Bought the truck new, but there were problems right off the bat. Had it in dealership 2 times and they see no problems with multiple issues. Never been off road, only used the 4x4 in a couple situations with snow in the Carolinas. 47 MPH exactly produces a vibration in the pedals and steering wheel but also a roar starts at that speed. But that could be the tires - the real issue is getting to higher speeds, while the truck shakes between gears when the transmission is at ideal running temperatures. It won’t do it cold.

Take it up the highway at 65 till she’s warmed up and then hit city stop and go traffic, and it’s like a shake front to rear and back like she’s stuck between gears, and then hits hard every gear up to speed. Been happening since 15k miles and still going at 35k miles. Dealership is no help and GM being contacted was no help. I’m super disappointed and will never buy a new vehicle again. My first brand new truck.

I still drive it everyday but she gets worse and worse and I’m pretty sure she’ll tear up totally after that “warranty” goes first. Great motor if you run liqui moly cause that GM recommended dextros 2 burns. Also they won’t replace my touch screen but that’s a separate issue. Piece of s*** crooks, all of them.

I had problems with the transmission from about 6 months, first dealer where I purchased it they programmed many times. Second GMC dealer tried to program at 48,000 then under GMC direction changed oil. At 60,000 took to chevy dealer he found metal shavings in transmission pan. GMC wouldn't let chevy garage repair August 2020 after countless phone calls and 3 Senior Advisorsfrom GMC I got it in the dealer who changed the fluid. I agreed to pay $2162 of a$5407 bill. Chevy garage was going to do the work for $4000. After the work was completed I received numerous different prices when I questioned price differences on the parts. I believed I got duped into paying for more when it should have been repaired under warranty by 48,000 miles.

GMC has the worst customer complaint division I have ever worked with. When I couldn't get any satisfaction from their Senior Advisor I asked to talk to their supervisor and they said they were as high as there was. What a joke.

After my third visit to the dealer (Fort Walton Beach GMC) with the transmission issues, they acknowledged other owners were having issues with their GMC Canyons, but to date, though GMC was aware of these issues, had not found a repair solution. I expressed my concern that GMC and the dealer were aware of these issues prior to the sale but had not divulged that to me and they lacked integrity and honesty. They should have told me prior to purchasing the vehicle.

I filed a complaint with GMC who assigned a Customer Assistance Representative, named Nia, to look into my complaint. She sent me an email stating: "Per the dealership, they were unable to duplicate your concern. The vehicle is operating as designed like other GMC Canyons"

First and foremost: 1. I have driven this vehicle every day for the past year! 2. The dealer (Fort Walton GMC) has driven it three times! 3. Driving 60 miles round trip to the dealer three times to address these issues was not done to correct a vehicle “operating as designed!” 4. They acknowledged to me verbally they were aware of the problems, noting one time that they experienced it was shifting hard! 5. They also stated other Canyons were experiencing the same issues I was. 6. I am not a liar and I do not appreciate (Nia/GMC) saying such! 7. This truck is not operating as designed!!!

Needless to say, it is evident GMC nor the dealer is going to acknowledge these transmission issues which are well documented here on CAR COMPLAINT. Maybe a class-action will open their eyes to being more honest.

Update from Nov 18, 2023: Still struggling with this vehicle... the transmission is still acting up and dealer nor GMC will do anything about it. Now, the touch screen has been acting up, switches screens on its own, changes stations on its own, air bag warning light comes on and goes off... this was the most expensive vehicle I have ever bought for such a piece of junk. It was my first GMC, it will be my last!

Bought the truck this past Saturday (10/20/2018) with 27,900 miles on it, drove it home, drove it to and from work the next day...and then the vehicle went back to the dealer for 2 days to have the undercoating, interior protection and so on taken care of. Drove the vehicle to work the morning of day 3 of having it in my possession (day 6 of owning it) but heading home that night I had pulled out of a parking lot to hit a stop light maybe 50 feet from where it had been parked. Being first in line at the light I press on the gas when it turns green and end up not having any movement response for about 5 seconds before my wheels start spinning out (not moving the truck forward) just spinning the tires as though the gear caught and caused a peeling out like situation. The truck then lunges forward while it makes a loud bang noise and instantly has a hard "kickback" jolt with no further movement.

