Making 185 horsepower at 5,200 rpm and 210 lb.-ft. of torque at 3,800 rpm, the Equinox's V6 is the venerable overhead-cam Vortec 3400 engine that has been deployed in everything from the Chevrolet Venture to the Pontiac Grand Am. We haven't driven the Equinox; in other GM products this motor offers decent power off the line but becomes winded at mid- to high-rpm driving. Power delivery is somewhat unrefined, with plenty of engine racket accompanying forward velocity. Why GM didn't design the Chevy Equinox to use the Malibu sedan's more powerful 3500 V6 is anyone's guess. Properly equipped, the 2005 Chevrolet Equinox will tow 3,500 pounds, enough to get the Wave Runners to the lake. Both base LS and uplevel LT models come equipped with front-wheel drive, but an automatic all-wheel-drive system that senses wheel spin and accordingly transfers power to the rear wheels is optional. A four-wheel independent suspension is better suited to on-road than off-road driving, guided by an electrically powered rack-and-pinion steering system. Let's hope that engineers have improved the feel of this steering gear over the same unit that is currently installed in the Saturn VUE. Like the VUE, brakes are vented discs up front, which is good, and drums in the back, which reeks of cost cutting rather than cutting edge. ABS is standard on all models except the LS with front-wheel-drive. Traction control, which cannot be combined with AWD, comes standard on the LT FWD and is optional on the LS FWD.
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