d.voitel
Member
- First Name
- Dan
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2024
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 20
- Location
- Alberta, Canada
- Vehicle(s)
- 2001 GMC Sierra 2500
- Thread starter
- #1
Tacoma owners are passionate. I thought I would be one. Months ago, I posted on this forum my experience driving a Tacoma vs the GMC Canyon and why I was going to buy the Tacoma. The link to that original post is here:
https://www.tacoma4g.com/forum/threads/two-tacos-and-a-canyon.2245/
In the end I went with the GMC Canyon AT4. When I told someone what I had done he sent me the link to my own post, to denigrate my choice, not knowing that I wrote it. When I google a comparison between the two trucks, my posting comes up in the first page or two of google searches. I think I need to clear the air. This is THE website people come to if they are serious about the 4th Gen Tacoma’s or seriously interested. I was in the later of the two groups. I had a deposit on a TRD Offroad with the Iforce Max engine and was over the top excited. There was so much to look forward too: An all-new designed Toyota, the styling, the features, the technology, the reliability. I was so into this I literally bought the t-shirt. It had pictures of Tacoma’s all over it. I even commissioned line art, which you can see in my profile image for this website. So, what changed?
Well, I drove it first of all. I in fact drove the straight gas models, both manual and automatic. You can read my driving impression in my original post. It suffices to say the Tacoma didn’t feel special. It was underpowered and boring, particularly the manual transmission. I found the interior rather bland, and the sound system wasn’t very good. The seats were not terrible, but it just didn’t feel awesome. They were broad and flat feeling. All vehicles are going to be a compromise. The Tacoma has some faults. Despite that I had huge faith that the hybrid Tacoma was going to be a game changer and make some of my compromises justifiable, so I waited for the reviews to come once the media blackout was removed on the Hybrids in April or May. When the content and the reviews finally started getting posted I felt deflated and disappointed. Everyone agreed that the hybrid was great! Only it didn’t feel any different. All the extra power and torque didn’t change acceleration and handling. How could it because the vehicle weighed in at a quarter tonne more. All that extra power was used to overcome the extra weight and basically left the vehicle at the same place it started from with the straight gas engine. In fact, it is hard to make any case for getting the hybrid engine at all. Not only does it not accelerate much better, but it also tows less, carries less in the bed and maddingly, the fuel economy is not substantially improved. It's only about two miles per gallon, maybe three, better than the standard gas engine. That savings may add up over time, but it is dwarfed by the initial purchase cost of that powertrain and the subsequent cost of the replacement battery which will need to be done eventually.
After the reviews came out I agonized over the details of what is really great about the Tacoma. Despite the interior blandness, Toyota gave great thought to the interior layout and storage, something that all manufactures can learn from. Their technology and infotainment system, from the little time that I played with it, seemed well executed and easy to use. They made safety standard with the highest crash ratings in their class and the inclusion of the Safety Sense 3.0 in all their trims. The engine seems well built and I like how they used both port and direct fuel injection for reliability. The engine at least, is looking to aspire to Toyota’s fabled reliability.
One area Toyota is truly unmatched by any other manufacture of trucks is the sense of community that comes with owning a Tacoma. Tacoma owners really, really, really love their vehicles and want the world to know it. They feel a sense of comradery in their encouragement and advice and are always game to help someone make these vehicles the ride of their dreams. The available personalization’s and mods are limitless: from the replacement, machined, push button starters on the dash to cartoonishly large tires riding customized suspensions. The new vehicles stand out and they look beautiful. Have you heard of “Punch Buggy”? It is where anytime someone sees a VW bug, they punch another person in the car seated next to them and call out “Punch Buggy!”. Well, my family developed our own version of it: “Wacky Taco!” Every time someone sees a Tacoma, someone else got slapped in the side of the head. We began looking for them everywhere. Tacomas became a source of real fun (or dread, depending which child you talk to). My point is this, everyone one in my family became invested, whether they liked it or not, in my new Tacoma and friends were constantly asking about when it was coming because they could not wait to see it.
How can anyone not like a Tacoma? Seriously! How? Just look at the competition.
The Nissan Frontier seems really dated inside and out despite having a great sounding V6 engine. I checked out the Jeep Gladiator, which looks fantastically cool, but the ride is loud and rough, the purchase price is high and the fuel economy low. The Ford Ranger has a great 10 speed transmission, but the interior is so bland and terrible, unless you go to the Raptor, and the exterior styling just doesn't do it for me. It looks like too much of the same old thing. The Hyundai Santa Cruz is not really a truck. My hunting buddies would laugh me out of the backcountry if they saw me in it. I really love the interior of the Honda Ridgeline, but it is not meant for off-roading, towing or big loads. The fantastically positioned Ford Maverick suffers the same fate as the Ridgeline as being best used for an urban truck. So, what is left if you want a midsized truck?
