WOULD YOU RATHER BUY 21,118 MILES OF CHEVY OR 100,000 MILES OF TOYOTA?

This 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT AWD was inherited, barely driven and might be the boring used-SUV decision that makes more sense than the obvious one.

NOTE:  This vehicle has been sold.

A previous client called me about a vehicle he had inherited from a relative.

A 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT AWD.

And here’s the number that caught my attention:

21,118 MILES.

That’s ridiculous mileage for a seven-year-old vehicle.

We went back and forth about the asking price for a couple of days until I finally explained something I’ve told people about cars for years:

It’s your vehicle. I don’t care what you price it at.

If somebody is interested, they can make an offer.

You can accept it.

You can reject it.

People do this with houses every single day.

Price it right and it’ll probably sell. Price it wrong and you’ll be the proud owner of a Chevy Equinox for a very long time. 😂

Eventually we got there.

I put him in touch with Travis at Epic Autos. They took the photographs, got the Equinox cleaned up and put it on consignment.

At the time I’m writing this, it’s being offered for:

$19,955

So naturally I figured I’d park it here on Cars Freak too.

But I’m not going to tell you:

LOW MILES!
GREAT CONDITION!
MUST SEE!
WON’T LAST!

Every car dealer on Earth already knows how to type that.

Instead, let me tell you why I think somebody shopping for a relatively inexpensive SUV should actually think about this one.

Because it reminds me of a Starbucks.

😂

WAIT. WHAT DOES STARBUCKS HAVE TO DO WITH A CHEVY EQUINOX?

Last year we were living up in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

The manager at one of the Starbucks we went to had a husband who was a mechanic specializing in Land Rovers.

Naturally, she was usually driving a Land Rover.

Her husband would occasionally have customers who owned one that needed repairs they didn’t want to pay for. He’d buy the vehicle at a discount, repair it himself and flip a few of them.

Sometimes he’d keep one for his wife.

Then he’d find a better one and flip her out of that one too.

CLASSIC COOL CAR GUY MOVE. 😂

But she’s not actually the important part of this story.

One of the baristas working for her told me she needed a car and asked whether I could find one.

Her shopping list was the usual:

Toyota.
Honda.
Nissan.

You know the drill.

Buy the badge everybody tells you is reliable, even if it means spending a pile of money on something that’s already been driven halfway to the moon.

She also happened to be dating a mechanic.

Apparently that’s a requirement for working at this particular Starbucks.

😂

Then one day I walked in and she said:

“John, I found a car.”

Her mechanic boyfriend had seen an elderly woman getting out of a Buick.

The Buick had something like 20,000 miles on it.

She couldn’t believe how many features it had.

The mileage was absurdly low.

And she bought it for thousands less than the Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans she’d been shopping.

My response?

THAT’S A CLASSIC COOL CAR GUY MOVE.

Her mechanic boyfriend understood something a lot of buyers don’t.

He wasn’t just shopping for a badge.

He was shopping for the car.

STOP SHOPPING FOR A BADGE AND START SHOPPING FOR THE VEHICLE.

I’m not knocking Toyota.

I’ve owned Toyotas.

I’ve sold Toyotas.

Same with Hondas and Nissans.

But people sometimes become so obsessed with buying the “right” logo that they stop putting a pencil to what they’re actually buying.

Suppose you’re looking at:

OPTION A

A Toyota, Honda or Nissan with 90,000, 100,000 or 120,000 miles because everybody else wants one too.

OPTION B

A seven-year-old Chevrolet with:

21,118 MILES.

Which one is automatically the better buy?

I don’t know.

And neither do you until you look at the condition, maintenance history, equipment, price and actual vehicle sitting in front of you.

That’s the point.

NOW LET’S PUT A PENCIL TO THIS SPECIFIC EQUINOX.

This is where the actual window sticker gets interesting.

I’m not talking about some generic MSRP for a base Equinox I pulled off the Internet.

The original Monroney window sticker for THIS vehicle is sitting in the photos above.