At first I thought I was rear ended as the feeling of the jolt/lunging forward and the sound the truck made was identical to it. I held up traffic and was sticking out in the intersection unable to get the truck to move as each time I pressed on the gas the truck repeated the spinning of the tires, lunging forward with the load crash sound to stop all further movement. I figured it was a gears issue and put the truck into park, neutral and back into drive and it didn't' resolve the situation. I tried taking it out of drive again, putting it into reverse to let it move about an inch backwards before putting it into drive and then...as we all experience...it miraculously drove forward like nothing ever happened. I made it home (thank goodness).

The dealership picked up the truck the very next morning and here I am looking into what I may have experienced. Everything I've read makes me nervous for sure. I will post updates and any information as to what technicians say, discover, what they replace or repair, and so on. Good luck fellow '16 Canyon owners.

NOTICED A FEW DAYS AFTER I BOUGHT THE TRUCK IT SEEMS THE TRANSMISSION NEVER KNOWS WHAT GEAR TO BE IN. YOU CAN TAKE OFF FINE BUT WHEN YOU TRY TO ADD A LITTLE SPEED, DOES NOTHING UNTILL A FEW MORE INCHES OF PEDAL IS APPLIED THEN IT ACCELERATES WAY TO FAST, ALMOST HIT THE CAR IN FRONT SEVERAL TIMES. ALSO, COMING OUT OF U-TURN OR FREEWAY UNDERPASS, SEEMS TO BE STUCK IN 6TH GEAR, HAVE TO DANG NEAR FLOOR IT TO GET IT TO ACCELERATE , ALL THE WHILE FOLKS ARE TRYING NOT TO HIT ME FROM BEHIND SINCE I AM NOT MOVING VERY WELL. FREEWAY DRIVING, SAME ISSUES, SAY YOU ARE AT 60MPH AND TRAFFIC CLEARS AND YOU TRY TO ADD A LITTLE PEDAL TO GET TO 65-70, I HAVE TO PUSH DOWN 2-3 INCHES BEFORE ANYTHING HAPPENS. SAME WHEN DRIVING 30 THEN TRYING TO GO TO 45, SHUDDERS AND STUMBLES LIKE A MANUAL TRANSMISSION VEHICLE WOULD IN 5TH GEAR @ 30MPH. YOU HAVE TO REALLY STAY ON THE GAS AND DRIVE HARD TO FOR IT TO DO ANY BETTER. I TOOK BACK TO THE DEALER UNDER WARRANTY AND WAS TOLD THIS IS NORMAL ACCORDING TO GMC TECH SUPPORT. NOT. I HAVE BEEN DRIVING 45 YEARS, MANY DIFFERENT CARS, AND THIS IS IN NO WAY NORMAL. IT IS NOT ONLY AGRIVATING BUT QUITE DANGEROUS. RROM WHAT I HAVE SEEN ONLINE, THIS IS A VERY COMMON COMPLAINT. SHOULD TAKE NO MORE THAN SOME RE-PROGRAMMING OF THE SHIFT POINTS AND THROTTLE POSITION SENSOR.

Update from Feb 6, 2017: Had the service manager ride with me and demoed the problem. He agreed that it was not right and he and their transmission tech duplicated the problem when they drove the truck. They found a service bulletin that addressed shift points and recalibrated the ECM & TCM. Problem solved. Joy to drive now.

Update from Oct 17, 2017: Worked for a couple of weeks and started the same problems again. Dealership replaced the torque converter which helped a lot but still stumbles & stutters accelerating up a slight grade after slowing down from 60 to say 10-20mph then accelerating, like being 2 or 3 gears to high. Exact issue mentioned in Bulletin PIP5342B which has been applied to my truck with very little change. I still think there is an ECM or TCM problem. Seems to happen more when its above 90 deg ambient. Dealer does not have a solution so far. I am at 22K miles. Thinking about trying the Trifecta Tune module.

When the light turned green I pressed the gas pedal to accelerate and after reaching ~30 mph I pressed the accelerator pedal a little more to pass a car and nothing happened. So I pressed a little more and the engine just high revved and still didn't shift. Therefore, I took my foot off the pedal and upon pressing it again it accelerated.

