the AWD EVquinox. Now I'm really curious what a 2wd Chevy would do for efficiency while costing even less. On value that's starting to look intresting.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Considering that driving I-4 is a major part of my life, Super Cruise is certainly compelling.

My dealer lot ended up clogged with EV Equinoxes, Blazers, Lyriqs and even three Hummers. GM just started dumping them on us, but we're in Central New York, which, on top of being an economically-depressed era and having cold winters, basically has no EV infrastructure and you have to travel long distances to get anywhere. We sold one Blazer EV and there has been absolutely zero customer interest in any of the others. Finally, the sales manager basically just started leasing the EVs to any employee that he could possibly convince, talked the one dealer owner into buying the $150k Hummer, and I was in the office when the owner came in to our service manager and went "You know that Silverado you lease from us? We're taking that back and you're going to lease the other Hummer now."

Lots of software issues with these. When the Blazer EV came out, at least two other review companies had theirs brick themselves and spend multiple weeks at dealerships while trying to get them fixed. Currently there is a recall on the Lyriqs where you have to reprogram literally every single module in the vehicle to try and fix software bugs. It's an all-day process.

Learned about a fun new feature: Automatic emergency braking!

Lots of other new cars do this, too, but it's particularly intrusive here. The Equinox slammed on its brakes so hard I felt like I had whiplash when pulling into my driveway last night, stopping about 6' from the car in front of it. I'm 99% sure it locked all four wheels under braking.

Then, twice in heavy rain it's slammed on the brakes in reverse, with no obstructions or other cars around. I'm not sure what's going on, but I was thrilled to hand David the keys and get out of this thing. 

Tom Suddard said:

Learned about a fun new feature: Automatic emergency braking!

Lots of other new cars do this, too, but it's particularly intrusive here. The Equinox slammed on its brakes so hard I felt like I had whiplash when pulling into my driveway last night, stopping about 6' from the car in front of it. I'm 99% sure it locked all four wheels under braking.

Then, twice in heavy rain it's slammed on the brakes in reverse, with no obstructions or other cars around. I'm not sure what's going on, but I was thrilled to hand David the keys and get out of this thing. 

Oh yeah, we've seen that where someone is moving a Lyriq/Blazer EV/Equinox EV around the shop, and it sees someone a good 6-10 feet to the peripheral of it and jams on the brakes. I watched my coworker nearly bounce his head off the Lyriq steering wheel and it skidded all four tires 2 or 3 inches on the shop floor.

Okay, so it's not just me. Wow. 

Look, I know this is a feature on new cars, and it's fine on my F-150--it will occasionally hit the brakes about 2' out if I'm backing up too quickly into a parking spot with a hedge behind it, but that's a sensible reaction and really predictable. The Equinox... was not.

Yeah, that auto-braking feature is a bit harsh. In this particular case, we’re thinking that the rain tripped it as we weren’t near anything else. If the tree at the end of my driveway set it off, then it’s way aggressive as we had a few feet of clearance. 

Just drove it from Tom’s house to mine. I’ll take it out soon for some deeper impressions.