2024 Chevrolet Colorado Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Some automakers go for evolutionary styling when redesigning their vehicles. This was not the case with the bold, new look for the Colorado. Chevrolet has gone for a “Camaro-ify Everything” approach, giving vehicles aggressive, futuristic designs resembling the now-departed Camaro muscle car. This extends to the Colorado, which has rakish headlights that frame up a sharply angled grille design.

The interior features the same design trends found in other new Chevy vehicles. The circular climate control vents are a Camaro-inspired styling detail. The dashboard features a clean, horizontal layout that is easy on the eyes and is also ergonomic.

Trim levels for the 2024 Chevrolet Colorado in Canada are WT, LT, Trail Boss, Z71, and ZR2. Despite being the base model, the WT, or Work Truck, is a far cry from the Spartan pickups of past decades. It comes with a fully digital instrument panel, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, an 11.3-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and satellite radio. The WT still keeps some items basic, such as the cloth upholstery and manually adjustable front seats. The LT is a good value, as it adds several features such as alloy wheels, a remote locking tailgate, rear air vents, a rear USB port, and a full front centre console. We would recommend opting for the LT with the LT Convenience Package, which adds fog lights, the EZ-Lift and Lower tailgate, a sliding rear window, a tilt-telescope steering wheel, and dual-zone automatic climate control. The Convenience Package II adds remote start, wireless device charging, a power-adjustable driver’s seat, and heated front seats. If you want to go a step further, the Convenience Package III adds synthetic leather upholstery, a heated steering wheel, wall-style power outlets, upgraded LED headlights and taillights, and a rear-seat fold-out centre armrest.

If you’re looking to occasionally get off the beaten path, Chevrolet offers multiple off-road models. The Colorado Trail Boss features a lifted, off-road suspension, all-terrain tires, hill-descent control, and an automatically locking rear differential. The Colorado Z71 lacks the lifted suspension of the Trail Boss, but retains many of the other chassis enhancements. It also features unique cloth-and-synthetic-leather upholstery, as well as heated power-adjustable side mirrors and red front recovery hooks. The ZR2 features even more trail-ready chassis upgrades, as well as remote start, heated front seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, a power-assisted tailgate, and a spray-on bed liner.

We drove the Chevy Colorado ZR2 Bison, which is essentially an upgraded version of the ZR2 with additional off-road protection. It features unique bodywork and extensive use of protective gear. The Bison includes AEV (American Expedition Vehicles) stamped steel front and rear bumpers, underbody skid plates (made of Boron steel), and exclusive AEV-designed wheels. It also features 35-inch mud-terrain tires, and the front bumper is capable of handling the installation of a heavy-duty winch. Our press model also featured the ZR2 Convenience Package, which included memory settings for the driver's seat and side mirrors.

The Colorado comes exclusively with turbocharged four-cylinder power. Both engines displace 2.4 litres. The base version makes 237 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. The Turbo Max version makes 310 hp and 430 lb-ft of torque. Both engines route power through an eight-speed automatic transmission that does a great job of managing power at any speed.

Both engines make solid low-end power, which is great for getting around town and hitting the trails. But once you try getting up to highway speeds and making a passing maneuver, the result is less satisfying. Our ZR2 Bison featured the upgraded powertrain, which provided stout acceleration in most driving scenarios.

At most speeds, you can lay into the throttle and expect responsive pickup. When properly equipped, the Colorado has a maximum towing capacity of 3,492 kilograms (7,700 pounds) and it has a payload capacity of 775 kilograms (1,710 pounds).

The Bison is designed with a strong focus on off-road capability, but it also provides a well-rounded driving experience on the road. It's equipped with Multimatic DSSV (Dynamic Suspensions Spool Valve) dampers, which are highly sophisticated and provide exceptional shock absorption over rough terrain.

On paved roads, where it is likely to spend most of its life, the ZR2 Bison performs well for a truck focused on off-road capabilities. The ride can be firmer than those of typical SUVs due to its off-road suspension, but it generally remains comfortable. The truck handles corners with stability, although there is some body roll typical of higher-riding, off-road trucks. The suspension also helps to absorb road imperfections, contributing to a smoother ride than might be expected from such a rugged vehicle.

The 2024 Colorado is offered in only one body style, which is a four-door quad cab with a 1,567-millimetre (5-foot, 2-inch) bed. The bed provides decent space for your gear, but it’s not going to get the job done of a full-size pickup. We suspect most truck shoppers understand that when they are considering a midsize truck over a full-size.

The Colorado has a car-like seating position, where your legs are far more in front of the driver, as opposed to sitting upright, like in a full-size truck. This makes for a comfortable driving position, especially over long trips. There is plenty of front-row legroom, headroom, and shoulder room. This layout also allows Chevrolet to develop a user-friendly car-like layout for the shifter and controls. One downside of this layout is that the cup holders are located low down in front of the centre console. If you put a large water bottle or extra-large fast food soft drink, it will be a bit of right-arm acrobatics to extract it from the cupholder while driving. Luckily there are additional bottle holders in the two front doors.

