Chevy Colorado Z71 Farms A Golden Harvest of Accolades
Favored by cows and Motor Trend reviewers alike, Colorado Z71 works as hard on the farm as its big brother Silverado.
Not too long ago, the midsize truck segment was a ghost town, with only a couple of trucks holding down the fort until spring time bloomed once more, one of them being the Chevrolet Colorado.
A few years later, and the Colorado is dealing with offerings from Ford, Toyota, and Honda, all coming to knock the bow tie off the midsizer. Motor Trend recently took the Colorado out to the farm to pit it up against the Ranger, Tacoma, and Ridgeline, with our favorite truck coming out on top.
“Our Colorado Z71 is a familiar beast—it won back-to-back Truck of the Year awards in 2015 and 2016,” Motor Trend says. “Despite its size, the Colorado is a truck that makes few compromises. Its optional 3.6-liter V-6 is the most powerful here with 308 hp on tap, and it’s mated to an eight-speed automatic.”
The Colorado also garnered the seal of approval from a big steer named Safran, who licked the truck before joining his friends at Farm Sanctuary in Acton, California; the Ridgeline, meanwhile, nearly had its face bashed in by the steer. Cows love Chevys, what can we say?
As far as how each truck rode the rough terrain around the farm, the Ranger’s FX4 package was too soft, the Tacoma was too rough, and the Ridgeline is just a crossover with a bed. The Colorado, though “is the Goldilocks of the group,” per the magazine. The midsizer wowed the reviewers with its “peppy” 308-horsepower 3.6-liter V6 and “responsive” eight-speed automatic.
Doing farm work, the Colorado helped remove a particularly stubborn tree stump after all the others tried their best to do it on their own, to no avail. Hauling bales of hay was easier in comparison, thanks to both the truck’s standard bumper-mounted bed step, and the fact the bed can haul two bales laid longways with no problems.
Adding a trailer to the party, the Colorado took on so much work with aplomb that the reviewers forgot to do the same for the others in the fleet. The Honda struggled to do the work, losing some composure, while the rest did okay. The Colorado, though, “never felt out of breath on the winding roads leading to the farm,” Motor Trend says.
At the end of the working day, the Colorado was the unanimous winner among the midsizers, thanks to its ability to handle the dirty jobs on the farm and clean up well for a night on the town. As Motor Trend says, “It’s like these guys are truck-building experts or something. Not hard to remember why this is a two-time Truck of the Year.” Plus, cows love Chevys.
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