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2016 Chevrolet Colorado Diesel First Drive [w/video]

The first thing you notice inside the diesel Chevy Colorado is that it's quiet. Almost too quiet. A lot has been done to quell noise and vibration with this new powertrain, and it shows – or rather, doesn't. There's some characteristic diesel clatter at idle, but even then it's distant and practically disappears as you start moving down the road. At full throttle, when the engine is at its noisiest, the sound isn't particularly diesel-like, just a pleasant intake breath. The accompanying smoothness is almost eerie. When we ask where all the noise went, Chevy's engineers, marketing guys, and PR reps all explain that this refinement is what Americans want. We're still not sure. This is a truck, after all, and the diesel pickup customer is different from the guy buying a diesel Cruze for his highway commute. Chevy contends that they're also not the same as the buyer of a Silverado HD. Although this 2.8-liter Duramax four-cylinder has been in service elsewhere around the globe, its first US application is in the Colorado and its GMC Canyon twin. The engine puts out 181 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque, and it does so unobtrusively as a result of a lot of modifications for our market. To keep normal diesel sensations out of the cabin, the intake and oil pan both get acoustic treatments. A new, thicker material is used for firewall sound deadening. Redesigned balance shafts have tighter tolerances to increase smoothness. The diesel powertrain is smoother than the Colorado's gasoline V6. One of the more interesting and certainly unexpected vibration-reduction changes is a special torque converter from German supplier LuK equipped with a centrifugal pendulum absorber. This pendulum spreads from the center of the torque converter as engine speed increases and is tuned to absorb the four-cylinder's second-order vibrations, not just those in a narrow frequency band. It does an admirable job, especially considering the engine's biggish, 0.7-liter cylinders, which lead to bigger vibrations. The result is a powertrain that's smoother than GM's (not particularly smooth) corporate V6, which is available in the standard Colorado. It's quieter than a Cruze diesel and even out-softens some gas direct-injection engines on the market. Paradoxically, it may be the most refined of all of the Colorados. No vibration comes through the steering wheel, pedals, floorboards, or even the rearview mirror. But you can tell it's a diesel when you hit the throttle.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Chevrolet FNR is a sharp vision of the future in Shanghai

The Shanghai Motor Show is about more than just displaying the latest extended-wheelbase luxury sedans to the Chinese populace. Chevrolet is taking advantage of the event to debut its vision of the future of motoring with the FNR concept, and the capsule looks like it could be fresh from off the set of Blade Runner. The FNR imagines what a fully autonomous, electric vehicle might look like many years from now and is meant to appeal to young, Chinese consumers. The concept's design from the minds at GM's Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center does a pretty neat magic trick, too. Most times it's a mass of glass and curving lines that looks very sci-fi, but then the dragonfly doors open upwards to reveal some knife-edged angles in the styling, as well. As a cutting-edge concept, this capsule is also packed with futuristic tech. Power comes from magnetic hubless electric motors in each wheel, and it could charge wirelessly. Crystal lasers generate the headlights and taillights, and radar in the roof would allow scanning the surroundings for autonomous driving. The interior is similarly imaginative as the rest of the styling. Passengers are enveloped in blue light while sitting in mostly mesh chairs with huge bolsters. Keys have been done away with entirely in favor of iris recognition. Once on the road, the front seats even swivel around to more easily talk with rear passengers. Check it all out in the gallery above for a glimpse a Chevy's vision of what might be next. Related Video: Chevrolet-FNR and All-New Chevrolet Malibu Make Global Debut at Shanghai GM Gala Night 2015-04-19 SHANGHAI – Two Chevrolet models, the Chevrolet-FNR and all-new Malibu, made their global debut this evening at Shanghai GM Gala Night. They were joined by the Bolt EV concept and the 2015 Captiva, which made their China debut. The new models were introduced as Shanghai GM celebrates the 10th Anniversary of its Chevrolet brand in China. They will appear alongside 12 other models on the Chevrolet display at Auto Shanghai 2015, this year's leading auto show in China, which starts tomorrow. Chevrolet-FNR The Chevrolet-FNR is an autonomous electric concept vehicle that offers a glimpse at mobility of the future. It was developed in Shanghai by GM's Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) joint venture. Engineering, design and electrification teams drew on their past experience developing electric concept vehicles.