Holden Colorado LTZ Crew Cab 2019 Review

Despite being one of the oldest utes in the category, it isn’t as if Holden dropped the Colorado onto the market back in 2012 and left it untouched.

A thorough refresh for MY17 brought a new front-end de-sign, better infotainment and safety equipment, and significant enhancements under the skin including a locally developed chassis tune, electric power steering, engine changes to improve smoothness, a new torque converter and shorter diff ratios.

The most recent changes for MY2020 Colorado are relatively minor. The main change (such as it is) sees the LT grade become a special-order model and the LSX, once a limited-edition, is now a regular part of the MY2020 Colorado range.

The 2020 Holden Colorado LTZ, which we drove in Thailand, has had very minor upgrades; it now features leather seats (heated at the front) and a spray-on tub-liner. The Colorado LTZ we drove in Thailand had cloth seat trim, which is a no-cost option for those with no love for leather.

The LTZ might miss out on the bling of the range-topping Z71, but it’s still well-featured with the likes of 18-inch alloy wheels, 8.0-inch colour touch-screen, embedded satellite navigation, remote vehicle start (via the keyfob) front and rear park assist, forward collision alert with head-up warning, lane departure warning, tyre pressure monitoring, manual levelling headlights, heated and power folding exterior mirrors, alloy sports bar and adjustable electric drivers seat.

However, unlike some competitors, no Colorado has autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping, keyless entry/start or reach-adjustable steering, and it makes do with rear drum brakes rather than discs.

Heading out of the northern Thai city of Loei on secondary two-lane roads, you’re reminded very quickly that the Colorado’s Duramax 2.8-litre turbo-diesel is not particularly smooth or quiet when called on for overtaking or hill climbing, even if has a healthy peak torque of 500Nm.

By 3000rpm it is well and truly noisy and harsh for a dual-cab ute in 2019, not that there is a lot of point going much above the 3 mark on the tacho anyway. While it’s not lacking for torque in the mid range, the 2.8 is a bit of a laggard at low revs, with a long pause as it spools up before gets going at about 2000rpm.

If you keep this engine on the boil around 2000rpm it performs well. The headline peak torque figure happens between 2000 and 2200rpm, but it feels like the torque falls off a cliff much beyond the 2200rpm peak.

You don’t have to load up the engine much at around 2300-2500rpm for it to have had enough and select a lower gear. While the six-speed auto isn’t the smoothest auto, it does a fairly good job of swapping shifts.

A real contrast to the Duramax 2.8 was the Thai-market Chevrolet Colorado, which we had the opportunity to drive on Thai roads. With its 2.5-litre Duramax turbo-diesel four developing 132kW at 3600rpm and 440Nm at 2000rpm (15kW and 60Nm down on the automatic 2.8), the 2.5-litre engine has similar amounts of low-rpm lag.

But beyond that it’s a much smoother, more tractable engine than the 2.8-litre. Even though it lacks the outputs of its bigger brother, the 2.5 didn’t feel like it lacked power or torque.

Sadly, the 2.5 only meets Euro 4 emissions requirements, so wouldn’t satisfy the Euro 5 benchmark required here. You can only wonder how well this engine would have gone in the Holden, if it were possible to tune it for cleaner emissions.

However, that horse has well and truly bolted. A new Colorado is due in 2023 so there’s little chance we’ll ever see the 2.5 in the current Colorado.

As we headed for the hills on twisting tarmac towards our off-road drive at Pha Tud Hill, we were reminded that the Holden Colorado LTZ is at the sharp end of the class for dynamics.

Steering is fairly direct, it turns in well and holds its composure through the corners better than most utes. Ride quality isn’t ideal, but neither can you describe it as poor for a load-lugging ute.

The Colorado’s cabin is spacious, with ample room front and rear. While the rear bench is tight on shoulder room for three adults, there is plenty of leg and head room and the upright seating position isn’t uncomfortable, even after a few hours in the back.

Even though the majority of controls and instruments are well presented and clearly laid out, parts of the cabin are getting a bit outdated. For example, having to press a menu button on the indicator stalk to gain access to the trip computer menu.

The Colorado’s infotainment screen doesn’t have the most intuitive of menus, but once you get used to the drill-down procedure it’s easy to operate.

The tray in the Holden Colorado LTZ is one of the shortest and shallowest in its class, but about average in width for a dual-cab ute. The new spray-on tub liner is a great improvement — how can you use a ute tray without scratching the paint?

The climb up and down the gnarly tracks on Pha Tud Hill reinforced what we already know about the Colorado’s off-road capabilities — it is a little short on ground clearance up front (215mm) and with only a limited-slip rear diff in-stead of a locking diff as many competitors have, it re-quires momentum to traverse knotted up, axle-twisting terrain.

While overall gear reduction in low-first is not outstanding at 36:1, it makes up for this to a degree with the 2.8’s slow-revving nature helping to keep momentum down on steep descents.

The Holden Colorado is a comfortable and spacious ute with good dynamics but it is beginning to feel its age, especially in terms of engine refinement and torque delivery.

It also lacks the cabin amenity and safety of the class-leading utes, some of which come with AEB, a reach-adjust steering wheel and rear disc brakes.

How much does the 2020 Holden Colorado LTZ Crew Cab cost?
Price: $52,690 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 147kW/500Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.6L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 228g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP tested 2016)