Used Chevrolet Equinox 4th Gen (2025-2026): Buyer's Guide

General Motors is discontinuing the CVT transmission in the Chevrolet Equinox after using it for two model years. Every front-wheel-drive 2025 and 2026 Equinox comes with one standard. By the 2027 model year, it won't be offered. That's not a styling change or a trim shuffle. It's GM quietly admitting the transmission it just launched didn't work out.

This guide covers the 4th generation Equinox only: the ground-up redesign that arrived for the 2025 model year, not the 2018-2024 model (that's a different generation, different guide) and not the separate battery-electric Equinox EV, which is a different vehicle built on a different platform entirely. If you're cross-shopping and someone mentions an Equinox recall or complaint, confirm which one they mean. The two share a name and basically nothing else underneath.

This Generation at a Glance

Chevrolet redesigned the Equinox from the ground up for 2025, its fourth full generation of the nameplate. The exterior styling, interior, electronics architecture, and suspension are new. The engine is not: a carryover turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder making 175 horsepower, the same unit from the outgoing 3rd generation. What changed is how power gets to the wheels. Front-wheel-drive models pair that engine with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) making 184 lb-ft of torque. All-wheel-drive models swap in a conventional 8-speed automatic and get a torque bump to 203 lb-ft.

Three trims: LT, RS, and the new-for-this-generation ACTIV, an all-terrain-tire, blacked-out trim aimed at buyers cross-shopping a Subaru Outback or Forester Wilderness. As of this writing the generation spans only the 2025 and 2026 model years, both still current, both still largely under GM's factory warranty.

CarScout's market data shows used 2025 Equinox listings currently spanning roughly $10,900 to $42,586, with a median mileage around 26,000 miles. That range is wide because it includes both rental and fleet turn-ins on the low end and near-new ACTIV and RS trims on the high end. The 2026 model year, still fresh off the assembly line, runs from about $19,995 to $45,380. If you're shopping this generation used, the 2025s are where the real deals are, and also where the most complaint history has accumulated.

Current pricing and inventory: Chevrolet Equinox market data, with per-year pages for 2025 and 2026.

Powertrain & Trim Breakdown

1.5L Turbo CVT (Front-Wheel Drive)

The FWD Equinox is the volume seller and the one that pairs the carryover 1.5-liter turbo with GM's continuously variable transmission. On paper it's the efficient choice: 27 mpg combined, no torque converter, one less thing to shift. In practice, owners on the Chevy Equinox Forum and in dealer service records report fluid leaks originating from the transmission case seals. GM identified the root cause (seals that weren't sealing correctly at certain case mating surfaces) and issued a fix that includes revised seals and, in some cases, replacement of the front cover seal, case seal, and case bolts as a set. Some owners needed the repair twice: once for the original leak, once when a second seal on the same unit failed shortly after.

A separate and unrelated complaint pattern shows up on the same forum: surging and bucking at idle while the vehicle is in gear, usually described as the RPMs hunting up and down at a stoplight before settling. This reads as a driveability calibration issue rather than a mechanical failure, and GM has not tied it to a specific parts fix as of this writing, but it's common enough in owner threads that it's worth checking for during a test drive: sit at idle in Drive for 30 seconds and feel for it.

Fuel economy in the real world runs a few mpg below the EPA's 27-mpg combined estimate. Reviewers testing FWD models reported low-to-mid 20s in mixed driving, which several attribute to the CVT's tuning being more aggressive about keeping revs up than efficiency-focused CVTs from other automakers.

1.5L Turbo 8-Speed (All-Wheel Drive)

AWD models get the same 1.5-liter engine tuned for more torque (203 lb-ft versus 184) and a conventional 8-speed automatic in place of the CVT. That sounds like the safer choice mechanically, and mostly it has been, but it has its own documented issue: General Motors' technical service bulletin PIP6100, issued in February 2026, covers 2025-2026 Equinox and GMC Terrain AWD models (the two share this drivetrain) that can get stuck in first gear. The trigger is specific: transmission fluid temperature below 20°C (68°F) combined with a shift from Reverse into Drive. GM traces it to the transmission's Selectable One-Way Clutch Housing being misread as locked, which prevents the unit from shifting past first gear. Owners describe it as the SUV refusing to accelerate normally in cold-morning stop-and-go traffic until the transmission warms up.

PIP6100 is a service bulletin, not an NHTSA recall. There's no campaign number tied to it and GM hasn't classified it as a safety recall as of this writing, so don't expect a dealer to flag it automatically on a used unit unless the previous owner brought the symptom in. If you're looking at a cold-climate AWD Equinox, start it cold and test a Reverse-to-Drive shift before you buy.

