For whatever reason, I have become enamored with the idea of a small 4-door pickup. Something a little newer than the Cherokee, with a bed for odd stuff, and a backseat for the little guy.
So I am browsing Craigslist, and I know GM made the Colorado in a quad-cab, but having the 6-cylinder filter on isn't showing much. Turns out, most came with the 5-cylinder Atlas engine. Who knew?
I did. Other than sounding a lot like a jet ski, I love mine.
<shrugs>
I think the pickups were usually 4 or 5 cylinder and the 6 was generally only in the suvs.
They are kind of an old thing now. They did have some kind of odd issue with the EGR, not sure how they are holdings up as they just kind of disappeared around here a few yeas ago.
Wards engine of the year several years running. I've got two of them that are at or over 200K. I love the torque curve.
The Colorado hit hit my short list of El Camino replacements. I've driven a couple now, and they just don't seem to hold up well. Lots of squeaks rattles damaged interior components Etc.
I had a '98 XJ 4.0 Auto 4x4 at the same time my dad had a H3 with the small 5 pot. It must have been the weight but my Jeep felt way snappier.
I would imaging lots of the good offroad parts swap easily from the H3 to the Colorado/Canyon.
Every time I see a 1st gen Colorado, all I can think of is the upside-down faced kid Jake Tucker from Family Guy.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
I can’t say personally, but talking to contractors in Iraq, the Rangers held up much better than the Colorados and Canyons.
I just checked prices on my local CL. Prices seem scattered but reasonable. Finding any sort of 4-door pickup for cheap is nigh impossible it seems, but these seem available for the 2004-05 models.
And this work truck option is new to me: https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/cto/d/2009-chevy-colorado-truck/6479461081.html
Coarse, rough, largely a pain to work on, don't feel particularly powerful but fairly thirsty. Not much to miss.
Tony Sestito said:Every time I see a 1st gen Colorado, all I can think of is the upside-down faced kid Jake Tucker from Family Guy.
I can't unsee it now, LOL!
In reply to NickD :
What kind of problems are generally found when you work on them? I might reduce the Vibe and Rusty the Plow truck to a single vehicle so a small truck with some grunt I can drive and plow with during the winter appeals to me. I was considering a Ridgeline and kind of forgot the Colorado exists.
Yes I marvelled at the potential of that Atlas engine turbocharged in something. They even had a show car for a minute with it mated to a RWD sedan show car.
Seems like a lost opportunity. Just can't get folks excited about odd engines here in the USA.
The0retical said:In reply to NickD :
What kind of problems are generally found when you work on them? I might reduce the Vibe and Rusty the Plow truck to a single vehicle so a small truck with some grunt I can drive and plow with during the winter appeals to me. I was considering a Ridgeline and kind of forgot the Colorado exists.
Seen PCV valves freeze up and blow the rear main seal out of them. First you have to change out the valve cover, which involves removing the alternator, accessory belt, left front wheel, left front inner wheel well, intake manifold and intake tube. Then you have to drop the transmission to put the rear main seal in. See some timing chain/camshaft actuator issues, nowhere near the 2.4L in frequency, but much more work involved. Recently condemned a Trailblazer on a customer because his 4.2L needed timing chains and it was a 21.5 hour job to replace chains, tensioners and actuators.
Very stout well built motors with few problems and there's no shortage of turbo'd Atlas's out there making big power.
The0retical said:In reply to NickD :
What kind of problems are generally found when you work on them? I might reduce the Vibe and Rusty the Plow truck to a single vehicle so a small truck with some grunt I can drive and plow with during the winter appeals to me. I was considering a Ridgeline and kind of forgot the Colorado exists.
Front brake jobs tend to run close to 2 grand if you want the ABS to functtion because of the chunderheaded way they attached the tone ring.
Besides that, they are like the intersection of Isuzu pickups and Trailblazers. Meaning they rust and are designed with zero concern for ease of service, like a Japanese truck, and everything is flippin' expensive like a Trailblazer.
And, like most of the American smaller pickups, they never offered a 4x4, 4-door, 6' bed option. The crew cabs came with short beds.
In reply to Knurled and NickD. :
Well maybe not then. I haven't seen a truck built prior to 2015 that doesn't rust around here. Difficult brake jobs are where I draw the line. They're regular wear items so they should be at least semi easy to service.
Knurled. said:The0retical said:In reply to NickD :
What kind of problems are generally found when you work on them? I might reduce the Vibe and Rusty the Plow truck to a single vehicle so a small truck with some grunt I can drive and plow with during the winter appeals to me. I was considering a Ridgeline and kind of forgot the Colorado exists.
Front brake jobs tend to run close to 2 grand if you want the ABS to functtion because of the chunderheaded way they attached the tone ring.
Besides that, they are like the intersection of Isuzu pickups and Trailblazers. Meaning they rust and are designed with zero concern for ease of service, like a Japanese truck, and everything is flippin' expensive like a Trailblazer.
Yeah, they do seem to have a propensity for rust. I see 5 year old Colorados with 60k miles around here and the rocker panels are nonexistent and the entire underside has thick scaly rust that is usually reserved for 15 year old vehicles with 150k miles.
I just hate the entire front half of the Colorado and the Trailblazer. They are the proverbial 10lbs of E36 M3 in a 5lb bag. Maybe 15lbs.
The0retical said:In reply to Knurled and NickD. :
Well maybe not then. I haven't seen a truck built prior to 2015 that doesn't rust around here. Difficult brake jobs are where I draw the line. They're regular wear items so they should be at least semi easy to service.
In 12 years and over 400,000 km I've never done a brake job on my two Colorados. Even so, t's not nearly the nightmare it's purported to be. I've seen a few rusty ones but neither of mine had any.
The 6 cylinder is built around the corner from my office. On a clear day you can see it.
The Atlas straight 6 is pretty cool too. I wish the old Trailblazer SS was a turbo Atlas 6 with AWD.
Suprf1y said:The0retical said:In reply to Knurled and NickD. :
Well maybe not then. I haven't seen a truck built prior to 2015 that doesn't rust around here. Difficult brake jobs are where I draw the line. They're regular wear items so they should be at least semi easy to service.
In 12 years and over 400,000 km I've never done a brake job on my two Colorados. Even so, t's not nearly the nightmare it's purported to be. I've seen a few rusty ones but neither of mine had any.
The nightmare is when the ABS tone rings come unglued and break up (or rust behind the glue and expand out and then break off) and the hub assemblies are some really absurd price like $600 each.
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