Holden Colorado 7 2013 review

Australians buy into a dream when they get behind the wheel of a recreational vehicle -- whether they take it off the beaten track or not. But for those who want to live the reality there are vehicles like this.

The Holden Colorado 7 is not your everyday faux-wheel-drive, it's a ute-based seven-seat wagon that tends to appeal to those who aren't happy unless they break something on the vehicle on a weekend away.

That means the Colorado 7 is more sturdily-built than the pretenders; the downside is that it drives a bit like a truck around town. The Holden Colorado 7 and ute have come in for a freshen-up about 12 months after going on sale.

A new engine (still diesel only) with a little extra grunt is the highlight for the target audience, but for the softies among us the big news is a seven-inch touch screen and infotainment system that has music and navigation apps.

General Motors didn't have time to address the main criticisms leveled at the Colorado, so it drives the same as before (no changes to suspension or steering until the next update in a couple of years) and the interior has limited storage cubbies and retains the plastics that are harder than outdoor furniture (also due for an upgrade eventually).

Value

Price is unchanged, so that's the first bit of good news, starting with the LT from $46,990 plus on-road costs and the LTZ from $50,490 plus on-road costs.

At this price it undercuts the out-going Nissan Pathfinder (from $48,890 if you're quick, it's about to be replaced by a softroader petrol-only model) and the class-leading Toyota Prado (from $55,990, but an updated model is just weeks away).

The closest to the Colorado on price is the Mitsubishi Challenger (starting from $42,490 with manual transmission). As ever, though, you need to watch for Holden's charge for metallic paint gouge: $550 is the dearest among the mainstream brands.

The Colorado has capped price servicing for three years but the service intervals are every nine months. The service intervals of most mainstream brands are 12 months but the Colorado's main rivals -- the Toyota Prado and Nissan Pathfinder -- are dearer as they require a dealer visit every six months.

Technology

Explore the 2013 Holden Colorado 7 range

• Holden Colorado 2013 review
• Holden Colorado 7 2013 review

Holden has added hill descent control, hill hold assistance and a system designed to prevent trailers from swaying in cross winds (not swerving suddenly also helps).

According to the Holden blurb trailer sway control "detects any towing instability, activates the brakes and reduces engine torque … when pulling a trailer or caravan". Great. That's all we need. Holden encouraging people to tow caravans. I'm joking! No need to email.

Hill start assist gives you time to engage the throttle on a steep slope, although given the Colorado 7 is automatic only I wouldn't have thought this would have been a huge problem.

Hill descent control is a fancy way of saying the car will apply the brakes and limit power so the car "crawls" down hills and over boulders without the driver having to touch the brake pedal.

Design

No changes on this front. It has the same rugged good looks on the outside as before and the same roomy cabin inside. The second and third row seats flip and stow easily and, thoughtfully, there is a small cubby to store wet towels and swimmers in the cargo area.

Room for improvement? The quality of the materials could be better (the leather seats look like they're out of a Chinese car) and there could be more storage and bigger door pockets.

At least there are three 12V power sockets in the main cabin. Fewer arguments on long drives, especially when the kids have social media updates to make. They lead busy lives, you know. Little do they know you're about to drive out of mobile phone range…

This may sound pedantic but with the voice of GM's product development boss still in my head from last week declaring "no more crappy cars", why does only one power window have an auto up and down switch? It's small details like these that GM and Holden have missed that chip away at the Colorado's appeal.

Safety

Better late than never Holden has joined the rest of the modern automotive world and fitted six airbags to the new Colorado range (up from four). This does not improve the already worthy five-star ANCAP safety score, but the extra airbags (one each in the front seats) mean you will likely have fewer injuries in a nasty side impact crash.

Stability control and trailer-sway control are standard, but the Colorado still needs to be driven with respect; it's not as sure-footed as its rivals (see below).

Driving

The Colorado 7 isn't going to win any handling contests anytime soon and Holden would rightly argue it isn't meant to. Most enthusiast buyers will understand its limitations on-road -- and appreciate its supernatural abilities off-road.

The Colorado 7 is a comfortable highway cruiser but you need to slow it up a little more than normal in corners to make sure you don't activate any safety systems. All the electronics in the world can't be expected to overcome the physics of having a tall body on narrow, nobbly tyres.

All that said, there is sufficient room for improvement compared with other vehicles of this type. For example, even though the Colorado 7 has an independent rear suspension, it doesn't feel as stable or as sure-footed as the Volkswagen Amarok or Ford Ranger utes which have rudimentary heavy-duty leaf spring rear suspension set-ups.

The revised engine is a little quieter although there is still noticeable delay in power delivery (what the experts call "turbo lag" at low revs. As for the Colorado 7's off-road ability, it'll climb over pretty much anything a driver would be prepared to tackle, but the heavy-duty four-wheel-drive experts on our media drive this week said its ability was fair to average, rather than a standout.