2021 GMC Canyon AT4 review: An old truck with a few new tricks

Imagine of the 2021 GMC Canyon AT4 as a Chevy Colorado ZR2 for persons who have hardly ever consumed Monster electrical power beverages. It is a small calmer, a small a lot less rugged, and whilst it can be having really previous, it nevertheless will make for a stable off-road-oriented midsize pickup.

Butch exterior, blah interior

I’ve normally appreciated the GMC Canyon’s structure over its sibling, the Chevy Colorado. The fancier of the two has withstood the exam of time a small improved, many thanks to a reliance on butch rectilinearity that doesn’t seem nearly as aged as the Colorado’s large-headlight mug. My tester’s $three,195 Off-Road Functionality Edition Deal zhushes issues up a small even further with seventeen-inch gloss black aluminum wheels, skid plates, black badges and a spray-on bedliner. The beefy 31-inch Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac tires seem really manager, too. The near overall lack of chrome doesn’t harm, either.

When the exterior has held up, I can not say the identical for the interior, which is just as Playskool plastic great as nearly just about every other Canyon and Colorado trim. My AT4 tester tries to perk issues up with some great leather entrance seats, and I like how the headrest seems to be integrated into the seat, but the cloth-seat AT4 expenditures $one,800 a lot less, which is truly worth noting for prospective buyers making an attempt to adhere to a budget. There is some fake stitching about the sprint, but I can operate a finger over nearly any surface area and it generally feels tough and inexpensive, which is a bit of a bummer on a $40,000 truck. If you want anything resembling plushness, you are going to have to opt for the $45,000-plus Denali getup.

There’s some practicality to be discovered in the Canyon, but not a ton. The glove compartment and heart console armrest cubby are both plenty sizable, but the doorway pockets are small, and the optional wireless charger can not accommodate fashionable Max-measurement iPhones ($460 at eBay), a stable giveaway that this interior is having prepared to gather Social Safety checks. The cup holders will hold a 24-ounce plastic bottle, but very little more substantial, so Nalgene admirers will have to determine anything out. The crew cab’s rear seats are a small mild on legroom, but possibly we have been spoiled by all the complete-measurement crew cab vans and their limousine-caliber 2nd rows.

Perky V6, smooth suspension

The Canyon AT4 can be had with a 2.8-liter turbodiesel inline-4, but most will possible activity the three.6-liter gasoline V6, which makes 308 horsepower and 275 pound-toes of torque, routed to all 4 wheels through an 8-speed automated transmission. This combination is effective well, giving plenty of small-close grunt with an unladen mattress, whilst the transmission operates effortlessly, rarely searching for gears or taking for a longer time than it desires to. It’s going to get up and go whenever desired.

Gas economic climate is really respectable, too, and the truck has no issue reaching its EPA-approximated figures of seventeen mpg city and 24 mpg highway. These are solidly competitive quantities, too, beating 4-wheel-push Toyota Tacoma variants by one to three mpg on the highway (many thanks in element to cylinder deactivation), though the Taco proves remarkable in the city by about the identical delta.

On-road overall performance is damn wonderful for a human body-on-body pickup. The off-road suspension is a small on the smooth facet, so whilst it does a superior career absorbing what ever crappy Michigan streets have to present, it can come to feel a small boaty-floaty on expressway curves, and the off-road tires can wander a bit over specific styles of pavement. The steering is nicely balanced, and the brakes have superior grip and wonderful modulation.

When I failed to get a prospect to set the AT4 through its complete off-road paces, you will find plenty of package in here to make it transpire. All AT4s appear with an off-road-tuned suspension, hill descent command, a locking rear differential, a two-speed transfer scenario, and my tester ramps that up even further with the $three,195 overall performance pack that provides a entrance air dam delete, a one-inch elevate up entrance and more underbody protection. It is not as purely targeted as the Colorado ZR2 with its entrance locker and even beefier suspension, but it can be really darn near, and a the greater part of prospective buyers will uncover the AT4 additional than capable more than enough to fulfill their desires.

Will not be concerned, the Canyon AT4 is nevertheless stable for common truck stuff, too. You can get it in a crew cab configuration with a choice of sixty one.7-inch or 74-inch beds. It’s going to tow up to 7,000 pounds, and it will haul about one,500 pounds’ truly worth of stuff in the mattress.

Tech hits and misses

Every GMC Canyon comes with an 8-inch touchscreen working Chevrolet’s most up-to-date infotainment process, and that is wonderful. The setup is easy, it can be simple to navigate and it includes both Apple CarPlay and Android Car if you do not want to plunk down an more $995 for manufacturing facility navigation. OnStar’s 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot is typical, too, which I’ve normally appreciated. The $395 Bose sound process upgrade is just not too shabby, either, and appears to be like a superior deal for persons who are normally in their vans.

And then you will find the driver-aid tech. Chevrolet, and GM in general, has normally taken a additional conservative solution to these systems, sometimes relying on a lot less expensive camera-based mostly ahead collision warning (radar ain’t inexpensive) or locking nearly all systems driving a paywall. That’s sadly nevertheless the scenario with the Canyon AT4, which delivers non-adaptive cruise command and rear parking sensors as typical. The only upgrade expenditures $395 and provides ahead-collision warning, lane-departure warning and… that is it.

Any really fashionable conveniences like adaptive cruise command and automated emergency braking demand a excursion to the Toyota dealership, because that stuff is typical on just about every single Tacoma that rolls off the line. Get with the times and prevent the relentless bean counting, GM. Severely. Some truck prospective buyers would most likely ditch airbags if it meant preserving $500 on the window sticker, but sometimes you have to avoid persons from starting to be their individual worst enemy.

Down to brass tacks

Looking at the ordinary new-automobile transaction price tag has eclipsed $40,000, I guess I can not contact the Canyon AT4 expensive, but it sure feels it. Setting up at $39,595 (including destination) with cloth seats, my leather-bedecked tester rings in with possibilities at $45,780.

Why GM doesn’t acquire Toyota additional critically as an existential risk is over and above me. If you combine (and, sometimes, double) the gross sales of the GMC Canyon and the Chevrolet Colorado, they nevertheless can not match the offering ability of Toyota’s venerable midsize pickup. 

For what it is, while, the 2021 GMC Canyon AT4 is stable. It is an desirable pickup truck that delivers additional off-road prowess than your ordinary midsizer, without the need of demanding a deep-close leap into anything additional purpose-created like the ZR2. Let us just hope a new era is on the horizon.