That is where GM comes in. I know, I know, I can hear the groans. How can a GM product possibly compete with the fabled Japanese auto maker? The Chevy Colorado and the GMC Canyon are mostly interchangeable. They are made in the same factory, use the same frame, engine and other mechanicals; have the same electrical systems, share the same infotainment system and they have the same performance. To talk about one, you are probably talking about the other. I am not immune to price, but I am less sensitive than others might be and as a result I really gravitated towards the Canyon over the Colorado because the trim, and interior just look better to me.
I had some serious reservations about the Canyon. First off, the turbo charged, direct injected, four-cylinder engine. It produces a whopping 310 horsepower and 430 ft/lbs of torque. That is a lot to do for a little four banger. As well, direct injection is prone to fouling the intake valves and seriously effecting performance and fuel economy. Toyota’s combined direct and port injection completely nullifies this problem. GM makes the big claims that the L3B engine is overbuilt for the job that it is doing. It has been around in the larger Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra for about seven years. In that time, they have increased the torque from 348 ft/lbs to 430, they have stiffened the cam shaft by 30 percent and reinforced the engine block with more aluminum. It has been surprisingly bombproof. So much so that they increase the powertrain warranty from 60,000 miles to 100,000. Someone online posted that they have a 4% failure rate. That is just bullshit and there is no evidence supporting this claim. I called around to multiple GM service centres all over the province where I live and talked to shop foremen. They all said the same thing: They are just not seeing problems with the L3B engine that GM is producing. Part of it is they built it more like a diesel with beefier parts and designed it around the turbo charger instead of just slapping it on like and after thought. The other part of it is, GM patented a two-stage oil separator to remove oil from the crank case ventilation that might increase harmful carbon deposits in the engine and on the intake valves, much like how a catch can works. As well they use a distinctly different system from the GM V6 and V8 engines to control the lifter valves and Active Fuel Management. There are problems with the GM V6 and V8 lifter valve designs and each shop foreman I talked to said as much. Not so with this little turbocharged 4 cylinder. Of course, it would be easy to say that they are just giving me the dealership line. You would be right to think that because I certainly did. I talked with a couple of other, non-dealership mechanics and they said the same things that the dealerships were saying. Either than the odd component like a coolant pump or electrical part they have not seen a lot of them. Then just recently I hit the jackpot for information. It turns out my wife’s cousin is a mechanic. He works for a shop that does fleet maintenance and repairs for hundreds of vehicles that are working in Alberta’s Oil patch. It is hard to imagine a tougher environment anywhere in the world to operate a truck with the long highway miles; dirt, mud and dusty roads; extreme swings of temperature and heavy industrial use. Oil patch vehicles take a beating. They fix everything but what the shop specializes in is GM because the owner of the shop is GM master mechanic that went independent. What they are not fixing a lot of are the L3B engine used in the Silverado, Sierra and now the Canyon and Colorado. As long as you change your oil, do the regular maintenance, the vehicles are going to last. They are servicing many GM products with well over 500,000 km (310,000miles) on them. My own currant GMC Sierra 2500 hd has over 530,000km (330,000 miles).
All this is said because in the end, I don’t want to buy a piece of shit, and I want it to last long past the warranty period. How do I walk away from THE biggest selling point of Toyota ownership, it’s reliability? Competition is too stiff these days and manufactures have all upped their games. I don’t think that Toyota has the market cornered any longer, but myth persists longer than reality. TFL, Truck King, ICON, all have broken their Toyota trucks on camera. Torque converters, transmissions, shock struts ……… and not from extreme use. One breakdown on camera is a fluke, more than that is a problem. GM has not been without problems, the most notable is a software fault in the infotainment system that bricked hundreds of vehicles. That is a far easier fix than hard mechanical issues such as machining debris in the engine blocks of Tundras. There have been defects in the engine blocks of the L3B that caused cracks but that was on less than 20 trucks and GM is all over addressing the problem. You do not have to dig far on any truck to find issues.
The other obstacle that I needed to overcome when purchasing anything other than the Tacoma is the high resale value. It is absolutely true that if you sell your truck, you will get more money for it if you bought a Tacoma. That said, the price starts out higher and the financing cost of a Tacoma is much higher by comparison to GM. The maintenance cost of the Toyota is also slightly higher than some manufactures over the lifetime of the vehicle. All of this combines to make the higher resale value less significant because it is eaten up by that higher price, costlier financing and marginally more expensive maintenance. But hell, my last truck is 23 years old and still going strong, so resale value is of a very limited concern to me. If you are swapping out vehicles regularly, I think that buying a Toyota is a smart decision.
So, those were my obstacles in considering purchasing anything other than the Tacoma.
