The beginning of each year here at Jim Butler Chevy of St Louis offers many opportunities to sweep up the numerous awards this thrilling industry offers! As reviewers thoroughly test and tear up the roads respectively with the latest and greatest in tow, they eventually decide which cars, trucks, and SUVs are a solid and high caliber cut above the rest. The 2024 Chevy Colorado is a force to be reckoned with as the Autoblog.com team’s favorite “Midsize truck of the year.”
The Colorado offers a very robust drive with a potent engine, solid ride, and class-leading off-road variants heavily prepped for the obligatory trail tackle. The interior boasts an abundance of new technology that looks awesome while offering segment-leading performance. The base Colorado Work Truck can be acquired for an excellent and economical price, and the ZR2 is a class favorite due to its heavily equipped and boulder-smashing stance. The ZR2’s suspension and chassis are adequately primed for off-road conquest, and the Z71 offers the tops of confines for those seeking true luxury.
The Colorado measures up quite well when it comes to spec comparison, offering great power and a 7,700-lb towing capacity, while also adding an AEV upgraded off-road trim for 2024 on the Bison model. This year also sees the truck foregoing the smaller 8-inch digital cluster to make the 11-inch version standard on all trims, and improvements have been made in appearance and quality that set it apart from last year’s version. Stepping things up on every trim to 11.3-inches gives drivers the growth rigs now needed to “keep up with the Joneses”, while offering simple-to-use controls.
Chevy has still stuck with the traditional and familiar hard buttons and knobs for items such as volume control, drive modes, and climate controls. The Colorado remains firmly rooted in the midsize class, with a crew cab that measures just 5’1” and power derived from a 2.7-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, with 237 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque output. Every Colorado is paired with an 8-speed automatic, with official fuel economy weighing in at 19 mpg city, 24 mpg highway, and 21 mpg combined. The high-output version features a tow/haul mode that beefs things up nicely in the torque department.
The Colorado is situated on a body-on-frame pickup, with the ZR2 model’s spool-valve dampers offering a ride quality that can hang tough even during the most challenging of ruts and rivets! Another Autoblog review from last spring claimed that the “latest technology and compelling design makes the cabin look and feel less bare bones and like a well-equipped and capable daily driver.”
This review then excitedly became a fully-fledged beach day, embarking from Malibu down to Conejo Valley through a beginning interval of slow-moving traffic. The steering remained adequately weighted and responsive, and the truck performed fantastically on steep grades. The bed’s load and side heights made arranging and quickly lifting the various items from a Home Depot run a breeze, offering a very accessible and sure-footed errand-runner. After attempting a boulder-strewn valley in California’s famed Johnson Valley, the group also claimed, “You know ‘Dukes of Hazzard?’ Yeah, Bo and Luke would have LOVED to have this hefty thing!”