Comparison shopping: Colorado, Gladiator, Tacoma

spectre6000

Observer
If it comes down to price difference between the Colorado and the Gladiator, don’t write off the Gladiator before talking to Dennis Dillon in Boise. If anyone is willing to discount a Jeep or a Ram, it’s them.

I’m in Michigan but have worked with them twice on ordering vehicles, and they were far enough below the local dealers here that I still came out well ahead paying for a flight to Boise, two nights in hotel and gas on the way home!

That is some good info! I bought my CUCV out of Idaho by way of Jackson Hole. That was a nice drive! Even made it home without incident save helping someone ELSE with a flat tire (I knew the bolt pattern on his axle would match my spare, so I lent it to him to the next town). Depending on how things go when we do our second round inspections, I may need to give him a call.

Actually, the conversation about cars and what makes them boring and not really got me thinking about the Gladiator again in a new light... Unfortunately, there's a fire at the base of the canyon right now, and we're just outside the evac zone... Shouldn't be an issue, but a bit of a distraction all the same. Which is why I'm here typing this as a distraction from the distraction! Good times.
 
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AbleGuy

Officious Intermeddler
The Chevy/GMC dealer in Butte MT may be a good place to shop for the Colorado.

In ‘07 I was shopping all over the Inland NW and Northern Rockies for a new full size 4wd Chevy pickup and wound up surprisingly getting the best deal by far there.
 

LimaMikeMike

Observer
At the risk of being a fanboy, why isn't the Frontier considered here? I know it's "old" but I would consider it a prime candidate for a truck that I wanted to take to 500k. The Pro4x is pretty competent and you can add a front locker and lift to it and still have way more money in your pocket to make it more "expo ready"
I want to like nissan trucks, I learned how to drive on a 87 pathfinder, my friends and I pounded on that poor truck.

Up here a fully loaded crew pro4x with leather etc, sells for about 35-36k cdn after being greasy with the sales guy. That’s about 26-27 US right now. If you could figure out how to get the warranty honoured in the states you’d make out like a bandit
 

04Ram2500Hemi

Observer
If it comes down to price difference between the Colorado and the Gladiator, don’t write off the Gladiator before talking to Dennis Dillon in Boise. If anyone is willing to discount a Jeep or a Ram, it’s them.

I’m in Michigan but have worked with them twice on ordering vehicles, and they were far enough below the local dealers here that I still came out well ahead paying for a flight to Boise, two nights in hotel and gas on the way home!

Personally I’m in the Colorado’s corner, have really liked that truck since the ZR2 variant surfaced.

I agree on Dennis Dillon. My 2012 Power Wagon came from there. Easiest car buying experience ever. Very little hassle, and the best deal I could find nationwide.
 

Cackalak Han

Explorer

knoxswift

Active member
The Gladiator needs a 6ft bed option.
The Colorado zr2 needs a better interior and manual transmission option.
Toyota needs to go back to 4.0 engine.

In short try to find a used 2nd gen Tacoma...
 

spectre6000

Observer
The errant comment in response to my non-existent "boring" quote set me down a mental tangent re: "boring" cars. That philosophical diversion really made me look at the Gladiator in a new light... The gap between the Gladiator and the Colorado has narrowed further. Does the Colorado really have staying power? If it's not something you WANT for 500K, it won't get to 500K. It needs to remain desirable. A Jeep is distinct and full of character, regardless the vintage. The Gladiator will share that positive attribute. I'm trying to think of other trucks/cars that are otherwise quite plain and all-things-to-all-people-y that can say anything similar...

Post-40 series Land Cruisers are arguably pretty much just plain Jane SUVs, but have a solid following and reputation. Land Rovers have a solid following, and some have reasonable resale compared to what they really should. Same can be said with Tacomas to some degree and the early mini trucks and 4Runners. 3-Series BMWs are not much more than sedans that are just really well sorted. Same with certain E-Class Mercedeses (W132s and most wagons). Powerwagons and squarebodies I think have a pretty solid following and reputation, though not quite to the same degree. What other cars should be boring, but aren't and why? None of these are quite as purpose-driven as Jeeps, but still manage to have something that gives them staying power. What is that something? Could the Colorado rise to that echelon?
 

GB_Willys_2014

Well-known member
The errant comment in response to my non-existent "boring" quote set me down a mental tangent re: "boring" cars. That philosophical diversion really made me look at the Gladiator in a new light... The gap between the Gladiator and the Colorado has narrowed further. Does the Colorado really have staying power? If it's not something you WANT for 500K, it won't get to 500K. It needs to remain desirable. A Jeep is distinct and full of character, regardless the vintage. The Gladiator will share that positive attribute. I'm trying to think of other trucks/cars that are otherwise quite plain and all-things-to-all-people-y that can say anything similar...

