Holden Colorado VS Mercedes-Benz X-Class
Holden Colorado
Likes
- Very torquey engine
- Nice ride and handling
- Reasonable off-road capability
Dislikes
- Basic cabin
- Noisy engine
- Roll-away tonneau cover is fiddly
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
Likes
Dislikes
Summary
Holden Colorado
The Holden Colorado is a quiet achiever in the ute market: it has a solid rep as a work-and-play vehicle, generally records positive results in objective editorial reviews and comparisons, and it sells well.
But how does a Z71 do as a tow vehicle? Read on.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 2.8L turbo |
| Fuel Type | Diesel |
| Fuel Efficiency | 8.7L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
The V6 X-Class is big, bold and bloody expensive – and it has segment-topping safety tech– but its price-tag swiftly climbs above more than $80,000 when you start adding one of the many optional extras and is it really worth that much beyond the cache of the badge? Really?
Sure, the bigger engine is what most potential X-Class buyers were pushing for after the launch of the four-cylinder-powered utes as part of the first-gen X-Class wave, but is there room – or even actual demand – for such a high-priced supposedly luxury ute?
Read on.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 3.0L turbo |
| Fuel Type | Diesel |
| Fuel Efficiency | 8.8L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Verdict
Holden Colorado7.2/10
The Holden Colorado Z71Â is a pretty decent towing machine, handling all aspects of general load-lugging duties with a quiet reliable efficiency. In simple terms, it kept the whole ute-and-van combination trucking along nicely.
The Z71 is a solid Colorado package all-round with some welcome flashiness to its functionality.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class7/10
The V6 X-Class is nice enough to drive on-road and it’s effective enough off-road, but it’s let down by its less-than-impressive interior and those elements combined certainly do not justify such a high price-tag.
Sure, its safety gear is top-notch but the X-Class, even in this V6 guise, feels like a lacklustre attempt at ute greatness, rather than a real effort.Â
Right now, if you’re in the market for a super-comfortable and capable V6 ute with real class and German precision, check out a top-spec V6 Amarok – and save about $25,000 while you’re at it.
Design
Holden Colorado
The Colorado is a good-looking unit, so it follows that the Z71, the Colorado line-up's top dog, should be the best-looking vehicle in the entire range. And it is. Look at the photos yourself and make up your own mind.
The Z71's black highlights everywhere, the roof rails, side steps and fold-away tonneau cover add functionality to the flashiness.
Under its slick exterior, the Z71 sits on a steel ladder-frame chassis.
There may be no mechanical differences between the Z71 and other similarly-powered Colorado utes, but this is not merely a sticker-pack special – this is something more substantial than that. Don't believe me? Keep reading.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
From the outside, the X-Class looks pretty impressive – it’s chunky and blocky and has a real tough-truck presence.
As mentioned, a fair few of the cool exterior touches are actually paid-for options, and our tester was loaded with these extras and, as a result, looked like a work-or-play ready luxury workhorse.
So, it looks pretty good but, as always, looks can be deceiving and the interior is a very different story.
Practicality
Holden Colorado
The Z71 has a Colorado carry-over interior, which is nice and simple, with some Z71 branding stitched in the front seats.
For starters, there are grab handles for the driver and front passenger – I'm a big fan of grab handles.
The dash is a basic layout – but made family-friendly with expanses of tough plastic and soft-touch leather – and it has everything you need. The centre console houses an 8.0-inch colour touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and standard nav.
There is a USB port in the centre-bin, and there's a 12V socket in the back of that bin for back-seat passengers.
The cabin is reasonably comfortable; the front seats – in fact all of the Z71's seats – err on the side of firm rather than being well-cushioned. But, even in the back seat, when I sat behind my driving position, I had ample head- and leg-room.
There are the usual collection of storage spaces around the cabin – sunglasses, glove box, door pockets, seat-back pockets – but a long centre-bin lid impedes access to the cupholders in between driver and front-seat passenger, and there are no cupholders in the back seat's fold-down centre arm-rest.
