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Best Chevrolet Equinox Model Years (Ranked) in 2027

📖 2,816 words🗓️ Published Aug 1, 2026

Direct Answer

The best Chevrolet Equinox model year is the 2020, a mature third-generation car with proven 1.5L and 2.0L turbo engines, modern driver aids, and strong used value. The 2018 is the best budget pick. Avoid 2010–2013 second-generation 2.4L Ecotec cars, notorious for oil consumption and timing-chain failure.

The two Equinoxes you are actually choosing between

Shoppers talk about "the Equinox" as one vehicle, but the used market really offers two very different machines wearing the same badge, and almost every buying mistake comes from blurring them together.

The second generation ran from the 2010 through 2017 model years. It is the larger, softer, older-feeling crossover: a long wheelbase for the class, a rear seat that slides fore and aft, a tall greenhouse, and an interior of hard plastics that dates itself the moment you sit in it. Its base engine was the 2.4L Ecotec direct-injection four, and that engine is the single most consequential fact in the entire Equinox story. The optional 3.6L V6 — rated around 301 horsepower in later years — is a completely different ownership experience: strong, smooth, thirsty, and free of the four-cylinder's signature defect. Two cars, one body.

The third generation arrived for 2018 and ran through 2024 in gasoline form. Chevrolet shrank and lightened the vehicle, dropped the V6 entirely, and went all-turbo: a 1.5L turbo four making roughly 170 horsepower and 203 lb-ft, an optional 2.0L turbo making roughly 252 horsepower and 260 lb-ft paired to a nine-speed automatic, and briefly a 1.6L turbodiesel capable of highway figures approaching 39 mpg. The cabin got quieter, the materials got better, and the reliability picture improved markedly. A 2021 refresh restyled the nose, enlarged the standard infotainment screen, and dropped the 2.0L turbo from the lineup.

The practical consequence: a ranked list of Equinox model years is really a ranked list of powertrains with model years attached. A 2013 with the V6 can outlive a 2013 with the four by a wide margin. A 2019 2.0L drives like a different class of vehicle than a 2022 1.5L. If you shop by year alone, you will eventually buy the wrong car at the right price.

Ranked, top to bottom, the order looks like this: 2020 first, 2018 and 2019 close behind on value, 2021 and 2022 next for buyers who want newer sheetmetal, 2023 after that on price alone, then 2017 and 2016 as the acceptable second-generation years, 2014–2015 as caution buys, and 2010–2013 last. That ordering holds for the mainstream four-cylinder shopper. Restrict yourself to V6 second-generation cars and the bottom half of the list compresses considerably — the engine, not the calendar, is doing the ranking.

How to decide between them

Decision-making on a used Equinox collapses into a short chain of questions, and the order you ask them in matters more than any single answer. Budget first, because it determines which generation is even on the table. Engine second, because within the second generation the engine choice is worth more than three model years of freshness. Records third, because a turbo or direct-injection engine with unknown oil history is a lottery ticket regardless of badge.

Work the chain honestly and it usually terminates in one of four places. Buyers with real budget land on a 2020 with whichever turbo suits their driving. Value hunters land on a 2018 or 2019 with the 1.5L. Tight-budget buyers who insist on the second generation land on a 2016 or 2017 with the V6. And a meaningful share of shoppers discover, halfway down the chain, that the Equinox they were looking at is a 2.4L car with no maintenance file — which is the moment to walk rather than negotiate.

One adjacent consideration worth folding in: the Equinox competes directly with the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape, and Nissan Rogue on the used lot, and it typically undercuts the CR-V and RAV4 on price for equivalent age and mileage. That discount is not free money. It reflects weaker resale, which itself reflects the reliability reputation the 2.4L earned. If you buy a third-generation turbo car, you capture the discount without inheriting the defect that caused it — arguably the single best arbitrage in the compact crossover market. If you buy an undocumented 2.4L, you are being paid a few hundred dollars to accept engine-replacement risk, which is a bad trade at any price.

Concrete numbers behind each model year

Rankings are only useful when the reasoning behind them is specific, so here is what actually separates the years.

2020 — best overall. By this point the third-generation platform had three model years of running changes behind it. The 1.5L turbo delivers roughly 170 horsepower and 203 lb-ft and returns highway figures in the low 30s; the optional 2.0L turbo delivers roughly 252 horsepower and 260 lb-ft through the nine-speed automatic. Forward-collision and automatic-emergency-braking systems were widely fitted, and the infotainment was current rather than transitional. Nothing about the 2020 is exotic — that is precisely the argument for it. It is the version where every subsystem had already been shaken out.

