On The Road: Chevrolet Colorado Z71

The new Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon are winning applause and awards from everyone with access to a plastic trophy factory, and with good reason. They are great trucks.

Now if the names are familiar, that’s because these were GM’s mid-sized entries for a while, but a couple of years ago, they went away as a result of dropping sales and the fact that, well, they were pretty average.

Then Dodge dropped the Dakota, and Ford never really produced anything bigger than the little Ranger in this category, so Toyota and Nissan had the market to themselves with a couple of aging designs.

Well that is history, and the new GM twins are gorgeous, and to be honest, just about as big as a full-sized pickup was just a few years back.

But Silverados, F-150’s and Rams are now only slightly smaller than an Abrams tank, so unless you make your living in a truck, or even if you do, these new mid-sizers may be all the pickup you need.

The look is sleek, and in our four-wheel-drive Z-71 version, very attractive.

Though the wheelbase is a full 140 inches, the Colorado is about half a foot narrower than a Silverado, and that makes it easier to park and maneuver when you’re not barreling around the back country but trying not to scratch that cute little Prius as you park at Walmart.

The 3.6-liter V6 in our Colorado makes 305 horsepower, which were V8 numbers not that long ago. It is also between 44 and 69 horsepower more than the bigger sixes from Nissan and Toyota.

0-60 comes in 7.1 seconds, and the freak snowstorm we got not long ago, was child’s play for the Colorado. With the towing package, you can drag 7000 pounds of, whatever you need.

An extended cab 4x4 starts around $29,000 and our crew-cab, long-bed 4x4 starts at $31,000. That is still nearly $8000 cheaper than a similarly equipped Silverado.

So, when it comes to the big, should I buy one question? In my mind the only decision to make is what color and how soon can it get here?