spectre6000
Observer
In software engineering, there's a thing called "Rubber Ducky Debugging". Look it up for an explanation; that's essentially what this is. I've given this a lot of thought, and this is in large part an organization of my thoughts. Anyone finding themselves in a similar situation and disposition to mine may find it informative. I'd like some feedback, but I get that it's a long read for the medium.
I'm in the market for a new mid-size truck and doing preliminary research. My criteria are capability off road and in poor conditions, smaller is better, diesel is nice, camper top/topper/whatever they're called is a must, and I intend to run it into the ground and back (500K miles is the target minimum). The viable candidates as I see them are the Chevy Colorado ZR2 (probably with the Bison package), the Jeep gladiator, and the Toyota Tacoma. I've owned at least one of each of these makes, and had positive experiences with all of them. Having watched the market reasonably close for the past few years, I've been impressed with where Chevy has taken the Colorado, where it came from, etc. It started in a third world market, was adapted for the Australian market, then adapted again for the American market. Same with the engine. Coming from and succeeding in such difficult markets bodes very well. That also helps with the age of the platform in terms of teething. I don't super like that some of the Americanizing was to make it quieter (and likely more fragile as a result), but I do like that they paid special attention to cold and altitude (I live in the mountains). I recently finished my tour of the "Big 3", and I'm a Chevy guy. My wife's Jeep certainly hasn't been trouble free, but it's worth the cost of entry for what it is, and since the FCA merger it seems like they're really stepped up their game. The Gladiator is a flawed beast to be sure, but it makes up for it in a number of ways. It's a very new platform, but when you break it down and realize that the front half has some years on it in the form of the Wrangler and the back half in the form of the Ram 1500, it's proven enough for my comfort. Finally, I've had good experiences with my Toyotas, and I've wanted a Tacoma since "the Top Gear episode". That said, they've gotten fat and happy in the #1 slot owning the market, and I'm saddened that Toyota has neglected the Tacoma so badly. Even Consumer Reports, who a few years ago you'd be forgiven for thinking they were sleeping with a Toyota on the side, has demoted the Tacoma to the last place position in the mid-size truck market (the Frontier was not on the list at all, but that's hardly a surprise), only giving it an "Average" rating for the one thing (reliability) it's supposed to be good at. I kept the Tacoma in the running because it has such a solid reputation, but there are a lot of people out there who like pineapple on their pizza, so reputations only go so far.
I researched each of the platforms from the perspective of aftermarket and forum activity. The Colorado seems to be coming along in the former, and is reasonably healthy in the latter. The Jeep will clearly own the aftermarket situation, but the forums are very light still in many regards; give it time. Tacoma wins both handily at the moment. One thing I was looking for on the forums was the sort of degree of problems I could expect. The Jeep engine section on the primary forum I found had literally 13 threads. Given how new it is and that the greasy bits are all shared with the Wrangler, I can't say that's entirely surprising, but it is a little. Coloradofans.com seems to be the most active forum for that platform, and there are certainly issues, but I honestly expect there to be some. Forums are where people go to troubleshoot but mostly complain about these things, and there were some things with past models that appear to have been mostly dealt with, but nothing all that deep or dire. The Tacoma situation was genuinely surprising (I wasn't yet aware of the drop in quality), and there was even a sticky intended to talk people down off talk of Lemon Lawsuits and Magnusson Moss Act suits! Lots of people unhappy over there for a brand built on reliability. Trying to pass it through the filter of unmet expectations only really takes you so far... It's a tough pill to swallow.
From a design perspective for me personally, the Colorado and the Gladiator both have impressive drivetrains. You swap a solid axle with sway bar disconnect and lower transfer case gearing for IFS and a more sophisticated suspension and drivetrain, not to mention the diesel (I'll be buying before the diesel Gladiator hits the market). I'll be using the truck as a DD, so the longer wheelbase cum reduced break over angle is not ideal, but hardly a deal killer any more than the lack of articulation in the IFS. I wish the Colorado had a sunroof like the Tacoma, but the removable top of the Gladiator does me no good as I'm too fair skinned and bald to really be able to use it... I guess the Toyota wins in the sunroof category. Tacoma and Gladiator also have manual options where the Colorado doesn't. The Bison package is pretty impressive in that the skid plates you get are light weight, strong, crash tested (this is huge), and when you add them all up I'm pretty confident you're coming out way ahead in both price and quality compared to the aftermarket. I'm surprised Chevrolet let such a thing happen, but glad they did.
I went and tested them all out last weekend. The Gladiator was first (order was based on proximity), and its a well designed vehicle that clearly understands its target audience. Hat tip to Jeep. It's a well designed truck, and I didn't notice anything that would cause it to lose points for fit and finish. The points loss is in the price category. Far and away the most expensive option, especially when you consider they have zero incentive or interest to budge on price. My wife doesn't like the look of it either (and I understand why), but what are you going to do? The Tacoma was next. They had a pair of FJ40s on the showroom floor, and that gave me good feels (I used to own and thoroughly enjoyed a '74). The Tacoma often gets dinged for ergonomics, but the gripe is that it's made for a Japanese sized frame. I'm 5'6" and not at all overweight, so I figured that was me and was surprised and disappointed that I couldn't operate the clutch without hitting my knee on the steering wheel and couldn't do anything at all about it. At this point, I had been considering the C-channel frame (the other two are fully boxed), the drum brakes in the rear (say what you will, that's lazy to the point of insult), and the straw that broke the camel's back was the fact that the engine wasn't happy until you had it around 3K+ RPM! When the salesman said that's where it likes to be, I thought he was joking, but it seriously needs revs to not bog down. That is not how a truck engine is supposed to work... Tacoma's officially out of the running; I gave it more than a fair shake.
