2006 Chevrolet Equinox
This year drew an ordinary 695 complaints for a Chevrolet Equinox — the model's median is 370. What they were about is the unusual part: 25.5% of them mention blend, against 0.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Chevrolet Equinox, which began in 2005 and ran to 2009. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 695 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 370 |
| Involving a crash | 16 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 18.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- blend — 25.5% of this year's complaints, against 0.4% across the other years of this generation (68.8×). Owners wrote it as: blend, actuator, fogged.
- heater — 27.6% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation (19.6×). Owners wrote it as: heater, equinox heater, heater blowing, heater stopped.
- cold — 28.9% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (14.3×). Owners wrote it as: cold, cold air, blowing, blows.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
MY 2006 CHEVY EQUINOX HEATER START BLOWING COLD AIR ON DECEMBER 1, 2016. PER THE CHEVY DEALER THE HEATER BLEND DOOR IS BROKEN IT COST ME OVER $2,300 TO FIX THE HEATER . THERE ARE TOO MANY 2006 CHEVY EQUINOX WITH THE ME PROBLEM. THIS IS S DEFECT AND A RECALL SH…
THE ACTUATOR FOR THE HEAT BLOWS OUT COLD AIR. THE DEALER STATED IT WILL COST $1,300 TO REPLACE THE ACTUATOR FOR THE HEATER. SINCE THERE WERE NO RECALLS OR WARRANTY ON THE VEHICLE HE WAS INELIGIBLE FOR A FREE REMEDY. THE VEHICLE WAS IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REPA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Chevrolet Equinox was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2006 Chevrolet Equinox? What happened to yours?
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