Without a doubt, the main complaint about modern pickup trucks is that they’re comically oversized, Big McLargeHuge monstrosities. Another common critique is that midsize offerings are pretty, well, mid. The Ranger felt dated as soon as Ford brought it back to Canada, plus the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma were old enough to have driver’s licences, leaving the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon twins arguably the best of the bunch by virtue of being the least stale. That’s not the case anymore, as seen in this redesigned 2023 GMC Canyon Denali.
As of this year, the midsize truck segment has gotten incredibly heated all at once. Nissan and Toyota have finally revitalized their formerly fossilized little trucks, plus Ford has an all-new Ranger arriving imminently for the 2024 model year. Not to be left behind, the GMC Canyon received a total revamp to maintain itself among its onslaught of new competition, and it’s mostly extremely impressive.
Right out of the gate, this Denali-trimmed truck looks fantastic. It shares similar lines and styling cues with its larger brethren, but when applied to a smaller architecture, the result looks almost slightly exaggerated, with the fenders looking extra muscular, and the fascia being extra chiselled and handsome. It’s almost a caricature of a truck, but because it’s not the size of a “normal” enormous truck, it works brilliantly. Our Denali model borrows the high clearance bumper from the AT4, but with sexy 20-inch wheels and more bling in the form of more chrome.
The cabin gets a total makeover, too, with a much more contemporary, squared-off dashboard design using a very similar instrument cluster and infotainment treatment as the bigger Sierra. All Denalis get a two-tone interior colour scheme, with Jet Black and Teak cross-stitched leather, plus bright metallic trim and laser-etched open-pore wood trim. The seats are powered, heated, ventilated, and thoroughly comfortable. Isolation from wind and road noise is adequate, and well drowned-out by a standard Bose audio system.
All Canyons get an 11.3-inch touchscreen and a digital gauge cluster — it’s an 11-inch unit in our Denali tester, and eight inches in the less fancy-pants trims. Said infotainment is augmented by Google for maps and voice commands, and both work brilliantly. Similarly, both displays are crisp, bright, well thought-out, and snappy. My only real gripe is disappointing black levels at night, but that’s really nit-picking.
A more serious nit-pick is with the 2.7-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine powering the Canyon. Every Canyon gets the “High Output” variety of this relatively new engine, sporting 310 horsepower — pretty much on par with the normally aspirated V6 it replaces — but also uses the magic of boost and cunning engine management to deliver a whopping 430 pound-feet of torque. It’s an impressively mighty little engine that enables a class-leading 7,700 towing capacity.
But it sounds decidedly agricultural. It’s loud, drones under load, and generally sounds like an old economy car, which is disappointing when I know a little more acoustic tuning could help keep the dreaded “sewing machine” analogies at bay. You know as well as I do that engine acoustics are a critical component of truck ownership. It’s the only real sore point of an otherwise remarkable powertrain.
Paired to the smart eight-speed automatic transmission and automatic four-wheel-drive, my average fuel use came out to 13.4 L/100 km. It’s admittedly about the same as the outgoing V6, but with a ton more capability, and my time with it involved a lot of urban traffic that would obliterate any V8’s economy. GM’s engine design has always been among the world’s best, with an emphasis on real-world livability, and this is no different. I just wish they spent a little more time trying to imbue it with some character to hide its coarseness.
Beyond that auditory nitpick, this little truck drives shockingly well. Steering and brake feel are a revelation in the world of trucks, being communicative, linear, and well-weighted. The Denali shares the same high-and-tight suspenders as the off-road-oriented AT4 trim, and as such, the ride is very much on the firm side. It handles itself remarkably well, exhibiting fantastic body control and level cornering, belying its truck roots and feeling almost kinda sorta sports-car-esque, but also maybe a little too tight for something wearing a Denali badge.
The ride quality isn’t bad at all, but it’s very much on the firm side. Having said that, it absorbs big shocks well, and it’s blessed with an exceptionally stiff structure that all but eliminates the shimmies and vibes you’d usually get from a truck frame. It’s by no means harsh, but if you’re expecting the same level of plushness you’d get from other, bigger, Magne-Ride equipped Denalis, you’re going to be disappointed. The Canyon Denali a nice enough truck, but it definitely feels like a truck.
The only way the Canyon doesn’t feel like a truck is in its size. This feels like a weird thing to say, because this “midsize” truck is wider and significantly taller than a 20-year-old, full-size Sierra, but is dwarfed by a modern Sierra or Silverado. The Canyon has a healthy amount of storage in the door pockets and centre console, but a barely modest amount of legroom for the rear seats, and a bed that measures five foot two — only a few inches shorter than most modern quad-cab, short-box pickups. It also comes with a handy little storage container in the tailgate, which is perfect for storing ratchet straps for when your homie needs help moving his eight-foot chesterfield to his new house.
The catch is that, if you’ve gotten used to the comically huge amount of storage and space offered by full-size trucks, this might seem lacking, especially for the Canyon Denali’s $59,603 price tag. All Denalis come very well-dressed, with little else you can or would want to add in the way of options — except maybe a longer box, which isn’t available.
But I’m not sure Denalis come dressed well enough to justify their price premium over say, a Canyon AT4, which is mechanically identical and can be dressed up nearly as nice for less. You could also get into a properly Big McLargeHuge Sierra, with a good ol’ V8 under the hood for around the same money, albeit with far fewer frills.
But if you don’t need a full-size truck and you’re over needing to assert your ego with a Big McLargeHuge pickup, yet you still want a nice, well-equipped, thoroughly capable vehicle that looks great and drives bewilderingly well, the 2023 GMC Canyon Denali is brilliant. It’s a little-ish truck that can hang with the big kids all day long, and then fit into parking spaces that they can’t afterwards.
