PickupTrucks.com reviewer Mark Williams had the chance to spend a little time with the new 2015 Chevy Colorado Z71 off-road package, and he liked what we saw.
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(fast-paced rock music) <v Mark>I'm Mark Williams for pickuptrucks.com. And we're here in Detroit where we've just received a sneak peek of the 2015 Chevy Colorado.
Now this is GM's all new mid-sized pickup truck, and we don't have all the details yet, but here's what we do know. As usual, some of the most dramatic design cues for this brand new truck are right up here in the grill, big Chevy bow tie, almost sports eyeglass type headlights, and no seals in the front for arrow. In fact, aerodynamics is a huge issue with this new truck. Every version of this pickup truck is going to get automatic shutters behind the grill to help push air up and around the truck for better fuel economy. But let's be clear, this is a blank piece of paper that they started with, even though there is a global Colorado, this is a completely different vehicle. In fact, the only thing it shares is the roof and maybe a half a dozen bolts throughout the frame. This is a brand new frame, front IFS suspension, rear live axle suspension with leaf springs, three different engine options. That's going to be a first there's a 2.8 liter Dura max turbo diesel that's available, 2.5 liter I four, and also the 3.6 liter V6. All transmissions will have the six speed automatic available. The possibility exists for a manual transmission, but they're not telling us which engine that's going to be yet. Two different wheel bases to accommodate a crew cab and extended cab configuration, two different bed lengths, five feet and six feet, depending on that configuration. Inside the bed we've got a lot of cool details, pretty much straight from the 2014 Silverado, multiple tie down locations, optional spray in bed liner, also strata, tailgate, and steps with grip holding. I don't think it can be overstated how much better this new interior is on this new Colorado. A lot of what you see here does have some carry over from what we've seen in the 2014 Silverado, but huge improvement from the midsize pickup that this is replacing a much better and appropriately sized and thickened steering column. Very cool gauges that are easy to see almost similar to what they have in the Camaro, but a huge center information pod here just like in the Silverado with a huge eight inch screen for information and for navigation, as well as some of the similar types of switches that they have in the half ton as well. In the backseat of this E 71 crew cab, pretty spacious, not a huge amount of space, but pretty spacious. But what we like is a lot of the details and thought that went into how functional and flexible these rear seats are. In fact, you can flip up the bottom, plenty of storage underneath to put tow straps tools, anything you want, but if you have bigger boxes, you want to stuff in here, you can flip down the rear seat backs and now you can stuff in the big boxes. So there it is. That's all we know at this point. We're going to get more information as we get closer to production, which we're told is going to be fall of 2014. At that time, we'll get more pricing information as well as a complete set of specs and data on the truck for everything that we have up to date right now, check out pickuptrucks.com.
