2023 GMC Canyon redesign

I have been driving Toyota trucks for well over 20 years. Land Cruiser, Tacoma, Tundra. I consider myself to be a Toyota loyalist.

As time passes, needs change. I love my Tundra, but could see myself replacing it for a smaller truck that can still tow a 5k lb travel trailer. I just don't overland like I used to and I value being able to actually fit it into a parking garage downtown.

After watching the release and reviews, I have to say: the new Canyon is beautiful. 430 ft pounds of torque from a turbo 4? That's amazing and the engine seems decently reliable given it has been used in the Silverado with a different tune.

Thoughts?

And no flaming of brands please.





The interior is beautiful.

 

Oh, and the AT4 has more payload than a similarly equipped Tundra.

 

I think it's an awesome looking, and pretty well thought out truck Let's see how execution goes. And I really want it to go well. I'm likely not in the market for one of these things, but it would be on my short list with a Tacoma if it was. The new Frontier aint bad either, the power train is great, overall a decent truck.

 

GM trucks are lookers... that being said, that's all they are.

 

I don't know about that... the latest generation seem to be holding up very well.

I know people that have them as work trucks and while they can't touch the reliability of a 2 gen Tundra, they have been quite reliable.

 

@mountainpete I became a Toyota loyalist like yourself after several poor experiences with domestics between myself and my family. I would love to have multiple options when it comes to vehicles that I consider dependable on the level that body-on-frame Toyota trucks and SUVs have been. But the Big Three chase the market, and the market demands new and flashy. The market demands tech and comfort. Toyota—being unwilling to completely compromise on the overbuilt and dependable aspects of their brand—drops their new truck in the middle to rear of the pack to much eye-rolling and whining from the auto journalism community.

This Canyon looks like a really nice truck. It just seems that every other automaker is out for blood. They are competing at extreme levels to claw their way into every single % of market share. The truck looks great. And 430 ft lbs is more than my conservatively tuned 5.7L v8 puts out. I’m sure it peaks at a lower RPM as well. If the engine is truly dependable, then great—it has more going for it than the cylinder-deactivating v8s in GM’s full size vehicles.

But the constant turnover of drivetrains, features, and styling from the Big Three tells me that I’m not going to be able to just maintain my truck in my driveway and never visit the dealer a second time like I have been able to with my Tundra. And that’s more important to me than any interior styling or drivetrain numbers. I guess I’ll just remain extremely skeptical of all these new options on the market until they have proven themselves after several years, at which point I still fully expect to have life aplenty left in my Tundra.

This is true, but Tundra payload needs to come with an asterisk. You can carry up to 8150 lb without overloading either axle in your truck if it is distributed properly. For a truck with a curb weight of just under 6k lbs with a full 38 gallon tank of fuel (mine bone stock is 5930 lb), this is pretty awesome.

There is a 950 lb discrepancy between the highest 2nd gen Tundra GVWR (they range from 6900 to 7200 lb) and the GAWRs. I get that it needs to satisfy maneuverability requirements as well, but my truck can easily handle heavy loads in the rare event that I need it to do so.

 

I hope it goes well for them too. I love seeing more competition in the space.

 

Thanks for the excellent reply @Terndrerrr - it's pragmatism and logic like this the pulled me to Toyota all those years ago. It's never let me down either. Maybe it's me that's changing though. I could even see myself leasing a Denali and just being happy with it stock for a few years. (my wife would laugh me out of the room at me keeping a vehicle stock).

I do have to ask about your one number though: 8150 lbs without overloading the axles? Is that the combined axle ratings? I would love to see a bit more of the math.

 

I sat in the ZR2 Colorado at the Chicago Auto Show and the immediately I notice the upper part of the dash above the instrument cluster that flowed to the door, the plastic was just the cheapest of cheap, even for GM standards. IDK, GM product to me seems to be all the same interior wise with no imagination from when I had a 96 Monte Carlo. I guess good for them to make sure you remember that you're in a GM product, but the dash material was an instant turn off for me that I couldn't look away from.

 

Yeah, front is rated to 4k, and rear is rated to 4150; hence the caveat regarding load distribution. And the stock rear leafs–which work better for on-road comfort and off-road articulation rather than for bearing a load–need to be modified or reinforced to carry such a load. I added the HD RAS system. Aside from that and polyurethane bushings from Coachbuilder, my suspension is stock TRD Pro.