10 Best Double Cab Trucks

2016 Toyota Tundra CrewMax Action ・ Photo by Toyota

The best double cab trucks showcase a key reason that pickups have become so popular in this country: With 4-door cabins and second-row seating, these entries allow pickups to be used by family customers, greatly expanding the pool of potential owners. The thing is, if you’re looking for a truck with a specific Double Cab body-style, you’ll only find them at Chevy, GMC and Toyota. Those brands use that terminology for pickups with two smaller rear doors, which complement the fullsize front doors. They also have trucks with four fullsize doors that are known as Crew Cab and CrewMax models, and indeed, all other pickup brands offer the crew setup. With that in mind, we’ll expand our attention to take in all non-crew-cab 4-door cabins in this list of the best double cab trucks. 

2017 Chevrolet Silverado

The Bowtie brand’s best double cab trucks start with the 2017 Chevrolet Silverado. For Chevy’s fullsize pickup, the Double Cab model is paired exclusively with the standard-length cargo bed but it’s offered in five different trims: from the WT work truck, at $31,610, to the luxurious LTZ that opens from $41,590. 4-wheel-drive Double Cabs also feature Z71 off-road packages, and if that weren’t enough variety, the truck can serve as the foundation for four special editions, including Rally, Midnight, Blackout and Special Ops versions. Size-wise, rear seat accommodations are bolstered by 34.6 inches of legroom and 38.7 inches of headroom. The Silverado Crew Cab, in contrast, has 41 inches of rear legroom and 40.5 inches of back seat headroom.

Photo by General Motors

2016 Chevrolet Colorado

Chevy’s midsize pickup, the 2016 Chevrolet Colorado, competes with the best double cab trucks with what the brand terms an Extended Cab that has two fullsize front doors and smaller rear-hinged back ones. Available only with the longer boxes, the extended-cab Colorado comes with 28.6 inches of rear legroom and 36.7 of rear headroom, and while the Silverado Double Cab can fit six — in a 3+3 configuration with an optional front bench — the Colorado Extended Cab is produced only in a 2+3 layout. The truck is offered in all four of the Colorado’s trim grades as well, with starting prices that range from $20,055 to $29,005. Further, the Colorado has its share of special editions available, from Shoreline to Midnight to Trail Boss.

Photo by Chevrolet

2017 GMC Sierra

First, let’s get this out of the way: Though the 2017 GMC Sierra is indeed one of the best double cab trucks in the United States, the Sierra Double Cab itself is not sold in the brand’s most luxurious Denali trim; the Sierra Denali, according to GMC, is available solely in a Crew Cab setup. Regardless, the Sierra Double Cab comes with the same 34.6 and 38.7 inches of rear legroom and headroom as its Silverado counterpart, but at a slightly higher MSRP of $31,840. (That’s with the standard Sierra cargo box, which is the only one matched with the Double Cab bodystyle.) The Sierra Double Cab then gets into the special-edition action with examples such as the boldly designed All Terrain version.

Photo by General Motors

2016 GMC Canyon

GM’s Professional Grade brand also has two of the best double cab trucks, as proven by the 2016 GMC Canyon. Like its corporate cousin, the Chevy Colorado, the Canyon comes in Extended and Crew Cab styles, leaving the former setup to fill in for double-cab customers. The Canyon additionally has the same second-row measurements as the Colorado, and the same 2+3 layout, although the GMC has a higher MSRP than the Chevy to cover its more premium positioning. More specifically, the Canyon’s starting cost in an extended-cab body style spans from $20,940 for the SL grade to $32,030 in the range-topping SLT trim. (Note: A Canyon Denali is scheduled to debut in the 2017 model year, but as with the Sierra Denali, the Canyon version will be sold only in a crew cab design.)

