2024 Toyota Tacoma vs. Ford Ranger vs. Chevrolet Colorado: Midsize Truck Throwdown!

MotorTrend

Our 2024 Truck of the Year-winning Chevrolet Colorado battles against the a TRD Sport version of the all-new Toyota Tacoma and a Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 in a comparison to determine which midsize truck is the best of breed..

Transcript

00:00The Chevy Colorado won our 2024 Motor Trend Truck of the Year award, and now it faces

00:11a challenge from the new Tacoma and the new Ranger.

00:15Let's get into it.

00:19Aaron Gold, our senior editor, was one of the three judges that had to put these three

00:23trucks through their paces on this comparison test.

00:25Aaron, thank you for joining me.

00:26Oh, I'm glad to be here.

00:27So tell me, firstly, I got to ask, why these three trucks?

00:31Well, the Colorado was our 2024 Truck of the Year, and one of the reasons that it won is

00:35because it has such a good breadth to it.

00:37There's so many products in that lineup.

00:38But you know, now it faces two very, very key challengers.

00:42All-new Tacoma for 2024, best-selling truck in the segment, and an all-new Ford Ranger.

00:47So we decided to go right down the middle and kind of find the every truck, the one

00:50that has to do a little bit of everything, haul the family, haul furniture, maybe do

00:54a little bit of off-roading, and figure out which of these three is the best midsize truck.

00:58The Colorado was all-new for 2023.

01:01It's powered by a 2.7-liter turbocharged inline-four, which makes 310 horsepower and 430 pound-feet

01:08of torque, put to the road via an eight-speed automatic.

01:12The Ford Ranger is new for 2024, but it's still based on the same platform that's been

01:16around for more than a decade.

01:18It has a 2.3-liter turbocharged inline-four EcoBoost, which produces 270 horsepower and

01:24310 pound-feet of torque.

01:26The transmission is a 10-speed automatic.

01:29The Toyota Tacoma dominates this segment, and for 2024, we have a new one.

01:33A 2.4-liter turbocharged inline-four produces 278 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque,

01:41as well as an eight-speed automatic.

01:43As with all of our reviews, the editors endeavored to test as many different aspects of the vehicle

01:47as possible in order to find out as much as they can and conclude with a winner.

01:52Up first for these three trucks was on-road driving.

01:55Now, you do this with all your comparison tests.

01:57Please, tell us what that road loop involved and maybe what you learned.

02:01Well, in order to run, we have a number of different road loops that we use, and we try to get all types

02:04of driving in, drive on the freeway so we can test their adaptive cruise systems, lane centering

02:08if they have it.

02:09We want to do some city driving, see what it's like on bad pavement, cross some railroad tracks.

02:13And, of course, we want to get a little bit of curvy road driving, even though that's not

02:17necessarily the focus for these vehicles.

02:18I mean, we are who we are.

02:20These three trucks are very similar in their trim level, and they're also similar in powertrains.

02:23Isn't that right?

02:24Yeah, that's true.

02:25You know, V6 engines used to be the engine of choice for midsize pickups.

02:28All three of these trucks now use a turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which gives you a lot of torque,

02:33which you need for a truck, but also better fuel efficiency than the traditional V6.

02:37And how did they all compare when you managed to back-to-back them on our road course this morning?

02:41Well, it was really tough.

02:42You know, on a lot of our comparisons, a clear winner emerges fairly early on.

02:46But there were things that we liked and disliked about all the trucks.

02:48It was a really tough decision to decide which we thought was best on that road loop.

02:53So, Aaron, why don't you tell me some of the highlights for you of the Chevy Colorado?

02:56One of the things we really liked about the Colorado was the interior.

02:59It's got a really nice, well-trimmed, grown-up interior.

03:01We like the powertrain.

03:02It's got a lot of torque.

03:03I believe it's the torquiest of these three trucks.

