Industry insiders have long seen the 30 mpg mark on the highway as the goal for modern pickups, with Ford, GM, and Ram all rushing to meet that seemingly-impossible threshold. The Ram 1500 EcoDiesel came close with its official 29 MPG EPA rating, but GM ultimately gets to take the claim of beng the first truck maker to cross the 30 mpg threshold with its Duramax diesel versions Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon.

With the release of the official EPA ratings, the Canyon/Colorado diesel twins have achieved a 31 mpg highway rating, along with a 22 mpg city rating for a combined score of 25 mpg. That’s for the two-wheel drive version, we should mention, though it also means the maximum driving range for a diesel powered Canyon or Colorado is a tremendous 651 miles.

Opting for four-wheel drive knocks fuel economy down slightly, to 29 mpg highway and 20 mpg city for a 23 mpg combined rating. The 2.8-liter Duramax four-banger is rated at 181 horsepower and a stout 369 lb-ft of torque sent to the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission. Towing capacity is rated at 7,700 lbs for the two-wheel drive and 7,600 for the four-wheel drive models, and both the Canyon and Colorado carry a $3,730 price premium over a comparable V6 model.

That means the absolute cheapest you could get a two-wheel drive Chevy Colorado diesel for would be around $29,000, before any additional fees. Opting for four-wheel drive should put you well into the mid-30s, while a fully loaded Colorado diesel will be around $40,000. We’re not great at math, but we’re pretty sure it’ll take a lot of driving for the premium price to pay off compared to the cheaper, four-cylinder Colorado, which is already rated at 27 mpg highway – that being said, these mid-size pickups now come equipped with some serious pulling power.

2016 Chevrolet Colorado Diesel