2018 — best value. Launch year of the generation, which is normally a warning, but the mechanical package was sound from the start and depreciation has done its work. The 1.5L turbo is the volume engine and the sensible pick. The 1.6L turbodiesel, available only in this early window, is a genuine curiosity: highway numbers reaching roughly 39 mpg make it compelling for a long-commute driver, though the diesel's rarity means parts and specialist labor are harder to source, and a neglected diesel is far more expensive to fix than a neglected gas engine. Being a launch year, confirm software updates were applied and that infotainment behaves.

2019 — the split-the-difference pick. Mechanically nearly identical to the 2020, priced below it. Both turbos remained available, so this is the cheapest reasonable entry point to the 2.0L. For buyers who want the strongest engine at the lowest price, the 2019 2.0L is arguably the smartest single configuration on the entire list.

2021 and 2022 — newer, pricier, slower. The 2021 refresh brought revised styling, an updated interior, and a bigger standard screen, but it also deleted the 2.0L turbo. From 2021 onward the 1.5L is what you get, and in a loaded car with passengers and cargo it feels leisurely — merging onto a fast highway requires planning. You are paying a premium for appearance and warranty remainder, not for capability.

2023 — newest gasoline Equinox, thinnest discount. Full modern safety content and the most current infotainment of the gas run, but depreciation has barely started. Buy it if remaining factory warranty and newest-available tech are what you are optimizing for; skip it if cost per mile is.

2017 and 2016 — the acceptable second-generation years. Late in the platform's life, with accumulated fixes and a low asking price. The 3.6L V6 at roughly 301 horsepower is smooth and durable, and it sidesteps the 2.4L's core defect entirely. Fuel economy is unremarkable and the interior shows its age, but parts are cheap and the mechanicals are well understood by every independent shop in the country.

2014–2015 — caution. Improved over the earliest cars, but the 2.4L's oil-consumption and timing-chain risk is still very much present. Seek the V6; if the car is a four, insist on a documented oil-consumption test and a compression check before money changes hands.

2010–2013 — avoid. These years generated extensive owner complaints and litigation over 2.4L Ecotec oil consumption, timing-chain wear, and consequent engine failures. The V6 cars are far more durable, but the four-cylinder cars defined the generation's reputation. They are cheap for a reason, and the reason is expensive.

Across the whole range, a well-maintained third-generation Equinox commonly reaches the 150,000–200,000 mile band. That figure is contingent, not promised: turbocharged direct-injection engines punish deferred oil changes far more aggressively than the naturally aspirated engines of twenty years ago.

Inspection sequencing and the ownership math

Order of operations on the lot matters, because each check is cheap only if you do it before the more expensive one.

Start with the VIN and the free recall lookup, because a car with unaddressed open recalls tells you something about how the previous owner treated dealer correspondence generally. Then the oil check, cold, on any 2.4L — level first, color second. Blue smoke on a warm restart is close to disqualifying. Ask directly whether the dealer ever performed an oil-consumption test; those tests generate paperwork, and the presence or absence of that paperwork is genuinely diagnostic.

On third-generation turbo cars the emphasis shifts. Listen at cold start for anything beyond normal turbo spool. Then get the car to real highway speed and pay attention to how the nine-speed automatic behaves under part-throttle acceleration and on downshifts — hunting, harshness, or a long hesitation before it commits to a gear is worth investigating before you sign. Direct-injection engines are also sensitive to fuel and oil quality over time, so a stack of on-schedule oil-change receipts is worth more than low odometer mileage with a blank history.

Only after those screens does it make sense to pay for an independent pre-purchase inspection. Spending that money on a car you were going to reject anyway is the most common way used-car shoppers waste their inspection budget.

The ownership math tends to look like this. Routine maintenance on an Equinox sits in the same broad band as a CR-V or RAV4 — nothing exotic, parts widely available, most independent shops comfortable with the platform. The divergence is entirely in catastrophic-risk exposure. A third-generation turbo car carries roughly the risk profile of its segment peers. A second-generation 2.4L with unknown history carries a tail risk of full engine replacement, which is a four-figure event that dwarfs every other line item in the ownership budget. This is why the ranking is shaped the way it is: the years cluster not by how good they are on a good day, but by how bad they can get on a bad one.

