GMC Canyon AT4X Take ‘Roids, Earns 3 Letters
It’s a great time to be a fan of midsize trucks with an off-road bent. Ford has finally Raptor-ized the Ranger, we know Toyota has tricks up its sleeve for the next-gen Tacoma, and General Motors has numerous dirt-road variants of its Colorado/Canyon cousins.
The latest? What appears to be an AEV variant of the already-capable Canyon AT4X.
First, a primer. The AT4X is the new king o’ the hill in Canyonland, packing a set of those tremendous DSSV Multimatic dampers which first appeared for pickup truck duty on the Chevy Colorado ZR2 about five years ago. This time around, GMC dealers get to play in the dirt with an equivalent variant, equipped with that trick suspension and a raft of other off-road goodies.
Appending the letters AEV to any GMC AT4X truck is a ticket to equipping the thing with features and tools one generally plucks from an aftermarket catalog. Above and beyond the standard AT4X is gear such as stamped-steel bumpers, accessory winch capability, extra-stout steel bash plates, and the typical smattering of special badges. Aggro-grade wheels and tires further set the thing apart.
Alert readers will recall the last-gen Colorado had a burly Bison package to layer on top of the ZR2 trim. Checking the Bison box gifted the truck off-road items similar to those described for the AEV, though it is worth noting the Bison was introduced first as part of a collab between GM and Dave Harrington, the boss of American Expedition Vehicles. Engineers at The General essentially tossed him the keys to a new ZR2 and told him to equip it as he would if it were his own truck and planning a tough off-road journey. In quick succession, the Bison name migrated to other pickups in the Chevy lineup.
It didn’t take long for an equivalent effort – simply called AEV – to appear in GMC showrooms. If you think that decision was a result of GMC dealers whinging to RenCen for a Bison of their own, you’re probably right. There was a covered prototype on display at a GMC event attended by this author a few weeks ago; it’s safe to say this thing will have presence on the trail.
The introduction of a Canyon AT4X AEV on July 6th will complete a trifecta of burly off-roaders for GMC: the Canyon, Silverado 1500, and Silverado HD can now all be equipped with the package.
[Image: GMC]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.
More by Matthew Guy
Latest Car Reviews
Read moreLatest Product Reviews
Read moreRecent Comments
- 28-Cars-Later Mileage of 29/32/30 is pretty pitiful given the price point and powertrain sorcery to be a "hybrid". What exactly is this supposed to be?
- MRF 95 T-Bird I own a 2018 Challenger GT awd in the same slate gray color. Paid $28k for it in late 2019 as a leftover on the lot. It’s probably worth $23k today which is roughly what this 2015 RT should be going for.
- Mike978 There is trouble recruiting police because they know they won’t get support from local (Democratic) mayors if the arrests are on favored groups.
- FreedMike I'm sure that someone in the U.S. commerce department during the 1950s said, "you know, that whole computer thing is gonna be big, and some country is going to cash in...might as well be us. How do we kick start this?" Thus began billions of taxpayer dollars being spent to develop computers, and then the Internet. And - voila! - now we have a world-leading computer industry that's generated untold trillions of dollars of value for the the good old US of A. Would "the market" have eventually developed it? Of course. The question is how much later it would have done so and how much lead time (and capital) we would have ceded to other countries. We can do the same for alternative energy, electric vehicles, and fusion power. That stuff is all coming, it's going to be huge, and someone's gonna cash in. If it's not us, you can damn well bet it'll be China or the EU (and don't count out India). If that's not what you want, then stop grumbling about the big bad gubmint spending money on all that stuff (and no doubt doing said grumbling on the computer and the Internet that were developed in the first place because the big bad gubmint spent money to develop them).
- MRF 95 T-Bird The proportions of the 500/Taurus-Montego/Sable were a bit taller, akin to 1940’s-50’s cars in order to cater to crossover buyers as well as older drivers who tend to like to sit a tad higher.
Comments
Join the conversation
I hit the US Forest Service roads once in a while. Never the radical stuff. Question. These beefed up for off roading trucks - $70,000 +++. So, this gives you the ability to hit radical stuff > but that stuff can damage your truck> the truck you just paid $70,000.
Do they come with Offroad-Mode Automatized Self-Driving? No? Then they are behind the times. Forget it!