2018 Chevrolet Equinox
This year drew an ordinary 396 complaints for a Chevrolet Equinox — the model's median is 370. What they were about is the unusual part: 31.6% of them mention brake, against 10.6% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Chevrolet Equinox was redesigned for 2018. 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 | 396 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 370 |
| Involving a crash | 22 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 27 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- brake — 31.6% of this year's complaints, against 10.6% across the other years of this generation (3×).
- assist — 13.9% of this year's complaints, against 4.5% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: assist, brake assist, service brake, assist light.
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
When I applied brakes, the pedal was hard to push down and the service brake assist light came on.
Pulling out of a parking lot. Service brake assist light came on. Brake malfunction. My kids and my safety at risk because I could have crashed had I not stopped. Car stalled and unable to restart. Car had to be towed. Mechanic looked at the care and the vacuu…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V576000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 18V358000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 18V252000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 17V516000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 20V668000 POWER TRAIN 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 2018 Chevrolet Equinox? What happened to yours?
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