Monday, October 27, 2008

Chevy Colorado - Test drive

So today I met Angie for lunch and on the way home stopped at the local Chevy dealership and took an '07 Chevy Colorado for a ride. Its a pretty nice truck, Z71 offroad package, 245hp I5, auto trans, spray on bedliner, rack behind the cab to protect the window, blue...
Rides nice, the seats are not overly padded but comfortable, plenty of power although its high up in the rpm range. 245hp is more than my Dakota that has a v8 although the 318 has more torque and makes power down low.
They want $19k which is a crazy starting price. Blue Book is more like $18k and a little research shows comparable trucks for more like $16k. This one has been on the lot for at least 2 months so I'm reasonably sure I've got negotiating power. I've never had any luck negotiating for anything but I resolve not to pay the asking price on the next vehicle I buy.

Anyway I've tried to find less biased reviews on these trucks for awhile and got nowhere. Today it occured to me to try a forum and right off I found coloradofans.com. The tech section shows the facts right off, stay AWAY from the early years. '04 was the first year and seems to be a disaster with fewer complaints from each year after that. Few complaints I could find on '07s but I'm not sure if that might just mean there aren't all that many...

I've got to talk it over with Angie as I'm reasonably sure we don't have $320 a month to spend on a new truck no matter how much I like it. There are a couple cheaper trucks around that I need to get time to try out...

Anyway my quick review is that the Colorado seems like an okay inexpensive truck. If you're not expecting super high quality. The interior is cheap plastic, I already spotted one broken clippy in the '07, fortunately its a clippy you probably don't need anyway...

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