Used Silverado vs Colorado: Which Chevy Truck is Right for You?
Awards
Both the Colorado and the Silverado win a lot of awards from the automotive press. This includes recent awards, which is noteworthy because many of these awards have been going to all-electric models in the recent past, but Chevy trucks still manage to win no matter what is powering them. We’ve selected two of the oldest and best-established names in automotive journalism awards, with reputations that precede them.
MotorTrend Truck Of The Year
MotorTrend’s annual awards are possibly the most coveted in the industry, since they only give out two per year. Car of The Year has been around since 1949, with Truck of The Year being added more recently. The Colorado has managed to win this award three times, which includes this year. The Silverado has won four times, two wins for the 1500 and two for the heavy-duty Silverado HD. While you’re probably considering the 1500 if you’re comparing it to the Colorado, it’s worth noting that a lot of the features that gave the HD those wins are shared with the 1500.
Car & Driver 10Best
As prestigious as it is to end up on the Car & Driver 10Best list, it’s not something that happens for pickup trucks very often. That’s because Car & Driver publishes two lists, one for cars and one for tracks and SUVs combined. While this made a lot of sense a few decades ago, today, the huge field of SUVs to choose from means that hardly any pickups ever win. So, while the Corvette is one of the winningest cars of all time with 25 wins, the five wins that have been awarded to the Silverado place it well ahead of other pickup trucks, and by a wide margin.
Towing And Hauling
The chief difference between the Colorado and Silverado is size. The Silverado is bigger, and offers bigger and more powerful engines. So for serious towing and hauling, the answer for what truck you need is obvious. But that being said, the gap isn’t as wide as you might think, and the Colorado has the same kind of towing capacity that you would find in the most capable SUVs on the market. The Colorado will easily tow a camper, a trailer with some four-wheelers, or a fishing boat. This is the kind of towing that most people use their trucks for, so the Colorado makes for an attractive lower-cost towing option. That said, when you need the extra capacity, there is just no getting around it, and that calls for a Silverado.
Offroad Ability
The basic ingredients for an excellent offroad vehicle are baked into every Chevy truck. Tough body-on-frame construction, good ground clearance, and engines that serve up hefty quantities of toque are all features that you get with a Chevy truck, whether you ever intend to take it offroad or not. And for those who do want to take it offroad, both models are offered with multiple offroad trims that come with essential offroad equipment like skid plates and offroad tires. And if you need more than what comes with the truck, or are unable to find a used example that’s outfitted exactly how you want it, Chevrolet makes all kinds of accessories for both models.
Interior Comfort
Both trucks offer comfortable front seats with enough room to stretch out. They also come in a variety of trims and with a whole range of options to make them seriously luxurious. But the back seats take some explaining. For the Colorado, there is only one option for the bed/cab configuration, and that includes a Crew Cab. That means your backseat passengers will be comfortable in a Colorado no matter what. But the Silverado offers a few more options. The Regular Cab, for example, has no back seat at all. You can get a Crew Cab with the Silverado too, giving your back seat passengers the kind of space they’re used to in the Colorado. And the Silverado also comes with a third option, the Double Cab, which gives you a back seat, but doesn’t add quite as much overall length to the cab as a Crew Cab.