I also wanted to note that since this is an ongoing problem I'm not just slamming the gas pedal to the floor, but attempting to feather it to see if that helps the situation.

Also, I'm doing more to capture the actual speed so that I can determine if it always occurs at a certain speed. Since what I'm seeing is that the automatic transmission gets to 4th gear as fast as it can, and tends to leave the RPM's really low which introduces problems when trying to accelerate again.

Update from Nov 6, 2016: Recommendation from dealer was to turn off TCS.

Upon doing so the truck drives much better.

low speed shifting sluggish skips and jumps will not down sh

I traded in my 2010 Toyota Tacoma 167000 miles. Man I miss it. I wanted a new 2016 Toyota Tacoma but the front end grill area and bumper are too weak and Flemisy. My new GMC Canyon is well built and would really be pleased with it if GM will get off the rear end and come up with a fix for the sluggish transmission a low speed. Very annoying and almost dangerous at times the truck will not respond to a downshift mode and when it finally does up shift it lunges forward almost hit anouther vehicle in the rear trying to get out of the way. Not a fun vehicle too drive. Should have taken it for a longer test drive defore I paid $38.000 for it. If I could I would give it back and pay some to get my Toyota back. My 1st gmc and probly my last.

Purchased really well kept. Cardinal Red 2015 GMC Canyon SLT. Had 13,200 miles. I now have about 15,200 miles on it and started noticing the shifting was not smooth and jerking due to heavy stop and go traffic I have to deal with on daily commute. This of course did not occur on my 10 mile test drive where I purchased the vehicle as it is small town and not much stop and go traffic issues. After wondering what the issue could be I started researching problem and found out others are having the same issues. Having to deal with the shifting problems really keeps you focused on your driving for sure as you try to make sure you don't bump into someone and someone hopefully doesn't bump into you due to poor hesitation caused by the transmission not functioning properly. I saw were one post stated there was a software update the improved his performance 75% from what issues he was having. I just took my Canyon to the dealership this past weekend 9/10/16 for a check on a recall on the trailer hitch and also to check out the transmission issues. Trailer hitch recall was fine but, they test drove the truck 15 miles and came back stating works and fires as designed. I expected this and I told the supervisor I heard there was a software update that could improve the shifting and was told no software update was available. I was very disappointed and I dropped 30K for this truck and my sadness and pains with this performance issue will be felt even more as I have to pay for this bad boy of a truck for several long years. I hope GMC will look into this issue but, I expect it will just be another problem they bury and try to forget as long as they can!

I bought a brand new 2016 Canyon, test drive went well, although I admit it probably wasn't long enough. Purchased on Sunday, and during the next week driving I began noticing the transmission was not shifting at the proper times. Like most people on here, the transmission appears to be very confused , especially when decelerating into the 20-35 mpg range and attempting to re-accelerate back up. It will misfire or be very unresponsive, and then clunk and jerk you forward once it decides to change gears.

It also does something that I think is even more dangerous when you are going around 30-40 mpg and then simply let off the accelerator. In this instance, i feel like it down shifts instantly and it feels like the truck is being pulled back (instead of simply coasting like I would want), and then at some point it "releases" from this and the truck actually stops decelerating and speeds up a bit, even though the gas had been released many seconds ago. This is particularly dangerous in stop and go city traffic.

I think the overarching problem here is the shift points that the ECM has determined (or been programmed with). You can tell this when accelerating from a stop, my truck gets to third gear by 15 miles per hour and never goes above 2k rpm's??? I admit I am a bit light-footed on driving, which compounds the problem because I eventually am giving a small amount of acceleration to a truck in 4th gear only going 20 mph, which suck.

I have also read this was a common problem on 15 canyon (obviously read after purchase), and GMC eventually came out with a few fixes, including ECM Patch Updates or Lower Valve Replacement. I imagine that many of the 2016's were already off the line by the time these '15 fixes came out (in April 15 I believe), but the dealerships have not received any of these for the 2016 so I am stuck with a clunky $32k truck which depresses me every time I drive.

