2005 Equinox just a bad year, or what?

[roblo101]

Hello all
Chevy man from many years back.
Bought my wife a new "Nox" in 2005, little thing runs great, alot of int room while driving, etc.
About 6 months ago, truck started to run alittle warmer than normal. Checked the water, was a little low, no problem. Went ahead and drained the radiator and put new anti-freeze an all, used the little bleeder fitting,
done deal.
Well 3-4 weeks later, wife says its starting to run hot again. Now I do check water an oil religiously in all our vehicles. Looked in her water holding tank, was none. Cranked it up, had to add 2 gallons of water.
Now all this time there was never any water leaking on the ground. Decided to put in shop to see if they new where the water was going, they found out where, blowed head gasket, leaking into cylinder, being burnt out, not dripping.
Started looking on internet, seems alot of people are having the same problem with this year model............
My question is: Do they make a better head gasket, have read the one being used on this model has no metal backing on gasket. All the older trucks I have worked on always has a gasket material an metal rings in the gasket.
Is there a better gasket that I can buy to put back on here.
This thing only has 85000 miles on it. And by the way, my extended warranty people are not sure yet if they are going to fix it, bless
thier hearts...............

Thanks for any an all feed-backs
Rob