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www.ADandP.media 31 Sometimes you meet people who are both proud and energized by what they do, by what they've accom- plished. People who have worked very hard and who have their work put out in the world in a way that can't be overlooked. People like Mark Cieslak. He's the chief engineer of the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox. And in the world of Chevrolet, the Equinox is a rather important product. That is, if you take the Silverado pickup out of the picture, then the Equinox is the best-selling vehicle in the entire Chevy lineup—and not by a trivial amount. That is, in 2016 Chevy delivered 242,195 Equinoxes. The closest vehicle to that (taking the pickup trucks out of the picture) was the Malibu, at 227,881. And what needs to be recognized is that the Malibu in 2016 was a new, stylishly designed, well-appointed vehicle, and that the 2017 Equinox was a bit, as they say, long in the tooth, as it is the second-generation model, which first went on sale (as a 2010 model) in 2009. Now it's not like they didn't do a refresh on the Equinox during all that time, both in terms of things like modifying the front fascia and adding 4G LTE for purposes of enhanced infotainment, but compared to the massive overhaul of the Malibu, the changes to the Equinox were comparatively small. Yet there is that 14,314-unit delta between the two vehicles. This speaks, in large part, to the massive popularity of the compact crossover category, which is growing as the sedan market is shrinking. Cieslak and his team knew that for this third-gener- ation Equinox they had to come hard, bringing to the development and execution of the vehicle something more, something that could compete with products like the Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Ford Escape—all vehicles that are (as of March 2017 sales) outperforming their respective sedan compet- itors (one exception could be that the Camry outsold the RAV4, but the RAV4 outsold the Corolla). Now one of the big changes to the Equinox is in its design. And what's somewhat amusing is that the design language of the Equinox is not predicated on things like the Silverado or the Tahoe, but, rather, the Malibu and the Cruze. There are sculpted shapes and LED daytime running lights; there are chrome trim and an aerodynamic form (they had the Equinox-in- becoming in the full-size wind tunnel at the GM Tech Center for more than 500 hours and came up with a The spoiler helps improve aero. There are LED taillights available. On the previous-generation model the taillights had more of a vertical orientation. The horizontal lights help make the vehicle seem more planted on the ground. AD&P; ∕ JUNE 2017 EQUINOX