The Holden Colorado was a staple on Australian roads in the latter days of the Lion brand.
Since it disappeared, along with the rest of the brand, the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and the Isuzu D-Max (which was the Colorado’s twin) have dominated the ute market.
The latest generation Chevrolet Colorado is now US-made and has a broad range capped off by some highly desirable variants such as the ZR2, Z71 and Trail Boss, which could most definitely take it to the Ranger Raptor, HiLux Rogue and D-Max Blade, if given the chance.
But despite the success of the locally-converted Chevrolet Silverado (the Colorado’s big brother), General Motors Specialty Vehicles has left the Colorado out of Australia.
And the reason is simple – cost.
Speaking to Torquecafe recently, General Motors Australia Managing Director Jess Bala explained that the cost of converting US-made vehicles from left- to right-hand drive locally would simply leave the Colorado, even the higher grade models, too expensive to be competitive.
”Knowing where the two main players in the mid-size truck [pickup] market are versus where we would end up if we had to convert it. We are better off as a company focusing on the full-size truck,” Bala conceded.
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t growth opportunities for GMSV, or GM Australia more broadly, as the arrival of the GMC Yukon Denali and the Cadillac luxury brand demonstrate. Although, exactly what could be next remains unclear, with no obvious candidate on the horizon.
“ Definitely for conversion, you’re 100 per cent correct,” Bala said. “But we’re always in conversations as GM is working through product plans and next generations and things like that.
“When and if there might be an opportunity to study right-hand drive in the plant. That depends [on many factors]. It’s got to be a much bigger global study, obviously extensive business cases, things like that.
“And then that’s only part of it. And then if not, to your point, what could we look at potentially converting here? We’re always working with Premoso [Walkinshaw] very closely. They do a phenomenal job of finding efficiencies, cost savings and things like that. And then also learnings as they go.
“So, you know, there are things that they’ve discovered and improved from converting the trucks that are now being flipped into the Yukon conversion as well, and finding efficiencies.
“Obviously it definitely helps it’s all the one architecture underneath, it’s all off the T1 platform, but we’re always assessing what else could be and what makes the right sense, especially in a very competitive and saturated market.”
She added: “And to your point, from a conversion standpoint, it really doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to bring in… a very mainstream model entry that’s just gonna be priced higher when we’re in so much heavy competition.”
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