Like any good athlete knows, it's unwise to get lazy in the off-season because that gives the competition a chance to catch up. As the mid-size segment's top truck, the Chevy Colorado cannot afford to fall behind, especially as Ford is preparing to reintroduce the Ranger to the US. As such GM told its people to go back to the drawing board and find a way to keep things fresh. The result is that Chevy reworked the truck's powertrain, possibly in hopes of reclaiming Car and Driver's number one rating from the Honda Ridgeline.

Chevy still leads the pack when it comes to sales, and GM is confident that the truck can cross the 160,000-sales mark. To achieve that goal it will replace the Colorado's 3.6-liter V6 with another 3.6-liter V6 and add an eight-speed transmission. As redundant as the engine swap sounds, Chevy promises that its power plant change is justified. The new V6 is slightly more powerful (an increase of 3 horsepower and 6 lb-ft of torque to 308 ponies and 275 lb-ft) and more efficient. It's also used in the Cadillac ATS, CTS, and the Chevy Camaro, although in the Colorado it will likely be optimized for towing and highway fuel economy.

To help with the latter, a cylinder deactivation system is included to knock two cylinders out when they aren't needed. The greater spread of gearing should also help with mpg figures, although Chevy hasn't released those to the public quite yet. The other engine options, a 2.5-liter inline-four and a 2.8-liter turbo diesel-four remain unchanged, but when equipped with four-wheel drive all Colorados now get a drive selector knob to switch between driving modes. They'll also gain Chevy's newest suite of parental controls called "Teen Driver" to prevent unruly high schoolers from having too much fun. If you want Chevy's new V6 Colorado, then wait around until October for the truck to go on sale.