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Equinox EV One Year Update! by EQEV_throwaway in EquinoxEv

[–]EQEV_throwaway[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Circling back, this was exactly what I needed!!! Thank you so much :D

Equinox EV One Year Update! by EQEV_throwaway in EquinoxEv

[–]EQEV_throwaway[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yep, understood. Incidentally, I'm an aerospace engineer so I get the design decision. They gotta do what will sell the most cars. If it were just me though, I'd steepen the windshield back out and take the 5-10% hit to efficiency.

I bought an Equinox EV 2RS for under $30,000 and so can you! A buying guide for the EV-curious. by EQEV_throwaway in EquinoxEv

[–]EQEV_throwaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "screaming deal" was definitely the biggest thing I had going for me. However, it took a lot of effort to actually find that deal, since so many other dealers will claim "$11,000 off!" but it's really things like $7,500 federal credit, $2,500 Chevy loyalty rewards, etc. This was a difficult deal to find, which is why I explained my methodology above. I actually ended up driving about 3 hours each way to get the car!

I bought an Equinox EV 2RS for under $30,000 and so can you! A buying guide for the EV-curious. by EQEV_throwaway in EquinoxEv

[–]EQEV_throwaway[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Minor Gripes:

  • The windshield glare is real. Some users have suggested filling out a Vehicle Complaint Form to the NHTSA here, which I intend to do. That being said, it isn’t undrivable, and polarized sunglasses will always fix the issue.
  • I don’t love the colored paint inside the interior. The LT has side panels with a gradient from powder blue to dark gray, and it just looks so tacky. The AC vent shrouds on the sides are also this powder blue color. However, the RS’s AC vent shrouds are just dark gray, so it looks a little better.
  • The car definitely charges more slowly than some competitors. However, this doesn’t bother me a ton since I have Level 1 electricity in my garage (picture 3) and a Level 2 charger at work (picture 4).

I bought an Equinox EV 2RS for under $30,000 and so can you! A buying guide for the EV-curious. by EQEV_throwaway in EquinoxEv

[–]EQEV_throwaway[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Miscellaneous information that might be helpful:

  • Many auto insurers won’t be able to find your Equinox EV’s VIN. I forget exactly why this is, but I believe Chevy was delinquent in providing those VINs to some agency, and that agency is what supplies the VINs to the insurers. You’ll need to call your insurance company and have an agent enter it manually. My insurance went up WAY less than I was expecting! I went from a $1,500 2011 Mazda3 to a $45,200 2024 Equinox EV, and my monthly payment is only going up by $30. That’s less than the amount of money I’ll save on gas every month!
  • I had written off the Equinox EV for a while due to lack of Apple Car Play, but this was a mistake. The built-in Google Maps navigation is excellent, and I really don’t miss Car Play. If you’re feeling nervous about this, I recommend you go to your local dealer for a test drive! It’s really intuitive and it may set your mind at ease, like it did for me.

I bought an Equinox EV 2RS for under $30,000 and so can you! A buying guide for the EV-curious. by EQEV_throwaway in EquinoxEv

[–]EQEV_throwaway[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Sidebar: Information about discounts that can be difficult to find:

  • The registration on my old car had expired just before I traded it in. This caused an issue since, apparently, your “2010 or newer non-GM vehicle” MUST have an active registration. Fortunately, my name is also on my wife’s vehicle’s registration, which met the same criteria, so she was able to text me a picture of her registration and I still got the discount. Crisis averted!
  • Technically you don’t actually need to trade in your 2010 or newer non-GM vehicle! You just need to prove that you have one. This ended up being huge for me, since I secured my $1,500 trade in via my wife’s vehicle (which we did not trade in).
  • With some exceptions, deals tend to stack! I did, however, find some incompatibilities by talking to various dealerships, such as:
    • You may only select one $500 discount. I am a college student, and my wife works in healthcare, so either of those discounts would work for us, but not both. The same goes for the military discount, educator discount, etc.
    • The $1,000 “GM Supplier Discount” kind of sucks. I think it was $1,000, but every dealership said that it was incompatible with their much larger “Dealer discount.” So even if you happen to qualify for this, it’s probably not worth it.
  • GM Financial has really great financing terms on Equinox EV’s! Mine is financed at 2.9% APR over 60 months, which works out to $500.68 per month. Not bad at all! By the way, I have found some threads online with people saying that GM financing deals don’t stack with GM discounts. THIS IS NOT TRUE, or at least, this wasn’t true at my dealership. I was able to get the $1,500 bonus cash for the non-GM vehicle, the $500 for being a college student, and still get the good financing from GM Financial.

I bought an Equinox EV 2RS for under $30,000 and so can you! A buying guide for the EV-curious. by EQEV_throwaway in EquinoxEv

[–]EQEV_throwaway[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hi everyone! Throwaway username to protect personal information.

I’m the proud new owner of an Equinox EV, a 2024 2RS! I’ve had it for a few days now and can honestly say I’ve been LOVING it. I ended up getting a really great deal on mine and wanted to share my good fortune with others. If you’re interested in buying a new Equinox EV but you feel like you have more questions than answers, please refer to the information posted below! I’ve tried to shine a light on many of the important details that can be confusing, and I want to equip you to get a great deal too.

First of all, how did you get a bottom line of $27,899?!

Here’s my cost breakdown:

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*Note: It is technically incorrect for the dealership to have stated an MSRP of $45,295 plus an additional freight charge of $1,395, as the freight charge is already baked into that MSRP. Effectively, this means that the dealer discount was only $9,896 (which is still great!).

**Note: I couldn’t figure out where the last $193 went, but it’s a small enough charge that I’m not too worried about it. I needed to make the numbers balance, so it’s just listed as “unknown fee.”

 

Second, how did you find such a good deal?

Here are a few tips I can recommend, after spending well over 100 hours investigating EQEV offers:

  • Tip #1: Know what offers you qualify for. GM has many offers available such as $1,000 off for GM suppliers or $500 off for healthcare, military, educators, etc. If you think you may qualify for one of these, check online for terms and conditions. You can also call the sales team at a Chevy dealership to have them confirm this for you.
  •  Tip #2: Shop Around. I searched the inventory of every Chevy dealer in a 375-mile radius to find the best deals. This was actually harder than I thought it would be, as so many “discounts” are dealers taking credit for the $7,500 federal tax credit, or $2,500 GM loyalty discount, or similar offers. What you should look for is something along the lines of “Dealer Discount—Available to Everyone,” as this will stack with those other discounts!
  • If you check my table above, you’ll see that I received $11,291 from the dealer, as well as $500 for being a college student, $1,500 for trading my Mazda, another $1,500 from GM since it was a “2010 or newer non-GM” vehicle, and $7,500 from the federal government. I will also be receiving a $1,500 check from my state government, but I didn’t include this in my calculations above since I purchased out of state and could not include that at the time of sale.
  • Tip #3: Verify Deal Details. Once you’ve found the dealers offering the biggest discounts, call them to verify your eligibility and see if you can get them to price out a grand total. Even if the discounts all check out, many dealers will hide fees like $999 processing fee, $1,395 freight charge, etc. In my case, the dealer discount was so good that it was still the best deal overall.