The 2018 Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme reminds us of the ZR2 Bison concept we saw a few months ago, only Australian.
The Land Down Under is a weird place when it comes to cars. Way back in the past, before various Asian countries started getting really into car manufacturing, it cost way too much to bring over a car from North America so GM, Ford, and Chevy all just build factories on the big island in the Pacific and sold locally manufactured cars.
Sure, there were some local manufacturers as well (although they’re mostly all gone now), as well as some highly unique Aussie-market-only models, but for the most part, it was "make the same car we do here," only "over there" with a different badge.
Take Holden, for example. Several years ago it used to make its own GM-sourced cars locally and sold them as Holden vehicles. Then the global recession hit in the late 2000s and Holden fell on hard times. GM decided it was simply cheaper to make the cars in South East Asia and import them than to make them locally. Nowadays, Holden just imports the vehicles and then rebadges them for the local market.
Holden still has a design house in Port Melbourne that sometimes comes up with their own one-off creations using GM-sourced cars, although you might spot a few similarities between their latest 2018 Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme and the Colorado ZR2 Bison concept that we saw in North America last April.
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As the name suggests, the Z71 Xtreme is an extreme off-roader designed for the terrors of the Australian outback. It also shares a lot of parts with the Colorado ZR2, that being the hood, skid plate, and the whole off-road appearance package in the truck bed. The front bumper has a slight difference from the cow-catcher we saw on the ZR2 but has the same 10,000 lb winch.
The Z71 doesn’t get a snorkel, but it does get a roof rack that allows you to take your surfboards and/or dirt bikes wherever you please.
Power comes from the same 2.8-L Duramax turbodiesel as the ZR2, with 369 lb-ft of torque, 181 hp, and a towing capacity of 7,700 lbs.
The Z71 Xtreme will be on sale in Aussieland starting October first, but if you want one here you can just order a Colorado ZR2 with the off-road appearance package and a few aftermarket upgrades. It’s basically the same truck.