The short list
Where the money goes wrong — and where it doesn’t.
✕ Years to avoid
The steering year — recalled on the 2015, not on this one. 695 federal complaints, more than three times any other Colorado year and 45% of the nameplate's entire 2016–2023 file, and roughly three-quarters of the sampled reports are one thing: the electric power steering assist disappearing without warning while driving. The signature is consistent — a StabiliTrak or traction-control message arriving with or just before the loss, a restart that clears it for a while and eventually stops clearing it, and code C0545 pointing at the torque sensor inside the sealed steering gear. That is the same part, the same code and the same failure GM recalled on the 2015 truck under campaign 16V054, and then recalled again under 21V213 covering 60,681 trucks after NHTSA opened a formal Recall Query into whether the first campaign was broad enough. Both list model year 2015 and nothing else. Owners know it: "There was a recall on the 2015 models. There has not been a recall on the 2016 models, but the problem still exists." One reports the failure four separate times; another cannot let family drive the truck because they are not strong enough to turn the wheel when it goes. The 2016 also carries four recalls including two separate driver-airbag campaigns run nearly two years apart on different build populations — check both. The one thing in its favour is genuine: the eight-speed did not arrive until 2017, so the 2016 runs a six-speed and carries none of the shudder risk. It is not enough.
The year the shudder outlived its free fix. On complaint count the 2020 looks calm — 79, the second-lowest in the range. That reading is wrong, and the reason is a coverage cliff rather than a mechanical change. GM's Service Update N192217820, the free machine flush that settles the eight-speed's light-throttle shudder, has a stated scope of 2017, 2018 and 2019. The 2020 has the same transmission, the same fluid and word-for-word the same complaints, and no free remedy. The file shows what that costs: one owner paid $800 for the dealer's recommended flush and still had the shudder; another was quoted $8,000 to repair it; a third had the transmission fail outright at 64,000 miles, just past the powertrain warranty, announced by nothing but the shudder; a fourth had a torque converter condemned at 92,000 miles despite following the full maintenance schedule. Two genuinely valuable free programmes partly offset it, and almost nobody knows to ask for either. If the truck has the six-speed rather than the eight-speed, GM will replace the entire transmission at no charge for a deformed stator shaft — not repair it, replace it. And a bank 2 exhaust camshaft actuator solenoid, code P0024, is replaced at no charge to the customer under a Special Coverage that names 2020 specifically. Establish which transmission you are looking at first: ignition on with the engine off, shifter to L, press plus and count to six or eight.
✓ Years to hunt for
The most sorted truck of the generation — and its biggest complaint is a stuck key. 48 federal complaints, the lowest of the eight years and a fourteenth of the 2016's, on the final year of the second-generation truck. Eight model years of sorting show. The eight-speed shudder that defines 2017 through 2020 is essentially absent from this file, and the 2.5-litre vacuum pump appears once rather than as a cluster. What is left is concentrated and mostly irritating: roughly a quarter of the entire file is the ignition key refusing to release because the truck does not register that it is in park. Owners switch off and on, rock the shifter, jiggle the wheel; one disconnects the battery. The repair is a shifter assembly, it falls outside the powertrain warranty, and it recurs — one owner had it replaced in 2024 and had the same fault two years later, by then out of warranty. Beyond that: a smaller steering cluster where the wheel catches or binds at low speed, a fuel gauge that reads wrong, and battery drain owners attribute to infotainment parasitic draw. The one safety recall, 22V375, covers an improperly welded front passenger seat hook and only applies to manual seats. The thing most second and third owners miss on this year is money left on the table: chip-shortage programmes for heated seats, ventilated seats and park assist that were never fitted, trucks delivered without accessory packages or hood insulators, and an $800 reimbursement for Midnight and Trail Boss trucks charged twice for their wheels. Ask a dealer to run every one of them by VIN.
The last year GM flushes the transmission for free. 145 complaints and, unusually, no safety recalls we could establish — but the reason to single out the 2019 is one date. GM's free transmission fluid Service Update N192217820 covers 2017, 2018 and 2019, and stops. A 2019 owner can still walk into a dealer, quote it, and have the machine flush done at no charge. A 2020 owner cannot. That matters because the flush is what stands between the shudder and the expensive tail: GM's own service literature for these years includes a procedure to replace the torque converter and inspect the front pump and the transmission control module for metal, and a 2019 owner in the file describes exactly that ending — an intermittent vibration that worsened until "the dealer just called and said the torque converter was shot." Two independent shops in our sources found that only the full machine flush works; a pan drop and refill can briefly make things worse. The 2019 is not spotless: power steering complaints carry over from the earlier trucks with no campaign reaching this year, one steering rack failed outright at 10,000 miles, one owner reports a blown head gasket with coolant in the oil and no warning lights, and a valve-body solenoid connector fault that drops the transmission into limp mode is free to fix but easy to misdiagnose. Buy the one with paperwork, not the one with a story.
