The redesigned 2026 Equinox gave Chevrolet its best-looking compact SUV in a decade. The 2026 Chevrolet Equinox ACTIV takes that shape and dresses it in a look that’s more bark than bite. It measures 8.05 inches of ground clearance, less than the base LT’s 8.08 inches and well short of the street-styled RS’s 8.2 inches. The trim built to look toughest in the lineup is, ironically, the lowest.
It doesn’t make the Equinox ACTIV a bad buy at all. It just means the toughest-looking trim in the lineup earns its keep more on the road and in the driveway than on a trail.
This 2026 Chevrolet Equinox ACTIV, in Sterling Gray Metallic over Maple Sugar, stickers at $40,985 with destination, all-wheel drive, and a well-loaded options sheet.
A Note on 2027
This review covers the 2026 Chevrolet Equinox ACTIV, but Chevrolet has already announced changes for 2027 worth knowing before you shop. Pricing rises modestly across the board: $200 more for the LT, $300 more for the RS and ACTIV, which would put a comparably equipped 2027 ACTIV AWD around $41,285 as-tested.
The bigger change is mechanical. Chevrolet is replacing the FWD model’s CVT with the same 8-speed automatic already used on AWD trims, which also lifts FWD trailering capacity to 1,500 pounds, matching what AWD models have offered all along. Everything else, the engine, the safety suite, the interior dimensions, carries over unchanged, so the case made here should still hold for shoppers looking at the newer model year.
Design and Interior
The redesigned Equinox has been the best-looking vehicle in the compact SUV class since it debuted in January 2024, and two years on the road haven’t changed that. The ACTIV is the best expression of it, with a Summit White roof, Sterling Gray Metallic paint, machined 17-inch wheels, and all-terrain tires, giving the whole vehicle a rugged, tough stance that the street-focused LT and RS don’t have.
Maple Sugar surfaces, Evotex and sueded microfiber seating, and orange contrast stitching turn the cabin into a welcoming place, with materials that feel like they belong in a pricier vehicle. Dual-zone climate control is standard, and our tester added the Convenience Package III’s ventilated front seats, heated rear outboard seats, and heated steering wheel, the kind of features you’d expect to pay considerably more for elsewhere, even if they cost extra here. The panoramic sunroof, a $1,495 stand-alone option, was worth the money, flooding the cabin with light and never once feeling like it ate into headroom.
The Equinox front seats are well-cushioned and supportive, with eight-way power adjustment that makes it easy to find a proper driving position, and the rear bench stands out even more. At 39.9 inches, close enough to call it 40, rear legroom lets adults ride comfortably rather than tolerably, a rarity in this class, and standard rear air vents keep second-row passengers from feeling like an afterthought. The one miss back there is a seatback fixed at a single angle, a small letdown on a redesign that got so much else right.
Storage is clever throughout, from the console to the door pockets, and cargo space holds its own at 29.8 cubic feet behind the rear seats, expanding to 63.5 with the second row folded.
Safety and Technology
Every Equinox comes standard with automatic emergency braking, forward collision alert, lane keep assist with departure warning, blind-spot steering assist, rear cross-traffic braking, and adaptive cruise control, providing a strong baseline before any options are added. Our tester’s Convenience Package III layered on HD surround vision, traffic sign recognition, a rear camera mirror washer, and rear pedestrian alert, equipment this segment usually charges more for, when it offers it at all.
One line on the window sticker deserves context. NHTSA lists the Equinox as Not Rated in every crash-test category, and that reflects a scheduling gap rather than a warning, since the agency has not yet run this generation through its testing protocol. IIHS has already tested it, and the results were strong across the board, except for a single evaluation that kept the Equinox off the Top Safety Pick+ list. A buyer scanning that blank NHTSA field is looking at a calendar, not a verdict.
Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come standard, and that’s worth more than a passing mention. GM pulled both from the Blazer EV in 2024 and has since done the same across its EV lineup, replacing them with an in-house Google-based system, and as of late 2025, GM confirmed plans to phase CarPlay and Android Auto out of its gas-powered vehicles as well, following the same path it’s already taken with its EVs.
The gas Equinox still has it for now, which makes this less a feature to take for granted and more a reason to buy while it’s still available. The 11.3-inch touchscreen and 11-inch digital driver display back it up, and USB ports are plentiful enough that nobody’s fighting over a charging cable, with wireless charging standard as well. Physical buttons handle climate control, while radio and infotainment functions live in the touchscreen, keeping the controls drivers reach for constantly- temperature and fan speed- off the screen without pretending every function needs a knob.
Powertrain
Every Equinox trim runs the same 1.5-liter turbo four, and in AWD form it produces 175 hp and 203 lb-ft of torque, routed through an eight-speed automatic, with a curb weight of 3,629 pounds. That math doesn’t flatter the engine: it’s genuinely short on power for the class, and a passing maneuver demands more than the throttle can deliver. There’s no sport mode or more aggressive throttle map hiding behind a drive-mode button either, so whatever output there is arrives tuned for fuel economy rather than urgency. The engine is outgunned, and Chevrolet calibrated around that reality rather than against it.
