2017 Chevy Colorado ZR2

[p nut]

I know! Great price! My buddy had one of the extra cab Ram's....ok for gear storage...it was awful to ride back there. It was a 2500 8' bed. we could get 3 bikes in there, with the tailgate closed...that was fricken nice!


Lemme see if I can find a true crew cab at a reasonable price.

here you go, under $25K for the bigger cab.

Sheesh, sales must be really bad at Dodge. I priced out XL F150's and they were only maybe $3k cheaper than XLT's, which made it a no-brainer choice for me. But yeah, someday, I'll be sporting an 8' bed. No need to take the front wheel off of my bikes any more, gobs of room for gear, lumber, etc.

My truck is my Sunday driver. I get one about every 15 years and they gotta last. I had about a year of overlap between the two trucks in 2015 and the body on the 1991 degraded real quick in that year being parked outside 24/7/365. A fairly serious hail storm, normally snowy winter, mag chloride goop frozen solid, UV, bird poo, dust storms. I don't baby my trucks but they are a significant expense in my budget and I'm sold on keeping them inside if possible. I don't leave my motorcycle or bikes or tools outside for the same reason. Plus I don't like the damn hoodlums stealing stuff out of them.

I hear you on the garage thing. It really does make a difference. I hated scraping ice off of my windows, changing oil in the shivering cold (or excruciatingly hot), etc. Of course, expanding that garage would not only solve your truck problem, but help resale as well.

 

[Clutch]

Bah, yeah it'd work for you. A RZR will fit nicely in that bed.

Have you seen the new Yammies? $20K....capable right off the show room floor...you know how much money you have to toss a t a pickup to get it perform off road like that?

My truck is my Sunday driver. I get one about every 15 years and they gotta last. I had about a year of overlap between the two trucks in 2015 and the body on the 1991 degraded real quick in that year being parked outside 24/7/365. A fairly serious hail storm, normally snowy winter, mag chloride goop frozen solid, UV, bird poo, dust storms. I don't baby my trucks but they are a significant expense in my budget and I'm sold on keeping them inside if possible. I don't leave my motorcycle or bikes or tools outside for the same reason. Plus I don't like the damn hoodlums stealing stuff out of them.

No Sunday driver here...put 20K on it a year. All of our construction equipment stayed outside. Like to keep them mechanically perfect...looks wise don't care, it's a truck. Actually like them a little beat up looking...so when I drag a rock down the side of it...no worries!

I bet everytime you go to the dealer they say oh gawd it's him again. Lolol.

Ha ha! You know it!

Oh I have only been to the dealers twice in a year to test drive, once in Tucson last year, and a couple weeks ago. Almost bought a brandy new truck...but decided to wait yet another year.

Sheesh, sales must be really bad at Dodge. I priced out XL F150's and they were only maybe $3k cheaper than XLT's, which made it a no-brainer choice for me. But yeah, someday, I'll be sporting an 8' bed. No need to take the front wheel off of my bikes any more, gobs of room for gear, lumber, etc.

Great prices...but I can't bring myself to buy a Ram, I actually like the truck...don't think it is a long term vehicle.

My favorite configuration is an extra cab 6' bed. Seems to work best for me. I have a 5X8' trailer so there is my 8' bed. We bought a new front loading washer over the weekend (those things aren;t exactly light)...the guy at Lowes met us out front with it...he said, I can't tell you how happy I am seeing that you have a trailer, as I have been loading these into big jacked up trucks all weekend! Yeah, it is nice isn't it!? It practically loads itself! I quit killing myself years ago...work smarter not harder!

I hear you on the garage thing. It really does make a difference. I hated scraping ice off of my windows, changing oil in the shivering cold (or excruciatingly hot), etc. Of course, expanding that garage would not only solve your truck problem, but help resale as well.

That is why they make remote starts and lube shops! I am at the point in life, I rather have someone else work on my stuff...though I still change my own oil. Don't trust those mother trucker lube shops.

Don't care about resale, as I run them into the ground...rebuild...then run them into the ground...rebuild. While I like the F150 more...do believe the Tacoma is better for that type of mentality cost wise in the long run.

 

[p nut]

Great prices...but I can't bring myself to buy a Ram, I actually like the truck...don't think it is a long term vehicle.

My favorite configuration is an extra cab 6' bed. Seems to work best for me. I have a 5X8' trailer so there is my 8' bed. We bought a new front loading washer over the weekend (those things aren;t exactly light)...the guy at Lowes met us out front with it...he said, I can't tell you how happy I am seeing that you have a trailer, as I have been loading these into big jacked up trucks all weekend! Yeah, it is nice isn't it!? It practically loads itself! I quit killing myself years ago...work smarter not harder!

