Chevy Equinox owners: there are plenty of reasons to brag about your vehicle since it’s one of the best small SUVs on the road. In particular, when comparing something like the 2019 Chevy Equinox vs 2019 Jeep Cherokee, there are some very specific things you can brag about. I have nothing against lovers of Jeeps, but sometimes you just want to remind them that you made the right choice and see if they’ll wise up.
For example, the Chevy Equinox starts at a lower price, so you can talk up just how much money you saved and what you did with it. The Equinox also gets much better gas mileage than the Jeep Cherokee when properly equipped, so that’s saving you even more money (feel free to fan yourself with your overflowing wallet while making this point to your friends). Not to mention the fact that for all that price difference, the Equinox actually has more interior cargo space than the Jeep Cherokee has, or that the Equinox has a programmable hands-free liftgate that makes it easier than ever before to pile things into the back of your SUV.
All in all, it’s a good time to be the owner of a 2019 Chevy Equinox. So keep on bragging about…
The Lower Price Tag
Some people might consider it gauche to discuss money, and I understand that perspective – though I can’t help but notice they usually adopt that attitude when I start pointing out how much less than them I spent on something. If you’re going to brag (and go on, be shameless about it!), then you might as well brag about something that really matters. And what could matter more than how much money you spend on a vehicle compared to a similar one?
For example, the starting MSRP of the 2019 Chevy Equinox is just $23,800, which even for a small SUV is still very impressive. Now, admittedly, that certainly won’t have all the available bells and whistles, but it’s a great place to start. By comparison, the starting price of the 2019 Jeep Cherokee is a bit heftier at $25,240. Those numbers are both for front-wheel drive options. If you are looking at all-wheel-drive models, then things get a bit pricier, as you would expect.
You might be worried, however, that at higher trim levels, the Equinox becomes more expensive than its competitor. On the contrary, the highest trim level of the Jeep Cherokee, the Overland, starts at $36,495 MSRP. The 2019 Chevy Equinox Premier, however, starts off with an MSRP of just $34,095 so it retains its lower price point. Again, these are for front-wheel-drive models.
The Better Fuel Economy
While you’re busy bragging about how much money you saved just on the sticker price, you might as well rub in the fact that you’re going to keep on saving money with your 2019 Chevy Equinox. That’s because, overall, the Equinox has better fuel economy than the 2019 Jeep Cherokee. Even though both of these vehicles have multiple engines available, nothing in the Cherokee can match what the Equinox has to offer. Keep in mind all of these values are estimates for front-wheel-drive models.
You see, the 2019 Chevy Equinox’s starting engine is a 1.5L Turbo that has an estimated fuel economy of 26mpg in the city and 32mpg on the highway. But there is also an available 1.6L Turbo-Diesel engine available, which has an incredible estimated 28mpg in the city and 39mpg on the highway. If you tend to do a lot of long-distance highway driving, then the Equinox with this engine will save you a lot of money and use much less fuel.
By contrast, the 2019 Jeep Cherokee starts off with a 2.4L engine that gets an estimated 22mpg in the city and 31mpg on the highway. That’s pretty close to the Equinox’s starting engine, especially on the highway, but still not as good. The best fuel economy with the Cherokee comes from an available 2.0L Turbo engine that steps up the estimated city mileage to 23mpg but still only offers 31mpg on the highway. That falls far short of the best fuel economy available with the Chevy Equinox and you should take every opportunity you get to remind people of that fact.
The Larger Interior Cargo Capacity
One of the main reasons to choose an SUV is for the terrific interior cargo capacity that you get with it. Sure the overall large size is great for having more passengers, and they typically have more powerful engines than sedans so you get better towing capacity. But being able to load up a lot more bags from a store, or camping supplies, or tailgating equipment is a perk that no car can match when compared to an SUV.
With that in mind, the 2019 Chevy Equinox once again holds an advantage over the Jeep Cherokee due to larger interior cargo space. Remember that this is a small SUV, so it’s not going to have the cargo space of much larger models, but you get nearly 64 cubic feet of space behind the front row and almost 30 cubic feet of space behind the second row. For a small SUV, that’s quite impressive, but how does it stack up against the Cherokee?
The 2019 Jeep Cherokee has just over 54 cubic feet of space behind the first row and more than 24 cubic feet of space behind the second row. As you can see, that’s nearly 6 cubic feet less space behind the second row and about 10 cubic feet less total cargo area. While you don’t pick a small SUV if cargo space is the most important thing to you, at the end of the day you still want to know you got the most room possible inside your vehicle. And the 2019 Chevy Equinox clearly gives you more space for your stuff, whether you have passengers in the rear seat or not.
The Better Liftgate Features
Of course, that additional cargo space is meaningless if getting stuff in and out of your vehicle is difficult, or hindered in any way by its design. Liftgates on the backs of SUVs have been the source of some frustrations for years, usually due to the need to manually open the gate or that they open too high for a lot of drivers to reach. Fortunately, the 2019 Chevy Equinox is well designed in that area and gives you one more thing to brag about.
You see, the Equinox features a programmable, hands-free liftgate that is incredibly easy to open. If you have your hands full, you can simply gesture under the back of the vehicle with your foot, and the liftgate will open for you. You can program it to set just how high you want it to open, so it’s easy to use and stays within reach for shorter drivers out there.
The 2019 Jeep Cherokee, on the other hand, has a standard liftgate that opens with the push of a button on the key fob. It is, admittedly, easy to use, so long as you have a hand available to pull your keys out and hit the button. But you can silently brag about the hands-free liftgate on the 2019 Chevy Equinox by simply using your foot to open the back, all while maintaining full, gloriously smug eye-contact!