That framing generalizes past the Equinox. In any long-running nameplate, the years worth buying are the mature ones inside a generation that had no structural defect — typically the third through fifth model year of a platform's run, after launch bugs are resolved but before the parts supply starts thinning. The Equinox follows that pattern almost perfectly: 2020 sits third in its generation, and it is the best car of the bunch.

Where the model-year question shows up beyond the driveway

The same ranked-model-year logic drives decisions well outside private ownership, and the adjacent cases are instructive.

Small-fleet operators — contractors, home-service businesses, regional sales teams — buy compact crossovers by the handful, and for them the Equinox's price advantage over the CR-V and RAV4 is directly a revenue question rather than a preference. Capital freed by buying five 2019 Equinoxes instead of four RAV4s is capital deployed elsewhere in the business. But that arithmetic only holds if the downtime risk is comparable, which is exactly why the second-generation 2.4L is disqualifying for fleet use at any discount: a vehicle off the road for an engine replacement costs far more in lost billable days than it ever saved at purchase. Fleet buyers should read this ranking as a hard floor at 2018, not as a menu.

Rental and lease-return inventory skews heavily toward the 1.5L turbo in base and mid trims, which is why late third-generation cars are abundant and comparatively cheap on used lots. That abundance is an advantage — you can be picky, compare several examples, and walk away from any car with a thin service file, because another one arrives next week. It also means trim shopping is realistic: waiting for a specific configuration is a reasonable strategy on a 2019–2022 Equinox in a way it is not on a rarer vehicle.

Teen and first-car buyers gravitate toward the cheapest end of the range, which is precisely where the risk concentrates. A $4,000 second-generation 2.4L is not a bargain if it needs an engine; the better play in that budget is stretching to a documented V6 car, or accepting higher mileage on a third-generation 1.5L rather than lower mileage on a defect-prone four.

Trade-in and resale timing runs the ranking in reverse. If you already own a third-generation Equinox, the strongest position is selling before the factory powertrain coverage lapses, since the warranty remainder is a real component of what a private buyer will pay. If you own a second-generation 2.4L that has been running clean, every additional year raises the probability that the defect surfaces on your watch rather than the next owner's.

Finally, the electric successor changes the frame going forward. Chevrolet's move toward an electric Equinox means the gasoline third-generation cars represent a closed set — a fixed, finite population of 2018–2024 vehicles that will age together, with parts and independent-shop familiarity remaining strong for years. That is good news for used buyers. It also means the ranking above is essentially final. No future model year is going to enter the list and reshuffle it; the 2020 will still be the sensible answer to this question years from now.

FAQ

What is the most reliable Chevrolet Equinox model year?

The 2020 is the strongest choice. It sits in the mature middle of the third generation, uses the proven 1.5L or 2.0L turbo engines, carries modern driver-assistance equipment as standard or widely available, and postdates the early third-generation infotainment and software complaints.

Which Equinox years should I avoid?

The 2010–2013 cars with the 2.4L Ecotec engine. Excessive oil consumption and timing-chain wear on that engine generated extensive owner complaints and legal action, and neglected examples can fail outright. The 3.6L V6 versions of those same years are considerably more durable.

How long does a well-maintained Equinox last?

Third-generation cars commonly reach 150,000 to 200,000 miles with on-schedule maintenance. The turbocharged direct-injection engines are durable but unforgiving of skipped oil changes, so documented service history predicts longevity better than odometer reading alone.

Is the Equinox expensive to repair compared with rivals?

Routine costs are broadly comparable to a Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4 — common parts, widely serviced platform. The exception is the second-generation 2.4L, where timing-chain and oil-consumption work is genuinely expensive. Later model years keep repair exposure in normal territory.

Which Equinox is best on a tight budget?

A 2016 or 2017 with the 3.6L V6, or a high-mileage 2018 with the 1.5L turbo. Both avoid the defining engine defect. Between the two, the 2018 gives you the newer platform and better fuel economy; the V6 gives you more power for less money.

What should I check on the test drive?

On a 2.4L, oil level and color cold, plus blue exhaust smoke on a warm restart. On a third-generation turbo, listen at cold start and then run the car to highway speed and evaluate how cleanly the nine-speed automatic upshifts and downshifts under load.