Photo by General Motors

2017 Toyota Tundra

The 2017 Toyota Tundra has a slight pricing advantage among the best double cab trucks, thanks to an MSRP of $30,020 that’s lower than for its GMC or Chevy rivals. That’s for a Tundra SR Double Cab with a short bed and 4.6-liter V8, which is one of nearly 50 overall configurations on the menu for Toyota’s fullsize pickup. Others include Double Cab versions of the Tundra’s SR5, Limited and TRD Pro grades, with short and long box sizes, so that owners can enjoy the double-cab body style at a number of different content levels. Meanwhile, rear-seat occupants enjoy 38.7 inches of headroom and 34.7 inches of legroom — essentially the same as in the Chevy and GMC products.

Photo by Toyota

2016 Toyota Tacoma

The 2016 Toyota Tacoma is the only midsize pickup to supply a model that’s literally called a Double Cab, but because it has four traditional-style, forward-hinged doors — and an MSRP of $24,490 — it’s a better comparison for the Crew Cab versions of the GM midsize pickups. (Nor is there a Tacoma “Crew Cab.”) Keeping all that in mind, the rear-seat headroom in the Tacoma Double Cab is rated at 38.3 inches, with legroom for the back row measuring 32.6 inches. Since the Tacoma Double Cab fills the same role as the GM Crew Cabs do for Chevy and GMC, that also means the Toyota truck can be ordered in even the most premium trim level — the Limited grade that has a cost of entry of $38,180 in its double-cab, 4X4 format.

Photo by Toyota

2017 Ford F-150

The Blue Oval’s best double cab trucks are those with the SuperCab moniker, such as the 2017 Ford F-150 XL SuperCab. It leads off the brand’s double-cab roster with a price of $30,600, two fullsize front doors and two of the smaller, rear-hinged doors for the back row. Dimensions for that row include 40.3 inches of headroom and 33.5 inches of legroom. For comparison’s sake, the larger, more expensive F-150 SuperCrew has 40.4 inches of rear headroom with 43.6 available for rear-seat passengers to stretch their legs. It’s also worth pointing out that the new 2017 F-150 Raptor will take flight in a SuperCrew configuration, complete with a high-output EcoBoost engine that hauls around 450 horsepower and 510 lb.-ft. of torque.

Photo by Ford

2016 Ram 1500

At the Ram brand, customers shopping for the best double cab pickups should steer for the Quad Cab models. These have two sets of forward-hinged doors, similar to the setups in the Silverado/Sierra Double Cabs, yet all three serve up somewhat less second-row space than their full crew cab versions. The 2016 RAM 1500 Quad Cab, for instance, has 39.7 and 34.7 inches of rear headroom and legroom, versus the Ram 1500 Crew Cab at 39.9/40.3. Moreover, the brand lets customers combine the Quad Cab format with an available 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V6. True, that raises the MSRP of the truck to $35,150, yet it also raises towing and EPA grades to 9,200 lbs. and 27 MPG.

Photo by Dan Gray

2016 Nissan Frontier

The bargain of the best double cab trucks is the 2016 Nissan Frontier: The cost of a King Cab — which relies on small rear doors with rear-mounted hinges — is a mere $18,290. And at the same time, the Frontier is the reigning champion in the midsize pickup segment in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, as well as the category leader in this year’s AutoPacific Vehicle Satisfaction Awards. Rear-seat subjects may find the King Cab kind of a tight fit, however, as the truck’s competitive 38.2 inches of back-seat headroom is set off by a fairly meager 25.3 inches of rear legroom.

Photo by Nissan

2017 Nissan Titan XD

Frankly, we don’t know much about Nissan’s newest and best double cab trucks at this stage: The brand has confirmed that a King Cab version of the 2017 Titan XD is in the cards, but it hasn’t provided a launch date or specs. Currently, just the XD Crew Cab is at dealerships. It’s also likely that the “regular” Titan will see a King Cab in the future, with those body styles expected to feature the same kind of rear-hinged doors used in the previous-gen Titan. Stay tuned!

Photo by Nissan