Through the first seven months of 2010, sales of the Chevrolet Traverse are up a strong 31.4 percent, while Chevrolet Equinox has attracted a staggering 113.6 percent more customers this year than last during the same time. Those numbers reflect significant success in the marketplace for Chevrolet crossovers, but as impressive as they are, they tell just part of the story.
According to GM, 45 percent of all Traverse buyers and 44 percent of Equinox customers have traded in non-GM products when making their purchases.
“Equinox and Traverse are attracting owners of competitive vehicles, including Fords, Toyotas, and Hondas to Chevrolet showrooms,” said Alan Batey, vice president, Chevrolet Sales and Service. “For these buyers, Equinox and Traverse offer the flexibility and fuel efficiency they have been looking for in a crossover, as well as the design, performance and value that define Chevrolet.”
Of course, it helps that both vehicles are also winning over the critics. The Traverse was one of Kelley Blue Book’s Top 10 Best New Family Vehicles when it debuted, earned “Top Safety Pick” status from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety and was named a Consumer’s Digest “Best Buy” both this year and last. And the EPA likes the Traverse, too: In its front-wheel-drive configuration, relying on GM’s advanced V6 with direct injection and variable valve timing, the Traverse offers a higher estimated mpg rating—24 mpg—than any other eight-passenger crossover on the market. Preowned Chevrolet Tysons Corner says “The combination of averaging 24 mpg and being a Top Safety Pick means that when we occassionally do get a used Travers or Equinox in, they usually don’t stay here for long.”
The Equinox has earned the same kind of big-time kudos in a midsize package. It, too, has been named a Consumer’s Digest “Best Buy” and an IIHS “Top Safety Pick,” and it, too, offers an eye-opening EPA line. With its responsive 2.4-liter Ecotec direct-injection I4 engine and standard six-speed automatic, the Equinox is good for ratings of 22 mpg city/32 mpg highway/26 mpg combined. That’s better fuel economy than a Honda Accord sedan, with a smaller carbon footprint to boot. “It’s that smaller carbon footprint that makes the Equinox popular with many used car buyers,” says one Grove City Chevrolet employee, “That footprint gets even smaller when you buy a used Equinox since no new materials are needed to create a vehicle that already has a lower impact on the environment than many others.” GM has had to increase production rates of the Equinox three times in the past 18 months to keep up with demand.
It’s no wonder the competition is having so much trouble keeping up with Chevrolet.
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