Holden Colorado 2017 Long-term Review - 2

Last month, we launched straight into the honeymoon phase with the long-term Holden Colorado LTZ.

Hearts were set aflutter and there were regular weekend visits to the beach as we spent seemingly every living moment together, amassing 3250km in the space of four weeks.

The crew-cab set a solid first impression, earning recent updates (and some extensive tuning on the part of Holden’s Australian engineers) worthy praise.

A further 1250km on the odometer in our second month has allowed for a more detailed impression, including some observations that weren’t so evident during the initial foray. Sure, the attraction is still there, but the Colorado has exhibited a few quirky traits that weren’t readily present at first.

Month number two encompassed some light off-roading, highway driving and a good proportion of load lugging. Despite this, and now with 6500km on the Colorado’s odometer, the Holden hasn’t missed a beat.

Getting more seat time
At first, there were no complaints around the Colorado’s new cloth-lined chairs, incorporated into extensive MY2017 updates. Padded, adequate adjustment, decent long journey amenity – they seemed a worthy match for the Holden’s do-it-all brief.

That was until we were able to compare back-to-back the Colorado’s front buckets with that of Volkswagen’s newly-introduced Amarok V6.

Noted, at a pinch of $60K, the Volkswagen is considerably more expensive than the Colorado, and features up-spec leather on its chairs, but the exercise served to demonstrate the Colorado’s lack of padding and support. The Colorado’s seats are adequate, though the firm seat base and relative lack of bolstering takes away some of the initial shine.

Conversely, the back-to-back with the Amarok helped to reinforce one of the Colorado’s real strengths: rear seat space. Compared to its German rival, the Thai-built Holden has acres of second-row leg space, and its seatback angle is much friendlier – making it a decent adult proposition. Unlike the Amarok, the Colorado also has rear curtain airbags, a big trump card.

Similarly, the Colorado’s MyLink infotainment system, and in particular the fitment of Apple CarPlay, continues to impress – in this case matching and in some cases bettering the Volkswagen. Spotify, verbal text messaging and hands-free call dialling are still regularly used, as its heavily fingerprinted eight-inch colour touch-screen can attest.

Transmission toils
We took issue with the Colorado’s indecisive six-speed automatic in the opening weeks, particularly its insistence on kicking down gears when faced with any semblance of a hill (activating an aggressive grade descent function).

However, the torque converter has seemingly smoothened out some those traits as the engine wears in, no longer necessitating the need to make use of the manual gate when a descent appears.

The engine-gearbox teaming is still probably best described as agricultural, with some odd flaring and clunking between upshifts. But on the whole it is well matched with Colorado’s 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine.

Together, the two turned around an average fuel reading of 8.8L/100km during the second month of our tenure. That is despite a heavy proportion of load-carrying.

Overall, after 6500km, the digital instrument cluster reads 8.7L/100km average – line ball with Holden’s claim.

Getting down to business
The Colorado got its first proper taste of load-lugging this month, in the form of payload testing. Noted, its shiny towball is yet to be used. But rest assured, we’re working on it for our next report.

Boasting a 1029kg payload (including passengers) and 3.5-tonne braked towing capacity, the LTZ version is among the heavy-hitters of the segment for load-hauling.

We tested payload on several occasions. Firstly, it carried a full-size motocross bike with ease (tailgate down), the two front tie-down points and two rear tie-down points happily accommodating our straps.

The second test involved a 400kg load, in order to replicate the mass that many Colorados carry on a daily basis. To be honest, it was hard to feel the additional weight over the back axle in the first test. The Colorado’s bump suppression relaxed ever so slightly, but otherwise its power delivery and handling demeanour felt largely the same, which is no bad thing.

Finally, we loaded up the Colorado with 950kg worth of weight, including the driver, taking a detour for a heavily corrugated dirt road, with wallowing bumps and sharp edges, plus a highway run.

Again, the LTZ is unflustered by the added mass, keeping its composure across most undulations, and resisting any unwieldy behaviour. The rear-end continued to follow the road faithfully, including over extended sections of corrugations. Only the occasional sharp imperfection eked any form of crashing from the leaf spring rear suspension.

Even with an 850kg mass concentrated in the tray area, the Colorado wasn’t overly light over the front wheels, with only a slight hint of vagueness in its response. And while there was an expected increase in body lean and pitch, everything felt contextually strong. The big load didn’t cause the rear to sag as much as other rivals, most notably Nissan’s coil-sprung rear Navara.

The Colorado remained similarly confident on a highway run, holding itself together well over elongated surface changes. As relationship testers go, Holden’s newly updated dual-cab passed its first series of hurdles with flying colours.

2017 Holden Colorado LTZ pricing and specifications:
Price: $52,690 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 147kW/500Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 230g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star ANCAP

Related reading:
>> Holden Colorado Long-Term Introduction
>> Holden Colorado v Ford Ranger Comparison