YearsTellEspaƱol

2016 GMC Canyon

For every car sold, owners filed more complaints about the 2016 Canyon than about the typical Canyon year: 1.8 times as many. Among the 3 Canyon years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about this one, the 2016 (1.27 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2015 (1.96).

Safety complaints filed by owners in the first three years, per 1,000 sold.

1.27 per 1,000

1.8 times this nameplate’s own median

Counted from 43 complaints filed in the first three years, of 273 ever. 95% lower bound 0.89. Not counted: 1 complaint that reported only that a recall repair was unavailable, not a failure.

Every Canyon model yearComplaints per 1,000 sold, first three years
This yearOther yearsToo few complaints to rankTypical year, 0.69

Against its own model years

The model year carries far more information than the badge, so this is the comparison that matters. The bar is how many complaints each rate rests on.

Model yearPer 1,000Complaints
20080.132
20090.405
20151.9659
20161.2743
20170.6924
20180.4615
20220.5815
20231.8346

Issues owners of the 2016 Canyon report

Phrases over-represented in these complaints compared with the same component on every other vehicle. Counts are complaints containing the phrase.

Steering 182 complaints

power16390%
power steering16188%
stabilitrak2413%
service power2011%
traction control1810%
functionality179%

When it breaks

39% of reported failures happened before 30,000 miles (median 47,000 miles, from 124 complaints that recorded one).

No clear early or late pattern.

By engine

The VIN an owner files names the engine, which places 266 of this year’s 273 complaints. Sales by engine are not published, so these are not rates and say nothing about which engine drew more complaints. What can be compared is what each engine’s owners reported.

EngineComplaintsAbout the engine or fuel systemOf those, before 30,000 miles
3.6 L 6-cylinder2139%too few mileages
2.8 L 4-cylinder turbo diesel3126%too few mileages

Engines as NHTSA’s VIN decoder (vPIC) reads them from the first eleven characters of each VIN. “Turbo” is shown only where every VIN records one; the decoder leaves it blank on many turbo engines. 29 complaints are not in the table: no usable VIN, an engine vPIC could not decode, or an engine with fewer than 25 complaints.

What NHTSA did

No NHTSA investigation covers this model year.

That is not a clean bill of health, and not a criticism of the agency: investigations open for many reasons and complaint volume is only one of them.

Questions buyers ask about the 2016 GMC Canyon

Is 2016 a good year or a bad year for the Canyon?

For every car sold, owners filed more complaints about the 2016 Canyon than about the typical Canyon year: 1.8 times as many. Among the 3 Canyon years with enough complaints to compare, owners filed the fewest about this one, the 2016 (1.27 per 1,000 sold) and the most about the 2015 (1.96). The typical year is the median across its model years.

What problems does the 2016 Canyon have?

The parts owners named most often in complaints filed to date: Steering (182), Power Train (39), Electrical System (38). The phrases they used are listed above.

Is the 2016 Canyon reliable?

Complaint records cannot settle that on their own. They count safety problems owners chose to report to the federal government, not every repair. What they do show is how this year compares with the other Canyon years: for every car sold, owners filed more complaints about the 2016 Canyon than about the typical Canyon year: 1.8 times as many.

Which Canyon year has the fewest complaints?

Among years with enough complaints to compare, the 2016, at 1.27 per 1,000 sold. Every Canyon year, ranked.

What the used-car guides say

No guide we read covers the Canyon.

Check this yourself

Example records behind this page, each on NHTSA’s own site:

Limits of this figure. It counts safety complaints filed with the federal government, which is a floor on failures and not a census: problems that only cost money are under-reported. Complaint rates also reflect how likely a brand’s owners are to file, which cannot be separated from how often the car fails. Sales are calendar-year and the denominator for this nameplate is taken year by year from published US sales figures, each one quoted from a named source.