More grunt for Holden Colorado
Holden’s Colorado ute and Colorado7 SUV sibling have been facelifted, and while they’re still trucks they’re definitely better than before, reports from their media launch in Australia.
AT A media conference at Holden headquarters in Melbourne last week, the Australian company was able to make an important claim – that no other ute now beats the Colorado for its combination of power, torque and towing ability.
That was an important claim, because it underlined just what the Colorado and its SUV sibling the Colorado7 are all about.
In contrast to many other utes and SUVs on the market which are more car-like in their demeanour, and despite the fact the facelift has seen several important specification upgrades, the Colorado remains an old-school toughie with a full ladder chassis and goanywhere ability.
And the latest adds to all that.
The model line’s 2.8-litre Duremax 2 engine now offers up to 147 kilowatts of power and 500 newton metres of torque when matched to an automatic transmission, and this beats everything else on the market except the Nissan Navara 550 which boasts 170 kW and 550 Nm.
That’s sufficient to give the big Holden strong offroad ability, as a tough drive up and over some very rocky offroad country inland from Melbourne quickly proved. It also helps give the Colorado a 3.5-tonne braked towing capability, which lets it join the Ford Ranger and Mazda BT-50 as the best on the
facelift
simply market in that regard.
So Colorado is a solid made even more so.
‘‘This facelift represents the next evolution of the product to make it more relevant,’’ was how Holden’s vehicle performance manager Scott Doughty put it.
‘‘It’s got the new Duramax 2 engine, the manual versions have gone from five to six-speeds, we’ve introduced the MyLink infotainment system across the range, and the model line has improved content including safety specification.’’
Holden New Zealand chief executive Jeff Murray reckons the Colorado facelift will be sufficient to let the ute move past Navara on the New Zealand sales ladder to sit third behind the Ranger and Toyota Hilux.
He’s expecting the same for the Colorado7, expecting it to move into second place behind Hyundai Santa Fe in the large SUV seg-
truck ment. ‘‘What will help is the fact that the Colorado’s pricing is being carried over, despite the fact there’s a lot more value added to the model lineup,’’ he said.
‘‘I see no reason why we can’t increase sales.’’
At last week’s launch event the new Duramax engine certainly won plenty of hearts for its improved ability as it allowed a fleet of utes and SUVs to clamber along tracks high up in inland Victorian countryside.
It not only now delivers more power and torque – the previous engine offered 132 kW and 470 Nm – but the torque has been increased across the entire revolutions range.
I remember the pre-facelift model’s automatic transmission did have a slight tendency to hunt in its effort to keep to pace. The new model doesn’t do that, happy to stay in one gear for longer. That’s not only because of the im- proved flexibility of the big turbodiesel, but because the transmission now has shift stabilisation and grade braking control to prevent unnecessary shifting between gears when travelling uphill, and to provide suitable shifting when going downhill.
The Colorado also now gets chassis control systems including hill-start assist and hill descent control, and trailer sway control.
While the Colorado ute and Colorado7 SUV retain the somewhat plasticky interior that did come in for some criticism when the vehicles were first launched last year, they do benefit from specification upgrades.
A seven-inch touchscreen and Holden’s MyLink entertainment system are now standard across the range. The MyLink, which is now in all Holden models, allows drivers to connect to Bluetooth and access various apps that allow them to keep tuned into music, news, entertainment gation.
The touchscreen can be used to wirelessly stream audio files for playback from a paired mobile phone or Bluetooth device. Embedded apps include Pandora, Stitcher and TuneIn, which allows owners to create their own personal stations or listen to any radio station in the world. The system also allows those aboard to access BringGo, which is a satellite navigation app. It works well - so long as the app doesn’t suddenly drop out, as it did to me right as I was trying to negotiate my way through a particularly busy part of Melbourne!
Colorado and Colorado7’s exterior remains unchanged in its design, but the upgrade has introduced rear-parking sensors on the utes and a reversing camera as standard on the Colorado7 and the top LTZ version of the ute. That
and
navi- top ute also gets a lovely new paint hue called Orange Rock which I forecast will prove rather popular.
A number of accessories have also been introduced, including an alloy ‘‘SuperBar’’, a steel bull bar, black nudge and sports bars, and the reversing camera for lesser utes.
It all adds up to extra appeal for these Holden utes and SUV. They still have the pickup truck-like demeanour on the road which means their ride and handling aren’t as sophisticated as some of the opposition, but there’s no doubting their honesty and their sheer grunt.
And, of course, introduction of the very sophisticated MyLink infotainment system means that no matter how far out in the beyond might be, as you are negotiating some rough track in 4WD low ratio and first gear, you can listen to any radio station you desire.