Nearly nine years ago Chevrolet really injected some much needed life into the dated and stale mid-sized pickup truck segment.
With the then new second generation Chevrolet Colorado, now in that time frame this truck has seriously
challenged, the dominance that was set forth by the Toyota Tacoma and the
Nissan Frontier and for 2023 Chevrolet is looking to reset, that bar yet again
with the all-new third generation Colorado, it’s built on an all new frame
it has a new 2.7 liter turbo under the hood and it has an interior.
1: That has some of the best tech that you’re going to find in the segment.
So today, we’re actually out here in Julian California we’re going to drive three different
versions of the Colorado out on the road, we’re also going to take this Trail Boss
model out on an off-road Trail, at the end of this Article, we’re going to see has
Chevrolet managed to reset the bar yet again if you guys are looking for a
mid-sized truck stay tuned to find out.
Yes now before we start talking about the styling of this all new Colorado, I want
to pop the hood and show you guys what’s powering this truck, because this is
where Chevy made kind of a controversial change the prior generation offered,
three engines a four-cylinder a V6 and a turbo diesel, all of it is gone it’s been
replaced by a single turbocharged four-cylinder it displaces 2.7 liters,
we’ve seen this engine in the Silverado and even the Cadillac CT4, the lead
engineer for this vehicle tells us, that this truck was basically designed to
accommodate this 2.7 from the start so it’s offered in three specific Tunes,
this particular one here that I’m showing you is the Trail Boss model it
has the turbo plus engine, which means it makes 310 horsepower and 390 pound-feet
of torque that’s right nearly 400 pound-feet of torque, from a
four-cylinder albeit It’s a larger 2.7 liter turbo four-cylinder there is a
base work truck model that offers around 237 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of
torque, that model has around 10 psi of Max boost pressure from the turbo, this
engine has a around 20 psi however Chevy says that if you want to basically do
like a flash tune like in the aftermarket, you can’t do that reliable.
2: because it’s got specific Hardware changes and a different transmission.
When you guys go from the base turbo engine up to the turbo plus, if you guys
are looking at the ZR2 trim, there’s also a high output turbo engine, that makes
the same 310 horsepower, but 430 pound-feet of torque again that is from
a gas powered four-cylinder turbo engine, that basically creates V8 like torque,
that motor offers around 27 PSI of Max boost pressure all the engines use an
8-speed automatic transmission although the transmission is slightly different
versus if you guys go for the base work truck or the LT all the way up to the
turbo plus and the high output version, so it’s a different 8-speed transmission
that’s their design sadly I don’t have fuel economy figures just yet Chevrolet,
says that the final numbers are pending, but if you guys are looking at the fuel
economy of the Silverado with this powertrain, this should be around the
same or slightly better, they did admit that they didn’t really Target Best in
Class fuel economy with this powertrain, they really were targeting diesel-like
torque which we’ll talk about when we get this vehicle out on the road, I don’t
have any 0-60 performance, I also don’t have any payload figures yet but this
truck here is ready to tell a maximum of 7700 pounds so it’s around 70700
pounds more versus the prior generation, I also don’t have final curb weight
figures but they did say that this engine weighs around 80 pounds less
versus, the V6 I’d probably suspect this model here weighs in at around 46 4 700
pounds when it’s all said and done, but let’s go ahead and close up the hood
and talk about the exterior styling because this is where I think Chevrolet
did a pretty good job with the new Colorado.
They’re offering it in five different trims this model here is the
Trail Boss, so it’s kind of the third trim level up it’s going to give you a
lot of the off-road goodies that you get from the top of the line ZR2, which I
won’t be able to show you guys a ZR2 in this video we’ll drive that at a later.
3: Time the one thing I like is the new front end you have of course.
The corporate Chevrolet bow tie grill with this massive Grille, I also like the
black bow tie emblem there’s a Trail Boss badge here, in the actual Grille
and then the headlights this is where, I want to talk about a couple things,
because as you can see this trim has halogen headlights with an incandescent turn
signal, it looks really cheap and out of place although, I will say that the old
Colorado didn’t even offer LED headlights if you want LED headlights
they are standard on the Z71 and the ZR2 trim, it is available as an option if you
guys are looking at the LT and the LT or the LTZ trim which is standard it’s
available as an option on the LT which is definitely nice but on the trail boss
you can’t even get the LED headlights so again it looks kind of cheap if you do
get the LEDs you’ll have an LED daytime running light LED low and high beams but
still an incandescent turn signals, and led fog lights so you can see here on
the trail boss you have your own unique front fascia with this kind of black
plastic in the front grille with some gray painted plastic and then you can
see here down here this actual air dam is removable Chevy tells us this model
here has a two inch lift in terms of the suspension and you can also get it with
Factory skid plates for an extra 700 that is going to be necessary for those
of you who actually plan to take this out on the trail now moving around the
side profile you can see unlike the prior generation Chevy used to offer
this truck in two different cab configurations in two different bed.
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