Sources

flowchart TD A[Shopping a used Equinox] --> B{Budget tier} B -->|Higher| C[Third generation 2018-2023] B -->|Tight| D[Second generation 2010-2017] C --> E{Power or economy} E -->|Power| F[2.0L turbo 252 hp 2018-2020] E -->|Economy| G[1.5L turbo 170 hp any year] F --> H[Verify 9-speed shift quality] G --> H H --> I{Service records complete} I -->|Yes| J[Buy - 2020 is the top pick] I -->|No| K[Walk or discount heavily] D --> L{Which engine} L -->|2.4L Ecotec| M[Oil consumption risk - avoid] L -->|3.6L V6| N[Safer - prefer 2016-2017] M --> O[Only with documented repair history] N --> I

flowchart TD A[Candidate identified] --> B[Run VIN for open recalls] B --> C{Second gen 2.4L} C -->|Yes| D[Check oil level cold] D --> E{Low or dark} E -->|Yes| F[Walk away] E -->|No| G[Look for blue exhaust smoke] G --> H[Request oil consumption test records] C -->|No third gen turbo| I[Cold start listen for turbo whine] I --> J[Highway test 9-speed upshifts and downshifts] H --> K[Independent pre-purchase inspection] J --> K K --> L{Findings} L -->|Clean| M[Negotiate and buy] L -->|Engine concerns| F L -->|Minor wear| N[Price the repair into the offer]

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## Direct Answer

The best Chevrolet Equinox model year is the 2020, a mature third-generation car with proven 1.5L and 2.0L turbo engines, modern driver aids, and strong used value. The 2018 is the best budget pick. Avoid 2010–2013 second-generation 2.4L Ecotec cars, notorious for oil consumption and timing-chain failure.

## The two Equinoxes you are actually choosing between

Shoppers talk about "the Equinox" as one vehicle, but the used market really offers two very different machines wearing the same badge, and almost every buying mistake comes from blurring them together.

The second generation ran from the 2010 through 2017 model years. It is the larger, softer, older-feeling crossover: a long wheelbase for the class, a rear seat that slides fore and aft, a tall greenhouse, and an interior of hard plastics that dates itself the moment you sit in it. Its base engine was the 2.4L Ecotec direct-injection four, and that engine is the single most consequential fact in the entire Equinox story. The optional 3.6L V6 — rated around 301 horsepower in later years — is a completely different ownership experience: strong, smooth, thirsty, and free of the four-cylinder's signature defect. Two cars, one body.

The third generation arrived for 2018 and ran through 2024 in gasoline form. Chevrolet shrank and lightened the vehicle, dropped the V6 entirely, and went all-turbo: a 1.5L turbo four making roughly 170 horsepower and 203 lb-ft, an optional 2.0L turbo making roughly 252 horsepower and 260 lb-ft paired to a nine-speed automatic, and briefly a 1.6L turbodiesel capable of highway figures approaching 39 mpg. The cabin got quieter, the materials got better, and the reliability picture improved markedly. A 2021 refresh restyled the nose, enlarged the standard infotainment screen, and dropped the 2.0L turbo from the lineup.

The practical consequence: a ranked list of Equinox model years is really a ranked list of powertrains with model years attached. A 2013 with the V6 can outlive a 2013 with the four by a wide margin. A 2019 2.0L drives like a different class of vehicle than a 2022 1.5L. If you shop by year alone, you will eventually buy the wrong car at the right price.

Ranked, top to bottom, the order looks like this: 2020 first, 2018 and 2019 close behind on value, 2021 and 2022 next for buyers who want newer sheetmetal, 2023 after that on price alone, then 2017 and 2016 as the acceptable second-generation years, 2014–2015 as caution buys, and 2010–2013 last. That ordering holds for the mainstream four-cylinder shopper. Restrict yourself to V6 second-generation cars and the bottom half of the list compresses considerably — the engine, not the calendar, is doing the ranking.

## How to decide between them

Decision-making on a used Equinox collapses into a short chain of questions, and the order you ask them in matters more than any single answer. Budget first, because it determines which generation is even on the table. Engine second, because within the second generation the engine choice is worth more than three model years of freshness. Records third, because a turbo or direct-injection engine with unknown oil history is a lottery ticket regardless of badge.

```mermaid
flowchart TD
  A[Shopping a used Equinox] --> B{Budget tier}
  B -->|Higher| C[Third generation 2018-2023]
  B -->|Tight| D[Second generation 2010-2017]
  C --> E{Power or economy}
  E -->|Power| F[2.0L turbo 252 hp 2018-2020]
  E -->|Economy| G[1.5L turbo 170 hp any year]
  F --> H[Verify 9-speed shift quality]
  G --> H
  H --> I{Service records complete}
  I -->|Yes| J[Buy - 2020 is the top pick]
  I -->|No| K[Walk or discount heavily]
  D --> L{Which engine}
  L -->|2.4L Ecotec| M[Oil consumption risk - avoid]
  L -->|3.6L V6| N[Safer - prefer 2016-2017]
  M --> O[Only with documented repair history]
  N --> I
```

