Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme 2018 off-road review

The interior is identical to before, so just like the Z71 that this model is based on, you get leather seats with heating up front, plus there’s an 8.0-inch touchscreen media system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That system is a cinch to use, and while the overall feel of the cabin is on the cheap side - including the graphics on the screen’s native menus - having phone mirroring lifts the ambience.]

Inside, there’s an 8.0-inch touchscreen media system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

There’s good loose-item storage, including cup holders up front, bottle holders in all the doors, and a spacious second-row seat with a flip-down armrest hiding a pair of cup holders too.

Compared with the likes of the Toyota HiLux, Nissan Navara, Mitsubishi Triton and Mercedes X-Class, the Colorado offers really decent back-seat space.

The Colorado offers really decent back-seat space.

It’s on par with the Isuzu D-Max and Ford Ranger for leg room and headroom, but can’t match the width on offer in the Volkswagen Amarok.

The dimensions are marginally impacted by the bars front and rear, but not dramatically: the regular Colorado dual-cab measures 5361mm long (on a 3096mm wheelbase), 1872mm wide and 1800mm tall. 

The tray dimensions are unchanged, at 1484mm long, 1534mm wide (1122mm between the arches) and 466mm deep. 

The bonnet bulge is misleading, because the engine is the same. Despite quite a bit of extra weight being added to this version of the Colorado, there’s no power bump. 

It retains the existing 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel ‘Duramax’ engine with outputs of 147kW of power and 500Nm of torque.

Officially, the Xtreme is only available with the company’s six-speed automatic transmission, so it still gets class-leading torque for a four-cylinder.

We’ve heard that if you really want to add the pack to a manual Colorado, it could be possible…

Towing capacity remains among the better ratings in the class, with a 750kg un-braked trailer and 3500kg braked towing capacity.

With about 150kg of extra weight fitted to the Xtreme model, the payload has copped a slight dent - Holden says the capability remains at about 850kg, which is still pretty strong considering the Rugged X version of the HiLux has 748kg.

The gross vehicle mass (GVM) is rated at 3150kg, while the gross combined mass (GCM) is rated at 6000kg. 

According to Holden, the Xtreme model exhibits no difference to the fuel consumption figure of the Z71 dual-cab diesel auto 4x4 ute it’s based upon. 

That means a rating of 8.7 litres per 100 kilometres. On our drive - which consisted of 99 per cent high-speed travel on loose gravel - we saw a trip computer indicated 11.3L/100km. 

Fuel tank capacity is 76 litres, meaning a theoretical mileage range of 1145km if you can get the claimed consumption, or 860km at what we we saw.

If you plan to cover hundreds of kilometres of loose gravel roads like we did, then the Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme is a great option for you.

While the ride impressed around town, it was even better over high-speed corrugations - there’s the usual vibration through the seats, which is a bit like a massage, but the way the suspension isolates the cabin from the jostling that the wheels are doing is really impressive.

If you plan to cover hundreds of kilometres of loose gravel roads, then the Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme is a great option.

Not only were small bumps dealt with well - the suspension managed big compressions at higher speeds with ease, and while the rear seat passengers were often bounced around a bit more than those up front, we weren’t travelling at ‘caravan’ speeds. 

The steering is great on loose surfaces, too, no doubt aided by the A/T tyres on the Xtreme - we had no issues with front-end grip, but like all live-axle rear utes, the back end can swivel and pivot a bit. Because of the number of sharp rocks prevalent on these sorts of roads, the tyre-pressure-monitoring system was a very handy item to have, too - and it’s configurable, depending on your load.

The steering is great on loose surfaces.

The engine and transmission were at home at higher speeds, with the gearbox settling sixth and only calling upon lower gears when truly necessary. It offers good linear power delivery and the gearbox exhibits good, clean, smart shifts.

To be honest, it was hard to pick the difference between the Xtreme and the other Colorado models we also drove on this trip - which is good. But the biggest giveaway was the very noisy roof platform system, which howled at speeds above about 90km/h. And - to the naked ear, at least - the tyres offered up just a little more noise than the Bridgestone Dueler H/T rubber on the other models, but that’s to be expected of a more aggressive tread pattern. 

As for a more serious off-road review, the terrain out near Coober Pedy isn’t the most challenging. We did a short, semi-sandy loop outside of town, which included some low-speed ascents and descents, and the Colorado Z71 Xtreme handled it all with relative ease. Traction was fine, and in 4H there was no trouble dealing with the hard-packed sand under its A/T tyres. There is no rear diff lock, though, and that could mean a little more money to spend if you plan to keep up on the more serious off-road stuff that some competitor utes with differential locks can handle.

The ground clearance isn’t as good as some other utes, at 215mm, but the under-body protection did its job.

The ground clearance isn’t as good as some other utes, at 215mm, but the under-body protection did its job. One thing to note is that the Holden’s front bash plate is rated, but it is only 2.6mm thick - the HiLux Rugged X plate is 5mm thick!

As for the all-important angles: the approach angle is 28 degrees (increasing to 33 deg at the inner edge of the front tyre, and 36 deg at the outer edge, due to the taper of the front bar), while the departure and ramp-over angles are 22 deg.

Our test didn’t involve any towing, so we can’t give you a towing review impression.

Holden’s range-wide five-year unlimited kilometre warranty is applicable to the Colorado range, and that’s good news. The remainder is transferable to the next owner if you decide to move on, too.

The Colorado range persists with the annoyingly short service intervals of nine months/15,000km. That means you’ll be visiting the dealer for maintenance a bit more than some competitors which require annual servicing - the Navara, for instance, only needs servicing every 12 months/20,000km.

At least the costs are reasonable: the average cost per visit over five years works out at about $422. Read our full Holden capped price servicing story here.