2021 GMC Canyon AT4 Video Review: MotorTrend Buyer's Guide

MotorTrend

Jonny Lieberman reviews the 2021 GMC Canyon AT4 Crew Cab in this Buyer’s Guide

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 This is the 2021 GMC Canyon AT4.

00:07 The Canyon is the corporate cousin

00:09 to the Chevrolet Colorado,

00:11 and the AT4 means that this midsize pickup truck

00:15 can go off-road.

00:16 How far off-road?

00:18 Let's find out.

00:19 After about 20 years of declining sales,

00:26 the midsize pickup truck segment has exploded.

00:31 Part of the reason why

00:32 is that Americans just love pickup trucks.

00:34 We can't get enough of them.

00:36 However, the other reason is that full-size pickup trucks

00:40 have become XXL.

00:42 They are enormous, not just in terms of size,

00:45 but price tags too.

00:47 Back in 2015, General Motors introduced

00:51 both the Chevrolet Colorado and the GMC Canyon here.

00:55 Since that time, like I said earlier,

00:57 this segment has just exploded.

00:59 Ford has reintroduced the Ranger to the US market,

01:02 Nissan has a new Frontier on the way,

01:04 and the Toyota Tacoma is the same as it's ever been.

01:08 The problem for the Canyon is it's just kind of lost

01:11 when compared to the Chevy.

01:14 With the introduction of the new AT4 package,

01:16 it's beginning to grow a personality all its own.

01:22 As far as design goes, the Canyon AT4

01:25 certainly looks the part of a tough,

01:27 capable off-road pickup truck.

01:29 Apparently, if you're a pickup truck these days,

01:32 you need to have a grill approximately in these dimensions.

01:35 You just gotta have it.

01:36 It's nice looking, and I like the satin chrome,

01:38 but it really is large.

01:40 And then with these very wide-open-eyed headlights,

01:43 it sort of has a shocked expression on its face.

01:46 Red tow hooks mean business.

01:48 Speaking of meaning business, look at these flared fenders.

01:51 It just looks tough and muscular

01:53 and everything you want in an off-roader,

01:54 especially on these 31-inch knobby tires.

01:58 Then you've got rock sliders,

02:00 so much better than running boards.

02:02 What's a rock slider?

02:03 When you're rock crawling, you can just slide down a boulder

02:06 rather than having to worry about clearing it.

02:09 We still have the flared fenders out back.

02:11 They look even more flared out back,

02:13 and there's so much space between the wheel and the body,

02:16 because you wanna have articulation for going off-road.

02:19 But not only is it capable,

02:20 it looks capable, and that's very cool.

02:23 Out back, it's just kind of a pickup truck.

02:25 It has GMC and font about this big,

02:28 in case you weren't clear.

02:29 And while it's not really a design element,

02:31 one of the best features of any pickup truck,

02:33 these bumper cutouts make it so easy to get into the bed.

02:37 As fresh and attractive as the outside of the Canyon AT4 is,

02:42 the inside, it's a little glum and dreary.

02:45 Here, you know, GMC, they've tried to gussy up the AT4.

02:49 They've added some leather,

02:51 although this obviously isn't leather.

02:53 This is rubber that has some stitching in it

02:55 that from over here kind of looks like leather,

02:57 but if you touch it, obviously it's not leather.

02:59 And then of course, there's leather on the shifter here,

03:03 but it makes that noise.

03:04 Eh, you know, does it work?

03:06 I guess it looks a little bit more money

03:08 than the standard Canyon,

03:09 but I don't know if it was needed.

03:12 This is an older vehicle.

03:14 And what do I mean by older?

03:15 Check this out.

03:16 Kids, that's a key.

03:17 You actually start this truck by sticking this thing

03:20 into a slot right here and twisting.

03:23 Crazy, right?

03:24 You know, when the Canyon was first designed,

03:26 wireless phone charging and inductive charger,

03:29 it wasn't even a possibility.

03:31 Now you gotta have it, but look, here's an iPhone 10

03:34 and it doesn't even fit.

