The Colorado Experience
(Or Lack Thereof)
I took the opportunity recently to drive a Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck. For
those who don't know (and who couldn't know by now?) the Colorado is a successor
to the venerable Chevrolet S-10.
I've heard all the claims of "more
power" and "more room" on TV, so I had to know if it was true or not. So I
stopped in at a nearby dealership, parked my S-10 so it couldn't see what I was
about to do (just kidding!) and got the keys to a blue extended cab Colorado
LS.
The first thing I noticed when I got in the Colorado was the styling.
It looked very much like the interior of a lot of Japanese cars.
(There's nothing wrong with that at all, I just thought it was
different.) Even the key switch seemed like the kind found on foreign
cars as opposed to the GM "classic" key assembly. I found everything
inside to be very much like the interior of my brother's Honda Prelude.
I also noticed that the interior was very "withdrawn". Everything
inside seemed to be placed far away as visual perception went.
So I started the truck and headed out of the lot. GM says that the
Colorado is very quiet, (to the point of needing an "accidental starter
engagement protection circuit") but I don't agree. Despite driving the
I-5 version, the truck sounded just like any other four cylinder
vehicle I've ever been in. It was nowhere near as quiet as my V6
S-10...where I must confess I have made the stupid and hasty mistake of
accidently trying to start the truck twice.
GM also says that the new Colorado has improved power. I'd say that is
in fact much zippier than my S-10, but I flogged it a bit on a highway
and my S-10 seemed to the vastly more powerful vehicle as far as "mash
the gas and see what it does" was concerned. Of course, the difference
could be due to the gearing of the differential in each truck. My S-10
has 3.42 gears, I don't know what the Colorado had at the time, and I
still don't to this day because the Chevrolet web site doesn't provide
this information!
I did take exception to their claim of improved headroom. It
just wasn't there. I was comfortable in my S-10 with room to spare. My head was
against the headliner in the Colorado and the seat was nowhere near as
nice.
The window controls in the Colorado worked opposite of the "normal
way"...in other words, you pushed up to make the window go down. I have
no idea if this was specific to the truck I drove or not. (Update 2008:
My 1990 Lumina Eurosport has windows that also work this way, so it
probably wasn't unique.)
Everything in
the Colorado seemed so cheap compared to my S-10...and I didn't drive
what you'd exactly call a base model by any counts. I was surprised by this to say the least.
One thing that didn't change--the radio was the same thing I had in my
S-10 and it sounded even worse. The sound was very flat except for the
bass sounds.
So, in the end I was left extremely underwhelmed by the so-called "new
and improved" Colorado. It was an extreme disappointment and not half
the truck that the S-10 was in my opinion.
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