Chevy Equinox Cargo Test: How Much Fits in the Trunk?

• The gas-powered Chevrolet Equinox has 29.8 cubic feet of cargo space.
• That's a small volume for the compact SUV segment.
• Our real-world test reveals it may be better than that number suggests.

There are now two totally different Chevrolet Equinoxes. You can find the Equinox EV cargo test here, and now it's time for the gas-powered Equinox to have its day in the sun — which, as you can tell by the above picture, happened back in October. It's Halloween in February here at Edmunds Cargo Test HQ! Boo!

The gas-powered Equinox has 29.8 cubic feet of cargo space, whereas the EV comes in at 26.4 cubic feet. This test will show what that difference really looks like. Moving away from the inter-Equinox comparison (and self-aggrandizing), that 29.8-cubic-foot spec is low for the compact SUV segment. The Honda CR-V Sport Touring hybrid, which has the smallest of all CR-V cargo areas, measures 34.7 cubes. The best possible CR-V has a cool 39.3 cubic feet, and various others in the segment are comparable. I've also found that my Cargo Test results have largely backed up the specs when it comes to ranking compact SUV cargo areas. I've never tested the new Equinox, though, so let's see if that trend continues.

If anyone's a fan of black, scratchy plastic, boy, are you gonna just love the Equinox's cargo area. Beyond that, I could tell right off the bat that this isn't as tall of a cargo area as what you'll find in various competitors.

There's more here than meets the eye, though.

Like most gas-only compact SUVs, the Equinox has a large underfloor storage area with a spare tire below it.

The hybrids in the segment are a mixed bag in this regard. The RAV4 Hybrid has both underfloor storage and a spare. The Hyundai Tucson Hybrid has underfloor and no spare tire. The Kia Sportage Hybrid has a spare tire but no underfloor. The CR-V hybrids have neither.

Now, because the floor must be removed rather than dropping down below to sit on the lower floor, I will be testing with and without it. There's also a retractable cargo shade available, but it's a $175 dealer accessory that wasn't fitted to my test car so I cannot test with and without that.

Here's some nice boilerplate information about the bags I use and their dimensions. There are two bags you'd definitely have to check at the airport: Big Gray (26 inches long x 16.5 inches wide x 12 inches deep) and Big Blue (26 x 16.5 x 10). There are three roll-aboards that usually fit as carry-on: Medium Tall (24 x 14 x 9), Medium Wide (23 x 15 x 9) and the smaller Green Bag (21 x 14 x 9.5). Finally, there's everyone's favorite Fancy Bag (21 x 12 x 11), a medium-size duffle.

All the bags fit, which is good, but true to that cargo volume spec, there is a lot less room left over than what you'll find in the CR-V and others. I could definitely put another Medium Wide-sized bag in place of the Fancy Bag, but keeping Fancy Bag aboard might be iffy. By comparison sake, I'm usually adding my 38-quart cooler at this point to its competitors.

Here's the same items with the floor removed. There's obviously now a lot more room left over, but you might be able to detect the problem I faced. The narrower cargo floor flanked by a hard plastic deck of sorts results in really awkward luggage Tetrising. One could obviously fill those side portions, but it's pretty obvious that bags are going to be splayed all over the place at awkward angles.

OK, bring on the extra stuff to fill 'er up.

See what I mean? This is bonkers. Yes, my 38-quart cooler can now fit (23 x 16 x 13), but look at the mess I had to create to make it work. And believe me, when my final result looks like something like this, it took a lot of effort to make it work. Now, to be fair, I was also able to stuff a pair of soft-sided duffle bags on either side of this jumble, albeit on their sides. (I neglected to take that picture; my bad.)

So, where does this leave us?

This is the Equinox EV. It has a dual-level cargo floor whereby the floor itself drops down to increase capacity. (In other words, it doesn't need to be removed.) It could fit all my bags plus the Edmunds Classic Duffle Bag hiding down in the distinctive underfloor storage area.

So, the gas-powered Equinox can in fact hold more. Way more if you remove the cargo floor. This makes me think that GM is not counting the underfloor area in the official 29.8-cubic-foot figure.

More evidence:

These are the same max items in the back of the CR-V Sport Touring, including the soft-sided duffle bags that fit in the Equinox but were not photographed. Of course, loading the CR-V was a thousand times easier, as this lovely, neat Tetris arrangement would attest. Maybe this CR-V (again, there are slightly more voluminous versions available) is a wee bit bigger, but it's close.

My overall conclusion is that the Equinox has a bigger, more useful cargo area than its specs would indicate, but you have to use the underfloor storage area to realize it and you'll be dealing with loading headaches that won't happen with various competitors that can also carry even more.

More succinctly, the Equinox is better than it seems, but it's still near the bottom of the pack.