Repair-It

Truth be told, the Colorado isn’t all that small or light—it’s essentially the same size as the enlarged new Tacoma and a few hundred pounds heavier, to boot—but it is engineered to drive small and light, feeling more like a crossover than a truck. “The difference between the Tacoma and Colorado is night and day,” Seabaugh said. “While the Tacoma feels old-school and truckish, the Colorado drives like the future of small trucks.”

But per our own Real MPG testing, we can confirm that the Colorado diesel is far and away the most fuel-efficient midsize truck on the market. At 23.2/31.4/26.3 mpg city/highway/combined, the 4×2 Colorado LT Duramax returned numbers more in line with a 1.5-liter Malibu sedan (20.8/34.3/25.3), topping the tiny gas engine’s combined rating by 1 full mpg

A go-anywhere 4×4 with nubby tires more your speed? The Z71 Trail Boss Duramax riding on mudslinging Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac rubber returned even more impressive numbers of 25.5/29.3/27.1. For context, albeit gas to diesel, the Tacoma TRD Off-Road with more road-bent Goodyear All-Terrain Adventure tires scored 15.8/21.8/18.1.