[DGthe3]

The Captiva is fleet only in the US (you can find them on GM's fleet site if your curious to know more about them). The main reason for this is to keep the resale value of Equinoxes high. See, the more fleet sales a model has the lower the resale is for all of them -fleet or retail. So by having a fleet only vehicle like the Captiva, the Equinox (which fills more or less the same role) can be almost all retail sales.

As for needing a V6 because an I4 needs to 'work too hard' ... not really. Its what, 180 hp to move ~3700 lbs+passengers? Thats adequete. I know that when I was driving around in a 120 hp Saturn that weighed ~2400 lbs (pretty much the same power to weight as the Captiva) I was never fearful that I was ever working the engine so hard that it would cause pre-mature failure. Last I heard from Mom, that engine is still going strong after 15 years+ and crowding 200k miles. I'm not saying that that little rolling piece of tupperware was sporty or anything, but the engine always had enough gusto to say pass a semi on the highway without too much fanfare, or power its way up a hill. Yes, it would drop down a gear or two but its not as if I had to redline it for extended periods just to accomplish everyday driving tasks either.

If you know that you'll need more power then sure a V6 makes more sense. But for the most part, the smaller engine is almost always more sensible & the only real reason to get something with more power is simply to have more power. There's nothing really wrong with that mentality, just don't make up excuses about engine longevity or other nonsense. It just comes across the same way as saying you like going to Hooters because you enjoy their chicken wings. Whether its true or not, just about everyone can tell that there are other, more obvious, reasons at play.