There are shallow storage spots under the rear seats, one of which contains your jack etc.
Overall fit and finish is impressive without being spectacular, but that's fine with me.
The tray is 1484mm long, 1534mm wide (1122mm between the wheel-arches) and 466mm high. Back there, you get Premium DuraGuard Spray–on tub liner, which seems sturdy and durable, as well as four solid tie-down points.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
I’m not a snob about interiors but if I spent almost $90 grand on a ute I’d expect it to have a very high level of fit and finish inside, plenty of storage options and an overall premium feeling inside.
That’s sorely lacking in here.
From the many hard-plastic surfaces, fake leather, brushed-aluminium sections and sort of half-hearted attempts at three-pointed star styling – such as the vents – no part of the interior looks or feels anything like the premium quality you’d expect to find in a Mercedes-Benz.
As for equipment inside, you get the 7.0-inch floating touchscreen and a few other bits and pieces but there are some glaring omissions: you don’t get a reach-adjustable steering wheel, heated seats, or real leather (our tester has the optional black leather seats fitted at a cost of $1750), you don’t get much in the way of storage anywhere, and you don’t get Apple CarPlay or Android Auto – you don’t even get a driver-side grab handle. All of those sort of mod cons, you get in a ute that costs much less than this X-Class.Â
Room and comfort inside is adequate but a long way from unreal for something so pricey.
Driving position is nice, with plenty of vision all-round, but everyone's seats could do with a bit more cushioning and length in the base.
In the grand tradition of all utes, the rear seat is really the realm of young children and, at a stretch, smaller adults, especially for longer trips in the saddle.Â
Storage is minimal in the back seat – you don’t even get a drop-down arm-rest with cup-holder.
Price and features
Holden Colorado
The Z71 auto 4x4 dual-cab has a list price of $57,490 MSRP. Our test vehicle is $59,260 MSRP because, over and above its comprehensive list of Z71 features (and those from cheaper variants), it has an electric brake controller ($740), and a towing package ($1030).
The Z71-specific features include a heap of style-based stuff, such as black fender flares, new front fascia, roof rails, and stickers on the bonnet, as well as 18-inch grey alloys (on Bridgestone Dueler H/Ts), sailplane sports bar, black highlights everywhere – including exterior door handles, mirrors and tailgate handle.
But the Z71 buyer gets plenty of useable real-world stuff such as roof rails, soft-drop tailgate, fold-away tonneau cover, and decent underbody protection.
Read More:
Camper-trailer reviewsThere's also a leather-wrapped steering wheel and leather seats.
It has a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel Duramax engine, six-speed automatic transmission, a part-time 4WD system and a rear limited slip differential.
Bonus: there are plenty of genuine Holden-designed, -engineered and -tested accessories, including frontal protection bars, LED light bars, extended sports bars and more, that are probably available for your Colorado.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
The 350d Power ($79,415 plus on-road costs*) is the top-spec variant in a two-variant V6 X-Class range; the other variant is the Progressive, which starts from $73,270 plus on-road costs.
Our tester has a 3.0-litre six-cylinder diesel engine a seven-speed automatic transmission and permanent all-wheel drive system – all from Benz. All of those certainly make a refreshing change from the Navara-based four-cylinder model that preceded this X-Class. (Price as tested is $88,618, including GST plus on-roads.)
Standard gear includes steering-wheel paddle shifters, 19-inch alloy wheels (our tester had the optional 18-inch rim design, part of the $1990 Style Pack), body-coloured exterior parts with chrome accents, fog-lamps, dusk-sensing LED High Performance headlamps, ARTICO/DINAMICA seat upholstery, ARTICO dash and door sill covering with contrast stitching, Electric front seats with lumbar support, front foot-well, vanity and door illumination lamps, dashboard trim in aluminium and black roof liner and more.
