2021 GMC Canyon AT4 Video Review: MotorTrend Buyer's Guide
Jonny Lieberman reviews the 2021 GMC Canyon AT4 Crew Cab in this Buyer’s Guide
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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)