Colorado Truck of the Year again!!

[MARK_VANDERBENT]

Colorado , Motor trends pick again!! New Camaro got it too !!

[dodge_guy]

Lots of people make mistakes! So do the people that choose car/truck of the year!

[Bird_Freak]

ShinerBock wrote:

Bionic Man wrote:
Have you read the criteria for the awards? Only vehicles that are new or have some sort of redesign are eligible. With that criteria, what RAM or Ford should have been in the running?

Yeah I have known that from past "Truck Of The Yea" articles, and still think it is is a win by default. It kind of makes the title useless to me because they do not test all of them, but that is just my opinion.

Award means NOTHING unless all makes are tested.

[goducks10]

Dog Trainer wrote:
Colorado may be a nice truck but lets face it for the most part this is an around town grocery getter and light haul truck. As this forum is about towing I think the application for most of us, would not see the Colorado as a choice.

I guess you don't get out much. The CG's I visit have a lot of smaller sized TT's pulled by Tacomas and SUV's. I suppose if you frequent nothing but RV parks that may be the case.
While the new GM mini twins won't tow a 10,000lb 5th wheel they can certainly hold their own in the light weight TT segment.

[Dadoffourgirls]

Dog Trainer wrote:
Colorado may be a nice truck but lets face it for the most part this is an around town grocery getter and light haul truck. As this forum is about towing I think the application for most of us, would not see the Colorado as a choice.

Maybe we need to further define the Tow Vehicle forum. Maybe we should have a section for towing under 5k, 5k-9.1k, and 9.1k and above.

That way nobody is offended with "Tow Vehicle". I can tell you that I have pulled livestock trailers with livestock or livestock fencing with a "light haul GMC Acadia" with this 3.6 engine and it did fine.

I wish that I had borrowed a Colorado with the 3.6 to haul the Uhaul tandem trailer the 1200 miles last year. I was not sure if all my daughters stuff would fit in the trailer, so I borrowed a 1500 Double Cab.

[ksss]

I agree the Motor Trend idea of a truck and those who frequent a tow forum are not going to match up very well. I think the Colorado is really well done, and for a lot of buyers it will do them better than a full size. It is not often that a full size HD pickup wins. I think 2011 was the most recent I can remember when the GM trucks were redone under the old skin of the GMT900.

[Dog_Trainer]

Colorado may be a nice truck but lets face it for the most part this is an around town grocery getter and light haul truck. As this forum is about towing I think the application for most of us, would not see the Colorado as a choice.

[IdaD]

That's the same motor they have in the Traverse and etc. We looked pretty hard at those about six years ago but ended up with a Pilot instead. Looks like that might have been a good call. I remember at the time I specifically considered the timing chain to be an advantage versus the timing belt in the Pilot, but I guess time has proven otherwise.

[Lessmore]

goducks10 wrote:
Just google GM 3.6 and you'll see the problems. Don't even have to put 'timing chain' in the search.
The 3.6 doesn't have to be a truck engine since the new Canyon/Colorado aren't work horse type trucks. Heck I had a Pinto engine in my Ford Ranger that went 198,000 with zero issues.

I googled and although I did find timing chain issue problems with older versions of the 3.6 DOHC engine, I couldn't find any issues with later 3.6 engines. It appears that the timing chain issue is not an issue with later versions of the 3.6 engine, from what I can determine.

[Lessmore]

Bamaman1 wrote:
The 4 cylinder and diesel will be nice trucks.

But the 3.6 GM V-6 is an extremely problematic engine--probably worst engine in any U.S. vehicle. The big problem is camshaft chains stretching and causing the engine to jump timing. They have to half disassemble the engine to replace the three chains and sprockets, and it's a $2400 average repair. Unfortunately, GM only warrants these engines 36K miles.

Are you sure ? Also the GM powertrain warranty is 100,000 miles, not 36,000 miles as you indicated. My source...my 2015 GM manual.

My 2015 GM Canada warranty is 160,000 kms...(100,000 miles) or 5 years...whichever comes first.

[Dadoffourgirls]

Bamaman1 wrote:
... But the 3.6 GM V-6 ... Unfortunately, GM only warrants these engines 36K miles.

GM has a 5 year/60,000 mile powertrain warranty.

[ShinerBock]

Bionic Man wrote:
Have you read the criteria for the awards? Only vehicles that are new or have some sort of redesign are eligible. With that criteria, what RAM or Ford should have been in the running?

Yeah I have known that from past "Truck Of The Yea" articles, and still think it is is a win by default. It kind of makes the title useless to me because they do not test all of them, but that is just my opinion.

[Bionic_Man]

Have you read the criteria for the awards? Only vehicles that are new or have some sort of redesign are eligible. With that criteria, what RAM or Ford should have been in the running?

[ShinerBock]

I kind of think it is funny last year that Truck Trend, Motor Trends truck side, gave the truck of the year to the F150 while Motor Trend which mainly does cars gave it to the Colorado. You would think that being the same that they would have the same winners although it is befitting for Motor Trend with its more car oriented journalist would pick a more car like truck especially reading to some of the grips they had about each truck. Also looking at the the lineup of contenders for Motor Trend Truck of the Year, not one Ford or Ram were present so to me it is kind of like a win by default in my opinion.

[Bigfoot_affair]

Yes, early 3.6 engines did have timing chain problems, GM did extend the warranty on those engines.
After 2012 they seem to have gotten the problem taken care of.

[IdaD]

goducks10 wrote:
Just google GM 3.6 and you'll see the problems. Don't even have to put 'timing chain' in the search.
The 3.6 doesn't have to be a truck engine since the new Canyon/Colorado aren't work horse type trucks. Heck I had a Pinto engine in my Ford Ranger that went 198,000 with zero issues.

Yeah I did that myself, and it looks like some very widespread issues.