Second-row legroom is typically tight among smaller trucks and it’s no different with the Colorado. Anyone over six feet tall will find some tight legroom in the second row, especially if the front-row passengers are also tall and cannot slide their seats forward. But you could theoretically fit five adults in the Colorado for trips across town or around the corner.

A high bed wall and floor can make loading items more difficult, but the higher open tailgate also makes it easier to do a project from the back of the open tailgate or set out food for a tailgate party. Like other GM trucks, the Colorado has the helpful bed steps cut into the rear bumper. In this redesigned Colorado, the steps are larger than before and are better designed for fitting large work boots. One thing to note with the ZR2 Bison is the spare tire, which is mounted in the bed. This severely cuts into usable bed space. If you plan on using the bed often, you should consider another trim or at least another mounting solution for the spare.

The standard infotainment system across the Colorado lineup is an 11.3-inch touchscreen. It has an intuitive layout, and despite its large size, there are still some hard-button controls. It has a logical layout and a digital dock of buttons along the left side of the screen for the radio, navigation, and other vehicle settings. The Colorado’s infotainment system comes standard with wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto. That digital dock remains in place on the left side of the screen even with CarPlay in use, which means you can jump out of CarPlay and into another menu quickly. The presence of a digital home button and an actual volume dial are critical for operation without a learning curve. You might get lost down some rabbit hole of menus, but you can always hit the home button.

Other standard tech features on the Colorado include an 11-inch fully digital instrument panel, two front USB ports, Bluetooth connectivity, and satellite radio. Stepping up to the LT trim adds wireless device charging and a rear USB port, while the LT Convenience Package adds two more USB ports and two wall-style power outlets. These features are nice to have, especially if you are camping often, but the base setup is sure to keep you connected and will satisfy most commuters.

The Colorado comes with a comprehensive collection of standard driver assistance features. This includes automatic emergency braking, forward-collision warning, pedestrian and cyclist detection, automatic high beams, lane-departure warning, and lane-keeping assist. It also comes with the Teen Driver system, which lets the driver set speed and volume limits for a second set of keys.

The LT Convenience Package III comes with additional features, such as reverse automatic emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert. The ZR2 is available with a helpful underbody camera feature. Adaptive cruise control is available on certain trim levels as well.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash-tested the Colorado, which earned four out of five stars for frontal crash testing and five out of five stars for side crash testing. It earned three out of five stars for the rollover test, though the ZR2 Bison was not tested for rollover.

The most efficient version of the 2024 Chevrolet Colorado is the base version of the four-cylinder engine with rear-wheel drive (RWD). In Canada, the WT trim is the only one offered with RWD. This version returns fuel economy of 11.8 litres per 100 kilometres in the city, 9.9 on the highway, and 10.9 combined per Natural Resources Canada. The four-wheel drive (4WD) version returns 12.7 L/100 km city, 10.8 highway, and 11.8 combined. The standard ZR2 returns 14.1 L/100 km city, 13.8 highway, and 14.0 combined, and the ZR2 Bison returns 14.8 city/15.1 hwy/14.9 combined. In our week of combined city and highway driving, we observed a rather expensive average of 15.5 L/100 km combined.

Base MSRP for the 2024 Chevy Colorado is $38,433 for the RWD WT with the base engine, including the $2,200 destination charge and other fees. The LT starts at $45,233 and the Trail Boss starts at $47,733. The Z71 comes in at $51,233 and the ZR2 starts at $60,733. The ZR2 Bison Package is a $13,495 option. The ZR2 Convenience Package III costs $1,895 and the power sunroof is another $1,150 option. All told, this would bring the Canadian price for our ZR2 Bison tester to $77,273.

There’s no doubt about it, smaller trucks have gotten expensive, but so have most other types of vehicles. But Chevy has been wise to recognize that midsize pickups are lifestyle vehicles, and there’s not the same value-per-dollar scrutiny that comes with the purchase of a full-size work truck. When you stack up a base-model Chevrolet Silverado against even a modestly equipped Colorado, it’s hard to make the value/budget comparison. Even though they are both pickup trucks, if you don’t want to stress over the incongruity of pricing, it’s best to view midsize and full-size trucks as apples to some non-fruit item. As long as you block out the presence of the Silverado and other full-size trucks, you can appreciate the Colorado with a bit more serenity.

There is no value play to be had here, but Chevrolet is also smart enough to know why people buy these trucks. They are lifestyle vehicles, and as such, buyers are looking for toys like Multimatic suspensions and leather upholstery. Chevy wisely ditched many of the more down-market versions of the Colorado, just leaving the four-door crew cab model with powerful engines and well-equipped trims that are more in line with the preferences of shoppers in this rejuvenated market segment.

Note: Images show a US model.