D-Max Derivative Finishes Last...

[OTEP]

From the June 2005 issue of Car & Driver magazine which can also be viewed at: http://www.caranddriver.com/article....rticle_id=9470

The D-Max derived Chevrolet Colorado LS finished at the bottom of the list of C/D's most recent compact truck comparo. The engine and transmission are different but almost everything non-aesthetic is directly lifted from the D-Max.

Here's how it fared:



Fifth Place
Chevrolet Colorado LS

With only 4090 pounds to haul around—697 less than the Dakota—the Colorado's five-banger should have been the little engine that could. It wasn't. The Colorado was the slowest in all the acceleration tests but passing, trailing the speedy Tacoma by 1.6 seconds to 60 mph. And although the Colorado has the best EPA fuel-economy numbers (17/22), the Tacoma averaged 17 mpg during our 600-mile drive, 1 mpg better than the Colorado managed.

True, these trucks are not sports cars, but all things being equal, would you want the slowest one? And it wasn't just engine grunt that landed the Chevrolet in last place.

Everyone commented on the plain-Jane interior, the least inviting of the crowd, and if you like industrial-grade plastic, you'll love the dashboard. The brake pedal is positioned too high off the floor. The front buckets feel flat and flimsy, as if they were providing the bare minimum of support but nothing more.

The rear seat isn't any better since the backrest is uncomfortably close to vertical. Worst of all, that backrest simply folds down on top of the bottom cushion, leaving an angled, high shelf that reduces the usability of the space. The other trucks all have better folding solutions. One tester commented, "It's as if Chevy were looking for ways not to compete."

We weren't thrilled with the chassis, either. The steering drew criticism for its high effort and numb feel, and the back end skated sideways when we drove on rippled dirt roads.

The Chevy did make some friends on the upward jaunt to Manson Acres. It is 7.7 inches narrower than the Ridgeline, so it had more room to maneuver on the trail. Plus, you can dial in minute adjustments to the throttle, which helped the Colorado creep up and over the most difficult and threatening rocks. The part-time four-wheel-drive system has an automatically locking rear differential, and the Colorado felt like the rockhound of the group.

In the end, what really stung us was how little innovative thinking went into the Colorado. Whereas the three Japanese trucks have some type of protective coating, storage pockets, or tie-down rails that make the bed a more useful feature, all the Chevy has is a two-position tailgate that can be held at a 90- or 55-degree angle. And despite having a narrow inline engine that should theoretically leave more room for the front tires to turn, the Chevy has the largest turning circle, 44.3 feet, despite being one of the shorter trucks in the test.

GM had 20 years to get its compact pickup right. The Colorado should be better.




THE VERDICT:
Highs: Meaty tires that work well off-road, narrow body helps maneuverability.

Lows: Rental-car interior décor, thrashy engine, upright rear backrest.

The Verdict: It's a good thing it's cheap.

[OTEP]

Here is a full roadtest from the June 2004 issue of C/D: http://www.caranddriver.com/article....rticle_id=8114



GMC Canyon SLE Crew Cab 4WD Z71
BY JOHN PHILLIPS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON KILEY
June 2004


We first clapped eyes on a Chevy S-10 in 1981, the Pleistocene epoch, a year in which we went embarrassingly gaga over a Renault Le Car and Csaba Csere was a fresh hire. If the S-10 were a young man, he'd today be old enough to view uncensored airings of the Super Bowl half-time show. And still GM refuses to ax the thing—a crew-cab S-10 lives for another year or so. The General is cautious about introducing new trucks like A.J. Foyt is cautious about Chinese hand tools.

But now, with the appearance of the GMC Canyon and its nearly identical sister, the Chevrolet Colorado, it's okay to forget about the rough-as-a-cob S-10. The Canyon/Colorado duo is styled with stubby overhangs, squared-off wheel openings, and the squinty four-eyed visage of the full-size Silverado and Sierra. They look a little like dazed rodeo bulls, brawny but lovable.

