Three vehicles wear this badge, and only one deserves your attention. The Equinox EV promises 250+ miles of range for potentially under $25k after tax credits, if GM actually ships the base trim instead of burying it under dealer markups and option packages. That's legitimately game-changing pricing for a long-range EV, though ditching CarPlay will cost them sales. The current gas Equinox (2018+) is competent appliance-grade transportation that's genuinely improved from the pre-2018 disaster years, but noisy cabins and cheap plastics remind you it's built to a price. Pre-2018 models earned their bad reputation with timing chains that jump and engines that burn oil before 100k miles. If you're shopping the EV and can live without CarPlay, it's the value play of the decade. If you're considering a used gas model, 2018 or newer only, and even then, a RAV4 will age better.
Honda built the CR-V to haul families and their gear for 300,000 miles without drama, and the current hybrid actually delivers on that promise, smooth, quiet, genuinely efficient at 35-40 MPG, with more rear legroom than crossovers costing twice as much. But if you're shopping used, the 2007-2012 models have a structural rust problem serious enough that Honda bought them back in Canada: trailing arms snap off the subframe in salt states, taking chunks of the floor with them. That's not a repair. Current models are clean of that nightmare, but they're also missing the tech the RAV4 and CX-5 offer at similar money, no panoramic roof, no 360 camera, no ventilated seats. Buy new or recent if you want maximum space and efficiency without fuss. Skip anything from the rust-belt era unless you enjoy catastrophic suspension failures.