Holden Colorado Suspension and Lift Kits: Review and Comparison for NZ Owners

If you own a Holden Colorado RG and you've ever loaded the tub with a chilly bin, a swag and a couple of mates' kit for a long weekend down south, you know the moment the rear squats and the front lifts a finger toward the sky. That nose-up stance isn't just an ego bruise — it shifts your headlights, dulls your steering feel, and changes how the front suspension absorbs corrugations. Suspension and lift kits are the single biggest handling upgrade most NZ Colorado owners will ever make, and getting the choice right matters far more than getting it big.

This is a working comparison between two of the most popular entry-level lift options for the Holden Colorado, written for kiwi owners who want a fair appraisal rather than marketing fluff. We'll walk through what these kits actually change, what they don't, where they sit in the upgrade path, and how they hold up on a real NZ trip — in this case a four-day Wairarapa coast run with the family in tow.

By the end you'll know whether a 20mm strut-spacer lift is the right next step for your Colorado, or whether you should be saving for a full coil-and-shock package. Either way, you'll know exactly what the trade-offs are before you swipe the card.

Why suspension and lift kits matter on the Holden Colorado

The Colorado RG (2012 onward in NZ trim) was designed as a workhorse. The front struts and rear leaf springs are set up to carry a tradie's load — toolboxes, ladder racks, a wet-weather canopy full of gear. The flip side is that when the tub is empty and you're cruising the motorway home from a Friday afternoon parts run, the front end sits noticeably lower than the rear, and the steering feels heavy in the slow stuff.

A small front lift — 15-20mm — restores the factory rake so the ute sits level when loaded, gives a touch more clearance for 32-inch tyres, and pulls your headlights back to where the manufacturer designed them to point. That last bit is more important than most owners realise, especially on unsealed kiwi backroads at dusk where a poorly aimed beam blinds oncoming traffic and lights up the bug bath six metres in front of the bumper instead of the gravel two hundred metres ahead.

A word on LVVTA: any lift over 50mm combined with bigger tyres typically requires a Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association certification in New Zealand. A 20mm strut-spacer lift sits comfortably inside the LVVTA-exempt envelope, which is a big reason kits this size are so popular with first-time modifiers. Always check with your certifier before stacking modifications — the rule is the sum, not the parts.

What to look for in a suspension and lift kit

Not every "lift kit" is created equal. Before you part with money, weigh up these things:

  • Fitment: Confirm the kit is listed for your exact Colorado generation (RG 11/2011-ON is the common spec) and that the strut-top dimensions match. A wrong-spec spacer will not bolt up cleanly.
  • Material and coating: Aluminium is the standard for spacers — it's light, strong and shrugs off corrosion. Look for hard-anodised or powder-coated finishes if you live within five kilometres of the coast.
  • Serviceability: Choose a kit that bolts in with the original strut hardware reused. Anything that requires custom fasteners is a future maintenance headache.
  • Weight honesty: A 20mm spacer doesn't change the spring rate — it just shifts the perch up. The ute will feel taller but not stiffer. Don't pay for "improved damping" from a part that physically cannot improve damping.
  • LVVTA / ADR signalling: If the kit is sold as "LVVTA-friendly", check the manufacturer can supply the engineering drawings if your certifier asks. The good ones can; the cheap ones can't.

Cheap-first is false economy on suspension. A $99 spacer kit that distorts a strut top costs you a strut assembly, a wheel alignment and a tow home. The kits we'll look at below are in the budget bracket but come from suppliers who actually engineer for the Colorado chassis, which is the line you don't want to cross.

NZ use-case: Wairarapa coast

Wairarapa coast is a fair test of any lift kit. The road surface mixes long stretches of compacted gravel with washboard corrugations, river-bed runoff crossings, and a handful of properly steep climbs where the rear end goes light if you've got camping gear in the tub. A standard Colorado does the trip — plenty have — but a levelled stance changes the experience completely. The front end stops bottoming on the bigger water bars, the headlights catch the apex of corners properly after dark, and the steering loads up predictably rather than wandering when the front gets light over a crest.

What a 20mm spacer lift will not do is fix a sagging rear leaf pack. If you tow a boat trailer down to Lake Rotoiti every summer, or you've put a heavy steel canopy on the tub, you'll want the rear sorted too — that's an add-a-leaf or a fresh leaf pack, separate purchase. We're keeping the scope honest: the spacer is a front-end levelling solution, full stop.

Kren Bits picks for your Holden Colorado

Both of the options below are aluminium strut-spacer kits engineered specifically for the Colorado RG chassis. They share the same engineering — the difference is finish.

If you're starting your build, either kit will get you to the same place mechanically. The natural-finish kit is the quieter pick for a stock-look ute; the yellow kit is the choice if you've already gone down the rabbit hole of colour-matched recovery points and powder-coated rock sliders.

Installation notes

Strut-spacer fitment on the Colorado is a half-day garage job for a competent home mechanic with spring compressors. A few tips picked up the hard way:

  • Torque the strut-top nuts to the factory spec on first install, then re-check at 500km. Aluminium-on-steel joints settle slightly and the torque will drop.
  • Use anti-seize on the strut-top studs before refitting — the salt air on NZ coastal runs welds untreated fasteners in place within two years.
  • Check sensor clearance around the front wheel well. The Colorado's ABS lines and brake-pad wear sensors run close; a lifted strut can change their tension.
  • Apply a small dab of medium-strength Loctite to the new spacer-to-strut fasteners. Vibration on corrugations works fasteners loose if you don't.
  • Get a wheel alignment afterward. Camber and toe will shift slightly — a $90 alignment protects your tyres from chewing edges.

Long-term maintenance

A spacer lift is genuinely a fit-and-forget upgrade, but "forget" doesn't mean "ignore". Build these into your service rhythm:

  1. Every 10,000km, eyeball the spacer for any signs of corrosion bloom or cracking. Aluminium fails visibly long before it fails structurally.
  2. At every WoF, ask the mechanic to spin a torque wrench over the strut-top nuts. Two minutes of work, peace of mind for the next six months.
  3. After any trip with sustained corrugations — Molesworth, the Wairarapa, anywhere the road shakes the fillings loose — re-check fastener torque before the next big drive.
  4. Wash the wheel arches out properly after coastal trips. Salt-laden mud caked against an aluminium spacer is the one environment where these parts can pit prematurely.

Summing up

For a Colorado RG owner who wants a noticeable improvement in stance, headlight aim and front-end clearance without writing off a paycheck, a 20mm strut-spacer kit is the right place to start. Both of the options we've covered will get the job done; pick the finish that suits your build and don't lose sleep over the choice. Save the bigger budget for the rear of the ute — that's where the Colorado really benefits from a proper suspension package.

If you're unsure which kit fits your specific Colorado — there are subtle differences between early RG, RG2 facelift, and various trim levels — flick your rego across via the Kren Bits contact page and we'll do a fitment check before you order. It takes us about ten minutes and it saves you a return courier.

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