This is the nitty gritty of why I went with the Canyon AT4 instead of the TRD Offroad:
First off, I love the look of it. It is maybe a little bit less over the top than the Tacoma with cleaner lines, but it still stands out. The grill is beefy, the stance is high and it looks and feels solid. It is also almost 6 inches narrower than the Tacoma. For many of you the wide stance on the Tacoma makes it look mean and awesome. I’m with you on that but I want to be able to fit my truck in the two-car garage that I share with my wife’s three row SUV. The Tacoma is only two inches narrower than the Tundra which makes fitting it in a standard garage an issue. I’d have to lose 30 pounds just to be able to open my doors and get out of the truck in the set up we have. That is not going to happen without liposuction or chemotherapy and either option seems too extreme, but Tacoma owners are passionate so maybe not. The Canyon is still very substantial, but it just feels nimbler in traffic, easier to maneuver in a grocery story parking lot. The visibility over the hood is better and the fit in the garage more manageable. As well, it will fit down narrow bush tracks and between barbered wire gates in the back quarter better.
I ordered the AT4 model with all of the options available to me: The heated and ventilated seats, the Bose stereo system, the advanced technology package, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, advanced trailering, sunroof, heads up display, skid plates, spray in bead liner…..etc., etc. I didn’t go for the AT4X because I did not like the interior white trim, and I feel that the locking rear and front differential is of marginal use for the type of back country and offroad driving that I do. As well the fuel economy of the AT4X is less than stellar. The AT4 is a great compromise with its simple, automatic locking rear differential. I wish that it were selectable differential like the Tacoma but that is one of those compromises that I am willing to make based on my end use. Almost everything that I listed for the Canyon, you can get in the Tacoma and that is one of the things that I really like about it. The Canyon just looks so much better on the inside than the Tacoma. For me, The leather seats are more comfortable than any other of the mid-sized trucks. With ten-way adjustment you would be hard pressed to not get it to fit you. I had back surgery a number of years ago so seat comfort and support are very noticeable to me. I’m just less sore and less tired when a seat is designed well. It’s also the little things about the seat that matter. I love that when I turn off the truck my seat lowers and slides back automatically and then returns to my programmed seating position when I get back in. The contrasting colours of the seat piping and trim even carries subtly into the seat ventilation holes, adding detail and class to the design. There is no nicer looking or better seat in a midsize truck, and it breaks up the monotony of the standard truck interior. The interior does still have a lot of hard plastics and can use some more soft touch, but in all honesty, it is well thought out and pleasing to the eye and touch. I’m a pilot by profession and the heads-up display in the windscreen is a natural extension of the technology that I use at work every day giving me speed, speed zones warnings, cruise control status and navigation information. It may be a gimmick to some, but I love how I can put pod cast or music screens in the infotainment centre on the dash, move Apple Maps to the 11-inch driver screen in front of me and still have my most important driver information displayed on the heads-up display in the windscreen. It is very cool. I love well thought out technology.
With that said, every single reviewer of the Canyon hates the light controls. I too thought that I would hate that they are not on a steering column stock. The second day I had the truck I was driving it out to a family cabin in thick fog. I was immediately annoyed that I was going to have to go into the infotainment system and turn on the fog lights. When I did go into the light menu, I saw that they were automatically on. It was like magic! It just works in auto with no issues. I don’t even miss the light controls now. I can still turn my high beams on and off with flick of the collum stock, like any other vehicle, but I just leave it in auto, and it works perfectly.
It is not just the cockpit that is good. The back seats are really not bad. No, you are not going to fit a linebacker or NBA star back there. My two teenage girls are both surprisingly happy though. They have their own air vents, phone plug ins, cup holders, centre armrests, back seat pockets and good leg and feet room. They have sat in the Tacoma and the Canyon and found seats more comfortable, amenities more useful and most importantly the sound system more “bitch’n” in the Canyon (fuck, I’m tired of listening to Taylor Swift). Very surprisingly they like the rear seats in the Canyon more than the captain seats in my wife’s Hyundai Santa Fe. I think a heavier and, shall we say, more mature body frame might feel differently. I am not sure that I would agree with them. Still, I didn’t buy the truck to seat 4 adults. If that were really a major consideration I would go with a full-sized truck and be done with it.