The transmission is the better news, with gear changes that land smoothly and on time, and a willingness to hold a ratio confidently rather than search for the next one, even under the light-throttle inputs that define most commuting. The four-cylinder is quiet about its work too, with NVH staying low at speed and Chevrolet’s sound-deadening deserving as much credit as the engine itself.
The EPA rates the AWD ACTIV at 26 mpg combined, identical to the LT and RS in AWD trim, and that certified number holds because all three trims share the same engine, transmission, and curb weight class, the inputs that actually drive EPA test-cycle results. What the rating doesn’t capture is the tire. The ACTIV’s 235/65R17s are all-terrain rubber, while the LT wears the same size in an all-season compound. All-terrain tread carries more rolling resistance by simple physics: heavier construction and a more aggressive pattern mean more material dragging against the road. In real-world driving, that adds up to a small but real fuel economy penalty that the sticker doesn’t show.
Handling and Ride
The taller sidewall on the ACTIV’s 17-inch wheels, shared with the LT, buys a softer edge over broken pavement than the RS gets from its lower-profile 19s, a tradeoff toward comfort over precision that makes sense for a vehicle built around road trips and daily errands rather than back-road commitment. Chevrolet’s suspension tuning holds up well across the rough pavement common around Houston, and the ACTIV stays composed over long stretches without wearing on the driver, while steering stays light whether you’re threading a parking lot or holding a highway lane.
Where the LT and RS pull ahead is in on-road manners, since both wear street- and touring-oriented tires that grip better in the dry and stay quieter at highway speeds than the ACTIV’s all-terrain tread. The hum from those tires is real and audible even at low radio volume, present enough to notice on a long drive without rising to an actual complaint. It’s the honest cost of the ACTIV’s tire choice, and there’s little off-road advantage on the other side to offset it.
The ACTIV Case
Ground clearance is the clearest example of where the ACTIV’s story runs ahead of its hardware. Chevrolet’s own published specifications list 8.05 inches for the ACTIV, 8.08 for the LT, and 8.2 for the RS, measured at curb, and there’s no suspension change behind that gap. Front suspension, rear suspension, and steering are identical across all three trims. What differs is bodywork: each trim gets its own front fascia design, and since the lowest point of a crossover is typically that fascia rather than the chassis, that likely explains why the RS’s front end sits a few tenths higher off the ground than the ACTIV’s.
The ACTIV also skips a locking differential, skid plates, and low-range gearing, and its trailering capacity tops out at 1,500 pounds, a ceiling every AWD Equinox shares rather than something unique to this trim. Either way, it’s genuinely behind the class. A Toyota RAV4 with AWD tows up to 3,500 pounds, and the turbocharged Mazda CX-50 matches it, more than double what the Equinox can pull regardless of trim. Fifteen hundred pounds doesn’t reach a mid-size boat or a loaded travel trailer, but it will handle a small utility trailer or a single personal watercraft, which, for a trim built around an adventure identity, is the number that undercuts the pitch most directly.
The Off-Road drive mode is worth a closer look, too. It’s a software calibration with adjusted throttle mapping and looser traction and stability control thresholds, rather than a mechanical change. There’s no locking differential or torque-vectoring rear axle behind it, just the computer letting the wheels slip a little more than they would in Normal.
None of that makes the ACTIV dishonest. Chevrolet’s own marketing sells the look, all-terrain tires, roof rails, an available two-tone roof, and the front fascia, but never claims low-range gearing, a locking differential, or trail-rated capability. Nobody at Chevrolet ever called this a trail truck, and the ACTIV doesn’t need to be one to look the part.
How the 2026 Chevrolet Equinox ACTIV Stacks Up
At $35,600 to start, the ACTIV AWD undercuts a comparably equipped Honda CR-V EX-L AWD, which lists in the $36,250 to $38,750 range depending on inventory, and comes in well below a Toyota RAV4 Limited AWD at $44,750. The RAV4 comparison needs a bigger caveat than price, though: every 2026 RAV4 trim comes standard with a hybrid system producing 226 to 236 horsepower, well past the Equinox’s 175, while also returning up to 43 mpg combined versus the ACTIV’s 26.
The Equinox isn’t losing a mechanical fight here so much as it isn’t in one. It competes on price and interior execution rather than propulsion. As-tested, our nearly loaded ACTIV AWD at $40,985 still lands inside CR-V EX-L territory and short of a similarly loaded RAV4.
SSL Verdict
The ACTIV is a comfortable, well-equipped compact SUV that looks tougher than it actually is, and that’s a styling decision rather than a false claim, since Chevrolet never pitches this as a trail-rated SUV. The materials, tech, and pricing here stand on their own regardless of what’s under the front fascia, and the ground clearance number, straight from Chevrolet’s own spec sheet, confirms what the rest of the review argues: the ACTIV was built to look ready for the trail, not to conquer one.
Anyone who doesn’t care about that distinction has real options elsewhere in the lineup. AWD pricing on the LT starts around $32,795 with destination included, roughly $8,200 less than our nearly loaded tester, with the identical drivetrain and fuel economy figures. Dropping to FWD brings the price down further to $30,795 with destination, with a CVT instead of the 8-speed. The RS starts at the same $33,600 as the ACTIV and swaps the adventure look for sharper 19-inch wheels and marginally more ground clearance, if that’s what tips the decision.
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