2004 Chevrolet Colorado

One TV spot has a guy in a new Colorado chasing a mountain lion cross country, bounding wildly over rocks and between trees, until he gets close enough to reach out and smack the fleeing cat on the head. "You're it," he says. The lion looks him in the eye, gathers itself up, and then charges toward him. The guy floors the truck and races away with the cat in hot pursuit. "Look how fun, fast, agile and rugged this pickup can be," this entertaining ad is telling us.


Another has five burly workers in a Colorado Crew Cab, with the guy in the middle of the back seat singing merrily along to Shania Twain's "Feel Like a Woman." The rear-seat riders on either side grow increasingly uneasy and keep inching away from him as far as they can. This point humorously made is the surprising roominess of the Colorado's interior, especially the Crew Cab's back seat.

The Colorado resembles a scaled-down Silverado with a rugged and sporting stance.

Chevrolet's all-new Colorado midsize pickup, and its GMC Canyon counterpart, are neither evolutions of the ancient S-10/Sonoma they replace nor pickup versions of GM's TrailBlazer/Envoy midsize SUVs. They are bigger and substantially better than their 22-year-old predecessors and best in class in a number of ways—at least for now.


They share no parts save a seat frame with the venerable S-10/Sonoma and have little in common with the midsize SUVs except 2.8-liter four- and 3.5-liter five-cylinder derivations of the SUVs' widely praised Vortec 4200 (4.2 liter) DOHC I-6 engine. Chevy says both offer better power, torque, economy and range compared to competitive base fours and standard V-6s.


The new standard Vortec 2800 four generates a respectable 175 hp and 185 lb.-ft. of torque, while the new optional Vortec 3500 5-cylinder makes 220 hp and 225 lb.-ft. of twist. Like their 6-cylinder sibling, feature aluminum head and block, dual overhead cams, four valves per cylinder, dual balance shafts, electronic throttle control, lightweight pistons, variable valve timing and cam phasing for optimum efficiency. Platinum-tip spark plugs are good for 100,000 miles, the accessory belt for 150,000 miles and the coolant for 5 years or 150,000 miles.