If you’re looking for what GMC might have in store for its 2020 Canyon mid-size pickup truck, you better start looking in the back of trailers in and around Jackson, Wyoming. During the recent first drive program of the Sierra HD and Sierra 1500 diesel, the company shoved a camouflaged prototype version of the truck into a box trailer to show off the camera system of the heavy-duty Sierra.
You see, with the available cameras on the new Sierra HD (and eventually the half-ton), you can view all sorts of angles. There’s even an invisible trailer that makes you much more situationally aware when you are towing up to to the truck’s maximum 35,500 pounds. Another useful camera view is from inside your trailer or RV, so you can check on your precious cargo to ensure nothing horrible has happened.
In one of those trailers, GMC had the updated 2020 Canyon AT4. Coming in early 2020, the automaker is mum on what the updates entail, but company spokespeople tell us that the AT4 treatment will be available across the entire GMC lineup.
So what will the AT4 Canyon have above and beyond the normal off-road-equipped truck? This author tried to find out during a driver swap on the media program where we were left unattended for a few minutes. Unfortunately, the trailer keys in our Sierra HD didn’t unlock the side door and the rear locks were combination units. It’s almost like the GMC communications team knew who they were dealing with.
Regardless, we expect the Canyon AT4 to have even more off-road chops than a normal Canyon. While that might mean Rancho monotube shocks like on Sierra and Sierra HD, we’re hoping that the new Canyon AT4 is actually the GMC equivalent of the Colorado ZR2 and wear a set of Multimatic DSSV dampers. Considering the platform similarities between the Canyon and Colorado now, it seems like it could be a possibility.
We would also expect that both a gasoline and diesel engine remain available for AT4, especially since GMC offers both engine options now on its AT4 Sierra and AT4 Sierra HD models. The diesel engine already exists in normal Canyons.
Beyond that, we’ll know more early next year.