2016 GMC Terrain Denali Review - Four Reasons A Refresh Isn't Enough, Four Reasons It Is

As a successor to the defunct Pontiac Torrent and fraternal twin of the second-generation Chevrolet Equinox, the GMC Terrain arrived in 2009 with blocky, eye-catching styling, a powerful V6 engine option, and an expansive rear seat.

As is typically the case in the United States – and periodically in Canada – the GMC version of the Chevrolet crossover didn't sell as often as the Chevrolet. But the Terrain is a popular vehicle: it's the 18th-best-selling utility vehicle in Canada and the U.S. so far this year. Combined, the Equinox and Terrain twins form a dynamic duo even in old age. U.S. sales through the first 11 months of 2015, at 355,143 units, are far in excess of the best-selling Honda CR-V's total, for instance.

THE GOOD • Huge second row • V6 availability in a turbo 4 world • Relaxed ride quality • Comfortable front perches • It does look expensive

THE BAD • 6-speed hangs on to gears too long • Not nearly as quick as figures suggest • Needs to go on a diet • Interior is from a prior era • $48,560?

"Old age" is nevertheless an apt descriptor. General Motors introduced the 2016 Terrain at the New York International Auto Show earlier this year. Yet even though 2016 will be the seventh model year for the first-generation Terrain, GM's press release included the word "new" 13 times, not including the New in New York.

For example, GM says the front and rear fascias are new. Can you tell? There are new wheel designs and a new chrome-trimmed shifter, too. 

Ooh, and indeed, la la.

GM is also careful to use the word, "revised." The Terrain's instrument panel centre stack, which needs to be new, is revised, and not noticeably. In the process of revising and making some minor items new, GM didn't make any meaningful changes to the powertrain, chassis, or interior configuration, where changes are overdue.

2016 GMC TERRAIN DENALI Base Price: $44,165 * As-Tested Price: $48,560 * Drive Type: all-wheel-drive Transmission: 6-speed automatic Engine: 3.6L DOHC 24-valve V6 Horsepower: 301 @ 6500 rpm Torque: 272 lb-ft @ 4800 rpm Curb Weight: 4204 pounds Length: 185.3 inches Width: 72.8 inches Height: 66.3 inches Wheelbase: 112.5 inches Tires: Michelin Latitude X-Ice Tire Size: 235/55R19 Passenger Volume: 2820 litres Cargo Volume: 895 litres Max. Cargo Volume: 1810 litres EPA City: 16 MPG EPA Highway: 23 MPG NRCAN OEE City: 14.9 L/100km NRCAN OEE Hwy: 10.1 L/100km Observed: 22.8 mpg Observed: 10.3 L/100km * Canadian dollars, includes $1800 in fees

Rather than review the slightly updated 2016 GMC Terrain Denali V6 AWD which GM Canada delivered to GCBC Towers in mid-December – a vehicle we already reviewed before this minor MY2016 update – we'll keep it simple. Prior to a more significant revamp in the future, GMC will still sell tens of thousands of Terrains regardless of the vehicle's aged state. So here are four reasons why the Terrain will still be successful; why it's good enough as is, along with four reasons why the Terrain's old age causes the smallest GMC to feel so thoroughly outdated; why a refresh won't satisfy the discerning buyer.

GOOD ENOUGH?

#1: Rear Seat Space
For buyers who prioritize passenger space above all else, the Terrain (and its Equinox sibling) are unbeatable in their segment and challenge the most spacious SUVs and crossovers when it comes to rear seat legroom. The rear bench, which slides forward to maximize limited cargo volume, can be slid rearward to open up a cavernous footwell featuring cross-your-legs space and a flat floor.

#2: Ride Quality
The Terrain Denali features dual-stage dampers not available on other Terrains, so it's possible that the Terrain Denali's exceptional ride quality – the way occupants are isolated from imperfect roads – is unique in the Terrain/Equinox family. GM's focus on limiting the scope of the Terrain's athleticism in order to maximize ride comfort is a blessing to buyers who wouldn't care if the Terrain was slightly sharper in the corners.

#3: Horsepower
The Terrain Denali's optional 301-horsepower is a beast. No, it's not an unequivocally fast car, but power is abundant and torque is always present. The Terrain's 6-speed automatic is a dampener of fun, hanging on to gears annoyingly while upshifting yet never desirous of a kickdown. But overwhelming the relatively smooth 6-speed's is the horsepower on tap, the kind of horsepower you can't get in a Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, or Ford Escape.