Safety gear includes seven airbags, AEB, tyre-pressure-monitoring system, Active Lane Keeping Assist, Hill Start Assist, 360 degree surround-view camera, i-Size child seat anchorages and more.
The roof rails and side steps add to the X-Class’s commanding appearance, but those are part of the optional $1990 Style Pack, they are not standard.
The silver styling bar ($1551) and the tray liner ($899) also look cool– but they’re optional extras.
Under the bonnet
Holden Colorado
The Z71 has a 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel Duramax engine (147kW at 3600rpm and 500Nm at 2000rpm), six-speed automatic transmission, a part-time 4WD system and a rear limited slip differential.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
The V6 350d Power V6 has a Benz-built 3.0-litre diesel engine (190kW at 3400rpm and 550Nm at 1400rpm-3200rpm), matched to a Benz-built seven-speed auto. It’s a mostly smooth combination and any perceived throttle or turbo lag can be swiftly overcome through switching to one of the more sporty of the five driving modes – one of which is actually called Sport – and making judicious use of the steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters. The other driving modes are Comfort, Eco, Manual and Off Road and all are designed to adjust throttle input, gear changes and shift times to suit the terrain.
This X-Class has Benz’s 4Matic full-time 4WD system with 4MAT (40:60 torque split for daily driving), 4H (the X-Class’s high range, with 30:70 torque split for looser surfaces) and 4L (aka low range with a 50:50 torque split to suit low-speed 4WDing). The driver uses a simple dial – unfortunately tucked away low down, almost hidden, on the centre console – to switch between these modes.
Efficiency
Holden Colorado
Our dash display read 7.9L/100km, but we recorded actual fuel consumption on test of 9.7L/100km. It has a 76-litre fuel tank, so expect an approximate driving range of 753km (according to our on-test fuel consumption), factoring in a 30km safety buffer.
On our towing loop, of more than 200km total, the dash was showing 14.5L/100km, but we recorded an actual fuel-consumption figure of 15.5L/100km. Expect an approximate driving range of 460km (according to our on-test fuel consumption), factoring in a 30km safety buffer.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
Fuel consumption is listed as 8.8L/100km (combined).Â
We recorded 10.9L/100km on test and that included plenty of low-speed 4WDing.Â
The V6 X-Class has a 80-litre fuel tank.Â
Driving
Holden Colorado
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.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
Well, this is where the news gets a little bit better.
The V6 is a much better fit for the X-Class than the four-cylinder and it works well with the seven-speed auto, punching the more-than-2190kg ute along – although there is, at times, a substantial delay between foot down and go-time but, as mentioned earlier, that can be overcome by switching to Sport and using the paddle shifters.
It does sit nicely on the road, and ride and handling are generally okay with the X-Class only infrequently revealing some of the skips and jitters you’d expect of an unladen ute.
The coil-spring suspension tends to yield a spongy, comfortable ride rather than the too-firm ride of a ute, especially those of the leaf-spring variety, with nothing onboard.
Steering is pretty sharp and, despite its bulk, the X-Class is reasonably easy to manoeuvre for its size on- and off-road. It has a 12.8m turning circle.
Safety
Holden Colorado
The Colorado line-up has a five-star ANCAP rating as a result of testing in 2016.
Safety gear includes seven airbags, front and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, Forward Collision Alert), Lane Departure Warning, a tyre-pressure-monitoring system, Hill Descent Control, Hill Start Assist, Trailer Sway Control and Roll Over Mitigation.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
A big plus in the X-Class’s favour is its class-leading suite of active safety tech including AEB, lane keeping assist, as well as that 360-degree view camera and more.
It has seven airbags, and a five-star ANCAP rating.
Ownership
Holden Colorado
Holden offers a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty across the Colorado range, with servicing required every 12 months or 12,000km. Capped price servicing applies over seven years/ 84,000km with the average annual cost over three years working out to be $405.
Mercedes-Benz X-Class
A three-year/200,00km warranty applies to this ute. Service intervals are up to one year/20,000km.