I actually wouldn't mind a truck with a 2WD stance. The way new trucks are with the air dam up front, ground clearance wouldn't change much. Loading stuff up would be a cinch.
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It'd get to lots of places I need to go anyway.

That is why they make remote starts and lube shops! I am at the point in life, I rather have someone else work on my stuff...though I still change my own oil. Don't trust those mother trucker lube shops.

Don't care about resale, as I run them into the ground...rebuild...then run them into the ground...rebuild. While I like the F150 more...do believe the Tacoma is better for that type of mentality cost wise in the long run.

Whew! I thought I was going soft--thanks for making me feel better. You're probably right about the Tacoma's long-term cost to run (although today's Tacoma is more complex than the one you've got). This report has Toyota at #1, although the article does mention that's what you get when there is no real innovation going on.

https://www.cars.com/articles/consu...tudy-toyota-thrives-fiat-fails-1420682551916/

 

[Clutch]

I actually wouldn't mind a truck with a 2WD stance. The way new trucks are with the air dam up front, ground clearance wouldn't change much. Loading stuff up would be a cinch.
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They used to advertise ease of loading from the sides...today's trucks have gotten awfully tall!

Whew! I thought I was going soft--thanks for making me feel better. You're probably right about the Tacoma's long-term cost to run (although today's Tacoma is more complex than the one you've got). This report has Toyota at #1, although the article does mention that's what you get when there is no real innovation going on.

https://www.cars.com/articles/consu...tudy-toyota-thrives-fiat-fails-1420682551916/

LOL!

I used to work my ******** off in our construction biz, I don't want to do that noes more!

Yeah, Toyota is kinda funny in that way...people complain that have gotten too complicated. (me and Dave!) while others say they aren't advancing enough. The SR 4 banger isn't too terribly different than what I have now...it just comes with more features like better safety and a rear back up camera, which would be awfully nice for hooking up the trailer. Engine is a bit more complex with the VVT...still less complex than a turbo diesel or gasser. Cheaper to fix.

Saw this on Popular Mechanics: Least and Most Expensive to maintain.

It'd get to lots of places I need to go anyway.

I run into ranchers in old beat up stock 2WD trucks often...thinking how in the heck did they get that back in here. And here we are thinking we are all bad ******** with our modded whatever...and there is some old crusty salt of the earth type guy that does it every day.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Whew! I thought I was going soft--thanks for making me feel better. You're probably right about the Tacoma's long-term cost to run (although today's Tacoma is more complex than the one you've got). This report has Toyota at #1, although the article does mention that's what you get when there is no real innovation going on.

What you call innovation is what I call unnecessary complexity. Anyway, Toyota has always kind of dragged their feet following market vagaries. It seems to me that all the so-called innovation for the past decade is a race to see which company could cram the most obnoxious and distracting "tech" in their wanna-be Space Shuttle driving position. What real innovation has occurred since EFI and factory lockers?

Of course, expanding that garage would not only solve your truck problem, but help resale as well.

I wish that was an option. So, so wish that it was. Our house resale value would go from toilet to overpriced toilet. It's a 2-bedroom, 900 sq-ft block foundation ranch-style built in 1967 that was so cheap we paid cash for it in 2012 after selling our house in Denver. Our plan was to tear it down and rebuild since it's on about an acre of farm-zoned land just outside the city limits. But unbeknown to us the zoning restrictions were set to change and the county road next to our property got a 110' set back because in their 30 years plan they might, maybe, possibly, one day, think about making the 2-lane into a 4-lane. That 110' set back divides our property in half and they promptly rejected our petition for a variance on the permit application. So we're stuck in planning and zoning limbo right now. Ugh.

 

[p nut]

Yeah, Toyota is kinda funny in that way...people complain that have gotten too complicated. (me and Dave!) while others say they aren't advancing enough. The SR 4 banger isn't too terribly different than what I have now...it just comes with more features like better safety and a rear back up camera, which would be awfully nice for hooking up the trailer. Engine is a bit more complex with the VVT...still less complex than a turbo diesel or gasser. Cheaper to fix.

What you call innovation is what I call unnecessary complexity. Anyway, Toyota has always kind of dragged their feet following market vagaries. It seems to me that all the so-called innovation for the past decade is a race to see which company could cram the most obnoxious and distracting "tech" in their wanna-be Space Shuttle driving position. What real innovation has occurred since EFI and factory lockers?