#4: Right-Sized Exterior
Not too big, not too small? Think of it this way: the Ford Escape is more than seven inches shorter and more than three inches narrower, bumper to bumper, than the Terrain. But the Edge, Ford's larger two-row crossover, is nearly three inches longer and three inches wider than the Terrain. The Edge's dimensions, by no means the size of larger three-row crossovers like the Ford Explorer or GMC's own Acadia, serve to clarify the Terrain's tweener size: decently spacious inside without any exterior unwieldiness.

---

Historical Monthly & Yearly GMC Terrain Sales Figures
2013 GMC Terrain Denali Driven Review
2014 Audi SQ5 Driven Review
2015 GMC Sierra 1500 4x4 SLT Crew Cab Driven Review
2016 Kia Sorento SX Turbo Driven Review
2014 Toyota Highlander XLE Driven Review

---

NOT GOOD ENOUGH?

#1: Fuel Economy
A week of mixed urban and city driving resulted in fuel economy of 13.4 L/100km in the 6.2L V8-powered, 7-seat 2016 Cadillac Escalade earlier this month. For every 100 kilometres of driving, this 2016 GMC Terrain Denali V6 consumed 13 litres of fuel. The list of vehicles we've tested with better observed fuel economy doesn't just include small utility vehicles like the Honda CR-V (9.9 L/100km) and Mercedes-Benz GLA250 4Matic (8.5 L/100km), but larger three-row crossovers like the Honda Pilot (10.3 L/100km) and Toyota Highlander (12.7 L/100km), and more powerful performance-minded small utilities like the Audi SQ5 (12.6 L/100km) and Porsche Macan S (11.2 L/100km). 

#2: Missing Features
This 2016 GMC Terrain Denali stickers at $48,560, so you're bound to reap the benefits of bounteous luxury equipment, right? Yet the kind of equipment you'd expect in a small GMC SUV even at $40,000 is missing. There's no dual-zone climate control, no panoramic glass roof, and no four-position lumbar support. Worst of all, there's no proximity access – you need to blip the fob – and the Terrain demands that you insert a key to ignite the V6. 

All Photo Credits: Timothy Cain ©www.GoodCarBadCar.net
Click Any Image For A Larger View
Photo Location: Hartlen Point, Nova Scotia

#3: Dreadful Tech Execution
The lack of proximity access certainly causes the Terrain Denali to feel dreadfully behind the times, but that sensation is unfortunately worsened by poor tech interfaces. Yes, there's a backup camera, but the picture is grainy, mostly washed out in daylight and scarcely legible at night. GMC's IntelliLink infotainment unit isn't tremendously difficult to learn, but it's slow and not keen on comprehending voice commands. Indeed, the touchscreen's failings are exacerbated by its distant location, so very far away from the driver, which forces a long reach to access even the lower-left corner. More conventional buttons are arrayed beneath the touchscreen, but they are haphazardly sprayed across the dashboard.

#4: Small Cargo Area
Compromise is key, marital counsellors and realtors like to say. But small crossover buyers who want space for rear seat occupants and cargo capacity don't need to compromise on their demands in the Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V. GMC already did the compromising for you, however, by creating a vast rear seat at the expense of the cargo area. With five passengers in place, the 2016 Honda CR-V Touring AWD will swallow 1000 litres of stuff; the 2016 Toyota RAV4 XLE AWD will accept 1087 litres in the cargo area. With only 895 litres of space behind the rear seats, the 2016 GMC Terrain Denali V6 AWD provides 12% less space for stuff than the CR-V and 21% less space than the RAV4, a loss of capacity made all the more disastrous by the Terrain's inconveniently shaped cargo area.

Alas, there's no bigger Terrain deal breaker at GCBC than the Terrain's inability to hold a family's worth of luggage and assorted goods for a week's vacation. 

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook. The Terrain Denali was supplied by GM Canada's press office.

2015 GMC Canyon SLE Crew Cab 4x4 Review - Slightly More Likely To Fit In Your Garage

Pickup trucks rarely make their way to GCBC Towers. Since we began routine weekly testing of manufacturer-supplied press vehicles in 2012, only five different pickup trucks arrived and departed. 

All five – two six-cylinder Ram 1500 Crew Cabs, one GMC Sierra 1500 Crew Cab, one Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD Crew Cab, one Toyota Tundra Double Cab – were full-size models. 

Pickup trucks account for one-fifth of the Canadian auto industry's volume but less than 5% of the new vehicles delivered to us for testing. In a way, it makes sense. Just one year ago, pickup trucks accounted for less than 4% of the new vehicle nameplates available in Canada.