Work the chain honestly and it usually terminates in one of four places. Buyers with real budget land on a 2020 with whichever turbo suits their driving. Value hunters land on a 2018 or 2019 with the 1.5L. Tight-budget buyers who insist on the second generation land on a 2016 or 2017 with the V6. And a meaningful share of shoppers discover, halfway down the chain, that the Equinox they were looking at is a 2.4L car with no maintenance file — which is the moment to walk rather than negotiate.

One adjacent consideration worth folding in: the Equinox competes directly with the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape, and Nissan Rogue on the used lot, and it typically undercuts the CR-V and RAV4 on price for equivalent age and mileage. That discount is not free money. It reflects weaker resale, which itself reflects the reliability reputation the 2.4L earned. If you buy a third-generation turbo car, you capture the discount without inheriting the defect that caused it — arguably the single best arbitrage in the compact crossover market. If you buy an undocumented 2.4L, you are being paid a few hundred dollars to accept engine-replacement risk, which is a bad trade at any price.

## Concrete numbers behind each model year

Rankings are only useful when the reasoning behind them is specific, so here is what actually separates the years.

**2020 — best overall.** By this point the third-generation platform had three model years of running changes behind it. The 1.5L turbo delivers roughly 170 horsepower and 203 lb-ft and returns highway figures in the low 30s; the optional 2.0L turbo delivers roughly 252 horsepower and 260 lb-ft through the nine-speed automatic. Forward-collision and automatic-emergency-braking systems were widely fitted, and the infotainment was current rather than transitional. Nothing about the 2020 is exotic — that is precisely the argument for it. It is the version where every subsystem had already been shaken out.

**2018 — best value.** Launch year of the generation, which is normally a warning, but the mechanical package was sound from the start and depreciation has done its work. The 1.5L turbo is the volume engine and the sensible pick. The 1.6L turbodiesel, available only in this early window, is a genuine curiosity: highway numbers reaching roughly 39 mpg make it compelling for a long-commute driver, though the diesel's rarity means parts and specialist labor are harder to source, and a neglected diesel is far more expensive to fix than a neglected gas engine. Being a launch year, confirm software updates were applied and that infotainment behaves.

**2019 — the split-the-difference pick.** Mechanically nearly identical to the 2020, priced below it. Both turbos remained available, so this is the cheapest reasonable entry point to the 2.0L. For buyers who want the strongest engine at the lowest price, the 2019 2.0L is arguably the smartest single configuration on the entire list.

**2021 and 2022 — newer, pricier, slower.** The 2021 refresh brought revised styling, an updated interior, and a bigger standard screen, but it also deleted the 2.0L turbo. From 2021 onward the 1.5L is what you get, and in a loaded car with passengers and cargo it feels leisurely — merging onto a fast highway requires planning. You are paying a premium for appearance and warranty remainder, not for capability.

**2023 — newest gasoline Equinox, thinnest discount.** Full modern safety content and the most current infotainment of the gas run, but depreciation has barely started. Buy it if remaining factory warranty and newest-available tech are what you are optimizing for; skip it if cost per mile is.

**2017 and 2016 — the acceptable second-generation years.** Late in the platform's life, with accumulated fixes and a low asking price. The 3.6L V6 at roughly 301 horsepower is smooth and durable, and it sidesteps the 2.4L's core defect entirely. Fuel economy is unremarkable and the interior shows its age, but parts are cheap and the mechanicals are well understood by every independent shop in the country.

**2014–2015 — caution.** Improved over the earliest cars, but the 2.4L's oil-consumption and timing-chain risk is still very much present. Seek the V6; if the car is a four, insist on a documented oil-consumption test and a compression check before money changes hands.

**2010–2013 — avoid.** These years generated extensive owner complaints and litigation over 2.4L Ecotec oil consumption, timing-chain wear, and consequent engine failures. The V6 cars are far more durable, but the four-cylinder cars defined the generation's reputation. They are cheap for a reason, and the reason is expensive.