Post-40 series Land Cruisers are arguably pretty much just plain Jane SUVs, but have a solid following and reputation. Land Rovers have a solid following, and some have reasonable resale compared to what they really should. Same can be said with Tacomas to some degree and the early mini trucks and 4Runners. 3-Series BMWs are not much more than sedans that are just really well sorted. Same with certain E-Class Mercedeses (W132s and most wagons). Powerwagons and squarebodies I think have a pretty solid following and reputation, though not quite to the same degree. What other cars should be boring, but aren't and why? None of these are quite as purpose-driven as Jeeps, but still manage to have something that gives them staying power. What is that something? Could the Colorado rise to that echelon?

You do Robert Pirsig justice.

100% serious, intended as nothing but a compliment.
 

ChasingOurTrunks

Well-known member
I recently just went through this exact process. We settled on the GMC Canyon, which is nearly identical to the Colorado in every way but with a bit more of a premium interior. Be warned though, stuff that bolts to the front of the Colorado might not work for the Canyon as that IS a difference; the front fenders and grill are a bit different. Everything else is the same, so it might be worth a look depending on your plans. The downside to the Canyon is no Bison package, which for us was OK as we plan on aftermarket suspension that will better suit our needs than what came with the Bison; the Bison has a lower payload than a stock Colorado/Canyon, and we wanted to maximize the legal load limits.

Plus, to be perfectly honest, we got a screaming good deal on the GM as it was a 2017 with less than 6000 kms on the clock (Basically new; just had it's first tire rotation the other day). We walked away for mid-30's, whereas the Gladiator was at the time over $75k locally. I can buy two Canyons -- which I am fairly sure will get me to 500k! -- for the price of one Gladiator. That will come down in time....but how long?

I wouldn't worry about the frame bending issue, because from what I can gather, it's not an issue. The vehicle is designed to be safe on the road, and 99% of time your risk from being rear ended will be far greater than the risk of bending the frame off-road by towing a trailer (which is a whole other topic; lots on Expo seem to love off road trailers but I am not a fan for my application due to the increase risk to broken stuff when towing).

Reliability between the ones you mentioned is very competitive in aggregate. There are always individual cars from every mark that are lemons, and sometimes we shout louder about some lemons than others, but almost all of the data you can find on discussion forums is anecdotal, and it's hard to get a real sense of reliability from stories. Reliability is subjective -- for some folks, they only ever want to turn the key and change the oil, and anything other than that means a rig isn't reliable. For others, they are comfortable with changing all the wear parts regularly, and if they do CV joints every 30,000 kms, that's just "cost of maintenance" and not a reliability issue. Therefore the stories we see are not a good indicator of overall reliability -- there are too many perspectives and too many variables in the stories to really compare apples to apples.

The people who pay attention to this stuff and aggregate the actual reliability rank the Colorado very closely with the Taco (which is the market leader in many ways). For instance, RepairPal ranks the Taco at 4.5/5, and the Colorado at 4/5, with the half-point being made almost entirely on the 'annual cost of repair' being lower on the Taco by 200 dollars per year. 200 bucks is not significant enough to make the difference in my book. In all other ways, the two trucks were very close (within a percentage point), with no clear favour to one or the other).

As far as the interior fit and finish, like I said the Canyon is very nice -- far nicer than our JK. My chevy Silverado is not nearly as good, though, from a 'creature comfort' perspective. But there is a difference between 'spartan' and 'flawed'. My chevy is Spartan, but clean and nice -- a spartan interior can be an asset in an overlanding rig, as it's easy to clean, not many crevasses to trap dust, etc. However what you described on the Bison you test drove is flawed, and if I were you, I'd demand to see a new bison OR see the cosmetic issues fixed/reflected in the price. Not all Bisons are made Friday Afternoon with weekends on the mind of the good guys and gals bolting them together, after all!

None of the trucks you have mentioned are likely to make it to 500k miles on their own, depending on the use of them. All of them will need varying amounts of TLC along the way. But all of them WILL make it to 500K if you are willing to put that TLC in, up to an including changing major parts. From that perspective, I think you are better off with the GM out of the list you have provided. Given there are 4 trucks that are essentially the same (Holden, GM, Chevy, Isuzu) and all of them are selling very well, both at home and abroad, those critical "keep it on the road" parts should be fairly widely available for some time.
 

LimaMikeMike

Observer
The errant comment in response to my non-existent "boring" quote set me down a mental tangent re: "boring" cars. That philosophical diversion really made me look at the Gladiator in a new light... The gap between the Gladiator and the Colorado has narrowed further. Does the Colorado really have staying power? If it's not something you WANT for 500K, it won't get to 500K. It needs to remain desirable. A Jeep is distinct and full of character, regardless the vintage. The Gladiator will share that positive attribute. I'm trying to think of other trucks/cars that are otherwise quite plain and all-things-to-all-people-y that can say anything similar...