To answer to both of you: I really couldn't care less about syncing my iTunes playlist to the headunit and voice-command texting my friends. My main gripe with Toyota's lack of innovation? Engine efficiency (READ: MPG). Back in the day when I had my 4Runners and Tacoma's, I didn't even look at a full-size trucks getting 9mpg. Other mid-size trucks were bland and didn't seem to cater much to the off-road crowd. TRD Off-Road, lockers, etc. All exciting stuff. I was a Honda enthusiast as well, and the amount of HP they could squeeze out of those little 1.8L engines revving to 8.2k RPM was awesome. Now? You get the Tundra which hasn't seen a make-over in 10 years, and still gets 3/4 ton mileage. The new Tacoma has been essentially a "bust" as well (and I mean that in relative terms: expectations vs reality). Like I said, I'd still be driving a Toyota if the Tundra would've been even within 10% of any of the other manufacturers in MPG. Sadly, I don't see that happening anytime soon.
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But that sucks about your property, Dave. Hopefully you'll reach a good compromise. Dealing with cities isn't that fun.

 

[Clutch]

To answer to both of you: I really couldn't care less about syncing my iTunes playlist to the headunit and voice-command texting my friends. My main gripe with Toyota's lack of innovation? Engine efficiency (READ: MPG). Back in the day when I had my 4Runners and Tacoma's, I didn't even look at a full-size trucks getting 9mpg. Other mid-size trucks were bland and didn't seem to cater much to the off-road crowd. TRD Off-Road, lockers, etc. All exciting stuff. I was a Honda enthusiast as well, and the amount of HP they could squeeze out of those little 1.8L engines revving to 8.2k RPM was awesome. Now? You get the Tundra which hasn't seen a make-over in 10 years, and still gets 3/4 ton mileage. The new Tacoma has been essentially a "bust" as well (and I mean that in relative terms: expectations vs reality). Like I said, I'd still be driving a Toyota if the Tundra would've been even within 10% of any of the other manufacturers in MPG. Sadly, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Totally agree with you....baffles me why Toyota focuses on efficiency in their car line up, but rests on their laurels with their trucks. A simple fix would be to toss a diesel in the Tacoma...why won't they!? No clue. Would like to see better fuel economy in their trucks, doesn't have to be diesel either, a hybrid or a fuel cell truck would work too. Won't be cheap I am guessing.

TFL did manage to get 24.5 HWY out of the biggest Tacoma models though. Do believe most of the poor mileage out there, are guys with a heavy foot. Have a client with an Ecoboost, he can't get any better than 15...sooo...

 

[DaveInDenver]

Fuel economy is a major devolution I think. However I'm willing to concede that there's a triad with respect to engines (and drivetrain in general) that you get to pick two from economy, power, reliability. Back when Toyota obviously made very conservative engines that lacked power but had good fuel economy and ran forever. I tend to think the 1GR is the extension of that in that it now makes good (IMO) power and still lasts, so obviously economy had to take a hit.

I think they are working harder on it in diesels. The L engines in the 1980s were low power but OK on running for a while and economy. The 1KZ was better all around and the current 1KD seems to be (from accounts) a good engine on power and longevity while not taking a dive in economy.

You have to also agree that the 22R -> 3RZ -> 2TR progression is good, too. The current 4 cylinder gasoline I4 is a fine motor and you can get 24 MPG from it. Not terrible. It just seems the V6 engines sort of flounder.

 

[Clutch]

Fuel economy is a major devolution I think. However I'm willing to concede that there's a triad with respect to engines (and drivetrain in general) that you get to pick two from economy, power, reliability. Back when Toyota obviously made very conservative engines that lacked power but had good fuel economy and ran forever. I tend to think the 1GR is the extension of that in that it now makes good (IMO) power and still lasts, so obviously economy had to take a hit.

I think they are working harder on it in diesels. The L engines in the 1980s were low power but OK on running for a while and economy. The 1KZ was better all around and the current 1KD seems to be (from accounts) a good engine on power and longevity while not taking a dive in economy.

It is all about compromise. I am willing to give up a little in fuel economy for longevity, and low cost of ownership. Sure, it would be nice to have better fuel consumption, but it is what it is. Still think the underpowered SR 4-banger Tacoma is the best bang for the buck currently. Pretty sure you can get 15 years/300K miles out of it with very little fuss.

And the best best bang for the buck is just keeping on fixing what I already own. I don't do anything super crazy with it off-road, yesterday went up some fairly steep loose climbs...didn't even flinch...clawed right up it. Had that truck for so long now...and it still impresses me. It works so dang well, why get anything new? Wish I could buy new of what I already have...don't really like anything else, when it comes on down to it.

 

[p nut]

I wouldn't mind sacrificing power to get that MPG up, personally. When the Tundra's first came out, they had the 3.4L V6 option. Had the combo been available today, I would've seriously considered a new Tundra SR (well, maybe SR5 to keep the girls happy) with a 3.5L (or 4.0L) V6. Ford's been doing the 3.5L V6 (non-ecoboost) in their 1/2 ton getting 20+ MPG for years. I wouldn't imagine it would be that hard for Toyota to match.

