Mustang Dark Horse vs. Canyon AT4X AEV Edition

Good news: You’ve arrived Wheel of Fortune bonus round and solved the puzzle. The category was What Do You Do? and you shouted “Eat asparagus with Tony Danza!” to the applause of surprise. Pat Sajak opened the gift card, and there were choices: 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse or 2024 GMC Canyon AT4X AEV Edition. They all cost between $60,000, and you can take your pick. So which car would you like to drive home?

All of these American villains are the final versions of their respective models. The Dark Horse is the most track-focused Mustang, with 500 horsepower and brakes to put the Corvette Z06 to shame. The Canyon AT4X AEV Edition is one of the most capable off-road vehicles on the market, with front and rear differentials, 34-inch Goodyear Wrangler Territory MT tires, and lower armor than an M1 Abrams. Both are great fun, but you’ll have to give Pat the decision.

The Mustang clearly won the competition under the hood, with a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V-8 producing 500 horsepower and a NASCAR soundtrack—even at idle, the active exhaust is still pretty loud. The GMC uses GM’s turbocharged 2.7-liter four-cylinder, an engine that would win Truckiest Truck Engine of the Year from Truck Engine Magazine, if any of them existed. It is strong but unhappy, like a dictator of a cruddy country. Its 310 horsepower is fine, and its 430 lb-ft of torque is impressive, but, as Hamlet‘s Player Queen, Canyon’s engine is very challenging. The sound improves if you roll down the windows and start the pleasant scree of the turbocharger on the soundtrack.

You’d think that on the pavement, the Mustang would be the best car, but that’s not always the case. On sunny, warm days, on smooth pavement, the Mustang Dark Horse is divine. In almost any other situation, it reminds you that you’d better be on track. The Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS tires are semi-slicks, hard rubber that offers incredible grip but doesn’t give a quarter in, say, the rain. Or low temperature. Or truck grooves on the road, which they will follow with enthusiasm. On beaten pavement, the wheel of the Dark Horse constantly slips as the front tires smell the rut. If you want a friendlier Mustang, Ford will sell you the GT, but the Dark Horse is uncompromising. It doesn’t settle down.

The AT4X, on the other hand, enjoys special off-road advantages that come when the truck is built to overcome rocks and dry washes. Big tires with plenty of sidewall make for a nice ride, as does the long-travel suspension and Multimatic dampers. It doesn’t like corners, this Canyon, but it’s happy on the highway, where the big four settles down and generally slows down below 2000 rpm. The biggest downside is rear visibility, which is obstructed by the large spare tire mounted in the bed, which is part of that $10,000 AEV package. In addition to numerous skid plates and metal bumpers, the AEV gear includes the company’s beautiful Italian-made Salta wheels, which we nominate for the best truck wheels in the world. They walk the fine line of looking tough without hinting that their owner is in jail for vandalizing a rival tattoo parlor.

The two interiors come pretty close to drawing, with the edge going to the Canyon for its AT4X paint scheme on the seats. The interior of the Mustang is a sea of black, except for the shiny metal trim that adorns the six-speed manual shifter. Yes, you can find Dark Horse with a guide, and you should. It might not be as quick as the 10-speed automatic in a straight line, but you’ll catch a whiff when you put the instrument cluster in Fox body-style mode. Both the Canyon and the Mustang offer g-force displays on their center dash screens, but one of them can put up a bigger number. We saw 1.07 g on the skidpad from Dark Horse, and if you’ve ever seen that number on a Canyon’s power display, it’ll keep you from filing a crash report.

While we can tease a win for either side here, the decision ultimately comes down to action. A high-performance truck is still a truck, with four doors and a bed and four-wheel drive. A high-performance muscle car is a toy offered even less useful for everyday life. The Dark Horse is loud and obnoxious and not very good at anything but going fast. Naturally, we choose that. There are other trucks that handle the Canyon’s primary mission. Meanwhile, when the last Camaro rolls off the line, we’ll be down to one American V-8 sports car, so we’d do our part to encourage Ford to keep building them. But what do you say? Pat and Vanna are waiting.

Ezra Dyer is Car and Driver managing editor and columnist. He now lives in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. That fact is unique.

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