Roughly a week ago, we told you that shipments of the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado Duramax diesel and 2016 GMC Canyon Duramax diesel from their assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri to dealers has been held up by a final validation issue. There hasn’t been any details on what the exact issue might be, though we do know that it impacts all units of the Colorado and Canyon with the 2.8L Duramax diesel LWN engine. But a new report suggests that the trucks will soon begin shipping out.
According to a note from Ryan January, a customer who has ordered his diesel-powered midsizer but has yet to hear when it will arrive at his dealership, GM has resolved the validation hiccup and will soon begin shipping the trucks out. Here’s his letter to TFLTruck:
I’m not sure if you guys heard anything from GM or have been keeping an eye on the diesels so figured I’d give a quick update. Not long after your article went live my dealer was asked to inform me that my TPW is 1/18 and indicated this one should be for real. I didn’t get an answer to where that phone call came from.
GM is currently encouraging employees to work through the plant ‘shutdown’ which is 12/24 to 1/11 to help keep up with demand. Inside sources seem to indicate whatever issues they were having with the truck have been resolved and GM will be ramping up production mid January. Rumor is that a software issue is to blame. One plant employee was informed that the backlog of trucks should start shipping soon, and would continue through the plant shutdown. He was told his truck should be shipping this week.
A few prospective diesel owners who have VIN’s activated OnStar on their trucks for more data points. Recently these trucks were started and moved. If they were working on reflashing the backlog, it lends credibility to software issue resolution.
It’s all rumor and conjecture at this point. Whenever I see more solid info I’ll let you know.
We haven’t been able to get a solid reply from GM regarding whatever was preventing the trucks from being shipped out. As such, the above might or might not be true.
2016 Chevy Silverado Duramax TurboDiesel
Stay tuned as we try to dig up more on the shipping status of the Colorado and Canyon diesel — the only mid-size diesel trucks in North America.
2016 GMC Canyon Duramax TurboDiesel
Comments
Good to see the issue resolved as this is an important launch for Chevrolet and GM in general.
I hope it’s all true. I finally received a build date this week from my dealer of 1-25-16 for my GMC Canyon diesel that was ordered on 8-22-15.
Wow that seems like an incredibly long time to wait. I hope the glitches are all worked out.
I also hope that the real world fuel economy comes back better than the EPA numbers similar to what we are hearing about the electric range for the Volt.
Interesting to see how the demand is for this pickup, because GM was supposed to introduce the 4.5L Duramax in the half tons almost a decade ago.
I wonder if the 4.5L Duramax is in the works if this is a hot seller?
Yes it would be very interesting to see if GM plants the 4.5L Duramax that they originally designed for a 2010 models in Silverado/Sierra 1500s. What was going to happen back then but didn’t due to the recession coming in and nearly bankrupting most of the automakers, was that GM announced that new 4.5L V8 Duramax for 1/2-tons, and then everyone else started making plans. Ford was going to put a 4.4L V8 PowerStoke with probably the same sort of architecture as the venerable 6.7 that would be built at the same Mexican factory. Ram was going to use a newly-designed engine by Cummins in a 5.0 V8 that has now suddenly shown up in a Nissan Titan XD. Rumors were out about how Toyota and Nissan would respond, as they too were seeking diesel engine manufacturers; the former was said to be in negotiations with Hino.
But those engines would have been performance upgrade engines from the base engine with class leading torque and not necessarily much of a fuel economy upgrade; especially when not under extra load. Additionally, those engines would carry even a bigger premium price than Ram’s Ecodiesel or the rumored F150 with a 3.0 V6 Lion.
So if GM sees in the market the same thing that Ford and Chrysler is looking at, and that is diesel power trains in half-tons with only adequate horsepower and torque to do mid-duty level work and to be the fuel-economy champ engines in the lineup–just like GM has done with the mid-size truck–then the answer would be NO. They’d be looking at something in the 2.8-3.5 six cylinder range.
There are several reasons why equally-performing diesels garners superior fuel economy to gas-powered counterparts; including higher compression ratios, more energy dense fuel, and leaner burning combustion; but another big factor is that a diesel can perform adequate work while producing less output while performing that work due to the lower-end torque under partial load. But when you plant a diesel with near-equal horsepower rating as the gas alternatives, then you’ve lost a big part of that advantage. What you have then is a capability leader; not so much a fuel economy leader. Back in 2010, those diesels were going to be capability leaders; much like what we see in the heavy-duty sector where superior fuel economy is not par of what the diesels provide.
The confusing part of all of this, however, is how the manufacturers, particularly GM, is marketing the diesel choice so far. In the Colorado/Canyon Duramax, which has only 181 horsepower, which is certainly adequate with 369 peak lbs foot of torque for mid-size truck average tasks, but is not so adequate for max towing needs at an acceptable level of driving experience, the only available versions of the truck with the Duramax is with all the available towing features and the largest configurations. So, in other words, GM has put a fuel-frugal little diesel in a compact truck to be the fuel economy champ, but is marketing it as if it’s the capability champ, which it is not.
Pickup truck buyers can’t have it all. If you have loads of horsepower, especially if you’re tapping in to that horsepower, you’re not going to get great mpg. It takes fuel to make power.