Motor Trend Names Truck of Year, 2015 Ford F-150 Comes In Third
Tim Esterdahl | Dec 03, 2014 | Comments 9
The internet is a buzz today with news that Motor Trend has named the Chevy Colorado as the Truck of Year. While, this is great news for Chevy, many expected the new Ford F-150 to easily walk away with the honor. Instead it got third.
Motor Trend felt this Transit was a better work truck than the new F-150.
M/T’s article naming the Chevy Colorado as the truck of the year is full of praise for the small truck. While that is all well and good, the comments Editor-in-Chief Edward Loh made to other publications really tell the whole story. Here is a roundup.
Why did Chevy Win?
“GM’s kind of built that right-sized honest pickup truck that I think will meet the needs of a lot of people,” Loh said. “It’s a good value. You can get a base work truck in the low $20,000s. You can get the 4-by-4 Z71 starting at $30,000 which is very cost competitive to Toyota and Nissan.”
Loh said Motor Trend’s seven editors praised the Colorado’s steering, handling, ride and spacious interior, plus its best-in-class fuel economy.
“It basically fixed everything that was wrong with the previous generation Colorado. And that thing was a dog,” he said. “It was totally not competitive and GM knew it and they basically delivered a brand new, very capable, best-in-class pickup truck in our minds.”
In a unanimous vote among Motor Trend writers and editors, the Chevy Colorado midsize trounced all rivals to be best in class by being a right-sized truck with “sexy” looks and “a big fuel efficiency story.”
“A lot of our staff fell in love with that pickup,” says Loh. “It’s the thinking man’s kind of pickup.”
Why Didn’t Ford Win?
“It’s only shocking that the Colorado wins if you presumed that F-150 was going to walk away with it,” he says. The Ram EcoDiesel, he says, is considered best in the full-size class not only because of its better gas mileage but because of innovations like an eight-speed automatic transmission and a better ride.
“When it came down to it, after over a week’s worth of testing, we sat down, we hashed it all out,” said Editor-in-Chief Edward Loh. “All the judges are asked to write down their top 3 picks – and third place was the Ford F-150; second place was Ford Transit, and by unanimous vote was the Chevrolet Colorado.”
Loh said the F-150 was the prohibitive winner going into the testing.
“Ford built a really, really good truck. It’s excellent across the board. They’ve been really fast, they’ve always been fast especially with the new EcoBoost engines. They’ve always been capable. This new one is quiet and has a lot of great features.
“But there are things like handling which we felt were a little light, a little nervous. Some of the new technology that they have, including lane keep assist. … very aggressive and needs a little refinement there. But fundamentally we know there’s another truck within the segment that gets better fuel economy without having to go to aluminum. That was kind of a big deal for us.”
For the record, Motor Trend still considers the Ram EcoDiesel to be the best truck in the segment.
Sources: Detroit News, USA Today, Bestride.com, Motor Trend
Filed Under: Auto News
Absolutely hilarious: Reading between the lines, the new Ford does a lot of shaking and this time around there may be some shaking up at Ford?
Seriously even a cargo van drives better than the new F150?
At least Motor Trend did tepidly acknowledge problems continue with Ford’s EPAS after 5 years in production.
The little Chevy Colorado over a Toyota Tacoma, I don’t think so.
I bet I know 50 people with Tacoma trucks and I doubt a single one of them would consider a little Chevy truck. Ford may own the market the F150 type truck but Toyota is in the same position with the Tacoma.
I don’t now a single person who drives a little Colorado truck.
The people who write this stuff must be on some kind of hallucinogenic drugs.
I have my doubts that Toyota is shaking with fear over the Chevy Colorado.
If I could get a Tacoma extended chaise cab that I could build up to what I need I would dump my Ram 2500 tomorrow.
Um, yeah I think so. GM did a great job with the new Colorado/Canyon. It can be had with a Crew Cab, 6 ft bed, 6 speed auto, better fuel economy than the Taco, greater towing and payload and more horsepower and torque than the Taco. Plenty of options as well to equip the truck just the way anyone would like it. Explain to me how that is not better than the Tacoma? Also, in 2016, a 4 cylinder diesel will be an option. It can’t get better than that, unless Toyota decides to play hard ball, which remains to be seen.
It’s not better until it’s been in the market and has proven that it’s tougher then a Tacoma.
What is GM’s reputation for small trucks? I’ll leave that for others to decide. As for the 50 people I know with small Toyotas who have had no problems with them, if they want a new one they are going right back to the Toyota dealer. A 4 cylinder diesel, who makes it? If they put it in a GM frame work the Colorado might have an engine which will run for 20 years in a truck that will rot out in 18 months like my last GM truck.
My 4 Chevy trucks were toast in 2 years, almost put my company out of business. My last Toyota went 18 years.
So we are to buy GM because of a nice marketing campaign, not with my money. Taco is still the meal ticket for a small truck.
Since you brought up rust rot, you need to mention that Toyota had and still has to some degree the same problem. Most every truck person knows that Tacoma’s and gen 1 Tundra’s had a serious frame rusting problem. Toyota did right by replacing the frame or by giving the owner 150% blue book value for the truck towards a trade in. I will admit, the Tacoma has faired better than the rest when it comes to overall reliability, but that does not mean the competition cannot up their ante. The frame on the new Colorado is fully boxed and sealed, not coated with that short lived wax stuff GM has used in the past.
The maker of the planned 4 cylinder diesel is VM Motori; the engine, currently used in the Holden Colorado, et al, will be updated to meet American emission standards.
Toyota is not out the woods with rust problems. Some Tundra’s, including my own 2011 TRD DC 4×4, have bed rust (T-SB-0101-12). This is not surface rust, but rust coming up through spot welds in the pickup bed adjacent to the bolts that secure the bed to the frame. This repair is north of $8000 to fix. I’ll be posting my pictures on tundratalk.net.
I’m not hear to trash Toyota and nor am I turning into a GM fan boy, I deal with facts and will give credit where credit is due. GM is taking steps to improve their quality and doing what’s right, just as Toyota does.
I have to honest here in that I am very negative on GM after my trucks started rusting out almost immediately. It was many years ago and likely not the same issue today. They basically told me too bad get stuffed. The point is that I will never forget that. Toyota has not done that to me.
My last Toyota truck went 18 years before the fender wells started to rust out still running just fine when I sold it and it still is running just fine. I live in the mountains of UT at almost 8000 feet where snow starts in Sept and ends in June. In some years we get 25 feet of snow. A few miles away at Alta in 2011 they had over 75 feet. I have salt on my truck 9 months of the years.
I do remember the rust problems on the Land Cruiser Jeeps back in the 70 so you are correct in pointing out the Toyota has had issues also.
For me if Toyota builds the model I want, they get my business because of the T100 I owned. Unfortunately I wanted a 6 speed manual trans 8 foot bed which meant the Ram diesel and for a heavy duty truck it’s a weak suspension and I’m being kind.
The reality for now is that Toyota owns the small truck market world wide and will keep if they make any effort. The can screw up just like any other company.
What is the delay in having comments posted?
Hey,
Sometimes comments get “stuck” in our system and I have to manually approve them. Unfortunately, I was out most of the day which caused the delay. Sorry about that!
-Tim
It’s cool, no worries 🙂