People shit on Equinoxes. The question worth answering is whether that’s earned or just internet noise — and the honest answer from the complaint data is: it’s earned, but by a specific engine in a specific window of years, not by the nameplate. Knowing the difference is the whole game on a used one.
The 2016 Equinox sits in the better half of that story — 389 NHTSA complaints, a middling-but-recovering score. To understand why, you have to look at the years on either side of it.
The years that earned the reputation
From roughly 2010 through 2015, the Equinox ran the 2.4L Ecotec four-cylinder, and that engine is where the hate comes from:
- Excessive oil consumption. The 2.4 burns oil, often badly, and owners who don’t check it between changes run it low.
- Timing chain stretch. Run low or neglected, the chain stretches, throws codes, and at the bad end takes the engine with it.
There was a class action over the oil consumption. Those 2010-2015 cars routinely show 540 to 780 complaints a year in our data with scores down around 3.3. That is the Equinox Reddit warns you about, and rightly.
Why 2016 is different
2016 is the turn. The problematic 2.4 was phasing out, and the numbers reflect it: complaint volume drops to the high 300s and the score climbs. By 2017 and especially 2021 these are genuinely clean, normal crossovers. The 2016 is the transition — meaningfully better than a 2013, not yet as sorted as a 2018+.
The Equinox is not on our worst-platforms list — because the issue was never the model, it was that one engine in that one window.
What you’ll see and hear (on the 2.4 era especially)
- Oil level low between changes; blue haze on startup
- Rattle on cold start (timing chain stretch) and chain/VVT codes
- Check-engine light for misfire or camshaft correlation
- On a starved one: knocking, then terminal
Should you buy one?
- A 2016 Equinox is a fine, ordinary used crossover — buy it like any other: clean records, no oil-burning history, normal maintenance. Not a money pit, not on the list.
- A 2010-2015 2.4 is the one to be careful with. Buyable only if you check oil consumption hard, see service records, and price in the risk. Many people love a Corolla-money one and check oil weekly; that’s the deal you’d be making.
- If you have flexibility, a 2017+ or a 2021 is the smart target — same vehicle, the engine drama behind it.
The takeaway most “Equinox bad” comments miss: it’s a year-and-engine problem, not a nameplate problem. A clean 2016 with no oil-consumption history is a non-event. If you’re weighing one of the riskier 2.4 years against a repair budget, run the warranty math on it — that’s exactly the kind of case where the complaint pattern changes the answer.