Same year. Different engine.
One badge, several engines — the year’s verdict assumes the riskiest one. Yours might be the calm one.
Which engine is in the one you found?
Where the years split by powertrain — and note that the transmission you get changes which risks applyThe base engine, and the one with an uncovered brake failure attached. The 2.5-litre four is the entry engine through 2022, and its defining problem is not the engine itself but the brake vacuum pump bolted to it. Because the pump is driven off the camshaft, when it seizes two things happen at once: the brake pedal goes rock-hard with almost no assist, and the seizing pump can break the exhaust camshaft and put metal into the engine. Owners on the 2021 describe running a red light, stopping from 40 mph on the parking brake and downshifts, and — at under 50,000 miles — "complete brake failure caused by vacuum pump failure" that "led to irreparable internal engine damage, requiring complete engine replacement." One filing states it is the fifth 2.5-litre truck the writer knows of with the same sequence. There is no NHTSA recall and nothing in the Colorado's entire manufacturer-communications file covering it: GM's well-known vacuum-pump recall 19V645 and its companion Special Coverage belong to the full-size 5.3- and 6.2-litre V8 trucks, a different pump on a different engine, and neither names the Colorado. A single 2022 filing reports the same hard-pedal failure. Make pedal feel the first and last check on any 2.5-litre truck.
The volume engine — and the reason 2017 is a bigger change than it looks. The 3.6-litre V6 is the engine most Colorado buyers want, and it changed at the 2017 model year: the carryover LFX gave way to an all-new LGZ, and with it came the eight-speed automatic that defines the next four years. On the LGZ specifically, GM has a Customer Satisfaction Program for high oil pump pressure in cold-weather starts, which can fail the engine oil cooler, its lines or the pump itself — and GM's own wording is that if you keep driving with low oil despite the warnings, the engine may seize and cause a stall or a loss of propulsion. Read the geography carefully, because it is the whole story: the programme applies only to trucks in Canada or currently or previously registered in Alaska. A 2017 owner elsewhere reports the oil-cooler line rupturing twice in two years at 50,000 miles and paying for it. The other named V6 fault is a bank 2 exhaust camshaft position actuator solenoid, code P0024, which GM replaces at no charge under a Special Coverage — but that programme names model year 2020, so a 2019 owner with the identical code pays. The 2021 file also carries several catastrophic V6 failures, one attributed to a defective crankshaft, with no recall or programme behind them.
The quiet one — and it is not part of the shudder story at all. The 2.8-litre Duramax four (engine code LWN) is the option buyers choose for towing and economy, and the single most useful thing to know about it is structural: it does not get the eight-speed. It runs a six-speed automatic, as a diesel specialist shop in our sources states directly while working on one. So the shudder that defines 2017 through 2020 on the V6 trucks simply does not apply to a diesel of any year. What the federal record shows instead is an emissions-system service burden rather than a bottom-end one — a long run of bulletins on diesel exhaust fluid contamination, pump priming, particulate filter regeneration diagnostics and NOx sensor readings across 2016 to 2022, plus three voluntary emissions recalls: engine computer reprogrammes on 2016–2019 and 2018–2019 trucks whose software may not adequately warn the driver when the particulate filter regenerates too often, and a 2022 reprogramme for a diesel exhaust fluid pump that can activate before the frozen fluid has thawed, ending in a warning of reduced maximum speed. On the 2021 there is a genuinely useful free item: a Special Coverage replacing the throttle body where its motor fails to complete its position learn cycle, which GM says can put the engine into reduced power mode, repaired at no charge to the customer. This row is thinner than the petrol engines' because the diesel draws far fewer complaints, not because it is proven immortal.
The only engine in the 2023 — and the base version is not the same engine as the others. The third-generation Colorado offers exactly one engine in three output levels across two mechanically different versions, and GM's own powertrain engineers spelled out the difference at the launch briefing. The base L2R makes 237 horsepower, is standard on Work Truck and LT, runs the lighter-duty 8L45 eight-speed and tows 3,500 pounds. The L3B comes as Turbo Plus (310 horsepower, 390 lb-ft) and High Output (310 horsepower, 430 lb-ft, standard on ZR2), both on a heavier-duty 8L80 and towing up to 7,700 pounds. The base engine is deliberately decontented — the engineers said it loses piston cooling jets and other items that give the L3B refinement and longevity at higher output, and their words on tuning one up were "you could do it, but things will break." On the federal record: GM has a Customer Satisfaction Program whose entire remedy is to replace the engine because the block was produced with cracks, a voluntary emissions recall replacing all four fuel injectors because they may not properly optimise fuelling, and a Service Update installing cable ties because there is insufficient clearance between the engine wiring harness and the turbo actuator. Two owners report the engine losing its entire oil charge without the low-oil-pressure lamp ever lighting.