None of the available midsize trucks are going to win any races, except for maybe the Ranger Raptor, still I want a bit of pep and power to my truck. In the Tacoma you have to push too far into the throttle to get any response. The Canyon is not without turbo lag but it just seems to get there faster and with more authority. The engine is not going to purr like my friends brand new Dodge Ram with his 5.7L, V8. It is rougher than that. Still, it feels quieter and more refined than the Tacoma. Some of that might be due to sound insulation in the engine compartment, some due to acoustic glass. I think most of it is due to the twin balance shafts that smooth out the engine when you put power to it. It is still rough by comparison to a V6 or V8, but I’ve gotten use to it and, dare I say, even like it. I find it smoother than the Tacoma powerplant. In fact, I feel particularly insulted by the Tacoma engine because they need to pump artificial noise into the cabin to make it sound better. Toyota, build a better engine instead of tricking us with gimmicks. On paper the Canyon has less power and torque than the Iforce Max Hybrid engine, but it still propels the truck faster and tows more than the Hybrid Tacoma: 7700 lbs versus the Tacoma’s 6000lbs.
The Canyon firmly has one foot in the past with its rear leaf springs whereas the Tacoma has a multi-link, rear suspension, with coil springs. The description alone should convince you of the superiority of the Tacoma suspension. Why then does the Canyon AT4 just seem to ride better than the Tacoma? It is trucky and firm but doesn’t seem objectionable. As a daily driver it is more comfortable, feels equally as stable as the Tacoma’s wider stance but doesn’t feel dull and unresponsive like the Tacoma. I’ve run the Canyon down some rutted, washboard roads and although I will not say it is particularly comfortable it is certainly a lot more tolerable than my old truck. Maybe the Tacoma will do better, but for what I drive 95% of the time I like the ride of the Canyon more. I don’t think that the Canyon’s transmission is as good as the ten speed that Ford is using, but as far as usability goes, I think it is fantastic. I have heard some reviewers say that the transmission hunts for gears. I’ve not found that to be the case, although I’ve not done any towing with it. It shifts smooth, does a great job and I never wonder what it is up to. What I really like is that it is not just a part time 4-wheel drive like the Tacoma. Mostly it operates in two-wheel drive. For anyone that has owned a part time 4x4 in an area of the world when you get snow and ice on your roads you will know what it is like to maneuverer your truck in tight turns and at slow speeds, like parking spaces. Unless you have great tires and weight in bed of the truck, your back wheels just spin out, so then you have to turn on your four-wheel drive system to get the truck moving. The four spinning wheels just skip and hop until they catch on something and then fight each other to make the turn. Not only can I select 2 high, 4 low, and 4 high, I can also select Auto which allows the 4-wheel drive system to send the power to all four tires as needed and makes this type of low-speed manoeuvring brainless. On dry pavement, where you really notice when you have your 4x4 system turned on (don’t do it, it's bad), the Auto system is completely invisible to me and maneuvers without drama. It works smarter not harder. I don’t get why Toyota does not do this in every 4x4 Tacoma. It just makes the day-to-day usability so much better particularly on ice and snow.
I thought that I was going to be disappointed by the gas milage of the Canyon. It would just be another compromise necessary to buy a vehicle that I like. Instead, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It is no Toyota Yaris but at the very least it has met the published numbers. My drive to and from work is 140km (86 miles) on a highway, one way. Recently on the way to work I drove 120km/h (74mph) and got about 10.2 l/100km (23.0 mpg). That was done with Auto selected, so it was in the 4-wheel drive mode. On the way home I did it in 2 wheel drive at 108km/h (67mph) and averaged 9.2 l/100km (25.5mpg)…… And this was with the knobbly, Goodyear wrangler tires that I had put on! Granted, I was milking the gas pedal and using adaptive cruise control but still I was impressed. Mostly it gets around 11.7 l/100km (20 mpg) for my daily driving. The Tacoma does better, but not by much. Since a similarly equipped Tacoma with similar power from the Iforce max engine costs a great deal more the fuel savings will never be realized.
I desperately wanted to love the Tacoma. The first new car I ever bought was a Toyota Echo with the help of my Dad, who passed away a couple of years ago. It was a great car for what it was and because my Dad helped me buy it, I have a massive soft spot for the Toyota name. The first time I ever thought a truck was cool was when I saw a Toyota SR5 Extra Cab sitting in Marty McFly’s garage in Back to the Future (1986) while I was on my first date with Vicki Browne. The fifteen year old me couldn’t help thinking about flying down country roads in that thing and making wild love to a girlfriend in the back bed under sleeping bags and twinkly stars. The Tacoma shares that dream and heritage in a way that no other truck does. Unfortunately, it has been a long time since I was that daydreaming virgin (really, I’m not a virgin anymore).
Many years ago, I had a friend that worked on a Sean Connery film, Medicine Man. I loved Sean Connery, the best of the Bonds. I asked my friend to tell me about working with him. I wanted to hear all the stories. I wish that I hadn’t. Maybe it was the heat and the jungle that put Connery off, but he thought that Connery was a whiny, pre-Madonna. The moral of the story is never meet your heroes.
I’m at an age now where I want to get what I want and not what I need. For me the Tacoma is everything I need. The Canyon is everything I want. It just drives better, feels better, looks better. When I sit in it, I feel like I’ve earned it.
