Filed under: Truck, Chevrolet, First Drives



Be it in the category of luggage, pocket knives, personal computers or cars, the concept of an all-in-one, do-everything product is attractive to a lot of consumers. Why fuss around with stocking your pockets with toothpicks and tiny saws, asks Victorinox, when one well-packaged device can offer up all the functionality that a Swiss Army regular might ever need?

The needs, wants and would-love-to-haves of drivers are no less complex than those of multi-tool wielders, and there are certainly a great many shoppers that require their perfect vehicle to do everything pretty well. A huge percentage of us really only need a couple of seats and the ability to get up to 70 miles per hour with a reasonable degree of safety on a daily basis. But that doesn't stop us from wanting a vehicle that can also take our entire family along for the ride, haul a 60-inch plasma back from Best Buy and throw the snowmobile trailer on, just in case the mood strikes to do some sledding.

I pretty much never have to do all of that all at once. Be honest, neither do you. But the groundswell of popularity for SUVs and crossovers - to say nothing of our decades-long love affair with the pickup truck - can trace its roots to that utilitarian mindset.

For many Americans, for a lot of years now, the perfect answer to the do-everything question has been a small or midsize pickup. Small trucks require compromises in interior space, and their fuel economy generally isn't leaps and bounds better than their fullsize counterparts. However, they offer just enough towing and hauling capability to go along with wieldy driving and parking manners, and, critically, a comparatively painless price point. Considering the longtime class-leader Toyota Tacoma is well past its prime, Chevrolet believes the time is right to reintroduce its midsize Colorado, now with more on offer than ever when it comes to livable, daily-drivable, multi-purpose behavior.

Asking fewer compromises than ever before, does this Colorado stack up solidly against the fullsize-truck bargains, and the now-ubiquitous small crossovers? I thrashed on one in Southern California in an attempt to find out.Continue reading 2015 Chevrolet Colorado [w/video]

2015 Chevrolet Colorado [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Sep 2014 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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