The shudder — free to fix on three years, and only three. The 8L45 eight-speed arrived with the new V6 for 2017 and brought a rhythmic shake at steady light throttle, most obvious between about 25 and 80 mph, that owners universally describe as driving over rumble strips. GM's own Service Update says the same thing almost word for word and blames the fluid rather than the hardware: the original fill absorbs moisture, the friction properties change, and the torque converter clutch grabs and slips instead of holding. The remedy is a machine flush and a refill with Mobil 1 Synthetic LV ATF HP — blue label, which mixes with the old Dexron 6; black label does not — and it takes up to 200 miles and two cold drive cycles to settle. The coverage is the whole game. Service Update N192217820 covers 2017, 2018 and 2019 free, and stops. One owner just outside the warranty published his dealer invoice: $306 labour, $54 for the flush machine, $140 for twelve quarts of fluid, $499 all in. On a 2020, owners report $800 flushes that did not work and $8,000 replacement quotes. Two independent shops in our sources both found that a pan drop and refill is not enough and can briefly make it worse — only the full machine flush cleared it. There is a test you can run on any drive: hold light steady throttle and tap the brake with your left foot just hard enough to light the brake lamps without slowing. If the shake stops the instant you tap, it is the torque converter clutch and not your tyres.
The transmission that sits out the whole shudder story. The six-speed automatic is what the 2016 runs behind its V6, and what every 2.8-litre diesel runs throughout the generation. It is genuinely a different proposition: the 2016's complaint file contains almost no powertrain cluster at all, which is exactly why its 695 complaints are steering rather than transmission, and a diesel specialist in our sources confirms on camera that the 6L50 is what backs the 2.8 Duramax. It is not flawless. GM has a Customer Satisfaction Program on 2020 trucks with the six-speed for a slight deformation in the stator shaft, which the programme says causes vibration and a decrease in shift performance — and the stated remedy is that dealers replace the transmission, at no charge. Because the symptom is vibration it is very easy to mistake for the eight-speed's shudder and pay for a flush that was never going to help. Confirm which one you have before spending anything: ignition on with the engine off, shifter to L, then press plus and count. If it stops at six, that is your answer.
The split is partial by design — we draw a row only where a GM campaign document, a mechanic source or a complaint cluster names that engine or transmission. Note the hard break at 2023: the 2.5-litre, the 3.6-litre V6 and the 2.8-litre Duramax all end with the second-generation truck in 2022, and the third-generation Colorado offers the 2.7-litre turbo four and nothing else, so no issue on this page crosses that line. The GMC Canyon is the same truck under a different badge and shares every engine, every transmission and every GM campaign number here, but it files its own complaints with NHTSA and has no page of its own yet. The VIN tells you which engine and transmission you actually have, and which recalls, special coverages and satisfaction programmes apply — paste it and we'll tell you which row is yours.
Decode my VIN — freeEvery year, rated
Each verdict links to the full report: known issues with real repair costs, open recalls, and the print-and-go inspection checklist.
The steering year — 695 complaints, three-quarters of them a power steering failure that got the 2015 recalled and left the 2016 out.
695 complaints · 4 recalls
Full report →The eight-speed arrives, and so does the shudder — but this is one of only three years GM will flush the fluid for free.
212 complaints · 1 recalls
Full report →Same shudder, same free fluid fix — and one owner who paid $500 for it anyway, then got quoted $8,000.
175 complaints · 1 recalls
Full report →No recalls at all, and the last year GM will flush the transmission for free — which makes this the smart end of the eight-speed years.
145 complaints · 0 recalls
Full report →The year the shudder outlived its free fix — same transmission as the 2019, none of the coverage.
79 complaints · 0 recalls
Full report →The transmission finally quiets down and something worse takes over — a brake vacuum pump that can break the camshaft on its way out.
69 complaints · 1 recalls
Full report →The quietest Colorado we cover — and its biggest single complaint is a key that won't come out of the ignition.
48 complaints · 1 recalls
Full report →An all-new truck with an all-new set of problems — brakes that slam on by themselves, a radiator hose that fails at 20,000 miles, and software that can brick it.
130 complaints · 3 recalls
Full report →The power steering has failed 4 times. This is the same problem that the 2015 Colorado's had. There was a recall on the 2015 models. There has not been a recall on the 2016 models, but the problem still exists.
Shopping Colorado years? We’ll watch them for you.
New recalls, federal investigations, and quiet warranty-extension programs land months after you buy. Tell the canary which years you’re considering — it sings when something changes.
Watch my years — freeCross-shopping?
Same class, checked the same way: