General Motors new line of midsize pickups, the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, are set to go on sale in time for the third-quarter of this year. When they arrive, they will be available with either a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, or a 3.6-liter LFX V6. However the third engine option, a 2.8-liter Duramax diesel, will arrive for the 2016 model year and it has just been spotted testing by PickupTrucks.com.
The Duramax-equipped Colorado was seen testing on the streets of Milford, Michigan not far from GM’s Milford Proving Grounds. Interestingly, in its company was a Volkswagen Amarok pickup, another mid-size truck offering which is currently available in Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe with a range of 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engines and a 2.0-liter gasoline unit. The Amarok is not offered in North America, although rumors of it arriving stateside and in Canada have been circulating since its introduction in 2009. Autoblog reports VW is waiting on sales results from the Colorado and Canyon before it makes the decision to expand the Amarok’s availability.
The spy photos don’t reveal much about the Diesel canyon, as it looks identical to gasoline-equipped prototypes. However they do show its Venturi-style exhaust tip, which will most likely be the final production design for the diesel-equipped Colorado’s exhaust.
It’s unlikely that VW will bring the Amarok to North America, as many have said it is too small to be successful in the highly competitive and saturated North American pickup truck market. Depending on the sales performance of the Colorado and Canyon, VW may wait until the next-generation Amarok is ready to go head-to-head with the Americans. GM benchmarking the Colorado against the Amarok is indication that much like the Germans, they are keeping a close eye on the competition.
Click here to check out the spy photos on PickupTrucks.com.
Comments
The Diesel has been at the Auto shows and clearly marked and shown as a Diesel.
GM has not been hiding this one.
“Scott3” the name is growing on me like Ecotec3. Goofy, different, yet still the same no matter how you look at it.
The Colorado – my son WILL get a mid size pickup when he turns 16. With a manual. Whether it’ll wear a bowtie or a T is completely up to GM now.
You should get him a Ram Diesel The FACT is I hear they still have many sitting on the lost as the dealers ordered 8,000 the first day and only sold 400.
The Amarok in current form is not a particularly small truck at all. It is actually wider and longer than the Nissan Frontier which is still sold in the US and sells quite well at that. I just think that VW is being cautious with the US market. Their vehicles are not particularly well-built and a wrongly placed vehicle could further damage the slowing sales they are currently experiencing. I know for sure that the Amarok currently suffers from problems with the manual gearbox (the automatic hasn’t been around for that long so the jury is still out on it) and also problems with the headlamps going bad. Typical VW.
That said, I am not liking the profile of the Colorado at all. It is way too long and just looks out of proportion in these pics. I hope it’s just parallax that’s affecting what I’m seeing.
It can’t come soon enough! They look really good too!
The mid size truck is a difficult call for GM and Ford the two go to companies for truck and for trucks this size. For VW to come here and do this it would be even more difficult of as call as VW is not a company people think of for trucks.
Just look at the issues Nissan and Toyota had in the full size market and you will see the trouble they may face here.
The one advantage is they are known for Diesel but that would only help sell a small percentage of the trucks.
It will be interesting to see how the GM truck fair but even if they work the investment for VW in this segment will still be difficult.
VW is known for diesels, but in the truck world, that reputation falls to the american domestics.
While you’re right about VW being known for diesels. They haven’t got the best reputation of late. At least their automatic Amaroks don’t have a DSG, though!
Where would the Colorado be built? Does anyone know?
Wentzville