If you love trawling the used car classifieds, you’ll probably also love seeing what’s for sale in other countries. For instance, Japan. Thanks to a wealth of models we never got here and import culture, it’s not unprecedented to find something truly strange up for sale. Stranger than a Nissan Figaro. Stranger than a Daihatsu Midget II. Something like … a Chevrolet Equinox?
While the current Chevrolet Equinox seems like a reasonably croumlent rival to the Jeep Cherokee and Nissan Rogue, this Equinox isn’t that. It’s a 2005 model, the inaugural model year of the first generation. Launched at a time when GM was still aggressively cost-cutting, it was one of the company’s earlier unibody crossovers, based on a stretched version of the Saturn Vue‘s architecture and built in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada.
Featuring a 3.4-liter V6 pumping out a mere 185 horsepower, the original Equinox’s biggest selling point was a sliding rear seat. How novel. Indeed, this big-boned Ford Escape rival was all about sensible pragmatism, with rear doors that opened wide, a false cargo floor that could be placed in an elevated position for a double-decker trunk, and no fewer than five cup holders in the center console.
Was the Equinox good? Well, it was something different from GM at the time. Looking far more rakish than the larger Trailblazer and offering toys like an optional Pioneer sound system, moonroof, and heated front seats, it ticked a lot of boxes but still had a whiff of cheapness to it. Think hard plastics, plasticky leather, centrally-mounted window switches, and slightly floaty damping. Nothing egregious, but nothing hugely aspirational either. Still, all that normalcy didn’t stop this example from making the trip across the Pacific.
With a mere 52,664 miles on the clock, this has to be one of the best-preserved first-generation Equinoxes on the planet. No cloudy headlamps, no tears in the seats, and it’s a high-spec example to boot. An LT with leather, a sunroof, and all the trimmings. Even though a nice 2005 Equinox isn’t worth much in America, it must cost a bundle to keep on the road in Japan. The standard 3.4-liter V6 means paying around $368 in displacement tax every year, on top of other road taxes. Maybe that helps explain why it’s listed for sale at the equivalent of roughly $6,900.
Still, this thing is a time capsule of the mid-aughts down to the aftermarket billet grilles. While revisionist history elevates more niche machines, much of North America was driving around in something like this at the time. A vehicle that technically got the job done, even if it wasn’t really worth writing home about.
Mediocrity like this deserves to be preserved. Rose-tinted nostalgia of the ’80s sees it as the decade of Memphis Group, but the majority of it was far more brown-and-beige than that. Now the 2000s are being rehabilitated as a decade of excitement in technology and sleek silver forms, but the average person didn’t have one of those metallic robot dogs or a Zorb. They had their friends call back after 9:00 because it was cheaper, and they were always slightly leery about what laid at the bottom of the McDonald’s ball pit.
It’s hard not to wonder how this first-generation Equinox made it thousands of miles from its home market, with all the requisite modifications including a radio that can tune into Japanese stations and a rear fog lamp. Was it left behind by an American service member, or just one Japanese citizen’s compulsion for something different? We may never know, but I’m glad there’s this particular slice of pre-bankruptcy GM hanging out in Fukuoka.
Top graphic images: Goo Net Exchange; DepositPhotos.com
“They live like this over there”
Might have been sold new in Japan by Yanase. I see this has a km/h speedo and rear amber turn signals.