The AWD models also inherited a broader mechanical quality complaint pattern: front cover, case, and axle seal leaks similar to the CVT's, just on the 8-speed unit instead. GM's service bulletins for this generation reference torque converter housing leaks, pump seal leaks, and axle seal leaks across both transmission types, which suggests the seal supplier or assembly process, not the transmission design itself, was the weak point in early production.

Shared Issues Across Both Powertrains

Independent of which transmission is under the hood, this generation's most common complaint isn't mechanical. It's electronics. NHTSA complaint data that CarScout tracks shows electrical-system complaints as the single largest category for the 2025 model year (30 of 212 total complaints), ahead of powertrain complaints (12). Owners and dealer service bulletins describe the digital gauge cluster and center infotainment screen going dark for several seconds while driving, a software issue GM has addressed with a system-reset bulletin rather than a hardware recall. It's disconcerting (you lose your speedometer mid-drive) but hasn't been tied to any documented crash in CarScout's data. Other recurring electrical complaints: a power liftgate that opens on its own, a navigation system that loses connection to the phone app, and at least one documented case of a sunroof motor that failed and took months to resolve under warranty.

The complaint profile shifts a bit for 2026. Forward collision avoidance is the single largest complaint category in CarScout's data for that model year, ahead of powertrain issues, and owner forums describe it as phantom braking: the system reading a shadow, an overpass, or a merging car as a collision risk and applying the brakes hard enough to startle whoever's in the passenger seat. It's a software calibration problem, not a mechanical one, and Chevrolet has not issued a recall for it as of this writing. If you test drive a 2026 on a highway on-ramp or under an overpass and feel unexpected braking, that's the known behavior, not a fluke with that specific car.

Assembly quality is the other recurring theme, especially on early 2025 production. Owners report loose interior trim panels and screws that needed tightening after delivery, and at least two independent dealer sources have flagged a fuel pump power control module as a recurring service item on early builds, a relatively inexpensive part but one that can leave a car unable to start if it fails. None of this rises to recall territory, but it's consistent with what you'd expect from a from-scratch redesign in its first full production year: the sheet metal and electronics architecture are new, and GM's assembly line needed a model year to catch up to the design.

Trim Levels

All three trims share the same 1.5-liter engine and offer both FWD and AWD. New, LT starts around $28,600, with RS and ACTIV both landing near $33,000. Used, that gap compresses fast: CarScout's data shows 2025 listings across all three trims down into the low $20,000s and below, since a fleet or rental-return LT depreciates faster than a private-party ACTIV in the first year.

The decision that actually changes your ownership experience isn't the trim, it's the drivetrain: CVT versus 8-speed. Pick the trim for the equipment you want and the drivetrain for the failure mode you're more comfortable inspecting for. If you're cross-shopping ACTIV against a Subaru Outback Wilderness or Forester Wilderness, know that the Equinox ACTIV's all-terrain package is genuinely functional (real tires, a real suspension retune), not just a wheel-and-badge package, which is more than you can say for some "rugged" trims in this segment.

Which Model Years to Target Within This Gen

*CarScout's NHTSA-sourced data shows zero formal recalls filed against either model year as of this writing. The known issues in this guide (CVT leaks, the 8-speed's cold-start symptom, infotainment blackouts) have all been addressed through technical service bulletins and warranty repairs, not recalls. A clean recall history on a 2025 or 2026 Equinox tells you nothing about whether these TSB-covered issues were present or fixed on that specific vehicle.

Total complaint volume backs up the caution on 2025: CarScout's data shows 212 NHTSA complaints against the 2025 model year versus 58 for 2026. Some of that gap is simply time on the road (2025s have been out longer and covered more miles), so treat it as a signal to inspect carefully rather than a verdict on the model year itself. Severity looks comparable across both years: 7 crash-related complaints and 3 injuries logged for 2025, versus 2 crashes and 2 injuries for 2026, with zero deaths reported for either year in CarScout's data. This isn't a generation with a catastrophic safety pattern. It's a generation with a lot of small, annoying, first-year-of-production issues that happen to be well documented because so many people bought one.

If you're choosing between a 2025 and a 2026 at similar mileage and price, the 2026 has the edge: less production time for early-build seal and software issues to have shipped uncorrected, and a full model year of GM's own bulletins and fixes already rolled into later production runs. That said, a well-documented 2025 with the CVT seal service already completed and a clean cold-start test on an AWD unit is not a car to avoid on principle. It's a car where you can actually verify the known issues were caught and fixed, which isn't true of every used car with a messier ownership history.

