The Best Mid-Sized Pickup Truck

Yaj Yak

Gladys
TCG Premium
May 24, 2007
122,148
87,662
Niche score of 2,363
You want the capability of a truck but can't be burdened with something you need an air-traffic controller to help park. Your "mid-sized" truck options may be limited in the US, but they're about to get a whole lot better. Here's a roundup for what's out there now.

The Chevy Colorado and its upscale stablemate the GMC Canyon are the only true new choices for 2015. A next-generation Tacoma is on the way for 2016, and a redesigned Frontier is reportedly not far behind... but we don't know when either will hit the market, so use this quick comparo for what's on offer going into the new year and a baseline of what the mid-size truck competitive set feels like.


If that seems a little confusing (why don't they start at "small?") it basically breaks down to: every automaker that had a small US-market truck has either eliminated it or grown it to be "mid-sized."

Why bother getting a "mid-sized" truck when you could get a Big Gulp? er, "full-sized?" A mid-sized truck offers a lot of a truck's advantages (off-road potential, hose-out open cargo bed, relaxed posture) without using quite as much fuel or parking space as something like a Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado 1500 or Ram 1500.

Travis hustled the Chevy Colorado through New York City, Matt chased the TX4WD club with a Frontier PRO-4X, and Jason spend some time in the Toyota Tacoma.

As for my impressions – I've lived, worked, and played with a few variations of each mid-sized truck currently on sale in the US. I punted the Chevy Colorado Z71 through some of SoCal's mountain passes. Did highways, city streets, and daily driving in the lower trims. Ran the GMC Canyon All-Terrain all up and down the desert.

I also took the Nissan Frontier PRO-4X from Colorado to the trails of Moab, Utah hauling all kinds of weight, and back again. Made cargo runs between New York and Boston in a Toyota Tacoma Limited, and beat the shit out of a TRD Pro model on the infamous Hell's Revenge slickrock trail.

Every truck has been tested in the type of use they're advertised for; carrying crap all over the place, ceaseless miles of highway cruising, and squeezing suspension down on off-road trails.

Travis hustled the Chevy Colorado through New York City, Matt chased the TX4WD club with a Frontier PRO-4X, and Jason spend some time in the Toyota Tacoma.

As for my impressions – I've lived, worked, and played with a few variations of each mid-sized truck currently on sale in the US. I punted the Chevy Colorado Z71 through some of SoCal's mountain passes. Did highways, city streets, and daily driving in the lower trims. Ran the GMC Canyon All-Terrain all up and down the desert.

I also took the Nissan Frontier PRO-4X from Colorado to the trails of Moab, Utah hauling all kinds of weight, and back again. Made cargo runs between New York and Boston in a Toyota Tacoma Limited, and beat the shit out of a TRD Pro model on the infamous Hell's Revenge slickrock trail.

Every truck has been tested in the type of use they're advertised for; carrying crap all over the place, ceaseless miles of highway cruising, and squeezing suspension down on off-road trails.

The Best Mid-Sized Pickup Truck
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 90 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant. Consider starting a new thread to get fresh replies.

Thread Info