I've had one for the past few weeks and its great.
To get the key cut I just ran to a dealer and had the guy in the parts shop cut it and they didn't charge me. To program the transponder you'll need both factory keys and its really pretty simple... you just turn the car to on with each of the keys and wait for the security light to turn off. Then you stick the new key in there and turn it on within a few seconds and it is programmed. To program the remote, you use one of the keys and turn the ignition from off to on 8 times or so. The doors will lock and unlock to let you know it is ready to be programmed and then you just hit a button on the remote (lock, unlock, whatever) and your remote is programmed. When your car exits programming mode it does another lock & unlock of the doors I think. All in all, it took me about 5 minutes to program the new key and remote.
The key itself feels really solid. My brother has a 2010 Equinox and the keys are very similar in terms of quality.
I like having this key not poke me from my pocket all the time... I'd recommend it to anyone.
