General Motors Corporation has been making trucks and vans since 1911. A legacy of truck manufacturing that places it solidly in the top echelon of all truck manufacturers. Sharing components with Chevrolet, GMC distinguishes itself as a more premium brand with high-end design and features. The GMC Canyon pickup truck debuted back in 2004, built upon the same platform as the Chevy Colorado and the Isuzu i-Series. It replaced the GMC Sonoma in the lineup, and offered an inline-4, inline-5 and V8 engine. The Canyon was discontinued in 2012 due to poor sales, but returned for the 2015 model year with an updated design. 2023 introduced the third generation Canyon, now only available as a crew cab model, powered exclusively by a 2.7L turbo I4 Turbomax engine.
I've driven the GMC Canyon before and it's a very nice drive, comfortable, quiet, and smooth. It's also an expensive truck, far from the old-school "pickup truck until you can afford a sedan" mentality that I grew up with in the automotive world. GMC offered me a week with the 2025 Canyon 4WD AT4X AEV Crew Cab and I was a bit surprised when it appeared in my driveway, with the snorkel and the oddly placed spare tire. It's tall!
For those of you unfamiliar with the snorkel mounted adjacent to the windshield, its purpose is to ensure that there's air for the engine even if you're fording a stream or in a dusty or sandy environment: higher air intake means cleaner air. Did I try driving through a river or hitting the dunes? No. Do most drivers? I suspect not. It is pretty cool anyway and adds a rugged touch to the appearance. The industrial front grill also adds some swagger, as do the huge 17" wheels sporting chonky 285/70R17 tires.
But oh, that spare tire placement. Here's what I saw when I first looked in the rearview mirror:
Half the view is occluded by the darn spare tire. You can see why in this view of the truckbed:
It's such a bizarre placement that I did some research to understand why the GMC engineers would make this design choice. Turns out that the challenge is ground clearance: Lower trim levels of the Canyon have the spare tire hanging under the truckbed, but the AT4X has higher ground clearance, which would be compromised by that wheel placement. Laying the wheel down on the bed would consume almost 1/3 of all the cargo space, so that's not going to work either. Bail and just don't have a spare tire? Not a great idea.
With that in mind, it makes sense to have the wheel mounted in the truckbed, but oh, it's annoying, both in terms of compromising the cargo space and blocking the view behind the vehicle. Some people have even aftermarket mount systems so you can attach the spare tire to the tailgate, but that's a lot of extra weight to put on those hinges, so that's not a great long-term solution either. Of course, if you're used to having a trailer, you might have long since changed your driving habits to work with extended side mirrors, in which case this is a complete non-issue. For the rest of us, however, this is a serious downside to the AT4X trim kit.
Enough about that spare tire. Let's look at the rest of this terrific truck. Above you can see the interior dashboard and instrument and control layout. It's smart and easy to work with, featuring a big, bright 11.3" infotainment system with full wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It sounds great and gets plenty loud enough to mask highway noise as needed. The interior color scheme is Obsidian Rush and it's a combination of black, sand, and a rust red that's most attractive. It leads to a very nice dash and seat look:
Time will tell whether white is a good color choice for the interior of an off-road capable truck, but let's be real, most people who buy this truck consider accidentally going over a curb "off roading". 😜
These light accents barely make it into the backseat, as you can see:
Notice also that there's very little legroom, as is all too common in midsize pickup trucks. The combination of a tall driver and a full-size rear passenger isn't going to lead to a comfortable experience. The above photo also shows off the rugged all-weather floor mats. They're notable because so many OEM floor mats are thin and probably wear out in just a few years.
Swinging back inside...
The center console offers a simple drive mode selector, parking brake, and an inline shifter. This is an 8-speed automatic, but I still appreciated the comfortable, easy to use shifter. No weird knobs, sticks, or buttons, just a classic gearshift just like what Dad had in his car, and his father before him. The cup holder cutout turns out to be an easy place to put a smartphone, though the compartment in front of the gearshift is a Qi wireless charging area with additional USB-A and USB-C charging ports.
If you like physical buttons, you'll love the dashboard design of the GMC Canyon. There are a lot of buttons to push to switch drive modes, engage various safety features, and, of course, fiddle with the climate controls to get the temperature just right. Good climate controls, but the vent placement follows a modern trend of being a bit too constrained: I was never quite able to adjust them to my liking during the week I drove this vehicle.
The infotainment design is straightforward and easy to use, with CarPlay / Android Auto consuming the majority of the screen but the GMC controls remaining on the left side. The very top portion of the screen is also controlled by GMC's Infotainment software, something that might not be around much longer if Apple (and Google) truly do gain control of the entire information display system in future vehicles.
Speaking of which, there are a lot of different main gauge display configurations. I settled for an old school layout with speedometer on the left and tachometer on the right. Notice the average fuel efficiency too: 17.1 mpg across almost 200 miles of driving. That's right in line with the EPA estimates and while not particularly good, pretty typical for this category of midsize truck. With its 5,500-pound towing capacity, you'll end up seeing around 10mpg if you're hauling your favorite boat or trailer, but that too is not atypical for this class.
Steering wheel controls are fairly minimal, which offers a sleek appearance. This is done because volume and track controls are behind the steering wheel and undifferentiated, leading to annoying errors until you learn which is which. I'm not a fan of that particular design and prefer labelled controls, but they are just duplicating the volume knob on the main dashboard so you can safely ignore them if you prefer.
There's lots to like with this premium, upscale pickup truck from GMC. It drives very well, it's comfortable, quiet, has a great sound system, and tough, rugged looks whether you're heading to the farmer's market or prepping for a 4x4 adventure. The truckbed is small, but most crew cabs have the same problem; the back seats have stolen the cargo space. Lots to like, except that darn spare tire placement. After a week, that remains a show stopper for me, but if you're okay with the tradeoff to gain greater ground clearance, this is unquestionably a mid-size pickup to consider.
2025 GMC Canyon 4WD AT4X AEV Crew Cab in Sterling Metallic and Obsidian Rush. Powered by a 2.7L Turbomax engine and 8-speed automatic transmission. BASE PRICE: 45,700.00. Options Included: AT4X AEV Edition, AT4X Package, Technology Plus Package, Multimatic Jounce Control, AT4 Premium Package, Snorkel, Paint. AS DRIVEN: $71,395.00.
Disclaimer: GMC loaned me the 2025 Canyon for a week in return for this candid writeup. This article originally appeared on PlanetDave.com with the title 2025 GMC Canyon 4WD AT4X AEV: Almost a Great Pickup and is reprinted with permission.
