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2016 Chevrolet Colorado Road Test and Review

Charles Krome
by Charles Krome
June 2, 2016
5 min. Reading Time
2016 Chevrolet Colorado ・  Photo by General Motors

2016 Chevrolet Colorado ・ Photo by General Motors

The Bowtie brand's brand-new midsize pickup made waves on its debut last year, winning Motor Trend's "Truck of the Year" award, which helped sales jump from 8,000 to more than 84,000. This year, the Colorado diesel took home the honor. Yet as the rising tide of demand for trucks has lifted the sales of all entries, the Chevy still hadn't quite caught up to the segment's leader, the Toyota Tacoma, for volume. That said, it's the Colorado that's unbeaten in just about all other metrics, from towing to fuel efficiency to exclusive mobile Wi-Fi technology. (Although the Chevrolet pickup is matched by the more premium GMC Canyon.)

The Colorado's benefits then grow significantly for the 2016 model year: Customers can now choose a new diesel engine option for the truck, and there’s a major enhancement in terms of infotainment, thanks to the debut of smartphone integration with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

Pricing

Despite being one of the newest entries in the segment, the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado also is the least-expensive extended-cab pickup in the country, backed by a starting price of $20,100. Now, the Nissan Frontier has an MSRP of $18,290, but that's for a two-door "King" cab truck without air conditioning, without an audio system and without power amenities. All of that's standard in even the entry-level Colorado, which is an extended-cab, long-bed truck with two slightly down-sized rear doors. As for the Toyota Tundra, it starts at $23,660, and the unibody Honda Ridgeline will open at a steep $29,475.

 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors

Trim Levels

The Colorado also comes in WT, LT and Z71 trims, along with a crew-cab body style and a choice of two bed lengths. That kind of selection is missing from the Chevy rivals, though. For example, neither Nissan nor Tacoma features a 4-door extended-cab body style, and Honda only offers one cab/bed combination. And Chevrolet goes beyond its extra configurations by supplying special edition models that provide customers with exclusive appearance upgrades.

Among them for 2016:

  • Colorado Shoreline, "made for days at the beach" and boasting black 18-inch wheels, black-out exterior design cues, a body-color grille and available summer-fun accessories like Thule's stand-up paddle board carrier
  • Colorado Midnight, for a full black-on-black color scheme that's available with both the trail-friendly Z71 trim and the premium Colorado LT
  • Colorado Z71 Trail Boss, created to appeal to off-road enthusiasts with the Z71 suspension, all-terrain tires, 3-inch rocker steps and more
 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors

Standard Powertrains, Performance and Efficiency

The simple story here is that the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado is able to leverage GM's more modern powertrain technologies for unsurpassed power, fuel economy, towing grade and selection.

For instance, the standard engine for the Colorado is a stout 2.5-liter 4-cylinder unit that serves up 200 horsepower, 191 lb.-ft. of torque and EPA ratings of 20 mpg city/27 mpg highway/22 mpg combined with a 6-speed automatic transmission. The other 4-cylinder trucks in the segment, from Nissan and Toyota, turn up no more than 159 horsepower and 180 lb.-ft. of torque. The Chevy also bests those trucks for fuel efficiency highlighted by advantages of 3 mpg/4 mpg/3 mpg versus the Frontier. The Honda Ridgeline doesn't provide a 4-cylinder powerplant at all.

 Photo by Chevrolet

Photo by Chevrolet

Premium Powertrains, Performance and Efficiency

That Ridgeline does own the highest EPA ratings for a V6 midsize pickup, but just barely, since the rear-wheel-drive Colorado V6 can reach 18 mpg city/26 mpg highway/21 mpg with its bigger engine, and the front-wheel-drive Honda has the same highway rating and bare 1-mpg leads for city/combined fuel efficiency. Of course, the Colorado V6 can tow 2,000 lbs. more than the Ridgeline as well. Just remember that that Chevy truck's 7,000-lb. maximum trailer rating isn't even the highest one in the Colorado family.

