DESPITE A BAD YEAR FOR DIESELS, GM’S COLORADO AND CANYON DIESEL GET FUEL ECONOMY CROWN AT 31 MPG ON HIGHWAY
There hasn’t been much good news in the diesel automotive market lately, though General Motors looks to change that with the diesel variant of the 2016 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickup truck.
The EPA confirmed the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon two-wheel drive turbo diesel get 31 mpg on the highway, best fuel economy of any pickup truck.
The 2.8-liter Duramax fourcylinder turbo-diesel engine generates 181 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, compared with 305 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque in the 3.6-liter V-6 engine of the 2015 gas Colorado.
The gas-fueled Colorado gets 26 mpg highway and has a towing capacity of 7,000 pounds. The 2016 diesel can tow up to 7,700 pounds.
The Colorado diesel starts at $3,730 more than the 3.6-liter V-6 gas variant and comes in the LT and Z71 crew cab models with 2WD or 4WD.
Chevrolet spokesman Otie McKinley predicts a range of customers “from small business buyers looking for a more fuelefficient offering to those buyers who need the capability of a diesel engine to tow their toys, yet don’t have a need for a fullsize truck,” according to Andy Mikonis, reporting on diesel pickup truck offerings in the Chicago Tribune.
Relaunched last year, the Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize trucks reinvigorated a segment occupied by only the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier midsize trucks. Rumors are that Ford will bring the Ranger back to the United States for the 2017 model year.
The smaller midsize trucks fill a void between the everyday full-size workhorse and an SUV or crossover trying to do trucklike work on weekends.
The return of midsize trucks has intensified the truck wars between Ford, Chevy and Ram. The full-size Ford F-Series, Chevy Silverado and Ram pickup, respectively, are the three best-selling vehicles in America.
Pickups account for more than 14 percent of all new vehicle sales so far in 2015, according to data from the Wall Street Journal.
The Colorado has helped boost Chevy truck lineup sales 31 percent year-over-year, said Jessica Rogers, marketing manager for the Chevy Colorado.
“It’s been the opposite of cannibalizing sales,” from the Silverado or Silverado HD, she said. “People are coming in for the Colorado and being turned on by our other truck products.”
We briefly test drove the 2016 Colorado diesel and noticed a nice kick from a stop, though at highway speeds the turbo torque boost wasn’t noticeable.
Diesels, known for better highway gas mileage and for generating more torque and towing capacity, have been popular in pickups despite an otherwise American aversion to diesels. In 2014 Ram began offering a full-size diesel that gets 29 mpg highway. Ford made a bold, fuel-saving move with its 2015 redesign of the best-selling F-150 by equipping it with lightweight aluminum that trimmed 700 pounds. At 26 mpg highway, the F-150 hasn’t been able to match diesel fuel economy.
The Colorado diesel fuel economy crown might be tarnished by the ongoing Volkswagen diesel scandal. Certain “TDI clean diesel” vehicles were equipped with a device that turns on emissions controls during emissions testing, then shuts them off on the road, polluting 10 to 40 times the legal limit.
The EPA recently announced it would more stringently test all diesel vehicles to include real-world on-road testing, not just laboratory testing, to detect any abnormalities and inconsistencies that would signal a hard-to-detect cheat device.
The GM diesels use a selective catalytic reduction system (SCR), which VW diesel engines do not use, Mikonis said.