On Wheels by Brooks Peterson

Saturday, September 15, 2001

GM's ultimate utility vehicle

Photo courtesy of Chevrolet

No shrinking violet, Chevrolet’s novel Avalanche UUV offers an in-your-face persona, formidable off-road capability and a startlingly gentle ride.

Just when you thought it was safe to take a squint at what's going on in the sport-ute wars . . . Holy Toledo, Mother: Whut wuz THAT?
   Perhaps, like me, you were incautious enough to assume that just about every change had been rung, every new wrinkle essayed, every fever dream rendered into sheet steel and plastic. If so, you, like me, reckoned without . . .
   The Chevrolet Avalanche.
   You don't even have to see the thing to suspect that this piece is, how you say, just a tad off the beaten path. I mean, how many carmakers name their products after natural disasters?
   But if the name puts you off a bit, wait till you experience the thing in the sheet metal: The Avalanche may not be as outrageously weird as, say, the Isuzu VehiCross (alas, no longer with us), but in the Bizarre Olympics, it rates at least a silver medal.
   Check it out yourself.

Photo courtesy of Chevrolet

The midgate, with folding partition and removable rear window, makes it possible for Avalanche owners to configure their vehicles in accordance with their needs.

   Now, if you have even the most cursory acquaintance with the world of trucks and SUVs, it won't take you long to realize that what we have here is essentially a Chevy Silverado crew cab pickup with some cosmetic changes.
   But what cosmetic changes: Pipe that composite cladding slathered all over the flanks and the tailgate. Check out those flying-buttress affairs that cascade down from the trailing edge of the roof to the top of the cargo bed. Dig the vertically stacked headlight-foglight-turn-signal module up front, neatly bisected by a horizontal slash of chrome bearing the Chevy bowtie. (And you thought medieval heraldry was confusing?)
   The response from the motoring journalism community has been, ah, mixed. One impudent knave made so bold as to suggest this had to be Darth Vader's new command car. Some see in it the kind of desperate hey-lookit-me spirit that leads some people to have themselves pierced, branded and tattooed over every inch. And me? I would simply offer Sir Winston Churchill's comment (apocryphal, perhaps) when rejecting a dish served him at table: "This pudding lacks a theme."

Photo courtesy of Chevrolet

A three-part composite cargo cover allows the Avalanche to function as a pickup truck or makes available covered storage for added security.

   But this is too easy. You can whale away at the new kid's turn-out endlessly, but sooner or later fairness demands that you look beyond appearance and start talking essence.
   Happily for SUV pilots - not to mention the General - closer acquaintance with the Avalanche will banish most of the qualms its outward appearance induces.
   And there's a good reason for that: As noted, the platform for the Avalanche is the Chevy Silverado full-size pickup, and that's a pretty slick, state-of-the-art platform indeed. It means you get a stout classical-truck body-on-frame format mated to one of those Chevy V-8s that churn out great gobbets of torque with hardly ever the slightest sign of strain.
   Surprisingly comfortable
   And in the case of the crew cab, it means you get all kinds of people room

Photo courtesy of Chevrolet

The dashboard of the Avalanche is as straightforward and functional as the vehicle’s styling is idiosyncratic.

inside: Five adults can ride in comfort - and, were it not for the console between the front seats, you could accommodate another body as well. (Not incidentally, the seats themselves are sufficiently accommodating to have struck wonder in a male colleague of mature years, who was fairly enraptured by the comfort.)
   All of this, though, is by way of prelude to one of the Avalanche's most compelling virtues: For a big, gnarly SUV specifically designed for crashing around in the outback, this thing rides like a dream. You've got to experience it to believe it. In a world full of tradeoffs, it's downright exhilaratin' to encounter a vehicle that melds brush-busting ruggedness with a civilized ride. Sometimes you can have it your way.
   Don't expect sports-car handling, however. Easy-does-it is the watchword in the twisty bits.
   Now, my little friends, forgive me, but I have saved the best for last: Yes, this is a . . . distinctive-looking SUV with a solid pedigree, but it's more:
   What we have here, I submit, is the Swiss Army Knife of sport utes. In fact, the General says, this isn't really an SUV at all: It's an Ultimate Utility Vehicle, or UUV. (Pronounced "oooph?")
   And why is it a UUV? Because it is configurable. And why is it configurable? Because it has a Convert-A-Cab. And it has a Convert-A-Cab because it has a Midgate.
   'Convertible-like'
   That's the key, in fact. It's simply the partition between the cargo bed and

2002 Chevrolet Avalanche 1500 4WD Five-passenger, 4-wheel-drive sport utility vehicle Base price: $33,245 Price as tested: $37,406 Drivetrain: Fuel-injected 5.3-liter V-8, 285 hp; four-speed automatic-overdrive transmission Brakes: Front and rear discs, power-assisted, with standard antilock (ABS) EPA mileage: 13 city/ 17 highway Web site: www.chevy.com

the passenger compartment. Fold the rear seats down, then lower the Midgate, and presto: You've lengthened the cargo bed from 5 feet, 3 inches to 8 feet, 1 inch. For you plywood devotees, that means you can load up on 4'x8's to your hearts' content.
   More: You can also remove and stow the rear window, making possible (ahem) "a convertible-like open-air driving experience."
   Yes, more than a few will shudder and avert their eyes every time an Avalanche looms into view - but I suspect, and the General fervently hopes, that the Avalanche will succeed in carving out its own niche.
   (And if you're interested, but still want, well, more - not to worry. Coming up soon will be the even heavier-duty 2500 version of the Avalanche, with the mighty 340-hp 8.1-liter Vortec V-8. Extra pizzazz? Wait for the North Face Edition Avalanche.) In addition to its fundamental Chevy strengths, the Avalanche, of course, has . . . a gimmick. And in a gimmick-besotted society that has unleashed such prodigies as the Veg-A-Matic, aerosol Cheez Whiz and the Chia Pet, you never want to underestimate the power of gimmickry. It doesn't take too much of a reach to envision such a society being carried away by an Avalanche. So to speak.
  
  

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