Drivers who demand the ultimate towing capacity in a midsize pickup should consider the only diesel available for a mainstream midsize pickup. After all, Colorado pickups equipped with the 2.8-liter diesel engine can tow 7,700 lbs. but still post the highest EPA marks of any midsizer: 22 mpg city/31 mpg highway/25 mpg combined.

 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors

Exterior Dimensions

First off, it might interest some shoppers to know that the shortest 2016 Chevrolet Colorado midsize pickup is about 7 inches longer than the shortest fullsize Chevy pickup; the difference is that the "smallest" Colorado is a double-cab truck and the Silverado comes in a regular-cab body style with two regular-sized doors. Looking at similar setups, the Colorado crew with its longest box stretches 224.9 inches and a comparably configured Silverado is 239.6 inches.

To put that into perspective, the typical midsized family sedan is about 190 inches long.

Measuring the Colorado rivals shows everyone within a few inches, yet with the Chevrolet truck touting a notable lead in cargo box volume. Its 5'2" box has 41.3 cubic feet and the 6'2" box brings that up to 49.9. Toyota doesn't reveal that measurement for the Tacoma, but the Honda Ridgeline and Nissan Frontier deliver no more than 33.9 cubic feet of bed volume.

 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors

Exterior Design and Lighting

It's also especially easy to access the bed of the Colorado, as a result of two Chevy engineering innovations. Standard are the CornerStep bumpers built into the truck for a robust foothold, and an available EZ Lift-and-Lower tailgate is damped to reduce operating effort. But the tailgate's still easy to take off, too, when needed.

The Colorado additionally relies on a next-gen approach to exterior illumination. Unlike the Nissan Frontier or Toyota Tacoma, Chevy's midsize pickup can be ordered with high-performance LED headlamps, and their striking design is complemented by LED signature lighting, side-mirror-mounted LED rear guidance lamps, and even under-rail LED lighting in the cargo box.

 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors

Interior Design and Capacities vs. Honda Ridgeline

The cabin of the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado creates a comfortable environment that strikes a satisfying middle ground between the somewhat more utilitarian designs of the Toyota and Nissan and the exceedingly car-like cockpit of the Honda. The thing is, despite the Ridgeline's sedan-style interior, the Colorado has noticeable advantages in space up front and nearly the same amount of room in the rear. More specifically, the front row occupants have 1.3 extra inches of headroom and 4.1 more inches of legroom than those in the Honda, while the Chevy is within half an inch of the Ridgeline for rear-seat headroom, and is less than an inch behind in second-row legroom. 

 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors

Interior Design and Capacities vs. Toyota and Nissan

The Colorado also has head- and legroom leads over the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma at nearly all comparison points, including rear-seat room for their smallest cab sizes, where the Honda doesn't compete. Chevy showcases 36.7 inches of headroom and 28.6 inches of legroom there, and at the other end of the spectrum, the Tacoma is at 34.9 and 24.6 inches

The Colorado's comfort levels further get a boost from available luxury cues such as leather surfaces and heated power-adjustable seats, with power lumbar control, for the driver and front seat passenger.

 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors

Infotainment

A particularly prominent piece of infotainment technology that's available for the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado—and is absent from all of its competition—is an available mobile Wi-Fi hotspot with 4G LTE connectivity. It's a boon for modern-day customers, and it comes with a 3-month, 3-gigabyte trial data package on up-level trims. Also new for the Colorado's premium editions is an updated MyLink system with an 8-inch touchscreen and support for Android Auto/Apple CarPlay smartphone integration. Again, that new smartphone functionality is missing in action at Nissan and Toyota.

 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors

Audio and Other Features

The Colorado also offers modern-day conveniences like wireless phone charging, navigation, text-messaging assistance and the ability to integrate Apple's Siri virtual valet with compatible iPhones.

Premium audio is provided by the experts from Bose, who pitch in with a 7-speaker setup for powerful sound reproduction, yet shoppers should keep in mind that Chevy has fairly impressive audio choices for practically priced pickups as well. The base model, as mentioned, has a standard 6-speaker system, while the WT gets MyLink tech with a 4.2-inch screen.

 Photo by General Motors

Photo by General Motors


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