03:36 So you gotta have like one of those new iPhone minis.

03:39 Everything else is fine,

03:41 except one thing I do wanna point out.

03:42 The light switch and the switch to go from, you know,

03:45 two to four to four low,

03:46 they're the same physical switch

03:48 and they're right next to each other.

03:49 So, you know, you might accidentally twist one

03:52 when you mean the other.

03:53 More of an annoyance than anything,

03:54 but overall it's pretty comfy

03:56 and it does have GM's latest infotainment system,

03:59 which is really good.

04:00 It works well, it's clear, it's logical,

04:03 and there's CarPlay, so that's nice.

04:05 Android Auto too, of course.

04:06 The seats themselves, they're fine.

04:08 They aren't very supportive,

04:09 but no seat in this segment really is.

04:12 Not a ton of space in the second row,

04:14 but again, that's kind of normal for this segment.

04:17 Just like the bed, it's a five foot bed,

04:19 totally just like everything else in the segment.

04:21 However, the AT4 does come standard

04:24 with a spray-in bed liner.

04:26 In terms of performance,

04:29 the GMC Canyon AT4 offers a lot of performance

04:33 in a segment that's really not known for performance.

04:36 Under the hood, it has a naturally aspirated 3.6 liter V6.

04:41 It makes 308 horsepower and 275 pound feet of torque.

04:45 All of that power flows into

04:47 an eight-speed automatic transmission.

04:49 Initially, this car is set up to be rear-wheel drive.

04:52 However, if you live where there's snow and rain,

04:54 you can put it into four high.

04:55 If you wanna crawl over rocks,

04:56 you just stick it into four low

04:58 because it does have a transfer case.

05:00 Speaking of crawling over rocks,

05:02 the AT4 package adds a locking rear differential

05:06 to the standard center differential.

05:08 That means that this vehicle is quite capable off-road.

05:13 If you're gonna ding the Canyon AT4 anywhere,

05:16 it's gonna be fuel economy.

05:18 A, it has an eight-speed

05:19 instead of the 10-speed transmission.

05:21 B, it doesn't really have any aerodynamics to speak of.

05:23 So we're talking 17 miles per gallon around town

05:27 and 24 miles per gallon on the highway.

05:29 As for safety here,

05:32 the GMC Canyon has a good crash rating, but not a great one.

05:36 Four stars overall.

05:37 However, it only gets three stars in terms of rollover

05:40 and the headlights are rated rather poorly.

05:44 It also doesn't have

05:44 any standard automatic safety features.

05:47 However, since this is a highly option truck,

05:49 it does include a $395 forward collision warning.

05:54 How much?

05:57 Well, the GMC Canyon AT4 crew cab here

06:01 costs just under $46,000.

06:04 Now you might look around and say,

06:05 hey, a Chevy Colorado ZR2?

06:08 That costs about the same money and that's an off-roader,

06:11 this is an off-roader,

06:13 but not all off-roaders are created equally.

06:16 The ZR2 has much more capability than the pretty capable,

06:20 but not supremely capable AT4.

06:23 And when you start to look at vehicles

06:24 that have this amount of capability,

06:26 say the Toyota Tacoma TRD off-road,

06:30 that thing costs thousands of dollars less.

06:33 So, one place where the AT4 stumbles, value.

06:37 If there's one thing I want you to know

06:41 about the 2021 GMC Canyon AT4,

06:46 it's that it is so nice to see GMC doing something

06:50 to separate themselves away from Chevrolet.

06:53 I think it's a very handsome truck.

06:54 I think the interior is two to 5% nicer

06:57 than what you would find in a Chevy Colorado.

06:59 And I think it offers a level of off-road performance

07:02 that is more than enough for most people.

07:05 However, this is a buyer's guide.

07:08 And for the amount of money this thing costs,

07:10 you could have the Chevy Colorado ZR2.

07:14 Buy the ZR2!

07:16 To see vehicle rankings and a complete buyer's guide,

07:20 please visit motortrend.com/cars.

07:23 (upbeat music)

07:26 (upbeat music)

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