The Tacoma is truly a great truck. If you own one, Love it. If it turns your crank, buy it. For those of you sitting on the fence there are other options.
https://www.tacoma4g.com/forum/threads/two-tacos-and-a-canyon.2245/
In the end I went with the GMC Canyon AT4. When I told someone what I had done he sent me the link to my own post, to denigrate my choice, not knowing that I wrote it. When I google a comparison between the two trucks, my posting comes up in the first page or two of google searches. I think I need to clear the air. This is THE website people come to if they are serious about the 4th Gen Tacoma’s or seriously interested. I was in the later of the two groups. I had a deposit on a TRD Offroad with the Iforce Max engine and was over the top excited. There was so much to look forward too: An all-new designed Toyota, the styling, the features, the technology, the reliability. I was so into this I literally bought the t-shirt. It had pictures of Tacoma’s all over it. I even commissioned line art, which you can see in my profile image for this website. So, what changed?
Well, I drove it first of all. I in fact drove the straight gas models, both manual and automatic. You can read my driving impression in my original post. It suffices to say the Tacoma didn’t feel special. It was underpowered and boring, particularly the manual transmission. I found the interior rather bland, and the sound system wasn’t very good. The seats were not terrible, but it just didn’t feel awesome. They were broad and flat feeling. All vehicles are going to be a compromise. The Tacoma has some faults. Despite that I had huge faith that the hybrid Tacoma was going to be a game changer and make some of my compromises justifiable, so I waited for the reviews to come once the media blackout was removed on the Hybrids in April or May. When the content and the reviews finally started getting posted I felt deflated and disappointed. Everyone agreed that the hybrid was great! Only it didn’t feel any different. All the extra power and torque didn’t change acceleration and handling. How could it because the vehicle weighed in at a quarter tonne more. All that extra power was used to overcome the extra weight and basically left the vehicle at the same place it started from with the straight gas engine. In fact, it is hard to make any case for getting the hybrid engine at all. Not only does it not accelerate much better, but it also tows less, carries less in the bed and maddingly, the fuel economy is not substantially improved. It's only about two miles per gallon, maybe three, better than the standard gas engine. That savings may add up over time, but it is dwarfed by the initial purchase cost of that powertrain and the subsequent cost of the replacement battery which will need to be done eventually.
After the reviews came out I agonized over the details of what is really great about the Tacoma. Despite the interior blandness, Toyota gave great thought to the interior layout and storage, something that all manufactures can learn from. Their technology and infotainment system, from the little time that I played with it, seemed well executed and easy to use. They made safety standard with the highest crash ratings in their class and the inclusion of the Safety Sense 3.0 in all their trims. The engine seems well built and I like how they used both port and direct fuel injection for reliability. The engine at least, is looking to aspire to Toyota’s fabled reliability.
One area Toyota is truly unmatched by any other manufacture of trucks is the sense of community that comes with owning a Tacoma. Tacoma owners really, really, really love their vehicles and want the world to know it. They feel a sense of comradery in their encouragement and advice and are always game to help someone make these vehicles the ride of their dreams. The available personalization’s and mods are limitless: from the replacement, machined, push button starters on the dash to cartoonishly large tires riding customized suspensions. The new vehicles stand out and they look beautiful. Have you heard of “Punch Buggy”? It is where anytime someone sees a VW bug, they punch another person in the car seated next to them and call out “Punch Buggy!”. Well, my family developed our own version of it: “Wacky Taco!” Every time someone sees a Tacoma, someone else got slapped in the side of the head. We began looking for them everywhere. Tacomas became a source of real fun (or dread, depending which child you talk to). My point is this, everyone one in my family became invested, whether they liked it or not, in my new Tacoma and friends were constantly asking about when it was coming because they could not wait to see it.
How can anyone not like a Tacoma? Seriously! How? Just look at the competition.
The Nissan Frontier seems really dated inside and out despite having a great sounding V6 engine. I checked out the Jeep Gladiator, which looks fantastically cool, but the ride is loud and rough, the purchase price is high and the fuel economy low. The Ford Ranger has a great 10 speed transmission, but the interior is so bland and terrible, unless you go to the Raptor, and the exterior styling just doesn't do it for me. It looks like too much of the same old thing. The Hyundai Santa Cruz is not really a truck. My hunting buddies would laugh me out of the backcountry if they saw me in it. I really love the interior of the Honda Ridgeline, but it is not meant for off-roading, towing or big loads. The fantastically positioned Ford Maverick suffers the same fate as the Ridgeline as being best used for an urban truck. So, what is left if you want a midsized truck?
