General Motors announced the pricing for the 2015 GMC Canyon and the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado this week, with base models starting at $21,880 and $20,995 respectively.
The announcement shows that the two midsized trucks will come in at $5,000 less than their full-size counterparts, encouraging customers to opt for the smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The GMC Canyon will come with a 2.5-liter, four cylinder direct-injection motor which is rated at 200 HP. It will also include a four-way powered drivers seat and 16-inch aluminum wheels. Pricing for the vehicle depends on trim and optional features, with GMC offering a SLE trim package that is priced at $27,520. This model will also include an aluminum interior trim, soft-touch instrument panel and an 8-inch color touch radio.
Another model, the Canyon SLT, is four-wheel drive and includes a 3.6-liter engine rated at 305 HP, with leather seating, automatic climate control and 18-inch polished cast-aluminum wheels.
A number of cab configurations can be chosen from, with extended cab models coming in at 6 feet, 2 inches in length, and crew cab models coming in at either 6 feet, 2 inches, or 5 feet, 2 inches.
The standard model of the Chevrolet Colorado includes the same 2.5-liter engine as the GMC Canyon, a 6-speed manual transmission, power steering, and a rear-vision camera with dynamic guidelines.
Interested buyers can also upgrade the Chevrolet Colorado to include a 305 HP 3.6-liter engine, 4G LTE with a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot and forward collision alert.
Customers of the Colorado also have a choice of two cab configurations. The extended cab model is automatically 6 feet in length, with buyers of the crew cab model having a choice between 5-foot and 6-foot cabs.
As far as cost goes for the Chevrolet Colorado variants, the LT crew cab with two-wheel drive and a 5-foot box comes in at $27,985 total. The four-wheel drive model with a 5-foot bed starts at $34,990.
The announcement of the pricing is welcome for many dealers, who were hoping for a better price spread between General Motors' midsized and full-sized vehicles. Industry analysts have also said that this decrease in price gap should help GM to revive the shrinking market for smaller pickups.
This market reached a new low last year, with only 227,111 trucks being sold, down from 1 million in 2001. This decrease in sales has prompted Ford to end production of the U.X. Range Rover in 2011.
According to General Motors, both vehicles will be available from GM dealerships later this year.
