Toyota Tacoma has a new competitor: The 2015 Chevy Colorado

Toyota Tacoma has a new competitor: The 2015 Chevy Colorado

003-2015-chevy-colorado-1For years the Tacoma has been the undisputed champion of the mid-size truck market in North America, but that may be changing. While the legendary reliability of Toyota Trucks will no doubt continue, with a long overdue redesign for Tacoma not coming until 2016, it’s going to be a rough couple of years.

003-2015-chevy-colorado-1For years the Tacoma has been the undisputed champion of the mid-size truck market in North America, but that may be changing. While the legendary reliability of Toyota Trucks will no doubt continue, with a long overdue redesign for Tacoma not coming until 2016, it’s going to be a rough couple of years.

Chevrolet took the wraps off their all-new Colorado at the LA Auto show this week, and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t impressed. The front end has a decidedly modern and (dare I say) aggressive look, although the front bumper doesn’t look very modifiable. From the rear and side the new Colorado is a little more vanilla, with standard wheel wells and an un-inspiring tailgate & bumper. Aesthetics aside, it’s the internals that could have Tacoma owners peeking when no one is looking.

At launch the Colorado will be available with either a 4 or 6 cylinder engine mated to the same 6 speed auto transmission (thankfully they won’t offer a manual). In 2016 however, Chevy joins the ranks of Dodge and Nissan in offering a diesel option (the 2.8-liter Duramax four-cylinder version). A premium interior ups the ante even more with features like touch screen interfaces, a driver information screen in the cluster, and other neat widgets. From the press photos it certainly looks like the Colorado will be much more upscale than any Tacoma you get off the lot.

Exact pricing and options have not been revealed, other than there will be three trims: WT, LT, and LTZ. The full press release lists a plethora of other special features that usually don’t interest real truck enthusiasts. Overall, the discussions and Toyota USA HQ should be very interesting when considering this new addition to the market.

SOURCE: AutoBlog.com