2024 GMC Sierra AT4X AEV Edition PVOTY Review: Half-Ton Fun

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This year’s Performance Vehicle of the Year competition differed from prior installments of our annual celebration of vehicular fun due to the introduction of an off-road element. This modification to the program opened up our contest to an entirely new category of performance vehicles, including trucks with bona fide dirt credentials, like this 2024 GMC Sierra AT4X.

On paper, the Sierra AT4X AEV Edition seems like an all-dominating brute. The AT4X package is burly on its own, adding a front bumper with a standard AEV winch, an AEV boron-steel front skidplate, a two-speed transfer case with Off-Road and Terrain modes, front and rear e-locking differentials, a 2.0-inch lift with highly capable Multimatic DSSV dampers, and underbody armor. Stepping up to the AEV Edition for another $6,895 bundles skidplates, a new rear bumper, wheels, floor liners, headrest logos, and an exterior tailgate badge. Our test truck featured the optional Duramax 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine with 305 horsepower and 495 lb-ft of torque. Max torque is available at 1,500 rpm, and 0–60 mph happens in 7.7 seconds.

Although the Sierra AT4X AEV Edition boasts a comfortable and refined ride on pavement, it’s best enjoyed on the trail. Yes, this half-ton truck feels enormous, but it’s still a hoot and a half to boot around in the dirt and offers prodigious boulder-crawling abilities aided by the smooth, torquey diesel engine. Generally, we’ve found the Sierra’s off-road hardware to be easy to enable thanks to real button controls placed within reach of the driver.

Once we activated Off-Road mode and disengaged some of the truck’s electronic nannies, we were ready to roll. Our course mostly featured loose sand and hard-packed dirt, perfect surfaces for getting the Sierra sideways. “This really isn’t what this truck is meant for, but it’s still quite a lot of fun doing it,” features editor Scott Evans said. Whipping around a truck that tipped our scales at 6,137 pounds wasn’t universally enjoyed by our staff, though, as senior features editor Kristen Lee found the Sierra to be plain ol’ cumbersome. Most of our judges preferred the tidier dimensions of the GMC’s smaller sibling, the Canyon AT4X AEV Edition, which was also competing at this year’s PVOTY showdown.

Compared to the other trucks on hand, the Sierra AT4X was the least enjoyable to loop around the paved sections of our hybrid on- and off-road course. But our judges heaped praise on the GMC’s high-quality interior, which looks upscale and futuristic thanks to its premium materials and large displays. We appreciated that commonly used features like climate control, lane departure, parking sensors, automatic stop-start, bed lowering, SOS, traction control, hill descent control, and differential locking can all be toggled at the push of a button.

Although the Sierra AT4X AEV Edition is a solid truck with loads of capability, it didn’t make it into the finalist phase of this year’s test. Still, GMC’s half-ton beast left us impressed with its breadth of utility and overall refinement. For a more well-rounded pickup on all surfaces, we recommend searching elsewhere. But if trail-pounding excellence is what you seek, the 2024 GMC Sierra AT4X AEV is a great truck for the job.

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