The numbers at a glance
- Properly equipped, a 2026 Colorado tows 7,700 lbs; the ZR2 is rated at 6,000 lbs.
- Payload runs 1,445 to 2,046 lbs depending on how the crew cab is built.
- Every Colorado is 212.7 to 213.2 inches long and 84.4 inches across the mirrors.
- One engine lineup-wide: a 2.7L TurboMax making 310 horsepower and 430 lb-ft through an 8-speed automatic.
- Six trims, $32,400 to $50,700, excluding a $2,095 destination charge.
The three numbers that actually change
Length, width and bed. Everything else about the truck you are used to carries over more closely than you would guess. The Colorado runs 212.7 to 213.2 inches long on a 131.4-inch wheelbase, and it is 84.4 inches across the mirrors. Without the mirrors it is 74.9 inches wide on the Work Truck, Custom and LT, 76.3 on the Z71 and 78.1 on the Trail Boss and ZR2, so the trim you pick changes the width by more than three inches. Height is 78.8 to 81.9 inches, tallest on the ZR2. Those are the numbers that decide whether the truck lives in your garage or on the street, and they are the ones worth measuring against your actual door before you commit. Our Colorado specs and dimensions page has the full table, trim by trim. The bed is the real change: five feet, 61.7 inches of floor, 41.9 cubic feet. What softens it is the tailgate. It has a mid-position stop rated to 500 lbs, so eight-foot material rides supported instead of balanced on the edge, and there are 17 tie-downs and built-in measurement marks in the bed rail. It is a short bed that was designed by people who knew it was a short bed.Will it still pull what you pull?
Properly equipped, 7,700 lbs. That covers a two-car enclosed trailer, a skid steer on a light deck, a 24-foot boat or a mid-size camper. The ZR2 is the exception at 6,000 lbs, which is what a three-inch lift and 33-inch all-terrain tires cost you in rating. "Properly equipped" is doing real work in that sentence, so here is what it means before you order. On a rear-wheel-drive Colorado you need the Trailering Package. Order four-wheel drive and the list grows by one: the package plus a limited-slip differential. Passengers, cargo, options and accessories all reduce what any given truck can pull, and trailer tongue weight comes out of the same payload allowance as everything else in the cab. If you are close to the number rather than comfortably under it, that arithmetic is worth doing on paper. Our Colorado towing capacity page walks through it with the axle and equipment detail.
Which Colorado replaces the truck you have
Here is the part that surprises people coming from full-size: you do not choose the engine, because there is only one. All six trims run the 2.7L TurboMax at 310 horsepower and 430 lb-ft through an 8-speed automatic. A Work Truck accelerates like a ZR2. Nothing you pay more for goes faster. What the ladder buys is drivetrain, ride height and rubber:- Work Truck, Custom and LT are rear-wheel drive as standard, with four-wheel drive a $3,300 option. That system is single-speed — no low range.
- Trail Boss starting at $40,500 excluding destination adds a two-inch factory lift, 32-inch all-terrain tires, skid plates, an auto-locking rear differential and a two-speed transfer case with a low range, all standard.
- Z71 runs the same two-speed transfer case on a standard-height chassis and the same 32-inch all-terrain tires.
- ZR2 is the specialist: Multimatic DSSV dampers, front and rear electronic locking differentials, a three-inch lift and 33-inch tires.
What you do not give up
Cabin, mostly. Every 2026 Colorado is a crew cab with five seats, 45.2 inches of front legroom and 34.7 in the back, and Chevrolet builds no other body — there is no regular cab or extended cab to accidentally order into. The screen is the same on all six trims too: an 11.3-inch touchscreen with Google built-in alongside an 11-inch digital driver display, standard on the Work Truck exactly as it is on the ZR2, with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Driver assistance does not get held back for the upper trims either: the Safety Assist bundle, blind-spot monitoring and cross-traffic alert are fitted to all six. That is a genuinely unusual thing about this truck: the entry trim is not punished on technology. The Colorado tech and safety page has the crash-test scores broken out test by test.What it costs to keep
Regular unleaded, and the tank holds 21.4 gallons. On the EPA's own record a rear-wheel-drive Colorado returns 19 MPG city, 24 highway and 21 combined; four-wheel drive is 17 / 22 / 19, and the ZR2 is 17 across the board. Those are published at fueleconomy.gov. Servicing is interval-free in the old sense: there is no fixed oil-change mileage, because the Engine Oil Life System watches how the truck is actually driven and calls it. Tires rotate every 7,500 miles, the first maintenance visit is covered in the first 12 months, and the warranty runs 3 years or 36,000 miles bumper-to-bumper, 5 years or 60,000 on the powertrain, and 6 years or 100,000 against rust-through — that last one matters more on a truck that spends four months a year in road salt. Our Colorado maintenance schedule page lays out what falls due and when.If a Tacoma is on your list too
It usually is at this point in the search, and it is a fair question rather than an awkward one. The Colorado’s own case is short: 430 lb-ft standard on every trim, one engine so no version of it is slower than another, and a starting price of $32,400 before destination. Rather than argue the rest of it here, we put the two side by side properly — both sets of numbers, both sourced — on our Colorado compared to Toyota Tacoma page. Read that one before you decide.So which one?
- If you tow near the top of the range, take a Work Truck, LT, Trail Boss or Z71 with the Trailering Package — those four carry the 7,700-lb rating, and the ZR2 does not.
- If you used low range on the old truck, Trail Boss or Z71. Trail Boss if you want the lift and the clearance, Z71 if you would rather keep the standard ride height.
- If four-wheel drive was really just winter insurance, an LT with the $3,300 four-wheel-drive MSRP option is the one to buy, and it leaves the most money on the table.
- If the truck is a work tool first, the Work Truck, starting at $32,400 excluding destination, gets the same engine, the same screen and the same safety kit as everything above it.
- If the weekends are the whole point, the ZR2, and accept the 6,000-lb tow rating as the trade for what it does off pavement.