I'm in the market for a new mid-size truck and doing preliminary research. My criteria are capability off road and in poor conditions, smaller is better, diesel is nice, camper top/topper/whatever they're called is a must, and I intend to run it into the ground and back (500K miles is the target minimum). The viable candidates as I see them are the Chevy Colorado ZR2 (probably with the Bison package), the Jeep gladiator, and the Toyota Tacoma. I've owned at least one of each of these makes, and had positive experiences with all of them. Having watched the market reasonably close for the past few years, I've been impressed with where Chevy has taken the Colorado, where it came from, etc. It started in a third world market, was adapted for the Australian market, then adapted again for the American market. Same with the engine. Coming from and succeeding in such difficult markets bodes very well. That also helps with the age of the platform in terms of teething. I don't super like that some of the Americanizing was to make it quieter (and likely more fragile as a result), but I do like that they paid special attention to cold and altitude (I live in the mountains). I recently finished my tour of the "Big 3", and I'm a Chevy guy. My wife's Jeep certainly hasn't been trouble free, but it's worth the cost of entry for what it is, and since the FCA merger it seems like they're really stepped up their game. The Gladiator is a flawed beast to be sure, but it makes up for it in a number of ways. It's a very new platform, but when you break it down and realize that the front half has some years on it in the form of the Wrangler and the back half in the form of the Ram 1500, it's proven enough for my comfort. Finally, I've had good experiences with my Toyotas, and I've wanted a Tacoma since "the Top Gear episode". That said, they've gotten fat and happy in the #1 slot owning the market, and I'm saddened that Toyota has neglected the Tacoma so badly. Even Consumer Reports, who a few years ago you'd be forgiven for thinking they were sleeping with a Toyota on the side, has demoted the Tacoma to the last place position in the mid-size truck market (the Frontier was not on the list at all, but that's hardly a surprise), only giving it an "Average" rating for the one thing (reliability) it's supposed to be good at. I kept the Tacoma in the running because it has such a solid reputation, but there are a lot of people out there who like pineapple on their pizza, so reputations only go so far.
I researched each of the platforms from the perspective of aftermarket and forum activity. The Colorado seems to be coming along in the former, and is reasonably healthy in the latter. The Jeep will clearly own the aftermarket situation, but the forums are very light still in many regards; give it time. Tacoma wins both handily at the moment. One thing I was looking for on the forums was the sort of degree of problems I could expect. The Jeep engine section on the primary forum I found had literally 13 threads. Given how new it is and that the greasy bits are all shared with the Wrangler, I can't say that's entirely surprising, but it is a little. Coloradofans.com seems to be the most active forum for that platform, and there are certainly issues, but I honestly expect there to be some. Forums are where people go to troubleshoot but mostly complain about these things, and there were some things with past models that appear to have been mostly dealt with, but nothing all that deep or dire. The Tacoma situation was genuinely surprising (I wasn't yet aware of the drop in quality), and there was even a sticky intended to talk people down off talk of Lemon Lawsuits and Magnusson Moss Act suits! Lots of people unhappy over there for a brand built on reliability. Trying to pass it through the filter of unmet expectations only really takes you so far... It's a tough pill to swallow.
From a design perspective for me personally, the Colorado and the Gladiator both have impressive drivetrains. You swap a solid axle with sway bar disconnect and lower transfer case gearing for IFS and a more sophisticated suspension and drivetrain, not to mention the diesel (I'll be buying before the diesel Gladiator hits the market). I'll be using the truck as a DD, so the longer wheelbase cum reduced break over angle is not ideal, but hardly a deal killer any more than the lack of articulation in the IFS. I wish the Colorado had a sunroof like the Tacoma, but the removable top of the Gladiator does me no good as I'm too fair skinned and bald to really be able to use it... I guess the Toyota wins in the sunroof category. Tacoma and Gladiator also have manual options where the Colorado doesn't. The Bison package is pretty impressive in that the skid plates you get are light weight, strong, crash tested (this is huge), and when you add them all up I'm pretty confident you're coming out way ahead in both price and quality compared to the aftermarket. I'm surprised Chevrolet let such a thing happen, but glad they did.
I went and tested them all out last weekend. The Gladiator was first (order was based on proximity), and its a well designed vehicle that clearly understands its target audience. Hat tip to Jeep. It's a well designed truck, and I didn't notice anything that would cause it to lose points for fit and finish. The points loss is in the price category. Far and away the most expensive option, especially when you consider they have zero incentive or interest to budge on price. My wife doesn't like the look of it either (and I understand why), but what are you going to do? The Tacoma was next. They had a pair of FJ40s on the showroom floor, and that gave me good feels (I used to own and thoroughly enjoyed a '74). The Tacoma often gets dinged for ergonomics, but the gripe is that it's made for a Japanese sized frame. I'm 5'6" and not at all overweight, so I figured that was me and was surprised and disappointed that I couldn't operate the clutch without hitting my knee on the steering wheel and couldn't do anything at all about it. At this point, I had been considering the C-channel frame (the other two are fully boxed), the drum brakes in the rear (say what you will, that's lazy to the point of insult), and the straw that broke the camel's back was the fact that the engine wasn't happy until you had it around 3K+ RPM! When the salesman said that's where it likes to be, I thought he was joking, but it seriously needs revs to not bog down. That is not how a truck engine is supposed to work... Tacoma's officially out of the running; I gave it more than a fair shake.