Rhetoric And Composition: Chevrolet Colorado

Rhetoric & Composition
Professor Hansen
January 22, 2014
Chevrolet Colorado Quite a few car manufacturers have created models similar to this mid-sized truck but still the Chevrolet Colorado LTZ with Z71 suspension and four-wheel drive is the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to smaller trucks. Many individuals say the truck is almost worthless when it comes to being an actual “pick-up” truck. Some say the cab and/or the truck bed is too small, others will tell you that the 3.7 liter engine is just plain silly when it comes to torque and horsepower. Then again, there are people out there that will tell you that all of those things can be put to great use and that just because the truck is small does not mean it is at all worthless.
The Chevrolet Colorado is a mid-sized pick-up truck that has all the same features as the Silverado, just in a smaller model. Chevrolet has numerous models when it comes to their pickup trucks.
They have different variations of two-wheel drive trucks with stock suspension, four-wheel drive trucks with stock suspension, but the for the pure off-roaders Chevrolet has created the four-wheel drive with Z71 suspension. Any truck that has this suspension is ready for the roughest of terrain. The Z71 package includes bigger, 18 inch aluminum wheels which are fitted on with off-road blackwall tires. Blackwall meaning, a more aggressive tread pattern and thicker rubber to withstand puncture wounds. So not only does the truck sit higher off the ground for more clearance but also gives it a more aggressive stance to take on deep ruts or large bumps. The biggest difference between stock and Z71 is the suspension. Z71 provides the truck with specially tuned shock coils and mono tube shocks giving the overall suspension better support for the truck itself. Other features are included in the Z71 package too like its rear locking differential to improve power in the drive shaft. This means that all of the wheels are moving with the same amount of horsepower, rather than the wheels individually feeling whether or not they have traction beneath them and adjusting torque by themselves. Thus giving the truck a better advantage on slippery roads or muddy
back-roads. Other benefits, like having a full size cab, is another area where the Colorado trumps some of its competitors, for example, the Ford Ranger. The Ranger is also a mid-size truck, at least, that is what Ford would like to say. The Ranger is considerably smaller than the Colorado due to the fact that Ford has yet to create a model of the Ranger that is a full-size cab -- or one with four doors. This limits the Ranger to one passenger and then whatever you can fit in the bed, which is also smaller than the six and a half foot bed that the Colorado possesses. Also the Ford Ranger does not have any other improvements to their four wheel drive models. As for the Colorado, as mentioned before, has bigger wheels and more durable tires for the dirt roads and such. The 3.7 liter engine is viewed as worthless when it comes to torque and horsepower, but really it is all a matter of what the consumer will actually use, what he/she will actually need.
You see, the “liter” term is used to describe the size of the engine, the cylinders to be more specific. The bigger the cylinders, the more fuel has to be pumped in to keep the cylinders firing. The bigger the engine, the worse fuel mileage the vehicle gets. Sure there are some companies out there, like landscaping companies or people with horse trailers, which will actually need an engine that can haul that big of a load. In that case yes, the Colorado would struggle to accomplish that task. You would need a larger .350 V8 or even a diesel truck to finish that job. The Colorado has a capacity of a horsepower of 185 horsepower at about 6000 rpm. Although the engine cannot tow as much as some would like, that is not the point of the in-line 3.7 V5 (or V4). The whole reason is so that the driver can get a better miles per gallon in a pick-up. So if an individual works a manual labor job with a long commute which requires him to throw things in a truck bed instead of the cab, this would be a good truck for
him. These trucks also make for good hunting vehicles. The trucks exhaust is coming from an in-line L5 or L4 - which means the cylinders are aligned in a single straight line instead of a “V”-styled engine (V4, V5, V6, V8 etc.) so there is not much noise to scare off the game. The Colorado is also smaller which means it can fit into smaller more heavily wooded areas and get minimal scratches on the paint. The hunting experience just gets all the more better if you spend the extra $1300.00 on the Z71 package and maybe get a leveling kit or lift kit and then grab some all-terrain tires. There are many benefits to the Chevrolet Colorado, but nothing will ever be perfect. It has its pros and cons. The Colorado is perfect for some people but then for others it is just a matchbox toy car. It is easily the best choice for mid-sized pick-up trucks, no other truck in its league can compare to it.