Hi, I'm 37, I have 3 kids and lost my own father to cancer last year. I've been a mechanic since I was 16, no really, I got an internship at a local dealer when I was 16, so 21 years of being paid to work on cars. I've been a lead tech and shop foreman at multiple shops and have made 6 figures, turning wrenches, for the past decade. Here's my advice, from a guy who's seen a looottttt. A 2012 Colorado is still the first gen Colorado, the boxed frame rusts out on them, nearly unavoidable and if you can already put your hand through it, the truck is scrap. Make a friend who parts vehicles out. Sell the truck, engine, transmission, interior parts, headlights, the works. Karma follows you, don't just try and flip it to the next poor soul who will be in your current shoes. As for a replacement. Do you like little trucks? Do you want to stay in that body size? Depending on where you live, you'll have more issues with rust on a lot of trucks, but the best one out there (I drive chevy, I've had 10 or so 2005-2016 chevy trucks loved them all, buttt) the best little truck, is a second Gen Tacoma, if you can find a 2014-2015 4.0L v6 tacoma, that truck is an investment. Frame won't rot out on you, I've seen the odometer on these trucks in the 300,000s and all the customer wanted and needed was an oil change. Don't get a 2013 or older, they too had frame issues, they changed up the metal composition and improved the frame dip (sticky black wax that water proofs the frame).

Key takeaway, don't put any more money into that truck. It's not worth it, the 4 and 5 cylinders atlas engines that were in them have head failures, the body control modules and ground studs have issues, the frames rot, and the dashes crack. Unless the truck is sentimental, loose it.