THE GOOD • Right sized outside • Right sized inside • Plenty of power • All-around refinement • Real world fuel economy

THE BAD • Almost as costly as full-size • Almost as big as full-size • Not as powerful as full-size • Almost as thirsty as full-size • Awkward long box proportions

The 2015 GMC Canyon, however, was reintroduced along with its Chevrolet Colorado twin as an all-new design last autumn. Besides the badge, there is no mechanical, architectural, or design link between this and the first-generation Canyon, which was a successor to the GMC Sonoma. 

A number of rivals that existed during the last GMC Canyon's tenure, from the Ford Ranger to the Dodge Dakota and Suzuki Equator, have vacated the North American market. GM now takes the "midsize" truck fight to the Nissan Frontier and the best-selling Toyota Tacoma.

To that fight, the GMC Canyon brings a level of horsepower and refinement that have never before been seen in the category. Yet statistically speaking, you're unlikely to buy one. The five best-selling trucks in Canada are full-size pickups. Those five trucks, along with the rare Nissan  Titan, account for 93% of all Canadian truck sales. 

For the remaining 7% of buyers, however, particularly those who demand a smaller truck not only to reduce their monthly cash outlay but because they simply don't want a bigger truck, the GMC Canyon (including its Chevrolet Colorado twin) is definitely the class leader. It's the midsize truck valedictorian, the student council president, the athlete of the year, and the summa cum laude graduate. If not the outright toughest truck in town. 

2015 GMC CANYON SLE CREW CAB 4x4 Base Price: $38,045 * As-Tested Price: $41,810 * Drive Type: four-wheel-drive Transmission: 6-speed automatic Engine: 3.6L DOHC 24-valve V6 Horsepower: 305 @ 6800 rpm Torque: 269 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm Curb Weight: 4540 pounds Length: 224.6 inches Width: 74.2 inches Height: 70.5 inches Wheelbase: 140.5 inches Tires: Goodyear Wrangler Tire Size: 255/65R17 Cargo Volume: 1414 litres EPA City: 17 MPG EPA Highway: 24 MPG NRCAN OEE City: 13.5 L/100km NRCAN OEE Hwy: 9.8 L/100km Observed: 21.4 mpg Observed: 11.0 L/100km * Canadian dollars, includes $1695 in fees.

WHAT IS IT?
Like the Colorado, the Canyon is available with four and six-cylinder powerplants, rear or four-wheel-drive, and extended or crew cabs. Our test truck was a four-wheel-drive crew cab in mid-grade SLE trim. Instead of the short, five-foot-two-inch bed of ordinary four-door Canyons, ours had the longer 6'2" bed from the extended cab model. 

Thus, rather than the 128.3-inch wheelbase of other crew cabs and all extended cabs, the Canyon you see here sat atop a lengthy 140.5-inch wheelbase. 

Options on our Canyon included the $1440 All-Terrain package, the $550 convenience package, the $275 trailering package (towing capacity is 7000 pounds), $780 side steps, a $525 spray-on bed liner, and $245 worth of assorted baubles. 

The familiar 3.6L V6 generates 305 horsepower and 269 lb-ft of torque, 53% more power and 41% more torque than the basic 2.5L four-cylinder, which isn't available in crew cab Canyons. 

Canyon payload ranges from 1470 (in our tester) to 1620 pounds. Unlike many of the four-wheel-drive systems you'll find on the latest full-size pickups, there is no all-wheel-drive-aping Auto setting in the Canyon. 

HOW BIG IS IT?
"Small" is not a word one would use to describe a long-box crew cab Canyon, not after seeing it fill a driveway. ("Midsize" is also something of a misnomer given that there is no class of truck smaller than the Canyon/Colorado/Frontier/Tacoma in the U.S. or Canada.) 

The 2015 GMC Canyon Crew Cab stretches nearly four feet farther toward the back of your garage than Canada's best-selling utility vehicle, the Ford Escape, and Canada's best-selling car, the Honda Civic.

But the Canyon is noticeably smaller than a crew cab GMC Sierra with the Sierra's longer 6'5" bed option: 14.6 inches shorter from bumper to bumper, and more meaningfully, half a foot narrower from starboard to port. As for the four-door, long-box Toyota Tacoma, this long-box Canyon is 3.7 inches longer and a few tenths of an inch narrower. With a virtually identical wheelbase, the Canyon offers 3.2 inches of extra rear leg room. 

DOES IT WORK?
You better believe it works. It's a truck, so you assume it'll tow and haul and go over things. Indeed, the Canyon tows and hauls and goes over things, despite a front air dam that'll need removing if you want to go over more things. 

Yet that which separates the Canyon (and do we need to keep saying it, the Canyon's Colorado twin?) from its key rivals isn't its all-around traditional pickup truck capabilities but rather the Canyon's muted and comfortable interior, its excellent ride quality, its properly weighted and relatively precise steering, its surprisingly even-keeled handling, and its nicely modulated brakes. 