ORIGINAL MSRP:

$32,435

And here’s something else that’s interesting.

A comparable 2026 Chevrolet Equinox LT AWD can carry an MSRP of about:

$32,795

So seven years later we’re basically talking about the same low-$30,000 sticker-price neighborhood.

This Equinox is being advertised today at:

$19,995

Do the subtraction from its original sticker:

$12,440 OF DEPRECIATION.

That’s roughly 38% below the original sticker price of THIS specific Equinox.

Compare it with that $32,795 new 2026 Equinox and you’re looking at roughly:

$12,800 LESS.

Okay. Cars depreciate. That’s not exactly breaking news.

But here’s the part I like:

IT ONLY HAS 21,118 MILES.

Somebody else already absorbed more than twelve grand of depreciation while barely using the thing.

That’s the part most buyers don’t put a pencil to.

You can spend twenty grand chasing a Toyota, Honda or Nissan that somebody has already driven 80,000, 100,000 or 120,000 miles…

…or you can at least stop and look at a seven-year-old SUV where a huge chunk of the depreciation has already happened but most of the mileage hasn’t.

THAT DOESN’T AUTOMATICALLY MAKE THE CHEVY THE BETTER CAR.

It makes it worth doing the math.

And it makes you ask what else you might be missing — which is exactly the question I’m going to keep asking as you read.

BECAUSE THEN THERE’S SALES TAX.

Colorado vehicle taxes depend on where you live and register the vehicle, so I’m not pretending everybody pays exactly the same rate.

But let’s use 8% because it makes the example easy.

On roughly $33,000:

Sales tax = about $2,640.

On roughly $20,000:

Sales tax = about $1,600.

Difference:

ABOUT ANOTHER $1,000.

Why give the State another grand for new-car smell?

😂  That’s an expensive air freshener!

And depending on your insurance situation and where you register it, a seven-year-old vehicle may also cost less to insure and register than something brand new.

Your mileage may vary.

Literally.

NOW HERE’S THE MATH I REALLY LIKE.

This Equinox currently has:

21,118 MILES.

Suppose you keep it for five years.

Drive the typical:

15,000 MILES A YEAR

That’s another:

75,000 miles.

Five years from now:

96,118 MILES.

You haven’t even cracked 100,000 miles.

And if your Starbucks happens to be around the corner and you only drive 10,000 miles per year?

Five years later:

71,118 MILES.

That’s the part people miss when they automatically run toward the 100,000-mile Toyota because somebody told them that’s the “safe” decision.

You’re buying unused mileage.

AND WHAT DOES $20,000 REALLY COST OVER FIVE YEARS?

Let’s round things off.

Purchase price:

$20,000

Illustrative 8% sales tax:

$1,600

Total:

$21,600

Divide that over five years:

$4,320 per year

or:

$360 per month

or roughly:

$11.84 A DAY.

That’s cheaper than some Uber rides.

Obviously that does not include financing interest, maintenance, insurance, registration, fuel or the six-dollar coffee you’re drinking while somebody explains to you why you should have bought a Toyota.

😂

And I’m not even attempting to calculate your finance rate.

You might have the credit of a homeless guy sleeping downtown.

You might have the credit of the rock star playing the arena that night.

I have no idea.

Talk to the lender.

WHAT ABOUT REPAIRS?

This is where mileage matters too.

When you’re buying a vehicle that’s already approaching or exceeding 100,000 miles, you’re also buying everything that’s already been used for 100,000 miles.

Suspension components.

Wheel bearings.

Cooling-system parts.

Air conditioning.

Electronics.

Seals.

Hoses.

Bushings.

Brakes.

And all the other pieces that eventually decide they’ve served mankind long enough.

Meanwhile, repair shops charging $150 or $200 an hour doesn’t sound particularly exotic anymore.

Forget sending your kid to law school.

OPEN A GARAGE. 😂

Does low mileage guarantee this Equinox will never break?

Of course not.

