Y’all, this has been a long time coming. Five months, to be exact. And a long five months, if I’m being honest.
The Equinox that we bought in the fall of 2017 has had a few lingering issues that we’re done dealing with. And by we, I definitely mean John because he’s the one that has to deal with mechanical issues. That car served us well for about two years, but last December just before Christmas, it put us through it for the last time. After a very long day of fooling around with the car while in town and finally making our way home, we parked it and it hasn’t moved since.
After five months of saving and shopping, we finally pulled together enough money to start seriously shopping and looking at vehicles. It took us three weekends of driving all over the greater Kansas City area, on both sides of the state line, and finally. We found it.
Thanks to Ashley at Premier Auto Outlet, we spent most of the afternoon looking this beauty over, and John took it on a long test drive…and by dinner time, we walked out with the keys!
We thought and talked for a long time about what vehicle we wanted to replace our Equinox with. The Equinox was great, but with the arrival of James, we had already outgrown its two rows and small cargo space in the back (the fact that we had purchased a full-size spare tire and stored it in that cargo space probably didn’t help at all). On our last trip to visit my family in Wisconsin, with the baby and the dog and all of our stuff, we were full to the brim. So we knew we wanted something in the area of a Tahoe or Suburban. John started doing research into the towing capacity and other specifications of the two vehicles. Since it’s going to be our only vehicle for a while yet, we decided that the Suburban was going to be the best fit for our family.
To be honest, I wanted to get one with captain’s chairs in the second row, but after just a few short trips to town with the bench seat, I’m actually really glad we didn’t go that route. With a middle seat, James is within reach if he needs toys or a pacifier handed to him.
The rear cargo area is bigger than the Equinox had, and accessible through either the full rear hatch, or just the glass lifts up for quick access. The rear seats easily fold up, or remove with just two quick actions either way.
As an added bonus, the rear hatch makes a great place to hang out with the baby and let him play or nurse while waiting for daddy’s truck to be done at Discount Tire! Or, of course, to eat pie.
Other positives from my perspective:
There is tons of storage space in the center console, as well as two cupholders, and an additional cupholder in each of the doors along the floor. (This might not seem like a huge deal to you, but in our Equinox there was only one usable upholder in the front seat. There was a dual cupholder that pulled out of the center console, but it was useless and then also rendered the lower cupholder, the parking brake, the arm rest, and the shifter almost entirely inaccessible.) Three 12v outlets in the front, one in the second row, and at least one in the rear cargo area. (Again, in the Equinox, we had two total, one in the backseat, and the one up front was unreliable at best.) It’s a full-size vehicle, meaning full-width, so the interior feels so much roomier than the Equinox, which I love! It also makes reaching the carseat from the front a much easier reach, and sitting next to the carseat in the second row much less unpleasant. I’ve only towed for a short distance with it so far, but it tows great!
Our first real road trip will probably be in July, so I’ll let you know what we think of it after that. But other than that, I love it!!