Idk what the best is as I never had a chance to own them all, But Im not a huge SUV fan, im more of a pickup truck guy, I bought me a 99 GMC Suburban and its been really good to me, It does have the piston slap that all of them LS1's suffered from on cold starts, and have a rear end noise, which I have a spare rear end for it that I rebuilt ready to go in once the weather gets better.
As for reliability, its probably not the best, seen many of these have rear end issues, even transferase issues, but 3 feet of snow, the thing just plows threw it like its nothing on 4x4 low with a front locker, rear locker the clutches are worn, and now we are getting a ton of snow snow again so be fun trip to work again lol.
My mother has a the 2011 Equinox awd, its alright, 2.4 engine, my 687,000 mile 91 Chevy 4.3 truck had more get up a go than that thing, and she made a trip to Ohio when my grandfather was in the hospital, was in winter, she got it stuck, its as bad as a 2wd car, its awd but it only spins 1 tire that has the least resistance, whats the point in awd then? Seen awd better implemented in other vehicles lol.