The Wentzville-made Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon have both won national awards for 2015.
2015 Chevrolet Colorado Z71
The Chevrolet Colorado has been named Motor Trend’s ‘Truck of the Year,’ while the GMC Canyon won Autoweek’s ‘Best of the Best Truck.’
General Motors announced it would be making a historic $380 million investment in its Wentzville assembly plant back in November of 2011. GM brought the production of the completely redesigned, mid-sized Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks to the Missouri facility.
To be eligible for the Motor Trend award, a truck must be all-new or significantly changed for the 2015 model year. The mid-sized Colorado beat out six other trucks and won by a rare unanimous vote. Each truck was rated separately by six criteria: design advancement, engineering excellence, efficiency, safety, value, and performance of intended function.
Editor in Chief of Motor Trend Edward Loh says the Colorado is the right sized pick-up truck for today.
“Everybody is going really, really big. We really like the fact that GM has come out with a vehicle that is small, works in an urban environment, and will do great out where people love to have fun,” said Loh.
Loh told Missourinet that the competition wasn’t particularly very close this year and the Colorado walked away with it.
Autoweek’s annual Best of the Best awards are based on the evaluations of eight vehicle finalists selected for their performance, design, build quality, value and significance. Magazine editors praised the all-new mid-sized GMC Canyon for its design, utility, features, and “perfect size.”
2015 GMC Canyon
Editor in Chief of Autoweek Wes Raynal says he is really pleased with the winner and thinks his team did the right thing.
“The quality is good, the interior materials are very nice, well assembled. It just kind of pommelled the rest of the trucks,” said Raynal.
Raynal said the Colorado finished 2nd behind the Canyon in their review.
“There basically the same truck in a lot of ways, but we liked the interior quality on the GMC and frankly we liked the exterior look a little bit more,” said Raynal.
Raynal told Missourinet that Wentzville assembly plant workers should be proud of the trucks they’ve built.
“I think it’s going to be a huge hit, both the Canyon and the Colorado. I don’t think they’re going to have any trouble selling them and therefore they’ll have no trouble building them,” said Raynal.
