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Owner-Reported Problems · NHTSA

2012 Chevrolet Equinox — Problems & Complaints

NHTSA has 685 owner complaints on file for this vehicle. Every report below was filed by a real owner with the US government's road-safety agency.

685
Complaints
filed with NHTSA
16
Involved a Crash
owner-reported
6
Involved Fire
owner-reported
13
Injuries
across all reports
Years to Avoid

Chevrolet Equinox — Complaints by Model Year

Years flagged AVOID have at least twice this model's average complaint count — the strongest public-data signal of a bad year.

2010 Chevrolet Equinox

784 complaints

2011 Chevrolet Equinox

782 complaints

2012 Chevrolet Equinox

685 complaints

2013 Chevrolet Equinox

751 complaints

2014 Chevrolet Equinox

548 complaints

2015 Chevrolet Equinox

680 complaints

2016 Chevrolet Equinox

398 complaints

2017 Chevrolet Equinox

276 complaints

2018 Chevrolet Equinox

409 complaints

2019 Chevrolet Equinox

305 complaints

Problem Areas

What Owners Complain About Most

Engine 355 reports
Visibility/wiper 121 reports
Power Train 84 reports
Electrical System 70 reports
Fuel/propulsion System 54 reports
Unknown Or Other 53 reports
Steering 36 reports
Structure 26 reports
In Their Own Words

Recent Owner Reports

Engine ODI 11163951 12/29/2018

EXHAUST MANIFOLD CRACKED. SO MANY OTHER COMPLAINTS. IS THERE A SERVICE BULLETIN AVAILABLE FOR THIS ISSUE?

Power Train ODI 11164003 12/29/2018

WATER PUMP LEAK

Power Train ODI 11164048 12/29/2018

BRIEFLY, FOR THE LAST MONTH AND A HALF I HAVE EXPERIENCED ROUGH IDLE ON START AND ROUGH IDLE & STALL WITH THE CAR LOSING POWER AND GOING DEAD AT RED LIGHTS AND IN TRAFFIC WHILE IN DRIVE. I TOOK THE CAR TO THE AUTO MECHANIC AND STORED CODES SUGGESTED REPLACING O2 SENSORS, THE CATALYTIC CONVERTER AND A TUNE-UP WOULD RESOLVE THE ISSUE; I REPLACED ALL OF THE ABOVE TO THE TUNE OF 1…

Engine ODI 10816841 12/29/2015

MY MOTOR BLEW DUE TO A OIL LEAK AND SEIZED IN THE MIDDLE OF TRAFFIC I OWNED THE CAR FOR 37 DAYS AND I OWE 18K ON IT.

Electrical System ODI 11499239 12/28/2022

I was driving my equinox coming up on a red traffic light. Upon pushing down on the brake pedal the radio shut off and the dash started flashing all of the lights very rapidly. The light turned green and i pushed on the accelerator, and there was little or no power and the car killed. I was in the intersection so I quickly put it in park and the car restarted, but had very lit…

Same Vehicle

Recalls & Crash Tests

Complaints are one half of the picture — see the official recalls and NHTSA crash-test stars for the 2012 Chevrolet Equinox, or check your exact car by VIN with the free VIN lookup.

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Problems Checker

Any year, make and model: open the Car Problems Checker. Data: NHTSA (US DOT, public domain), cached up to 7 days.

Questions

FAQ

Is the 2012 Chevrolet Equinox reliable?
Owners have filed 685 safety complaints with NHTSA for the 2012 Chevrolet Equinox, most often about engine. Compare the complaint counts across model years above — a year with far more complaints than the model's average is the strongest 'avoid' signal in public data.
Which Chevrolet Equinox years should I avoid?
The rule of thumb used by analysts: a model year whose complaint count is well above the model's own average (we flag 2× or more) usually had a real manufacturing or design problem — not just noisy reporting. Use the year-by-year strip on this page.
Where do these complaints come from?
Directly from NHTSA, the US government road-safety agency. Any owner can file a Vehicle Owner Questionnaire; NHTSA publishes them as public domain data. We cache each lookup for up to 7 days.
Do complaints mean a recall is coming?
Sometimes. NHTSA opens defect investigations when complaint patterns emerge, and investigations can end in recalls. Check the recalls page for this vehicle to see what has already been recalled.