all vehicles · every Equinox year · method

Chevrolet Equinox 2012

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

0.32 per 1,000

1.0 times this nameplate’s own median · from 66 complaints filed in the first three years, of 685 ever. 95% lower bound 0.24.

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters.

Model year	Per 1,000	Complaints
2008	0.40	27
2009	0.08	6
2010	0.83	98
2011	0.64	109
2012	0.32	66
2013	0.31	70
2014	0.22	53
2015	0.20	51
2016	0.18	46
2017	0.12	31
2018	0.47	146
2019	0.33	111
2020	0.29	89
2021	0.16	35
2022	0.48	91
2023	0.33	70

What owners describe

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Engine 355 complaints

oil	245	69%
consumption	107	30%
oil consumption	106	30%
excessive	67	19%
chevy	58	16%
excessive oil	53	15%

Visibility/Wiper 121 complaints

wipers	99	82%
stopped	79	65%
wiper transmission	23	19%
chevy	16	14%
suddenly stopped	14	12%
canada	12	10%

Power Train 84 complaints

oil	35	42%
timing	17	21%
consumption	13	16%
chain	13	16%
oil consumption	12	15%
timing chain	11	14%

When it breaks

12% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 81,000 miles, from 499 complaints that recorded one).

Failures arrive late and spread out, which looks like wear. Service history matters more than model year here.

What NHTSA did

3 investigations covering this model year, 1 of which list a recall campaign. Owners had filed 97 complaints about this component over roughly 113 months before an investigation opened.

Front Wiper Transmission Inoperative

What owners and forums say

Not built yet. This panel is meant to carry community sentiment beside the filed-complaint data, so the two can be compared. Showing something weaker here would defeat its purpose.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page:

10435675 · 10436139 · 10444273 · 10450747 · 10453037 · 10453002

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is verified against a published figure.