Meh, I think the Canyon Car is great fun to drive, won't complain about it, I prefer it to all TM1 environments, perhaps about equal with my favourite Stadium (Dirt).
Drifiting is fun, loops and wallrides are no longer a cakewalk. As for the Autobrake thingy I've not really experienced it except when I have a really bad crash and spin then the car seems to shove the handbrake on when I drive away, I agree that's annoying but I haven't noticed it when brush a wall for instance. I don't miss the precise airbraking of Stadium like I thought I would. Jump landing is a bit odd after playing dirt where the car would bounce a lot and lose speed if the track designer hadn't built the landing correctly, because in Canyon it's like they said screw it, if people can't be bothered to build jump landings properly it doesn't matter because the car literally glues to the track, even if falling fro about 100 feet
Edit: Oh wait, most not fun thingies!
For me its the overwhelming popularity of Fullspeed and Time Attack. I prefer Rounds and Tech. Also overabundance of abstract platformy tracks, I prefer something that more resembles an actual racetrack, preferably with nice deserty scenery rather than odd ancient greek type building thingies built out of cement blocks.