That is where GM comes in. I know, I know, I can hear the groans. How can a GM product possibly compete with the fabled Japanese auto maker? The Chevy Colorado and the GMC Canyon are mostly interchangeable. They are made in the same factory, use the same frame, engine and other mechanicals; have the same electrical systems, share the same infotainment system and they have the same performance. To talk about one, you are probably talking about the other. I am not immune to price, but I am less sensitive than others might be and as a result I really gravitated towards the Canyon over the Colorado because the trim, and interior just look better to me.
I had some serious reservations about the Canyon. First off, the turbo charged, direct injected, four-cylinder engine. It produces a whopping 310 horsepower and 430 ft/lbs of torque. That is a lot to do for a little four banger. As well, direct injection is prone to fouling the intake valves and seriously effecting performance and fuel economy. Toyota’s combined direct and port injection completely nullifies this problem. GM makes the big claims that the L3B engine is overbuilt for the job that it is doing. It has been around in the larger Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra for about seven years. In that time, they have increased the torque from 348 ft/lbs to 430, they have stiffened the cam shaft by 30 percent and reinforced the engine block with more aluminum. It has been surprisingly bombproof. So much so that they increase the powertrain warranty from 60,000 miles to 100,000. Someone online posted that they have a 4% failure rate. That is just bullshit and there is no evidence supporting this claim. I called around to multiple GM service centres all over the province where I live and talked to shop foremen. They all said the same thing: They are just not seeing problems with the L3B engine that GM is producing. Part of it is they built it more like a diesel with beefier parts and designed it around the turbo charger instead of just slapping it on like and after thought. The other part of it is, GM patented a two-stage oil separator to remove oil from the crank case ventilation that might increase harmful carbon deposits in the engine and on the intake valves, much like how a catch can works. As well they use a distinctly different system from the GM V6 and V8 engines to control the lifter valves and Active Fuel Management. There are problems with the GM V6 and V8 lifter valve designs and each shop foreman I talked to said as much. Not so with this little turbocharged 4 cylinder. Of course, it would be easy to say that they are just giving me the dealership line. You would be right to think that because I certainly did. I talked with a couple of other, non-dealership mechanics and they said the same things that the dealerships were saying. Either than the odd component like a coolant pump or electrical part they have not seen a lot of them. Then just recently I hit the jackpot for information. It turns out my wife’s cousin is a mechanic. He works for a shop that does fleet maintenance and repairs for hundreds of vehicles that are working in Alberta’s Oil patch. It is hard to imagine a tougher environment anywhere in the world to operate a truck with the long highway miles; dirt, mud and dusty roads; extreme swings of temperature and heavy industrial use. Oil patch vehicles take a beating. They fix everything but what the shop specializes in is GM because the owner of the shop is GM master mechanic that went independent. What they are not fixing a lot of are the L3B engine used in the Silverado, Sierra and now the Canyon and Colorado. As long as you change your oil, do the regular maintenance, the vehicles are going to last. They are servicing many GM products with well over 500,000 km (310,000miles) on them. My own currant GMC Sierra 2500 hd has over 530,000km (330,000 miles).
All this is said because in the end, I don’t want to buy a piece of shit, and I want it to last long past the warranty period. How do I walk away from THE biggest selling point of Toyota ownership, it’s reliability? Competition is too stiff these days and manufactures have all upped their games. I don’t think that Toyota has the market cornered any longer, but myth persists longer than reality. TFL, Truck King, ICON, all have broken their Toyota trucks on camera. Torque converters, transmissions, shock struts ……… and not from extreme use. One breakdown on camera is a fluke, more than that is a problem. GM has not been without problems, the most notable is a software fault in the infotainment system that bricked hundreds of vehicles. That is a far easier fix than hard mechanical issues such as machining debris in the engine blocks of Tundras. There have been defects in the engine blocks of the L3B that caused cracks but that was on less than 20 trucks and GM is all over addressing the problem. You do not have to dig far on any truck to find issues.
The other obstacle that I needed to overcome when purchasing anything other than the Tacoma is the high resale value. It is absolutely true that if you sell your truck, you will get more money for it if you bought a Tacoma. That said, the price starts out higher and the financing cost of a Tacoma is much higher by comparison to GM. The maintenance cost of the Toyota is also slightly higher than some manufactures over the lifetime of the vehicle. All of this combines to make the higher resale value less significant because it is eaten up by that higher price, costlier financing and marginally more expensive maintenance. But hell, my last truck is 23 years old and still going strong, so resale value is of a very limited concern to me. If you are swapping out vehicles regularly, I think that buying a Toyota is a smart decision.
So, those were my obstacles in considering purchasing anything other than the Tacoma.