Post-40 series Land Cruisers are arguably pretty much just plain Jane SUVs, but have a solid following and reputation. Land Rovers have a solid following, and some have reasonable resale compared to what they really should. Same can be said with Tacomas to some degree and the early mini trucks and 4Runners. 3-Series BMWs are not much more than sedans that are just really well sorted. Same with certain E-Class Mercedeses (W132s and most wagons). Powerwagons and squarebodies I think have a pretty solid following and reputation, though not quite to the same degree. What other cars should be boring, but aren't and why? None of these are quite as purpose-driven as Jeeps, but still manage to have something that gives them staying power. What is that something? Could the Colorado rise to that echelon?
The Gladiator reminds me of my favorite all time truck, the Defender 130 double cab. Whether or not its a jeep doesn't matter to me it has the right look and the right bits (avail lockers and SFA, winch capability etc.) I think its longevity will equal the JK with time and will be definitely be less of a "mechanics" vehicle than a Defender would be. There is a huge price gap between a ZR2 and a Gladiator here. Is the Jeep a better truck? Maybe, but its definitely not 22K better.

I chose the ZR2 as a compromise, its performance and economy are what I need right now. It is a dual locked, diesel mid size truck, that is comfortable as my DD. There actually is a bit of a aftermarket following for the ZR2 and is slowly ramping up. I didn't go Bison because was a lot of an upcharge for it and all of its features are available in the aftermarket, its the same suspension and drivetrain as a ZR2 but with some skids, bumpers and badges for 9K extra(CDN). If you want a Colorado buy a regular ZR2 and build how you want it over time. But yes at its heart its still a pedestrian Chevy Colorado and thats what makes it soulless.
 

spectre6000

Observer
Soul.

Some cars have it and some don't. I can't explain why or which ones. I think that falls into the 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' category.

Good call on the Benz. Love them and 240 Wagons.

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There is something to it. Agreed. I think it can be unpacked though. To my mind, not having had an opportunity to really explore it with any like minded people, it is about purpose of design and accepting, or even embracing, the shortcomings that result. Those shortcomings are the constituent components of what we collectively call "character", or in your parlance, "soul". VW Beetles are slow, noisy, always leaking oil, and the heat sucks, but people love the ******** out of them. Similar things can be said of numerous other cars, and I listed several of them above. The Jeeps' ride quality, wind noise, rattles, less-than-stellar build quality, and so on are all EMBRACED rather than abhorred because they are a part of the flawed whole that is a "Jeep". A Cherokee or whatever that Fiat thing is called lack those distinct compromises, and that's why no one actually cares about them beyond their initial attempts to justify certain life choices; they're not "Jeep" because they're not critically flawed in pursuit of a specific goal.
 

spectre6000

Observer
...at its heart its still a pedestrian Chevy Colorado and thats what makes it soulless.
I'm not convinced of this yet... The VW Bus is a car that no one without an axe to grind could ever call soulless, but it's a clear case of the same sort of engineering effort, though on an even grander scale. The Bus started as a Beetle that had been converted to a factory runabout. They essentially took a Beetle chassis, and scabbed up a seat and steering wheel on top of the front suspension, using the pan as a truck bed of sorts. Then they improved and improved, and eventually someone at the top decided to take it all the way and do it right. Et viola, Bus. Horrifically flawed in a million ways, but of all the vehicles I've owned, far and away my favorite.

The Colorado ZR2 Bison is the zenith of its ilk; no two ways about it (I consider the light weight, crash tested armor superior to what's available on the aftermarket as a contributing factor to this). It is a repurposing of an arguably bland (and soulless) existing platform into a substantially different application. The Colorado's repurposing isn't nearly as dramatic, and it's thus not quite as flawed, but still flawed. The payload and towing capacities aren't quite to the level you'd get elsewhere in service of the suspension for instance. I think part of what's going to dictate staying power is whether or not the aftermarket really steps up and sales rise to meet it.

The previous generation Colorado with the I5 is a dud (no offense to anyone who owns one, but I can't think of the last time I saw one); it will just be an old truck at some point. I don't think I've ever seen one out on a trail (though I'm not often on trails with a lot of other vehicles). The Jeep will always be a Jeep, and never just an old truck, and because of that the TLC required to keep it on the road will be justified to its owner; they will WANT to keep it on the road for the sake of itself and not just rote cost saving and utility. That's why a greater than average percentage of Gladiators WILL see 500K; not likely in the hands of their original owners to be sure; those with the means to buy such a vehicle new are rarely those that like to keep them that long because they can afford a newer shinier thing.

What is there keeping the Colorado from being just an old truck? Will the leather hold out? Will the engine? What about the electronic gewgaws? All modern cars built since the early 2000s, I feel, will be harder to justify long term as the screens and such will age horribly... Anything mission critical tied into those screens is a major long term liability, whereas, if they're totally standalone, they can be replaced and upgraded over time to keep up with standards of the day....
 

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