It’s a machine.

Machines break.

But I’d rather start the conversation at 21,118 miles than pretend mileage doesn’t matter because there’s a Toyota emblem on the grille.

SO WHY AM I PUTTING THIS EQUINOX ON CARS FREAK?

Because this is exactly the kind of car people overlook.

It’s not a Corvette.

It’s not a Porsche.

It’s not a lifted Bronco sitting on 37-inch tires.

Nobody is going to walk into Cars & Coffee and yell:

“HOLY CRAP! IS THAT AN EQUINOX?”

😂

But that’s not the point.

Sometimes the cool car move isn’t buying the coolest car.

Sometimes it’s finding something everybody else walks past because they’re all looking in the same direction.

That Starbucks barista found the elderly woman’s Buick.

Maybe somebody looking for a relatively inexpensive SUV finds this Equinox.

HERE’S THE CAR.

2019 CHEVROLET EQUINOX LT AWD

Mileage: 21,118 miles
Asking Price: $19,955 at the time this Parking Spot was written
Status: Offered on consignment through Epic Autos

I’ll add the actual photographs from the dealer listing here because this is an actual vehicle, not an AI-generated fantasy sitting on Mars.

😂

Look at the photos.

Look at the equipment.

Look at the condition.

Do your homework.

Drive it.

Inspect it.

And decide whether the numbers make sense for you.

SO… WANT THE EQUINOX?

If the numbers make sense to you, don’t overthink it.

GET IT BEFORE SOMEBODY ELSE GRABS A CALCULATOR. 😂

At this point, I don’t think the interesting question is:

“HOW LOW WILL THE OWNER GO?”

I think the better question is:

HOW LONG DOES A 21,118-MILE AWD EQUINOX SIT AROUND AT $19,995 ONCE PEOPLE ACTUALLY DO THE MATH?

The original sticker was:

$32,435.

Today it’s:

$19,995.

It has:

21,118 MILES.

And it’s all-wheel drive.

Somebody else already absorbed more than $12,000 in depreciation while barely using the vehicle.

Meanwhile, you can absolutely keep shopping for that Toyota, Honda or Nissan with 80,000, 100,000 or 120,000 miles.

Nothing wrong with that.

But somebody else may look at this Chevrolet, grab a calculator and come to the same conclusion I did.

THIS MIGHT JUST BE A LOT OF SUV FOR THE MONEY.

So if you’re seriously looking for an inexpensive AWD SUV, I’d quit staring at the screen.

Go look at it.

Drive it.
Inspect it.
Look at the actual window sticker.
Look at the mileage.
Look at the price.

Then decide whether it makes sense for you.

BECAUSE WHILE YOU’RE STILL COMPARING BADGES…

somebody else might simply buy the car. 😂

It’s currently offered on consignment through Epic Autos.

Here’s the link: Go Grab It!

AND THIS IS WHY I BUILT CARS FREAK.

I could have posted:

2019 EQUINOX. 21,118 MILES. $19,995. CALL NOW.

Instead, I told you the story.

The inherited car.
The Starbucks Buick.
The Toyota math.
The depreciation.
The mileage.
The reason somebody might actually want to buy the thing.

That’s what a Parking Spot can do.

GOT SOMETHING AUTOMOTIVE WORTH TALKING ABOUT?

A car. A truck. A motorcycle. A product. A shop. A service. A project. A story.

Park it on Cars Freak for $7 one time.

Up to 25 photos. Video. Links. Up to 30,000 characters. Its own URL. No scheduled expiration.

DON’T JUST POST IT.
PARK IT.

NOTE:  This vehicle has been sold.

⚖️ FOR THE LAWYERS

Vehicle price, mileage, availability, equipment and condition should be verified directly with the selling dealer before purchase. Tax examples above are illustrations only; actual sales tax, registration, insurance, financing and ownership costs vary by buyer and location. Nothing here guarantees future value, reliability, repair costs or resale value. Have the vehicle inspected and make your own buying decision.