Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon Aim at Mid-Size Pickup Market

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jun 21, 9:50AM EDT

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General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) already has had a great deal of success in the full-size pickup market, which only has three significant competitors. Its Chevy Silverado ranks second among the big pickups in sales, behind the perennial leader, Ford Motor Co.’s (NYSE: F) F-Series, and ahead of Chrysler’s Ram. The much more competitive mid-sized market is about to get two new entries: the new Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon.

Options are one of the critical factors that make a pickup successful. The F-Series has dozens of combinations, which can drive its price from $25,000 to more than $60,000. GMC and Chevy will cater to this with two engine sizes and towing capacities. These separate the recreational driver from those who actually use the trucks for work.

The standard engine for the 2015 Colorado has only four cylinders, which makes it stingy with gas. It puts out 200 HP and 191 lb.-feet of torque. The larger engine has 305 HP and 269 lb.-feet for torque. It can tow 7,000 pounds.

The two trucks face entrenched competition. Interestingly enough, these are primarily from the Japanese, which have failed in the full-sized market. They are the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Motor Corp.’s (NYSE: TM) Takoma. While the GM models have not been given prices, the base price for the 2014 Frontier is $20,510. For the Takoma, the base is $18,125. GM will not price its new trucks above that. But, like its Japanese rivals, options and packages can push prices to double their bases.

In introducing the two new pickups, GM was plain about its understanding that the products have to be customized by drivers to make them successful:

“Every decision we made considered the wants and needs of midsize truck customers. The 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon are engineered to deliver class leading horsepower,” said Anita Burke, vehicle chief engineer for Midsize Trucks. “Not everyone needs the size or the capability of a full-sized pickup. Now customers have a viable option in a smaller package.”

Next year, the industry will find out if that is enough.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.