Black is a slimming colour which is quite beneficial for the Colorado 7 which has attended Holden’s buffet and gorged itself to a width of 1.9m and a length of almost 4.9m. Hopefully your garage is capacious enough. It does mean that there is enough room inside the Colorado 7 to do swing dancing with a cat if you fold all the seats down: 1830 litres of space up to the roof, or 1047 litres up to the belt-line.
Even with the third row of seats up (yes, this is a seven-seater), there’s still a usable 235 or 205 litres (respectively), which is about the size of the boot in a Suzuki Swift .
If you need more space then put the rest in a trailer. The Colorado 7 is rated up to a 3-tonne braked trailer, although driving instructors usually advise not to tow anything heavier than the Colorado 7 itself, which weighs 2175kg at the kerb, but can cope with being up to 2820kg. Add the 3-tonne trailer and you’re almost at the 6-tonne combination vehicle limit for a car licence.
Having driven the Colorado 7 through some quite twisting rural roads, which is how I got to the photo location, I would be gingerly making my way around if it was approaching six tonnes. Even without the trailer, the Colorado 7 is not only big on the narrow country roads, but its suspension just isn’t designed for rapid changes of direction.
Off the tarmac (which I unfortunately couldn’t try), the literature says it’s capable and rugged.
There’s a low-range gearbox with limited slip differential and shift-on-the-fly 4WD which can more than cope with the 500Nm 
of torque generated by the 147kW, 2.8-litre Duramax engine with its 6-speed automatic gearbox.
This might sound idyllic if you own a boat or even a portable fairground ride, but this engine is noisy. You get what you pay for: $66,990 for a super-sized SUV that will pull any of your toys is quite a good deal, and there obviously has to be compromises in some areas.
Safety electronics are important in an SUV this size and the Holden comes with trailer sway control, hill start assist, hill descent mode and the usual set of electronic stability control features that assist the driver when wheels lose grip or traction. There are six airbags, too.
There are a few missing features, most notably automatic headlights (which are on just about everything these days), and keyless entry. But you do get Holden’s MyLink entertainment system with Bluetooth connectivity, an alarm/immobiliser package, cruise control and rear-view camera.
In its black attire, the Colorado 7 doesn’t quite look as big as it is in reality. It’s imposing in its stature, like a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado.
The Colorado 7 is $30,000 cheaper than a Land Cruiser Prado (it’s lacking a lot of the trick electronics and other luxuries like heated rear seats) but it’s no less capable.
It actually outguns many SUVs in terms of power, towing capacity and space, and there’s room for your extended family.
Price: $66,990
Pros
- Priced well
- Rugged
- Towing capacity and load space
Cons
- Coarse
- On-road handling
- Missing some surprising features
Words and photos: Darren Cottingham
This is an amended article which originally appeared on www.Car and SUV.co.nz, and can be viewed here
