ANN ARBOR, April 21, 2010 -- I have been in a self-induced automotive coma for the past 10 years. But, I am happy to report that I just woke up. My first act after this deep sleep was driving a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox, after which I had a startling revelation about General Motors and where the company stands post-bankruptcy.

First some personal background: From 1995 to 2000 I was online editor at Car and Driver magazine. I like to say I was born and raised at Car and Driver. Absorbed everything I know from the great people who worked there back in the good ole’ days.

As part of working at the magazine, I drove a different new car or truck home every night. Friends in the neighborhood used to drive past my house to see what fancy-pants car I had every day.

The revered Csaba Csere told me that even if you are not writing a story on the particular car you drive that night, driving everything makes you a more informed writer when you do write a road test about car X, because you know how every competitor stacks up against it.

When I left Car and Driver in 2001, that body of hands-on automotive knowledge – sadly – stopped, and I entered my automotive information coma. Life support was sustained by reading car magazines and by three personal vehicles: First, my dad’s generously donated 1989 Acura Legend Coupe, then a Volvo XC70 (previously leased by none other than Jose Luis Diaz de la Vega, the one-time creative director at Volvo Car's strategic design and global studios in Barcelona and Gothenburg), and more recently, a MAZDA5 – or, MACH5 as my three sons and I call it.

Last week, I woke up from the coma because, as you can tell by the pixels arranged into letters and words in front of your eyes right now, I have begun writing for GreenFuelsForecast.com and driving vehicles from media fleets again, the first of which was a 2010 Chevrolet Equinox.

To my newly-awakened mind, the differences – unavoidably compared to the 2000 Chevy Tracker, the sub-full-size SUV Chevy offered 10 years ago – between the current and past GM are shocking and, at the same time, reveal that GM is clearly a far better car company now than it was 10 years ago.

The point should be made that, yes, everyone is better today than they were 10 years ago. But I believe the differences in quality between GM and its competitors today are far smaller than they were.

Ten years ago, virtually every GM interior, even Cadillac, were infamous for their cheap plastic, soft seats and poor design. The Equinox’s interior today looks like it could have come from any manufacturer including Honda, Toyota, Nissan or Mazda. There are no design or engineering elements that scream “this is a GM!” on Equinox inside or out.

Small things like the window switches look like they could share a parts bin with Lexus. The door shuts with a reassuring “thud” sound familiar to nearly every best-of-the-best Mercedes, Audi and BMW I remember from 2000. The seats are fabulous and have attractive red stitching; compared to what I remember of GM 10 years ago, they feel like flippin’ Recaros. The overall interior and exterior styling is attractive, modern, and useful.

I did no 0-60 mph, skidpad, braking, high-speed lane change or trailer towing tests, but the Equinox goes down the road just fine. Steering is deliberate and appropriately weighted, and the transmission seems invisible.

The suspension (the rear is an independent four-link with coil springs and trailing arm, stabilizer bar and hydraulic link bushings) does a nice job isolating the drama being worked out below the vehicle from the cabin, even on rough dirt roads. The 182-horsepower, 2.4-liter I-4 direct injection engine feels underpowered, but most people don’t drive like maniacs. They drive around town and shuttle their kids, friends and groceries around town and go home. Driving like a grandma and saving gas is easily more de rigueur these days than winning drag races from stop lights. EPA ratings of 22/32 (FWD) 20/29 (AWD) mpg for the four-cylinder engine are laudable for a nearly 4000-pound SUV.

Full disclosure: With all of one drive under my belt, I can not say how Equinox compares with the latest RAV4 or Honda CR-V, but I would guess that it’s close. Still, the point that GM’s quality is leaps ahead of where the company was 10 years ago stands. Like I said before, of course everyone is better today, but the decades-long disease that plagued GM – too much badge-engineering a la Ron Zarrella, stifling the creativity of talented designers and engineers, and too much cost cutting at the expense of things inside a car that customers see and touch – appears to be over.

I haven’t driven them yet, but Malibu, Corvette, Camaro, and anything Cadillac have all been getting rave reviews. And I think the Buick LaCrosse is one of the best-looking cars around, as good as anything coming out of Japan or Europe. The state of GM’s quality is sound. The state of the business looks sound, too. Just today, General Motors Company Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre announced that GM has made its final payment of $5.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada, paying back its government loans in full, ahead of schedule.

“GM’s ability to pay back the loans ahead of schedule is a sign that our plan is working, and that we are on the right track,” said Whitacre. “It is also an important first step toward allowing our stockholders to reduce their equity investments in GM. We still have much hard work ahead of us, but we are making progress toward our vision of designing, building, and selling the world’s best vehicles.”

The only question now is, how long will it take for customers to believe it? Equinox makes me think it won’t be long, because GM Is on the right track.