Everyone here at Jim Butler Chevy of St Louis has a lot of love for the current-generation Silverado, which was the very first model to get GM’s 2.7-liter turbo engine. After the dust settled, it was evident that this would be the ideal engine for the next-generation Colorado, the mid-sized marvel that is perfect for any truck lover on the search for something smaller than the Silverado, but still hefty!
The Autoblog staff immediately declared their preference for the new Colorado over the Toyota Tacoma, calling it a “better truck”. The driving position is just a bit higher, the backseat legroom is more than sufficient, the interior technology has the best-added tech from Google sprinkled within, and the engine is much quieter. Another feature the off-roading crew will love is that the hill-descent control did not emit nearly as much noise as the Tacoma’s on the way down.
The 2.7-liter turbocharged inline-four is now the only engine offered on the Colorado. Once out on the road, the 2.7 responds amazingly well to throttle inputs, and has a balanced level of guts for this size truck. We recognize that many truck owners who simply adore every bit of the sound they get from their engines tend to be choosy, and this direct-injected four offers up a pretty choice little growl!
Since off-roading has become so much more popular over recent years, four of the six trims for the new Colorado are of the trail-ready variety. The Trail Boss builds nicely from the Work Truck’s feature list, adding a 2-inch factory lift, a 3-inch wider track, 4WD as standard, off-road drive modes, recovery hooks, hill-descent control, and several other very cool styling elements. While kicking up dust and clearing boulders, the extra touches of 18-inch wheels wrapped in all-terrain rubber, bigger fender flares, and added gloss black trim provide plenty of added inspiration.
This body-on-frame construction with rear leaf springs results in a finished product that offers great things as far as handling and the ride. Navigating down incredibly rutted trails and through other various obstacles is most definitely a bit simpler with a mid-sized pickup, making for avoidance of the big stuff in the way a cinch. Every Colorado features the same 11.3-inch touchscreen that is found in upper trim level Silverados, and navigation is handled with the impressive and on-point Google Maps interface.
The Colorado Z71 also adds one of the items that any diehard wheeler would be daydreaming of 24-7 just a decade ago: the under-body camera. There’s also a low-mounted forward camera to partner up on duty with the regular forward and rear cameras, along with the ability to split the feeds or opt for side-by-side views of the wheels. In the name of full-on utility and accessibility, there’s also the very cool highlight of a dampened tailgate with an available storage compartment, which can be propped in place halfway up to make room for hauled necessities such as plywood.