Pre-Purchase Inspection Checklist

For any 4th gen Equinox:

• Cycle the infotainment screen and digital gauge cluster through a full drive cycle. A screen that blacks out for even a second confirms the known software issue is present and unresolved on this unit.
• Test the power liftgate open and close cycle twice. Random opening is a documented complaint.
• Check for a completed CVT/transmission seal service in the vehicle's service history, especially on FWD models. Ask the seller or dealer directly whether any transmission fluid leak was ever repaired.
• Test the sunroof (if equipped) through a full open-close cycle.
• Inspect interior trim panels and door cards for looseness or gaps, especially around the dash and center console. Loose panel screws are a documented early-production quality issue and an easy thing to spot in five minutes.
• On a highway test drive, pay attention to how the forward collision system behaves near overpasses, shadows, or merging traffic. Unexpected hard braking is a known 2026-model-year complaint pattern, not necessarily a defect specific to the car you're looking at, but worth knowing before you own it.

FWD (CVT) specific:

• Idle the vehicle in Drive at a stop for 30 seconds. Feel for the RPMs hunting or the vehicle surging forward slightly on its own. This is the reported "surging and bucking at idle" complaint.
• Look underneath at the transmission case for fresh fluid staining, particularly around the front cover and case seams.

AWD (8-speed) specific:

• If the car has been sitting overnight or the weather is cold, start it cold and shift from Reverse into Drive as your very first move. Confirm the vehicle accelerates normally and doesn't hang in first gear. This directly tests the PIP6100 symptom.
• Ask if the dealer has applied any transmission software or seal updates referenced in GM's service bulletins for this generation.

Run the VIN through a recall check before you commit. It won't catch the TSB-covered issues in this guide (those aren't recalls), but it will surface anything that has become a formal recall since this guide was written.

Running Costs

Real-world fuel economy from reviewers and owners tends to land a few mpg under the EPA combined figures above, more so on AWD models tested in mixed city driving. Budget closer to 23-25 mpg combined in practice rather than the window-sticker 26-27.

The upside of buying this early in a generation's life is that almost nothing about ownership costs money out of pocket yet. GM's standard coverage runs 3 years/36,000 miles bumper-to-bumper and 5 years/60,000 miles on the powertrain, and every 2025 or 2026 Equinox on the used market today is still inside both windows unless it's covered serious mileage fast. That means the CVT seal replacement, the 8-speed software update, and the infotainment reset are all things a dealer should do for free under warranty, provided the paperwork gets filed. The real cost risk here isn't a repair bill. It's buying a car with an unresolved TSB item and then discovering that a private-party seller never took it in.

FAQ

Is the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox reliable? Third-party reliability scores rank it below average for the compact SUV class, driven mostly by electrical-system complaints (infotainment blackouts, liftgate glitches) and transmission seal leaks rather than engine problems. Most issues found so far have been resolved under warranty rather than requiring a recall.

What's the difference between the Equinox and the Equinox EV? They share a name and nothing else. The gas Equinox in this guide uses a 1.5-liter turbo engine on a conventional platform. The Equinox EV is a separate battery-electric model on GM's Ultium platform, with its own recalls (including a 2025 adaptive cruise control recall) that do not apply to the gas model covered here.

Should I avoid the AWD Equinox because of the stuck-in-first-gear issue? Not necessarily, but test for it before you buy. The symptom (PIP6100) only shows up on a cold start below 68°F immediately after shifting from Reverse to Drive. Start the car cold at the dealership and try that exact sequence. If it shifts normally, GM's fix may already be applied to that unit.

Is the CVT or the 8-speed better in the 4th gen Equinox? The 8-speed's stuck-in-first-gear issue is easier to test for and, per GM's own bulletin, narrowly defined. The CVT's seal leaks have shown up more broadly across owner reports and required repeat repairs in some cases. Neither is a clean sheet, but if you can only inspect for one thing, the CVT's leak history is the harder one to verify without service records.

What year Equinox should I buy, 2025 or 2026? A 2026 model, if the price difference is reasonable. It carries the same platform and engine as 2025 with a full model year of production experience behind it, and CarScout's complaint data shows meaningfully fewer NHTSA complaints filed against it so far.

Bottom Line

The 4th gen Equinox isn't a bad SUV. It's a roomy, well-equipped compact crossover with a genuinely useful ACTIV trim and a price that undercuts most of its competition. But it's also a first-and-second-year redesign with a transmission GM is already discontinuing, a documented cold-start transmission symptom on AWD models, and an infotainment system prone to blacking out. None of that shows up on a recall search, because none of it has become a recall. Test the cold start on AWD models, ask for CVT seal service history on FWD models, and cycle the screens before you sign anything.

Data sourced

NHTSA complaint and recall data via CarScout's market intelligence pipeline, EPA fuel economy data, General Motors technical service bulletin PIP6100, and real owner reports from the Chevy Equinox Forum, the GMC Terrain, Equinox, and SRX Forum, and the Chevrolet Forum. See the full Chevrolet Equinox market data for pricing and inventory.