Talking Cars 443: Driving the Chevrolet Colorado
Plus, electric vehicle tire wear, and how Toyotas would rank if they had just so-so reliability.
By Mike Quincy
Main theme: This video podcast focuses on our first impressions of the redesigned Chevrolet Colorado midsized pickup truck. It gets just one body style this go-around—a four-door crew cab with a short bed—and it loses the smooth V6 and fuel-efficient diesel engines. But it rides on a new chassis that stretches the wheelbase by 3.1 inches compared with the previous short-bed crew cab.
The panel mixes praise for the truck’s standard forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, lane keeping assistance, and lane departure warning with frustration that blind spot warning is still optional. Our LT trim’s 2.7-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine puts out 310 hp and 390 lb.-ft. of torque, and each spec is more than the 3.6-liter V6 and the 2.8-liter turbodiesel in the previous Colorado. Plus, even with its basic leaf-spring rear suspension, the ride quality is a high point. (Read our Chevrolet Colorado first drive.)
Audience questions
• Electric vehicles, in general, have a lot of torque and are much heavier than most cars, which can accelerate tire wear. Are there some EVs that don’t wear out tires as quickly as others?
• Would most of Toyota’s CR Top Picks still make the list if the company’s reliability was just average? If you take out Toyota’s stellar reliability, would they still rate so high?
“Talking Cars” panelists (from left): Mike Quincy, Ryan Pszczolkowski, and Steven Elek.
Photo: Consumer Reports
As with other “Talking Cars With Consumer Reports” episodes, this one is available free through Apple Podcasts. (Subscribe to the audio or video.) You’ll also find the audio on Spotify (log-in required) and video on YouTube.
• Driving the Fisker Ocean, episode 442
• 2024 New York Auto Show Highlights, episode 441
• Driving the Hyundai Kona EV, episode 440
• 2024 Top Picks, episode 439
• Driving the Kia EV9, episode 438
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