Across the whole range, a well-maintained third-generation Equinox commonly reaches the 150,000–200,000 mile band. That figure is contingent, not promised: turbocharged direct-injection engines punish deferred oil changes far more aggressively than the naturally aspirated engines of twenty years ago.

## Inspection sequencing and the ownership math

Order of operations on the lot matters, because each check is cheap only if you do it before the more expensive one.

```mermaid
flowchart TD
  A[Candidate identified] --> B[Run VIN for open recalls]
  B --> C{Second gen 2.4L}
  C -->|Yes| D[Check oil level cold]
  D --> E{Low or dark}
  E -->|Yes| F[Walk away]
  E -->|No| G[Look for blue exhaust smoke]
  G --> H[Request oil consumption test records]
  C -->|No third gen turbo| I[Cold start listen for turbo whine]
  I --> J[Highway test 9-speed upshifts and downshifts]
  H --> K[Independent pre-purchase inspection]
  J --> K
  K --> L{Findings}
  L -->|Clean| M[Negotiate and buy]
  L -->|Engine concerns| F
  L -->|Minor wear| N[Price the repair into the offer]
```

Start with the VIN and the free recall lookup, because a car with unaddressed open recalls tells you something about how the previous owner treated dealer correspondence generally. Then the oil check, cold, on any 2.4L — level first, color second. Blue smoke on a warm restart is close to disqualifying. Ask directly whether the dealer ever performed an oil-consumption test; those tests generate paperwork, and the presence or absence of that paperwork is genuinely diagnostic.

On third-generation turbo cars the emphasis shifts. Listen at cold start for anything beyond normal turbo spool. Then get the car to real highway speed and pay attention to how the nine-speed automatic behaves under part-throttle acceleration and on downshifts — hunting, harshness, or a long hesitation before it commits to a gear is worth investigating before you sign. Direct-injection engines are also sensitive to fuel and oil quality over time, so a stack of on-schedule oil-change receipts is worth more than low odometer mileage with a blank history.

Only after those screens does it make sense to pay for an independent pre-purchase inspection. Spending that money on a car you were going to reject anyway is the most common way used-car shoppers waste their inspection budget.

The ownership math tends to look like this. Routine maintenance on an Equinox sits in the same broad band as a CR-V or RAV4 — nothing exotic, parts widely available, most independent shops comfortable with the platform. The divergence is entirely in catastrophic-risk exposure. A third-generation turbo car carries roughly the risk profile of its segment peers. A second-generation 2.4L with unknown history carries a tail risk of full engine replacement, which is a four-figure event that dwarfs every other line item in the ownership budget. This is why the ranking is shaped the way it is: the years cluster not by how good they are on a good day, but by how bad they can get on a bad one.

That framing generalizes past the Equinox. In any long-running nameplate, the years worth buying are the mature ones inside a generation that had no structural defect — typically the third through fifth model year of a platform's run, after launch bugs are resolved but before the parts supply starts thinning. The Equinox follows that pattern almost perfectly: 2020 sits third in its generation, and it is the best car of the bunch.

## Where the model-year question shows up beyond the driveway

The same ranked-model-year logic drives decisions well outside private ownership, and the adjacent cases are instructive.

Small-fleet operators — contractors, home-service businesses, regional sales teams — buy compact crossovers by the handful, and for them the Equinox's price advantage over the CR-V and RAV4 is directly a revenue question rather than a preference. Capital freed by buying five 2019 Equinoxes instead of four RAV4s is capital deployed elsewhere in the business. But that arithmetic only holds if the downtime risk is comparable, which is exactly why the second-generation 2.4L is disqualifying for fleet use at any discount: a vehicle off the road for an engine replacement costs far more in lost billable days than it ever saved at purchase. Fleet buyers should read this ranking as a hard floor at 2018, not as a menu.

Rental and lease-return inventory skews heavily toward the 1.5L turbo in base and mid trims, which is why late third-generation cars are abundant and comparatively cheap on used lots. That abundance is an advantage — you can be picky, compare several examples, and walk away from any car with a thin service file, because another one arrives next week. It also means trim shopping is realistic: waiting for a specific configuration is a reasonable strategy on a 2019–2022 Equinox in a way it is not on a rarer vehicle.