 

[Clutch]

I wouldn't mind sacrificing power to get that MPG up, personally. When the Tundra's first came out, they had the 3.4L V6 option. Had the combo been available today, I would've seriously considered a new Tundra SR (well, maybe SR5 to keep the girls happy) with a 3.5L (or 4.0L) V6. Ford's been doing the 3.5L V6 (non-ecoboost) in their 1/2 ton getting 20+ MPG for years. I wouldn't imagine it would be that hard for Toyota to match.

Those Tundra's are hard to find...the later models had the 4.0...both you still could get manual trans. I went through a phase of trying to find a RCLB with the V6 Manual....realized RC's won't work for me. There is a really nice park about 2-3 minutes from work, that I like to go to and eat lunch...and maybe lean the seat back to take a 15-20 minute nap. Can't do that in a RC...or at least be comfortable.

I could pop open the Wildernest...that might being taking the whole "nap on lunch" thing a little far...:elkgrin:

 

[springsyeti]

All the discussion in this thread has really made me think. I have a 2k Tacoma TRD with the v6 and a Flipac on it that is just as old. I will turn 260k on her before the years end. Had to replace the tranny about 20k ago while traveling in Oregon, it isn't as easy or cheap to find a tranny for a Toyota as I thought.. I almost replaced her then but it fit the bill for me and I like not having a car payment. Well.. Now I have "met the one" and she has a few children. Needless to say the jumpseats are not comfortable for hours in a truck for the kids. The truck is mechanically sound and still doesn't burn oil but the Tacoma is getting long in the tooth and due for a suspension make over and a few repairs on the Flipac.

Seeing as how our needs and my family has grown it is time to upgrade. We need something to take on trails like the White Rim, the mountain passes around Colorado, Mexico and other areas. Plus be a daily driver. We have a car to use for getting around town. We have thought about vans but we aren't going to get one in the areas we want unless we go the Earth Cruiser route which is $$$$

We are now deciding between a truck with either a lightweight slide in or a topper with a roof top tent and add in a used pop-up camper trailer modified for off-road.

With all of that in mind.. All of the discussion on price, size, etc has really made me think and will have to expand my search and compare a full size. I was dead set on a 4 door, longbed, diesel zr1. The 30mpg is nice and the difference of 8-10 mpg adds up over the life of a truck.

Keep the discussion going. I am learning a lot!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[p nut]

Those Tundra's are hard to find...the later models had the 4.0...both you still could get manual trans. I went through a phase of trying to find a RCLB with the V6 Manual....realized RC's won't work for me. There is a really nice park about 2-3 minutes from work, that I like to go to and eat lunch...and maybe lean the seat back to take a 15-20 minute nap. Can't do that in a RC...or at least be comfortable.

I could pop open the Wildernest...that might being taking the whole "nap on lunch" thing a little far...:elkgrin:

That's why you need a full size RC! Head on one side and feet out the other. You know how it's done up there in Idaho.

 

[p nut]

All the discussion in this thread has really made me think. I have a 2k Tacoma TRD with the v6 and a Flipac on it that is just as old. I will turn 260k on her before the years end. Had to replace the tranny about 20k ago while traveling in Oregon, it isn't as easy or cheap to find a tranny for a Toyota as I thought.. I almost replaced her then but it fit the bill for me and I like not having a car payment. Well.. Now I have "met the one" and she has a few children. Needless to say the jumpseats are not comfortable for hours in a truck for the kids. The truck is mechanically sound and still doesn't burn oil but the Tacoma is getting long in the tooth and due for a suspension make over and a few repairs on the Flipac.

Seeing as how our needs and my family has grown it is time to upgrade. We need something to take on trails like the White Rim, the mountain passes around Colorado, Mexico and other areas. Plus be a daily driver. We have a car to use for getting around town. We have thought about vans but we aren't going to get one in the areas we want unless we go the Earth Cruiser route which is $$$$

We are now deciding between a truck with either a lightweight slide in or a topper with a roof top tent and add in a used pop-up camper trailer modified for off-road.

With all of that in mind.. All of the discussion on price, size, etc has really made me think and will have to expand my search and compare a full size. I was dead set on a 4 door, longbed, diesel zr1. The 30mpg is nice and the difference of 8-10 mpg adds up over the life of a truck.

Keep the discussion going. I am learning a lot!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Greg, you're on the right track. Out of the 1/2 tons I considered, Chev and Ram had the smallest back seats. Toyota and Ford were cavernous. But if you don't need a truck bed, don't discount Tahoe/Suburban or Sequoia's with 3rd tow seats.

 

[Clutch]

That's why you need a full size RC! Head on one side and feet out the other.

Ha! Used to do that in the old F250, which had a bench seat. Do they even make bench seats anymore?