This is the nitty gritty of why I went with the Canyon AT4 instead of the TRD Offroad:
First off, I love the look of it. It is maybe a little bit less over the top than the Tacoma with cleaner lines, but it still stands out. The grill is beefy, the stance is high and it looks and feels solid. It is also almost 6 inches narrower than the Tacoma. For many of you the wide stance on the Tacoma makes it look mean and awesome. I’m with you on that but I want to be able to fit my truck in the two-car garage that I share with my wife’s three row SUV. The Tacoma is only two inches narrower than the Tundra which makes fitting it in a standard garage an issue. I’d have to lose 30 pounds just to be able to open my doors and get out of the truck in the set up we have. That is not going to happen without liposuction or chemotherapy and either option seems too extreme, but Tacoma owners are passionate so maybe not. The Canyon is still very substantial, but it just feels nimbler in traffic, easier to maneuver in a grocery story parking lot. The visibility over the hood is better and the fit in the garage more manageable. As well, it will fit down narrow bush tracks and between barbered wire gates in the back quarter better.
I ordered the AT4 model with all of the options available to me: The heated and ventilated seats, the Bose stereo system, the advanced technology package, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, advanced trailering, sunroof, heads up display, skid plates, spray in bead liner…..etc., etc. I didn’t go for the AT4X because I did not like the interior white trim, and I feel that the locking rear and front differential is of marginal use for the type of back country and offroad driving that I do. As well the fuel economy of the AT4X is less than stellar. The AT4 is a great compromise with its simple, automatic locking rear differential. I wish that it were selectable differential like the Tacoma but that is one of those compromises that I am willing to make based on my end use. Almost everything that I listed for the Canyon, you can get in the Tacoma and that is one of the things that I really like about it. The Canyon just looks so much better on the inside than the Tacoma. For me, The leather seats are more comfortable than any other of the mid-sized trucks. With ten-way adjustment you would be hard pressed to not get it to fit you. I had back surgery a number of years ago so seat comfort and support are very noticeable to me. I’m just less sore and less tired when a seat is designed well. It’s also the little things about the seat that matter. I love that when I turn off the truck my seat lowers and slides back automatically and then returns to my programmed seating position when I get back in. The contrasting colours of the seat piping and trim even carries subtly into the seat ventilation holes, adding detail and class to the design. There is no nicer looking or better seat in a midsize truck, and it breaks up the monotony of the standard truck interior. The interior does still have a lot of hard plastics and can use some more soft touch, but in all honesty, it is well thought out and pleasing to the eye and touch. I’m a pilot by profession and the heads-up display in the windscreen is a natural extension of the technology that I use at work every day giving me speed, speed zones warnings, cruise control status and navigation information. It may be a gimmick to some, but I love how I can put pod cast or music screens in the infotainment centre on the dash, move Apple Maps to the 11-inch driver screen in front of me and still have my most important driver information displayed on the heads-up display in the windscreen. It is very cool. I love well thought out technology.
With that said, every single reviewer of the Canyon hates the light controls. I too thought that I would hate that they are not on a steering column stock. The second day I had the truck I was driving it out to a family cabin in thick fog. I was immediately annoyed that I was going to have to go into the infotainment system and turn on the fog lights. When I did go into the light menu, I saw that they were automatically on. It was like magic! It just works in auto with no issues. I don’t even miss the light controls now. I can still turn my high beams on and off with flick of the collum stock, like any other vehicle, but I just leave it in auto, and it works perfectly.
It is not just the cockpit that is good. The back seats are really not bad. No, you are not going to fit a linebacker or NBA star back there. My two teenage girls are both surprisingly happy though. They have their own air vents, phone plug ins, cup holders, centre armrests, back seat pockets and good leg and feet room. They have sat in the Tacoma and the Canyon and found seats more comfortable, amenities more useful and most importantly the sound system more “bitch’n” in the Canyon (fuck, I’m tired of listening to Taylor Swift). Very surprisingly they like the rear seats in the Canyon more than the captain seats in my wife’s Hyundai Santa Fe. I think a heavier and, shall we say, more mature body frame might feel differently. I am not sure that I would agree with them. Still, I didn’t buy the truck to seat 4 adults. If that were really a major consideration I would go with a full-sized truck and be done with it.
None of the available midsize trucks are going to win any races, except for maybe the Ranger Raptor, still I want a bit of pep and power to my truck. In the Tacoma you have to push too far into the throttle to get any response. The Canyon is not without turbo lag but it just seems to get there faster and with more authority. The engine is not going to purr like my friends brand new Dodge Ram with his 5.7L, V8. It is rougher than that. Still, it feels quieter and more refined than the Tacoma. Some of that might be due to sound insulation in the engine compartment, some due to acoustic glass. I think most of it is due to the twin balance shafts that smooth out the engine when you put power to it. It is still rough by comparison to a V6 or V8, but I’ve gotten use to it and, dare I say, even like it. I find it smoother than the Tacoma powerplant. In fact, I feel particularly insulted by the Tacoma engine because they need to pump artificial noise into the cabin to make it sound better. Toyota, build a better engine instead of tricking us with gimmicks. On paper the Canyon has less power and torque than the Iforce Max Hybrid engine, but it still propels the truck faster and tows more than the Hybrid Tacoma: 7700 lbs versus the Tacoma’s 6000lbs.