The platform here is genuinely new, shared with no other light truck or SUV in GM's vast repertoire. Three cab sizes are available—regular, extended, and crew—on two wheelbases. Two bed lengths are offered—73.0 inches and 61.0 inches. Two suspensions can be ordered—standard or the Z71 off-road version, which creates 9.3 inches of ground clearance fore and 8.4 inches aft. Two engines are available—a 175-hp DOHC in-line four and an all-alloy 220-hp DOHC in-line five, both derived from the straight-six in the TrailBlazer. And two transmissions are on tap—an Aisin five-speed manual or a Hydra-Matic four-speed automatic.

All Canyon/Colorado beds are 57.2 inches wide with a clever tailgate that can be locked at 55 degrees, where it stands at the same height as the rear wheelhouses. Four-by-eight-foot sheets of plywood can thus be stacked flat.

Our test truck arrived as a crew cab, with the off-road suspension, the 20-valve in-line five-cylinder engine, and an automatic. It otherwise sported few options, including OnStar ($695), an XM satellite radio ($325), a six-CD changer ($395), and a factory trailer hitch ($270). That was nevertheless sufficient to hoick its sticker north of 30 grand, a very scary plateau in this compact-pickup class.

Drive the Canyon and what you notice first is that it's far, far more solid than any S-10 ever built or imagined. Torsional rigidity is way up, with minimal bed shimmy, no shivers through the dash, no subassemblies in motion. The new body mounts are adept at blocking harshness transmitted through the frame. Impacts, right up to genuine slobber knockers, are distant, nontroubling events. Accidentally drop two wheels off the right side of the road? The Canyon doesn't care. Go ahead and drive all day like that.

This truck, at least by class standards, is also gratifyingly quiet, thanks in part to an aggressive sound-deadening program, including triple door seals that have reduced wind and tire roar. Rocks that once ricocheted into the wheel wells now make an echoless plink rather than the old metallic ker-whang. At idle and full throttle, the Canyon is quieter than any of the five "Compact Critters" we compared in August 1998. It offers an unexpectedly soothing cabin, rare for a class where "cheap" has more than one meaning, and it makes the uplevel sound systems worth contemplating. Audio quality, even from the base six-speaker system, is terrific.

The new in-line five idles at about 600 rpm, where it evinces a peculiar staccato backbeat that is felt more than heard. Crack the throttle a titch, up to 900 or so rpm, and the idle suddenly goes as smooth as Vaseline. At wide-open whack, the engine emits a curious lowing, like a cow with acid reflux. It needs to be about an octave lower and divorced from all 4-H club proceedings before 20-something males, rabid subscribers to the compact-truck class, will find it agreeably macho. This engine, with its twin balance shafts, is otherwise devoid of the mechanical clatter and thrash that afflicted all previous S-10 and Sonoma powerplants. It is subdued and carlike all the way to its 6100-rpm redline.

Sixty mph materializes in 8.9 seconds, way better than the 9.5 seconds of a Nissan Frontier SC, one of the "quick" compact trucks. Funny thing is, the Canyon never feels fast. Instead, the in-line five often acts overwhelmed by this pickup's 4254 pounds—only 40 pounds lighter than the mid-size Dodge Dakota Quad Cab Sport with a 235-horse iron-block V-8. Even minor jabs at the Canyon's throttle induce transmission kickdowns, over and over, with the result that revs seem too often intruding in the 3500-and-above range. Peak horsepower says howdy at 5600 rpm, awfully high for around-town truckin'. Step-off is smooth because it's senile, at least by car standards. Even in two-wheel drive, you can't chirp the tires. And if you're towing? Well, towing capacity is down from the S-10's 5900 pounds to 4000. You might want to limit yourself to a Grumman canoe instead of a 350-horse Fountain ski boat.
Fortunately, the Canyon's ride-and-handling trade-off is nearly perfect, a major achievement for a tall-stance off-road suspension. The gas-charged monotube shocks have been tuned to their most benign settings, and the 15-inch Generals feature forgiving sidewalls. On the most rutted, ravaged roads, the ride is more luxury SUV than compact truck. Even with all that compliance, there's little of the squirm you feel in, say, a TrailBlazer, and body motions are satisfactorily controlled. On our handling loop, the Canyon was usually settled and flat, happy to supply modest grip without feeling tall, ungainly, and goofy, as most trucks do. The tires yowl early, but their ride and noise traits make them otherwise essential. Lateral grip peaks at 0.70 g, same as a Toyota Tacoma's with the TRD suspension.

