I had a 2017 diesel colorado for 2 years. I came out of a string of toyota trucks to that, I compared a tacoma to the colorado pretty hard and ultimately thought the colorado was the nicer truck, and I had just had a pretty bad toyota experience so was ready to try something different. I wanted to check out the ram diesel, but they had just taken them off the market or something like that, so that was a no-go. My colorado was great, I tow a +\- 3700lb boat a lot, not huge, but the little diesel accelerated up big hills with that in tow just fine—for a small engine it has massive torque. It was plenty zippy and did not have a sluggish feel like some diesel cars Ive driven. Stopped good with the trailer too, brakes are one of the weak points on a tacoma and the colorado had disc brakes all around. I routinely got 32mpg on long highway trips, a few less in town (27-ish I think?). Ultimately I traded it in because I had an electrical gremlin that caused the 4wd to go out repeatedly, I didnt lemon-law it but probably could have if Id gotten my act together faster. I have a steep dirt driveway, so it was a bit frustrating to be unable to leave my own yard in the winter. They fixed it under warranty at 28,000 miles, told me it had a 100% clean bill of health and was in fantastic condition, so I traded it in on the spot. The silverado I traded it for has been great, and I have enough friends with good reliable chevy/gmc trucks that Im not scared of the brand. I also thought the interior was pretty cramped, at this point Id have a hard time going back to a small truck. The ride was good, I had the z71 suspension which I thought had a noticeably better ride than the standard suspension, although my current z71 silverado is a little better ridewise especially towing, with a quieter interior.
When I got it I did the math on cost pretty accurately, my cost to run the diesel was significantly less than gas—it paid off the difference in vehicle price in about 2 years. But at the time I was buying diesel for almost the same $ as gas. That has changed. Def was nominal cost, didnt go through enough to matter. I got free lifetime oil changes from the dealership when I bought the truck so never paid for one, but if I recall they were about double the price of a regular oil change.
Im not a car guy and cant speak to this motor vs that one, but I have owned and run this vehicle along with a bunch of others similar, If you have questions about the small diesel that I can answer let me know.