The Canyon firmly has one foot in the past with its rear leaf springs whereas the Tacoma has a multi-link, rear suspension, with coil springs. The description alone should convince you of the superiority of the Tacoma suspension. Why then does the Canyon AT4 just seem to ride better than the Tacoma? It is trucky and firm but doesn’t seem objectionable. As a daily driver it is more comfortable, feels equally as stable as the Tacoma’s wider stance but doesn’t feel dull and unresponsive like the Tacoma. I’ve run the Canyon down some rutted, washboard roads and although I will not say it is particularly comfortable it is certainly a lot more tolerable than my old truck. Maybe the Tacoma will do better, but for what I drive 95% of the time I like the ride of the Canyon more. I don’t think that the Canyon’s transmission is as good as the ten speed that Ford is using, but as far as usability goes, I think it is fantastic. I have heard some reviewers say that the transmission hunts for gears. I’ve not found that to be the case, although I’ve not done any towing with it. It shifts smooth, does a great job and I never wonder what it is up to. What I really like is that it is not just a part time 4-wheel drive like the Tacoma. Mostly it operates in two-wheel drive. For anyone that has owned a part time 4x4 in an area of the world when you get snow and ice on your roads you will know what it is like to maneuverer your truck in tight turns and at slow speeds, like parking spaces. Unless you have great tires and weight in bed of the truck, your back wheels just spin out, so then you have to turn on your four-wheel drive system to get the truck moving. The four spinning wheels just skip and hop until they catch on something and then fight each other to make the turn. Not only can I select 2 high, 4 low, and 4 high, I can also select Auto which allows the 4-wheel drive system to send the power to all four tires as needed and makes this type of low-speed manoeuvring brainless. On dry pavement, where you really notice when you have your 4x4 system turned on (don’t do it, it's bad), the Auto system is completely invisible to me and maneuvers without drama. It works smarter not harder. I don’t get why Toyota does not do this in every 4x4 Tacoma. It just makes the day-to-day usability so much better particularly on ice and snow.
I thought that I was going to be disappointed by the gas milage of the Canyon. It would just be another compromise necessary to buy a vehicle that I like. Instead, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It is no Toyota Yaris but at the very least it has met the published numbers. My drive to and from work is 140km (86 miles) on a highway, one way. Recently on the way to work I drove 120km/h (74mph) and got about 10.2 l/100km (23.0 mpg). That was done with Auto selected, so it was in the 4-wheel drive mode. On the way home I did it in 2 wheel drive at 108km/h (67mph) and averaged 9.2 l/100km (25.5mpg)…… And this was with the knobbly, Goodyear wrangler tires that I had put on! Granted, I was milking the gas pedal and using adaptive cruise control but still I was impressed. Mostly it gets around 11.7 l/100km (20 mpg) for my daily driving. The Tacoma does better, but not by much. Since a similarly equipped Tacoma with similar power from the Iforce max engine costs a great deal more the fuel savings will never be realized.
I desperately wanted to love the Tacoma. The first new car I ever bought was a Toyota Echo with the help of my Dad, who passed away a couple of years ago. It was a great car for what it was and because my Dad helped me buy it, I have a massive soft spot for the Toyota name. The first time I ever thought a truck was cool was when I saw a Toyota SR5 Extra Cab sitting in Marty McFly’s garage in Back to the Future (1986) while I was on my first date with Vicki Browne. The fifteen year old me couldn’t help thinking about flying down country roads in that thing and making wild love to a girlfriend in the back bed under sleeping bags and twinkly stars. The Tacoma shares that dream and heritage in a way that no other truck does. Unfortunately, it has been a long time since I was that daydreaming virgin (really, I’m not a virgin anymore).
Many years ago, I had a friend that worked on a Sean Connery film, Medicine Man. I loved Sean Connery, the best of the Bonds. I asked my friend to tell me about working with him. I wanted to hear all the stories. I wish that I hadn’t. Maybe it was the heat and the jungle that put Connery off, but he thought that Connery was a whiny, pre-Madonna. The moral of the story is never meet your heroes.
I’m at an age now where I want to get what I want and not what I need. For me the Tacoma is everything I need. The Canyon is everything I want. It just drives better, feels better, looks better. When I sit in it, I feel like I’ve earned it.
The Tacoma is truly a great truck. If you own one, Love it. If it turns your crank, buy it. For those of you sitting on the fence there are other options.
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