I have an Equinox and love it.
We were living in souther Virginia when we found out that we'd be moving to the DC area. At that time, my car had only the required airbag. Nothing else. I tld DH that I needed something with ABS and better protection if we were moving to this area. The Equiox is what we settled on.
I've been in two accidents since getting it and was at fault for neither of them. Go figure- the exact reasons I wanted it. Equinox comes out with minor cosmetic issues. Other cars, not so lucky. The thing is a tank. Both times, the drivers of the other vehicles said, "Wow. I think I'm getting one of these for my next car."
The tell all for us was when we were test driving it. We took it out to the back streets behind the dealership- lots of stop signs. I took the thing up to about 35 mph and braked maybe 10 feet before the stop sign. Whatdaya know- I stopped on the line. I did hat a few other times in empty streets. I love that I know I can go from 60 mph to a stop real quick if I need to. Doesn't feel great, but it's better than careening into something.
She handles beautifully, is super quiet, awesome leg room in the back (I'm always so thankful when I have to sit back there that there's so much!), trunk space is great. We helped moved friends yesterday and I can't tell you how much that thing holds when the back seats are laid flat, too.
My only issue with it is gas mileage for the around town stuff. On highways, it's great. When I first got the car, I went from Norfolk, VA- Vienna, VA (DC)- Quantico, VA, on one tank of gas. Cruise control was set at about 73 mph the whole way. I get great mileage going to and from school (mostly 70 mph highways), it's just the grocery shopping, out to dinner, movies, mall runs that kill me. We've decided that it's of much greater importance to have the safety and just swallow the gas prices.