By Nauman Farooq

One of the most hotly contested products in the automotive market place are small SUVs.
Not only are they just as stylish as full-size SUVs, they are quite practical too, plus some of these are really very fuel-efficient.
So they offer most of the highlights of having a truck-like vehicle, while offering none of the drawbacks.
One of the most popular vehicles in this segment was the first generation Chevrolet Equinox.
It offered most of the things people looked for in a vehicle of its type, however it wasn the leader when it came to fit and finish.
The new Equinox is much better. For a start, the styling is quite impressive. It doesn look like a cheapo SUV, it actually looks like GM spent time designing it.
It also seems GM took its time working out the interior too. Not only is the fit and finish much better and the quality of materials looks and feels better, the whole design theme is very impressive. In my test vehicle, it had a new type of fabric for the seats which looked much better than cloth and more comfortable than leather, which is neat.
I also found this new Equinox to be quite spacious, as I found out on a recent trip to the airport. It also has a very cleaver feature for the tailgate, which allows you to set the maximum height the tailgate will swing up. The idea behind this is, if you are parked in a low garage, the tailgate wont smash up against the ceiling. This will hopefully prevent any unnecessary damage to the vehicle. This idea is so simple yet useful, I think all such vehicles should come fitted with this feature.
The Equinox also comes with another clever feature, its called the Eco mode. Press a small button in front of the gear shifter and this programs the vehicle to run in a more efficient setting. Sure it won be the fastest vehicle on the road, but it at least you won be visiting the gas station as often.
The mileage rating would also differ between the base front-wheel drive versions as against  all-wheel versions. My front-wheel drive model averaged 11.1-liters/100km, which is decent for a vehicle of this size, while not exactly as good as I was hoping. After all, it only has a 2.4-liter, four-cylinder engine which produces 182hp.
So its not rocket fast or hybrid efficient, but it does have a very smooth, six-speed automatic gearbox. So there are some positives to go with its negatives.
Its ride and handling is neither of those. It rides well but its not what Id call excellent, and while it handles well, it doesn handle exceptionally well, like a Subaru Outback does on both counts.
The Equinox is however priced decently well enough. Prices start at just $25,995. So it is more affordable than a Toyota Rav4, Honda CR-V, or that aforementioned Subaru Outback, but then in some features the Equinox isn as good either.