Teen and first-car buyers gravitate toward the cheapest end of the range, which is precisely where the risk concentrates. A $4,000 second-generation 2.4L is not a bargain if it needs an engine; the better play in that budget is stretching to a documented V6 car, or accepting higher mileage on a third-generation 1.5L rather than lower mileage on a defect-prone four.

Trade-in and resale timing runs the ranking in reverse. If you already own a third-generation Equinox, the strongest position is selling before the factory powertrain coverage lapses, since the warranty remainder is a real component of what a private buyer will pay. If you own a second-generation 2.4L that has been running clean, every additional year raises the probability that the defect surfaces on your watch rather than the next owner's.

Finally, the electric successor changes the frame going forward. Chevrolet's move toward an electric Equinox means the gasoline third-generation cars represent a closed set — a fixed, finite population of 2018–2024 vehicles that will age together, with parts and independent-shop familiarity remaining strong for years. That is good news for used buyers. It also means the ranking above is essentially final. No future model year is going to enter the list and reshuffle it; the 2020 will still be the sensible answer to this question years from now.

## Related questions

### Is the 2.0L turbo worth the premium over the 1.5L?

If you regularly carry passengers, tow light loads, or merge onto fast highways, yes — 252 horsepower versus 170 is a substantial difference in real driving. The 2.0L was only offered through 2020, so it also constrains you to earlier third-generation years.

### Does the 1.6L turbodiesel make sense as a used buy?

Only for genuinely high-mileage highway drivers. Highway economy approaching 39 mpg is compelling, but the diesel is rare, specialist service is harder to find, and repair costs run higher than the gas engines when something does go wrong.

### Are 2018 launch-year problems a reason to skip it?

No, provided you verify software updates were applied and infotainment functions normally on the test drive. The mechanical package was sound from launch; the early complaints centered on electronics rather than powertrain, and the price discount more than compensates.

### Can a second-generation Equinox still be a smart purchase?

Yes, with two conditions: the 3.6L V6 rather than the 2.4L, and a 2016 or 2017 model year. That combination sidesteps the oil-consumption defect and benefits from a platform that had been refined for seven years.

## FAQ

**What is the most reliable Chevrolet Equinox model year?**

The 2020 is the strongest choice. It sits in the mature middle of the third generation, uses the proven 1.5L or 2.0L turbo engines, carries modern driver-assistance equipment as standard or widely available, and postdates the early third-generation infotainment and software complaints.

**Which Equinox years should I avoid?**

The 2010–2013 cars with the 2.4L Ecotec engine. Excessive oil consumption and timing-chain wear on that engine generated extensive owner complaints and legal action, and neglected examples can fail outright. The 3.6L V6 versions of those same years are considerably more durable.

**How long does a well-maintained Equinox last?**

Third-generation cars commonly reach 150,000 to 200,000 miles with on-schedule maintenance. The turbocharged direct-injection engines are durable but unforgiving of skipped oil changes, so documented service history predicts longevity better than odometer reading alone.

**Is the Equinox expensive to repair compared with rivals?**

Routine costs are broadly comparable to a Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4 — common parts, widely serviced platform. The exception is the second-generation 2.4L, where timing-chain and oil-consumption work is genuinely expensive. Later model years keep repair exposure in normal territory.

**Which Equinox is best on a tight budget?**

A 2016 or 2017 with the 3.6L V6, or a high-mileage 2018 with the 1.5L turbo. Both avoid the defining engine defect. Between the two, the 2018 gives you the newer platform and better fuel economy; the V6 gives you more power for less money.

**What should I check on the test drive?**

On a 2.4L, oil level and color cold, plus blue exhaust smoke on a warm restart. On a third-generation turbo, listen at cold start and then run the car to highway speed and evaluate how cleanly the nine-speed automatic upshifts and downshifts under load.

## Sources

- https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls
- https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/chevrolet/equinox/
- https://www.edmunds.com/chevrolet/equinox/
- https://www.kbb.com/chevrolet/equinox/
- https://www.caranddriver.com/chevrolet/equinox
- https://www.chevrolet.com/suvs/equinox
- https://www.carcomplaints.com/Chevrolet/Equinox/
- https://www.fueleconomy.gov/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Equinox

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Best Chevrolet Equinox Model Years (Ranked) in 2027

The two Equinoxes you are actually choosing between

How to decide between them

Concrete numbers behind each model year

Inspection sequencing and the ownership math

Where the model-year question shows up beyond the driveway

Related questions

Is the 2.0L turbo worth the premium over the 1.5L?

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