2010 Chevrolet Equinox
This year drew an ordinary 784 complaints for a Chevrolet Equinox — the model's median is 370. What they were about is the unusual part: 10.5% of them mention gear, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Chevrolet Equinox was redesigned for 2010. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 784 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 370 |
| Involving a crash | 15 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- gear — 10.5% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: gear, reverse.
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
TRANSMISSION WENT OUT AFTER 46,000 MILES. GEARS SLIPPING. WOULD NOT GO INTO REVERSE. DEFECTIVE 3-5-R WAVE PLATE POSSIBLY. DRIVING HOME FROM WORK.
WAS DRIVING DOWN A HIGHWAY AND HAD TO PULL OVER FOR A POLICE OFFICER TO PASS BY, WENT TO ACCELERATE AND WAS STUCK IN 2ND GEAR. LATER FOUND THAT ONLY 1ST AND 2ND GEAR WORKED AND HAD NO REVERSE. WAS TOLD THAT I WOULD NEED A COMPLETE REBUILD OF THE TRANSMISSION.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V502000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
- 14V447000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 09V489000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
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 2010 Chevrolet Equinox? What happened to yours?
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