Holden Colorado VS Great Wall Steed

The Z71 has a steel ladder-frame chassis, double-wishbone front suspension and leaf-spring live rear axle, so it's more aligned with heavy-duty work than smooth on-road performance.

Having said that, the Z71 is quite settled over most surfaces, including highway bitumen and rough back-road backtop, and at most speeds – rather impressive for an unladen ute.

Steering is a bit floaty, with some play in it, and there is noticeable understeer on corners.

The engine is one of the torquiest in the current-day ute mob – only matched by V6 utes – and it delivers that torque quite evenly and smoothly across the rev range. The Duramax turbo-diesel can, however, be noisy, and because of that it seems like it's working hard, though it never feels too stressed, even when towing a caravan that has a caravan with a tare (empty) weight of 2600kg.

There's plenty of life in terms of acceleration with active pedal-feel but, when it comes time to pulling up to a fast stop on front disc and rear drum brakes, the brake pedals are rather spongy.

The six-speed auto is generally spot-on for all duties, although it did occasionally down-shift with an extra violence of action when it didn't really need to.

Ride and handling are pretty good, with its Aussie-tuned suspension (including traditional-ute leaf-springs at the rear) doing a decent job of sorting everything evenly, and it was only ever rattled by very severe bumps, wash-outs, and ruts at lower speeds, i.e. during low-range 4WDing.

The Z71's on-road performance and refinement are generally not as polished as segment leaders, but that's nowhere near a deal-breaker.

You don’t really notice the 4x2’s lighter kerb weight, which is probably due to the petrol engine’s smaller power and torque figures compared to the diesel. Ride quality around town and on secondary bitumen and gravel roads when empty or lightly loaded is adequate, if a tad harsh in the rear, which admittedly is a common trait in leaf-spring dual cabs with one-tonne ratings. Like the 4x4 version, the steering weight is too light and linear in feel regardless of road speed and the gearing is too low, requiring excessive steering wheel rotations. 

The shallow foot wells, that result in higher knee and upper thigh angles as previously mentioned, concentrate more upper body weight on the base of the spine. This driving position also puts your knees closer to the steering wheel which can hamper turning at times, particularly for tall drivers. The edges of the console (left) and door trim (right), which the driver’s splayed legs naturally rest against, could do with more rounded edges or padding for greater comfort.

For our GVM test we forklifted 830kg into the cargo bed, which, with the optional tow bar and 100kg driver, was a payload of 960kg - or 50kg less than its 1010kg rating.

The rear springs compressed only 38mm, which was less than the 4x4 version (51mm) under a similar load and was probably due to the 4x2’s lower kerb weight. The front rose 16mm, which was splitting hairs with the 4x4 (17mm). The ride quality improved noticeably but the engine felt a bit sluggish around town, requiring plenty of revs and clutch slip when getting underway from standing starts.

At highway speeds, the limitations of the five-speed gearbox and shorter diff ratio became apparent with the tacho showing 2800rpm at 100km/h and 3000rpm at 110km/h. Although maximum power is at 5250rpm, the engine felt like it was revving too hard for comfortable cruising and almost begging for another gear to drop at least 500rpm at these road speeds.

The excellent tyre-monitoring system provided real peace of mind with such a heavy payload on board, as each tyre’s pressure and temperature could be closely watched. We reckon every hard working ute should have this.

The engine’s lack of low-down torque was noticeable on our set climb, as diesel-powered utes under similar payloads usually pull third gear at 60km/h all the way to the top of the 2.0km, 13 per cent-gradient climb. However, with its peaky petrol engine, the Steed just couldn’t pull third, so a quick shift back to second found its harder-revving (and noisier) sweet spot at 3800rpm, which allowed it to competently 'power' its way to the top. With an emphasis on 'power' as opposed to low-down torque, which is in short supply.