GM's revised steering is also a major improvement, although the effort could have been a hair lighter. Freeway tracking is excellent, with a strong sense of straight-ahead. There's minimal kickback, even on potholed roads, and the vibration that does wend its way up the column is, by truck standards, forgivable. You can usually place the Canyon within a few inches of where you want it, a trait that contributes hugely to driving satisfaction.

From 70 mph, the standard ABS helps stop this pickup in 206 feet, performance similar to a Frontier SC's. Brake feel is okay, and panic stops are straight and controlled. (A week after our Canyon departed, however, we drove a Colorado with grabby brakes.) GM has installed 11.2-inch discs in front but dowdy drums at the rear, hidden by fat aluminum wheel spokes. Funny coincidence, huh?

Our test truck came with bench seats encased in a handsome gray twill that looked classy and felt durable. The front seat remains comfortable for all-day grinds, although the seatback is slightly overpadded. The rear bench is tolerable for two adults for one-hour trips, but the cushion is low, hoisting your knees unnaturally. The steering wheel is adjustable for rake through a huge arc. The radio features large, easy-to-understand buttons, and the HVAC system responds to three rotary controls that can be operated even if you're wearing gloves. The white-on-black gauges are a model of legibility. The shift from two-wheel drive to four-wheel-drive high is conducted seamlessly on the fly. And even the wipers must be among the quietest GM has ever produced.

The backlight is a single fixed pane that won't slide open; it's also defrosterless. Fact is, sliding backlights have become an entry point for thieves and noise, so maybe it's a loss mainly to your dog.

A new Tacoma, Frontier, and Dakota are all on the horizon. Right now, though, the Canyon stands as the gotta-have in the compact-truck class—tops in ride, fit and finish, solidity, impact isolation, and general driving refinement. We'd have preferred more oomph—acceleration a little closer, say, to the 7.7-second 0-to-60 performance of the current manual-trans V-8 Dakota. And we'd have preferred fuel economy better than an observed 14 mpg, but that's what you get with a 2.1-ton pickup with the frontal area of a Subic Bay ferry. What interests us more is whether the more-is-better truck crowd accepts five cylinders when a V-6 is the de rigueur option in this class.

This truck is built in GM's Shreveport plant, which means you can get a Colorado in Louisiana. Naturally, you can drive a Canyon into Colorado or even into a Colorado canyon, but you wouldn't want to drive a Colorado into a Canyon.



THE VERDICT
Highs: Quiet cabin, supple ride, a platform worthy of a modern truck.

Lows: Weak at low revs, pricey.

The Verdict: An improvement as big as a Canyon.

[mbt]

contradicting ata yung dalawang articles hehe. but anyway, the competition has raised the bar much higher than the canyon has

[RedHorse]

Meron pa bang balak ang ford Phils dalhin ang F150 dito?

[nugundam93]

schwanget yung ridgeline. ugh. heheheh. oh well...can't please 'em all.

[vicoyski]

That Chevy Colorado sure gives the Isuzu D-Max a bad name!

[RedHorse]

just read it from the papers today, GM Phils will bring to Phils, the colorado pickup (thai made) and an unnamed SUV* (US made) next year

[mbt]

that unnamed SUV will probably be the Equinox (gas-powered compact SUV)