There's an issue with how the automatic transmission shifts gears and then loses the ability to accelerate (bogs down) in a couple of scenarios while driving. Scenario #1: When going around a corner I'm noticing that on several occasions there's no acceleration coming out of the turn. The engine kind of bogs down as if the ignition has become retarded, or its as if the rpm's aren't high enough. Scenario #2: While getting onto the freeway if I accelerate to get into additional lanes, on a couple of occasions there's been no power. I've reported this to the GM Dealer and they indicate that the computer is learning the way I driver. My response is that they've created a bad profile and its shifting thru the gears to fast, and it needs to be fixed. Some additional tests I've performed. 1. At various times shift to manual. This will tell you which gear you are in. And I'm finding that the computer is getting to 4th gear as fast as it can. 2. Switching on the Tow / Haul Mode actually activates a profile to keep the RPM's higher as if your towing. This actually works a little better for city driving and freeway traffic, but it doesn't solve the problem unless you like hi-revving your vehicle all over town. 3. Drive with transmission in Manual. Although this can be a work around to the issue reported, it requires that you perform all of the shifting. Which is a pain in the ass and not why I purchased the truck. Don't get me wrong, I actually really am enjoying the Canyon and what it has to offer. I just had higher expectations for the drive train. I'm also disappointed in the responses from the dealer ship indicating that the truck is learning how I drive and there's nothing they can do, which includes they can't even tell you how to drive the truck to get the best response (so that's lame). Essentially they've engineered something and don't really know how it works, and no matter how much time your willing to invest in assessing the problem, they don't want to help. I'll also do some research to determine if this issue is possibly from the Electronic Throttle Control.

bought on 031016 back to dealer three days later. sales said take to shop they would fix, shop said no codes. I said did you drive it he said on the interstate I said I told you under 55mph he said no codes can't fix. I start to check I find out that all most all canyons and colorados are doing this I take it back he said what did we tell you the last time I told him he said problem same this timegot mad gave me a letter from gm #pip5342A DEC 21 2015 SAIDNO FIX FOR BAD TRANSMISSION both types of trucksMODELS 2015-2016 don't bring back

Noticed a hesitation driving first week after delivery, getting worse now to the point I searched if this is a reported condition and it appears very common issue going back to 2015 models. Bought this truck thinking GM had figured out competition with Tacoma, however I'm really doubting my purchase if this doesn't get fixed permanently. Should have stuck with Tacoma. No excuse for GM not to have figured this out especially after their ignition nightmare. Nice paint, nice interior, terrible transmission!!!!

Sluggish in stop and go traffic. Would have to get transmission to downshift to ? Gear (no indicator by GM)

Also the truck downshifted to lower gear and had to shift transfer case to netural then put transmission in park to release.

Took the truck into local dealer. Service department after two days, stated that mechanic found a service bulletin on the issue and the repair requires replacement of the lower valve body. 5 days to get the part in to the dealer in this day and time?

now going on day three of in shop? Will see if the issue is repaired when I get the truck back. Still waiting

Transmission shifting problem. After 3 months of ownership the transmission began having this problem in the 3rd month. Transmission seems to be having a "thinking" problem when up-shifting/downshifting. Transmission has a "shudder" and sometimes a loud "thud".

I spoke to dealership about my concern and I brought it in. For 1 1/2 days they had vehicle and was informed there was nothing they can do to fix the problem. They informed me a software update was available but it was for only the 9 gear transmission (mine is 6). After arguing the point if this problem would have shown itself during test drive I would not have bought the vehicle. They suggested I contact GMC and take it up with them.

There is a notification which was shown to me from GMC dated Dec 21, 2015 #PIP5342A: Chuggle or shudder while driving at low speeds. This shows models: 2015-2016 Chevrolet Colorado, 2015-2016 GMC Canyon, Equipped with 6L50 RPO (MYB) automatic transmission. If I would have known of this notice I would not have purchased this vehicle in Jan 2016.

transmission in a state of confusion

My worst new car purchase experience in 43 years.

2016 GMC Canyon, 3.5 liter, automatic.

This shiney red turd is going to get me run over. At operating temp, the Transmission gets lost between upshifts. It feels like the throttle goes dead, and you're coasting when you really want to be accelerating.

The only way to shock the car out of its electronic coma is to floor the gas pedal. Not sure what the goal of this arrangement was. If the point was to save fuel, the fact that the gas pedal needs to floored kind of negates any hint of fuel efficiency. In Denver traffic, this car is dangerous.

43 years a GM supporter. Toyota Tacoma, here I come.