Video: Going Off-Road in the 2024 GMC Canyon AT4X AEV Edition and 2023 GMC Canyon AT4X
By Cars.com Editors
October 22, 2023
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About the video
We traveled to Montana to drive the 2024 GMC Canyon AT4X AEV Edition and 2023 GMC Canyon AT4X both on- and off-road. Road Test Editor Brian Normile got to put both mid-size off-roaders through their paces.
Transcript
We're here with the 2024 GMC Canyon AT4X AEV edition, the most hardcore off-road Canyon you can get.
It gets new front styling, steel bumpers front and rear from AEV, wider fender flares, all that to accommodate the wider track and the gigantic 35 inch mud terrain tires you get on these. They're mounted on 18 inch beadlock capable wheels. You get Multimatic DSSV shocks. It's lifted four and a half inches, which is one and a half inches more than the AT4X. You get rock rails. These are not even really steps. These are rock rails. These do not help you get in at all. Tons of cool badging all along the exterior. In back, just in case you run into trouble, you have a full size spare mounted in the bed and then in back you get again another steel bumper would be a nice handy recovery point, AEV badging, AT4X badging. The whole thing looks killer. It looks like it's ready to take on the most challenging off-road trails and I can't wait to try it out, so let's get to it. (upbeat music) We are driving along heading towards the off-road portion of the event to give you an idea of how capable these things are. This is not the off-road portion, but this is not a paved road either. We're bombing along at 45, not desert running speeds, but keeping a nice little pace. The road's fairly decently graded, but there are some good potholes and bumps and since it's October in Montana, decent amount of ice and snow as well. So far the AT4X AEV edition is handling everything very easily. Unfortunately these are pre-production models so I can't quite see what off-road mode we're currently in which would be nice. But we are in four high just to keep things a little bit more steady and stable. Could probably stay in two wheel drive if we wanted but do you in just fine. The on-road portion getting here, there's a lot of tire noise, just a very noisy truck with that mounted spare blocking pretty much all of your view out the back. It does return the bed utility that was lost when the spare was mounted in the middle of the bed. But what you get instead is zero visibility and unfortunately, unlike the Sierra 1500 we were driving, there's no video rear view camera, so you can't flip this switch and see out the back even when your view's obstructed. We mentioned this with the Colorado ZR2 as well since it has a similar setup, just seems like a miss. They have the technology, it seems like a perfect opportunity to put it in and this is the most loaded version of the Canyon so it wouldn't be unexpected to have something like that. Also noticeable in this drive is just while the 2.7 liter four cylinder has dobs of power and torque in terms of statistics, all the weight of this truck, all the mass, it really feels like it's straining sometimes, especially up steeper grades, wouldn't mind something a little bit more powerful perhaps but it gets the job done. Driving dynamics, the steering feel is okay. I'm looking forward to trying lower speed off-roading for more precision movements but there's some feel that is just sort of knocked out by the big off-road tires. These are 35 inch tires. These are actually bigger mud terrain tires than you can get on the light duty Sierra 1500 version of this truck which is really impressive and as I said, it looks killer like this looks really, really good and really, really capable. So we are now heading down the trail. This time we're in a 2023 Canyon AT4X, not the AEV edition. It's not doing quite as well as the AEV edition but that's not really all that surprising. But overall I am impressed with both of these trucks. This is a very narrow trail. This is about as big a vehicle as I would want to have on it. We're still brushing up against a lot of the scrub and pine trees around the sides of the trail, but it's not that terrible. I don't think I'd be happy if we were in a Sierra and certainly not any of the heavy duty trucks with off-road packages, but doing everything great. The Multimatic DSSV shocks and dampers are doing a fantastic job of eating up bumps. I mean, you feel 'em, it's very obvious that you're going over them, but I am not beaten up so far. I think my passenger's kidneys are a little bit worse for the wear, but so far so good. Wouldn't mind a bit more immediate power. I don't think this is the most responsive powertrain as currently constructed. I would just like a little bit more easy throttle response and I would like something that sounds a little better when I actually accelerate, but it's doing the job. I really have no complaints about it other than personal preference stuff. This truck has been doing a great job going over rocks and logs and navigating this trail about as capably as any other off-road vehicle I have been in. With this, you're getting most of the capabilities, I would say maybe 80 to 90% of the capabilities but you're not paying as much either. So something to consider based on how much off-roading you're really planning on doing. But overall, very, very impressive. We are currently in terrain mode, which is essentially a one pedal driving off-road cruise control kind of thing. So I am not modulating the brake pedal at all currently as we descend the hill. The truck is doing that for me based on how much I'm pressing the accelerator. For downhill stuff, I really like it for the uphill stuff. I was a little bit frustrated sometimes with more sudden stops as I let off the accelerator on obstacles but works really well and if you want to use it, you can. If you don't want to use it, you don't have to. Seats are, I'm gonna say fairly comfortable. I had trouble with a lower trim level Canyon on a long road trip in terms of comfort but really the main interior difference between this and the AEV addition is some stitching on the headrests of the AEV addition. Everything looks nice for the most part, a bit plasticy, especially on the doors. But you do get this stylish black, red, and white interior with some fun accents. Looks pretty good, looks high-end, screen works great. Both these trucks have front and rear electronic locking differentials and then you have your drive mode selector. You have great camera views and you can turn on guidelines that help you show where you're pointing wheels, which is really good because you want to be taking larger obstacles over the wheels rather than trying to drive over them and seeing if your underbody will clear them. But yeah, really impressed overall. It lived up to the hype, tackled everything. It's fantastic, it's pricey, but if you're looking for a mid-size off-road truck, you'd be hard pressed to find something better. (upbeat music)