Chevrolet Colorado breaks cover in Thailand

Late last week, our neighbours up north were presented with the latest generation of the Chevrolet Colorado. As Chevrolet’s mid-sized pickup offering, it is an extremely important model for their Thai market- and we will eventually be seeing this model in our local market as well.

For Thailand, the Colorado is offered with the singular 2.5 litre VGT Duramax turbo-diesel motor, paired with either a manual or automatic transmission. As pickup trucks become more and more complex and urbanised, the focus on improvement with each generation is on improving refinement and ride quality. The chassis is more rigid, which allows for a suppler ride without compromising handling ability. The Colorado sports digressive dampers- an advanced form of damper design that handles both high speed and low speed shocks with the appropriate amount of force.

A variable geometry turbocharger has been implemented to improve engine performance across the entire rev range. Outputs have been pushed up to 180 hp and 440 Nm of torque from just 2000 rpm. The engine is more efficient and has lower emissions, maintaining its Euro-4 compliancy. For the manual variant, the ratios in the gearbox have been revised to take advantage of this increase in performance.

Exterior design falls in line with Chevrolet’s current global design language- a sporty front end and aggressive hood and lamps help to distinguish the Colorado from its competition. The interior layout has become more streamlined and intuitive, boasting an eight-inch colour touchscreen in higher-spec variants, as well as a MyLink infotainment system. Chevrolet claims that this is the first pickup truck to be made available with Apple Car Play for the Thai market.

Depending on variant, the Colorado also sports a number of driver assistance features. Besides the standard electronic safety systems (ABS, EBD, ESC), the Colorado comes specified with lane departure warning and forward collision alert, along with a front and rear parking assist system. Remote start makes a return here, something we first saw here in the Chevrolet Malibu.