You know, I've had GM vehicles in the past, I especially like the 2007 grand prix we had. It was a decent car.
The bad part about the grand prix, was that we bought it when my wife was pregnant, and money wasn't flowing so well, so it was cloth seats, minimal options, pretty bland.

So one day she eyes up a 2009 equinox sport, AWD, leather, sunroof, loaded. The sticker MPG on it was 36 MPG highway. (IMP). I knew it wouldn't get 36 MPG, nothing gets sticker. I thought it might get 25, maybe even 30 on a good day. She loved it, we bought it.

After a few fills, I notice that we're filling up quite often, and decided to do some real fuel calculations, and on several long road trips, hand calculated a solid 21 MPG, and thats stopping only to fill up.
Took it into the dealer, got the usual speal about tire pressure and driving habits. This same driving I could do with my 6.4 diesel crew cab, and get a solid 19 MPG. Anyways, that sucked, because we would have just bought a truck, if thats all we were going to get for mileage out of the equinox. The only reason we bought it, is because we could save some money on gas.

As if that wasn't bad enough, a few months later, complete drivetrain carnage. I learned that the rear differentials in these are disposable, from one wheel to the other, nothing is serviceable. Any problem at all, throw it in the garbage, buy a new one from GM for 3000$. Anyways that failed, some clutch assemblies, and some other things were worn out as well, for no apparent reason. 10,000$ repair, covered by GM, BUT we had to fight and threaten to get them to fix it.

Then, one day at random, I notice valve clicking noises... take it in, top end is worn out. They had to do a complete rebuild of the heads and everything, can't remember what it cost, but it was thousands. They covered it under warranty. Bad news, they stripped a bunch of the bolts in the engine block, and had to use helicoils or something to get it assembled. Hope that doesn't happen again, engine would be garbage. And unfortunately, when they were working in there, someone forgot a little something.

So about a week later, I'm at home, and end up talking to a friend about the incident, and curiosity peaked me, as I never even looked at all the work they did. Pop the hood open, the plastic cover for the electrical fuse tray, is sitting a few feet away on top of the engine. Fuse tray is cracked, something looks fishy. Someone obviously forgot to put a few things back together before giving it back to us, lol.

Take it in, they order a new fuse tray, and it's a major ordeal to change those, and they're pissed off at me. Whoever they had working on it, frigged up some stuff, the tray was cracked, and it took them an entire day with 2 guys to get it all figured out. They were not happy, but I didn't give a crap. Not my fault they don't have decent help.

Get home, a few days later, wife notices her power windows and other stuff don't work. Take it to local garage, he finds wires by the firewall cut, and wires under the dash cut. Just cut; no tape over them, nothing. Someone just decided to start cutting stuff. Paid the local guy 600$ to fix everything, it took him all day, called GM dealer and used lots of bad names and language. They didn't even offer to pay part of that repair.

Battery keeps going dead. Towed to GM by GM roadside assistance. I ask them to check the rear wiper motor, as a friend told me that they get weak, don't return all the way, and drain the battery. They never heard of it, and can't be bothered. Keeps going dead , they put a new battery in and charge us a bunch of diagnostic charges. Keeps going dead. Charger on it every morning to go anywhere. Wiper motor in the back stops working, all of a sudden, battery holds charge no problem. To this day, that seems to have been the problem, once we replaced the rear wiper motor for almost 400$, no issues afterwards ever.

Front plastic bumper fell off one day, no reason; just felt like it I guess.

Lo profile tires for this unit cost 1700$. I was not expecting that. That alone would negate any fuel savings this vehicle, IF it could even pull better mileage.

I think I'm probably forgetting a few things.....

Now, power steering system decided to demolish it's self. The pump is fine, but the resevoir and return hose are wrecked somehow, 1100$.

It only has about 70,000 miles on it, I don't think this vehicle would make any sense to buy. Thats all I'm saying.

 

I guess that would sour my opinion on small SUV's.

 

This is what an Equinox did to my car;

Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums - View Single Post - April's Fool Me Once, Twice, Won't Get Fooled Again

 

The Taurus did it's job and all are safe and sound. That's all that matters.

 

If you have the 3.4, be aware that the cams seem to break in them... friend with a shop has done quite a few for that reason.

 

It has the 3.6 i think, but obviously the same problem.
I've never seen such a terrible vehicle, easily cost more to keep on the road than anything else I can imagine.

Everyones all scared of the big diesels, "what if the fuel system crashes, you could get a 10,000$ bill!!"
Well even a crappy commuter SUV can generate 10,000$ repair bills, maybe even easier than a truck.

Like I said before, should have just went with an f150. Maybe a few miles per gallon less economy, but 10x the vehicle.

 

I feel for you, man. Like you I bought a nearly new Suburban several years ago, and like you, that thing drained my bank account in short order. Transmissions, A/C units, steering sensors, batteries, water pumps, a fuel pump, brakes, stereo problems, windshield wiper motors, power steering failures, intake manifold problems and everything and anything that could fail did fail. It was not a cheap vehicle, nor was it ever abused. I never wanted to cut a car in half and burn it to the ground so bad in my life. Sorry to hear you're in the same boat.

 

YES!!! I also wanted to burn it to the ground.

Actually, I REALLY feel like burning it to the ground today, the top end sounds like it's coming apart, just like it did last time. Thats only about 30,000 km's (20,000 miles? ) and the top end is toasted again, sounds like it anyways.
I was scared this day would come, because when they fixed it all last time, they stripped a bunch of bolts, and everything was assembled with helicoil or similar stripped hole coil fastener.
Good luck fixing it again, I don't think you can even remove a helicoil, or re use it either.

Good news is, I bought a 1996 caprice last year, so looks like the wife will be driving "old reliable" very shortly haha.

 

Heli-coils are actually very good methods for fixing damaged threads. I'm a machinist and we use them all the time with great results. Typically, I use heli-coils to fix a thread the first time. If a part gets the heli-coil damaged, then I step up to Cat-sert thread inserts. Basically, you just drill out the heli-coil, drill and tap it to the Cat-sert size and insert the Cat-serts and call it done. Always a way to fix it, but it's best not to strip it out the first time!

 

Ahh, but unless you get someone to install the helicoil that knows what they're doing, they fail.
Tractor, 2 weeks ago, helicoil installed, 1 week ago, failed.

I did not know you could drill out helicoils, I will have to find a experienced guy to help with this...