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A roomier cab was a key design goal when the Chevrolet Colorado was launched last year. Designed from the ground up to replace the S10 compact pickup, Colorado brings a fresh name and perspective to GM's line of trucks. That perspective includes more space for humans.
Colorado is bigger than the old S10, and that's the trend: Compact pickups are no longer compact.
They're growing in size, so much so that the term "compact pickup" may be obsolete. Colorado is an inch wider and a couple of inches longer than the S10, and its wheelbase is three inches longer. The new Dodge Dakota is even bigger. The new Toyota Tacoma is even bigger yet. Meanwhile, Nissan is coming out with a new Frontier that's dramatically larger than the old one. Left behind is the aging Ford Ranger. Ranger is five inches shorter than a comparable Colorado.
The EPA still calls this segment "compact," but manufacturers are beginning to call it "mid-size." Whatever you call them, these new pickups are bigger than the trucks they replace. Yet they're still substantially smaller than full-size pickups such as the Chevy Silverado.
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