Last week, we talked about a strange vehicle that was seen entering the Ford proving grounds in Michigan with a Ford Everest SUV in tow. Speculation ran rampant with many reporting that it was a sneakily camouflaged Ford Courier truck in testing, we thought a Ford Bronco was more likely. We doubted the Courier claims from the get-go as the Courier is tipped to be unibody and the Colorado truck in the images had a frame underneath. A Ford Authority source familiar with what Ford is working has said that the bizarre Colorado body wearing truck we saw last week isn’t a Ford product at all, not even a Bronco.
The source tells us that the truck is a development mule for a third-party Asian auto manufacturer. The source didn’t give any information on which Asian automaker the vehicle was for or why it was using a modified Colorado body. Some speculation suggests that the Colorado was a test mule for SsangYong Motors, an automaker selling vehicles in Europe, but that is unclear.
Looking back at the images we posted last week one thing is clear on second look; the Colorado clad truck in the photos has five lugnuts on the wheels. Both the Ranger and Bronco test mules that have been spied in testing always have six lugnuts. The source says that this third-party automaker is simply renting the Ford proving grounds for what was said to be aggressive rollover testing.
The source had no real detail on why the Ford Everest SUV was tagging along as a support vehicle; perhaps it’s being benchmarked by the Asian automaker. We’ve got no real insight into that, but it is odd that a non-U.S. market SUV is in the U.S. for testing. The assumption is that the reason the license plates are so close in sequence is that both plates were issued to the same automaker.
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Comments
Maybe Nissan testing the (X)Terra? Looks like the right dimensions.
I would say that being 5 lug rules that out. All Nissan trucks and truck-based SUVs have been 6 lug going back decades.
I believe it could be SsangYong, or perhaps a Chinese automaker. A big company like Nissan, Toyota, Honda or even Mitsubishi wouldnt need to rent Ford proving grounds to test a vehicle.
I agree Nissan Terra would have 6 lugs, Most likely an Everest chassis. Maybe they are planning a pickup based on the Everest. I would like to see the Everest SUV offered in the US.
if you people couldn’t tell after one look that it was at the very least,
a cloak of a Colorado, you’re all in the wrong line of “work” …
It’s wearing Apollo tires, so it’s probably Indian.
Suzuki jimny to the us if they want to return to the market. Short wheelbase, 5 lug , seems to be testing something with height, just my guess.
I believe its mahindra. Ford and mahindra created joint venture recently in India and both together are developing SUV for Indian market. New XUV500, a chassis based SUV is due in 2020,it seems same.