The purpose of the current work is the application of a recent nonlocal extension (Reusch, F., Svendsen, B., and Klingbeil, D., 2003, “Local and Non-Local Gurson-Based Ductile Damage and Failure Modelling at Large Deformation,” Eur. J. Mech. A∕Solids, 22, pp. 779–792; “A Non-Local Extension of Gurson-Based Ductile Damage Modeling,” Comput. Mater. Sci., 26, pp. 219–229) of the Gurson–Needleman–Tvergaard (GTN) model (Needleman, A., and Tvergaard, V., 1984, “An Analysis of Ductile Rupture in Notched Bars,” J. Mech Phys. Solids, 32, pp. 461–490) to the simulation of ductile damage and failure processes in metal matrix composites at the microstructural level. The extended model is based on the treatment of void coalescence as a nonlocal process. In particular, we compare the predictions of the local with GTN model with those of the nonlocal extension for ductile crack initiation in ideal and real Al–SiC metal matrix microstructures. As shown by the current results for metal matrix composites and as expected, the simulation results based on the local GTN model for both the structural response and predicted crack path at the microstructural level in metal matrix composites are strongly mesh-dependent. On the other hand, those based on the current nonlocal void-coalescence modeling approach are mesh-independent. This correlates with the fact that, in contrast to the local approach, the predictions of the nonlocal approach for the crack propagation path in the real Al–SiC metal matrix composite microstructure considered here agree well with the experimentally determined path.