Dumb and Dumber In Detroit Decide our Truck Choices

by Kent Scott

I was anxiously awaiting the introduction of the new mid-size Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks as they were expected to use the fantastic new 4.2 inline six used the the Blazer and Envoy. I was both disappointed and amazed that some product managers decided to only offer a five cylinder version as the largest offering.

The result was I bought a Dodge Dakota Quad Cab with the 4.7 V8. It's a good vehicle, but I would have preferred the higher tech 4.2 six if it had been available. The result for Chevy and GMC excluding the six has been poor sales, poor performance and a poor image for the entire line of vehicles.

Meanwhile Toyota and Nissan have introduces high tech 4.0 V6 engines that blow even the enlarged five into the weeds and are backing them with a five speed automatic.

On top of the poor initial decision to not initially offer the six, they claim they don't have room to put it in if they wanted to. Who are these decision makers, who are the bosses that hired them and why do they still have their jobs? Do you think some kid in his back yard couldn't swap the five for a six if he wanted to?

There are a multitude of ways to do it, but a very simple way is to just put an electric fan in front of the radiator instead of behind it. The shroud would have to have an intake surface to assure airflow when the fan wasn't running, but that's a no-brainer.

An alternative is to just sell GM to someone who can run it. It isn't the engineers, it's the managers. It's time to clean house in Detroit so they can compete worldwide.