03:05And we like that there's really good amenities in the bed, lots of places to tie cargo down.

03:09And that's really important.

03:10One of our tests was strapping furniture into the back of these things and seeing how easy it is to secure stuff in the back.

03:16We really like that about the Chevrolet.

03:17And all the judges liked the way it drove.

03:19It's the quietest, the most comfortable, kind of the most grown-up of these trucks.

03:22So comparing that then with the Tacoma, the new Tacoma, tell me about this one.

03:25Well, the Tacoma was not really as settled.

03:27We didn't think the ride of the Tacoma was as comfortable, nor the handling quite as good.

03:31But I'll tell you, one of the Tacoma's real strong points is the way they've arranged the interior.

03:35The back seat is brilliant.

03:36You can fold the backs down.

03:38You can raise the bottom cushion up.

03:40There's plenty of storage space.

03:41You know, that's really important in a vehicle that doesn't have a trunk.

03:44It's a real important consideration if you're using this as a daily driver.

03:48We thought that was a real strong advantage for the Tacoma.

03:51Brilliant. And then what about the Ranger?

03:53Well, the Ranger is just a great all-rounder.

03:54You know, the Ranger has by far the largest and most comfortable back seat.

03:58It's got a really nice front seat, controls that are fairly easy to use, excellent lane centering system.

04:03Toyota had a good lane centering system, too.

04:04The Chevrolet, not so much.

04:06And of course, there's a lot of good truck tech in the Ford Ranger.

04:10You know, towing is not necessarily the biggest need for mid-size pickup truck owners,

04:14but they have that self-trailer backing system that Ford uses, their pro-trailering system.

04:19Well, and that's especially important because which trailers are trickiest to back up?

04:22The little ones.

04:23And those are the trailers that people are going to be towing with these mid-size trucks.

04:27So, Aaron, coming into this comparison test, of course, we had the champion, our Colorado,

04:32and we had these two challenges.

04:33Please tell me, which of these three trucks placed in third?

04:35Well, third place went to the Tacoma,

04:38which was a bit of a surprise because the Tacoma really owns this segment.

04:41But when we looked at how it drove, when we looked at the amenities, we looked at the equipment,

04:45we looked at the surfacing of the bed, we just thought the Chevy and the Ford did a better job.

04:50So, Aaron, that sets us up nicely for an all-Detroit final.

04:53Tell me which of these trucks placed in second.

04:55Well, it was a very, very difficult decision.

04:58We decided that second place was going to go to the Chevrolet Colorado.

05:02It was a surprise to us, too.

05:03There's a lot that we love about this truck.

05:05It was our favorite truck to drive.

05:06It feels so wonderfully refined and very, very upscale.

05:10It's got a lot of great details.

05:11But at the end, the Ranger had some advantages.

05:13Bigger back seat, some more truck-oriented features like that trailer backup system that we talked about.

05:19And we realized that even though it was back and forth and that's the truck that we'd rather drive,

05:23this is the truck that makes a better truck.

05:26And that is why we made the Ranger the winner in our 2024 midsize comparison.

05:32That doesn't take away, of course, from the fact that the Colorado is an amazing truck.

05:35But what it does mean is that Ford have a hell of a truck on their hands.

05:38They do, but all three of these manufacturers, the key to buying one of these trucks, Joe,

05:41is to decide what is more important to you.

05:44If you're going to trailer, if you've got kids and you need a back seat space,

05:47then the Ford is the truck that you're going to want.

05:49If you're really using this thing as an SUV, where interior space is important,

05:53the Tacoma has a lot of advantages.

05:55And if you're looking for something that's just the most comfortable daily driver,

05:58you're going to want the Chevrolet.

05:59I mean, it really is true, even though it's a bit of a cliche,

06:01you cannot go wrong with any of these three trucks.

06:04So there you have it, three great trucks.

06:05But the winner of this comparison test is the 2024 Ford Ranger.

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