Don't let praise for the Canyon's car-likeness reduce its reputation for rugged toughness – it is in these venues that modern full-size pickup trucks have similarly made such rapid progress while also increasing towing capacity and payload, improving fuel economy, and adding power. 

All Photo Credits: Timothy Cain ©www.GoodCarBadCar.net
Click Any Image For A Larger View

The new Canyon is doing the same thing the F-150, Sierra, Silverado, and Ram have already done, only in a noticeably smaller package. Somewhat smaller. Moderately smaller. Okay, marginally smaller.

Undoubtedly, the Toyota Tacoma (and Nissan Frontier) will feel like the truckier truck, and it'll likely still feel that way after we drive the revamped 2016 model. Yet with so many of us now using our trucks as commuter cars, as minivans, and as primary vehicles, how can we ignore the Canyon's superior control layout, seats and seating position? Are we supposed to set aside the fact that the 3.6L is far happier to rev than the Tacoma's outgoing 4.0L V6 and that the reduction in cabin noise greatly reduces driver fatigue on longer journeys because the Canyon is too good at too many things?

From a daily driver's perspective, there is simply no comparison, not until Honda's next Ridgeline arrives. For truck users, the Tacoma's appeal relates as much to its capabilities as it does to the Toyota's legendary reliability, and that appeal is neither irrational nor without merit.

IS ANYONE BUYING IT?
Yes, and no. In comparison to the GMC and Chevrolet brands' own full-size pickup trucks, Canadians buy just one Canyon and Colorado for every nine Sierras and Silverados. But with 4104 total sales in the first five months of 2015, the GM midsize twins aren't unheard-of, outselling common vehicles like the Nissan Pathfinder, Subaru XV Crosstrek, BMW 3-Series and, yes, the Tacoma, too. 

---

Historical Monthly & Yearly GMC Canyon Sales Figures
2014 GMC Sierra Crew Cab 4x4 SLT Driven Review
Complete May 2015 YTD Canadian Pickup Truck Sales Figures
Complete May 2015 YTD U.S. Pickup Truck Sales Figures

---

Supply remains an issue. General Motors is selling the trucks rather quickly once they arrive at dealers. That doesn't mean demand is necessarily high, as the much greater market share afforded to full-size trucks can attest. But it does mean demand is at least as great as supply, if not greater. Thus, a buyer's search to find the truck he or she wants can often be stymied, which either sends the buyer to Toyota, Nissan, the used market, or a new full-size truck.

SHOULD YOU BUY SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD?
During the majority of our time with the Canyon, we drove around the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. For a large chunk of that time, we kept the Canyon in the downtown core. Halifax is one of North America's oldest cities. That means narrow streets; oddly-shaped parking lots; and hilly, low-visibility intersections. 

All Canyon Photos Were Shot At Fisherman's Cove In Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia

Of course, these geographic features could've been handled in a full-size pickup truck – look around, everybody's doin' it. But even with the full-size-like length of the Canyon, the GMC's more city friendly overall dimensions (and especially its narrower width) meant I didn't have to think about maneuvers in compact parking lots. I didn't have to think about squeezing between illegally parked cars on either side of a narrow one-way street.

Put it this way. The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor you want so badly because it reportedly counteracts the paltry circumference of your brachium? It's a full foot wider than the Canyon. Do the math: that's six inches of extra body on either side of the truck. 

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU PAY?
Still, it seems silly to leave a dealer having paid the same (or more!) for a Canyon than a Sierra or any other full-size truck, even if the Canyon has more options fitted, even if it is more maneuverable. It's not that much more efficient either. And a small pickup truck with leather seating and automatic climate control almost seems out of place, doesn't it? 

In our books, the ideal Canyon is an extended cab model. The crew cab simply doesn't offer enough space, and certainly not enough underseat storage, to justify the near-full-size length of the vehicle or to be used as a family vehicle in the way an F-150 SuperCrew can. This is the rear seat of a compact car: adequate but not expansive. 

Save a foot in length, realize that the Canyon is best when considered a two-seater with extra seats just in case, and save $1500. A 2015 GMC Canyon 4x4 Extended Cab with the $1365 V6, the $685 convenience package, a bed liner, and a soft tonneau cover currently lists for $33,000 in Canada. 

Pay a little less than that and you've got yourself an exceptional truck. This isn't the first time we've said so. We named the modestly more attractive Chevrolet Colorado version to our annual Good 12 this past Christmas, the only pickup truck to crack the list.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.