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We drove the GMC Canyon Denali and the Honda Ridgeline and one of these small pickups has the edge

We drove the GMC Canyon Denali and the Honda Ridgeline and one of these small pickups has the edge

The 2017 Canyon Denali arrived early in the year, during a respite from snow and ice. Price? $44,255, as tested. The base GMC Canyon, without the upmarket Denali trim features, is about $22,000.

Our 2017 Ridgeline tester tipped the cost scales at $41,370, and it landed at BI's suburban New Jersey test center after a light winter snowstorm in late 2016. The base pickup is about $30,000.

Read the review here.

The Ridgeline delivers a peppier, smoother ride than the Canyon Denali — much more car-like, which makes sense give its fully independent suspension. You just don't feel like you're in a truck, which for a lot of buyers will be a good thing. A problem with pickups in daily use is that they can beat you up a bit.

The Rideline's powerplant is a 3.5-liter, 280-horsepower V6. This is one of the world's great motors, perhaps the best V6 anywhere. Mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, this engine is more or less perfect and provides 21 mpg in combined city/highway driving. That's slightly better than the GMC's 21 mpg combined.

Our Canyon Denali was a crew-cab version with a "short box" — the bed is about five feet long, protected by a bedliner. If you're shopping for a Chevy truck, this vehicle can be had as the Colorado.

The Ridgeline is also a four-door crew cab, and the bed is about the same size as the Canyon Denali's, but with an in-bed trunk that increases storage. The platform the Ridgeline is built on is less pickup than crossover, shared with the Honda Pilot.

The GMC's front end is very pickup, aggressive and bold.

The Honda's front end is much more crossover. The badge is big, but the overall vibe is subdued.

The can really see the pickup-truck DNA when you study the Canyon Denali's hunky, slablike front three-quarter angle.

There's no debating it: the General Motors truck buyership, just like Ford's and Ram's (Fiat Chrysler's pickup brand) want their pickups to look like trucks. For them, the aesthetics of the Ridgeline are a non-starter. Honda knows this, and furthermore understands that it isn't really selling its truck to a true pickup loyalist.

Then again, GMC also understands that a customer wanting a work truck might avoid the more upscale Canyon Denali. So to a certain extent, both automakers are going after a slice of the total pickup-truck market.

What are pickups for? Putting stuff in the back! We took the Canyon Denali on a run to Home Depot and loaded up on rocks. No sweat for this truck, which was built for work.

We used the Ridgeline to fetch a Christmas tree and a wreath last year. Again, no sweat. You'll notice, however, that the Ridgeline's box is a bit shallower than the Canyon Denali's.

The "box" matters to pickup-truck buyers. Honda's more than gets the job done, but the GMC truck has a bed design that's more like what you'd see in a full-size pickup. The Ridgeline offers tremendous versatility, but the GMC is designed more for large loads.

The Ridgeline does have a cool side-swinging gate, however.

The Canyon Denali just has the old-school gate.

The rear seats of the Canyon Denali are comfy, leather, and a bench design.

The Ridgeline's back seats are similar.

Back seats in pickups in this segment are more functional than comfortable. That said, they're much better than the crew cabs of old. I didn't hear any complaints from my passengers with either truck.

From the driver's seat, in the Canyon Denali you see all the usual gauges and have controls on the steering wheel as well as ...

... GMC's excellent infotainment system.

The same with the Ridgeline.

In our tests, we've found Honda's infotainment system to be sort of behind the times. This isn't a drawback that's limited to the Ridgeline, and in truth the Honda pickup is more a victim of the problem than anything else.

Honda vehicles have a sterling reputation for quality and reliability, so the brand hasn't been under that much pressure to up its infotainment game. GM vehicles, of course, aren't as highly regarded as Honda's, although the automaker has greatly improved quality. GM's move to develop a premier infotainment and connectivity setup is starting to pay dividends, however.

Do we have a winner?

While the Ridgeline is the closest thing you can get to a modern-day El Camino and is basically a perfect and versatile truck-car for people who don't need to engage in rancher- or contractor-grade work, the Canyon Denali combines a hardcore pickup frame with lots of upscale features.

It feels more like a pickup truck because ... it's more of a pickup truck. I personally liked the Ridgeline better for everyday driving and basic weekend home-improvement-type tasks, but if I really had to push it with my pickup, I'd likely go with the Canyon Denali. Not surprising, as I was quite impressed by the Canyon-sibling Chevy Colorado a few years back and I have always enjoyed the small-to-midsize pickup idea (I owned one for a while). Also, I think GMC is doing an especially good job these days as a GM brand.

What truly tips the balance, beyond the sheer truckiness of the Canyon Denali, is the combination of GMC's superb infotainment system, OnStar, and 4GLTE wifi connectivity. The engines are quite similar, although the GMC gets the edge in power and better towing capacity (and is equipped to adjust its drivetrain to tow), while the Ridgeline's bed is more versatile thanks to that large trunk.

GM vehicles, however, are beating out a lot of the competition these days simply because they have among the best infotainment systems on the market.

The truth is, for this comparison, it was almost too close to call. GMC's victory came by a narrow margin. And besides, anyone who just has to have a "real" pickup isn't going to go for the Ridgeline, not matter how much better the current generation is from its predecessor. It's all a question of personality type, and I guess whether you have a boat to tow.

For now, the Canyon Denali is a great choice if you're looking for a premium small pickup. And if you aren't hung up on your truck being trucky, then the Ridgeline is worth a test drive.

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